Meteo weather forecaster sold to TBG

B2B information. Swiss private equity company TBG AG is buying MeteoGroup, the UK-based weather forecasting group which supplies data to, among others, the BBC and British Airways. This follows a troubled period for Meteo under the ownership of General Atlantic (GA), which acquired it in 2014 from the UK news provider Press Association (PA). ‎Since the £128m purchase (a welcome windfall for PA’s newspaper group owners), the £50m-revenue MeteoGroup has expanded its global services for the shipping, offshore, transport, media, energy, and insurance industries. It now operates in 18 countries and claims to be the market leader in Europe. Its 2018 revenues are said to be 25% ahead of last year. But, until now, the expansive strategy has come at the cost of operating losses and static, at best, revenues for the four years of GA ownership – after previous years of solid profitability. Deal terms for the disposal to TBG (which is subject to regulatory approval) were not disclosed, but it will be loss-making for GA. Zurich-based TBG also owns DTN, an independent provider of decision-support solutions to the global agriculture, oil and gas and other weather-sensitive industries.