Beringea, the international private equity firm, has completed the sale of portfolio company Mergermarket to the Financial Times Group, a subsidiary of Pearson Plc, the global media company.

Completed on 30 September, the sale generated a total return of 14 times the original investment for Beringea and an IRR of 69 per cent.

Beringea first invested in Mergermarket through three of its funds – Global Rights Fund II, ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT – in July 2001. The three funds have received a total consideration of £27 million from the sale.

Hawkpoint and Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw acted as financial and legal advisers respectively to the shareholders of Mergermarket in relation to its sale to Pearson Plc.