GTCR, a leading private equity firm, announced today that portfolio company Paya Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYA), a leading integrated payments provider, has signed a definitive agreement with Nuvei Corporation (TSX: NVEI) (NASDAQ: NVEI) to be acquired in an all-cash transaction through a tender offer with a total enterprise value of approximately $1.3 billion. Following Paya’s listing as a publicly-traded company, GTCR remained Paya’s largest shareholder and the firm supports this transaction.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Paya is a leading pure-play integrated payments platform serving customers in attractive and growing end markets such as B2B, government, utilities, non-profit and healthcare end markets. In total, Paya processes over $45 billion of annual payment volume, making it a top 10 provider of card-not-present payment processing in the U.S., and serves over 100,000 end-customers through over 2,000 software vendors and other key distribution partners.
GTCR originally acquired Paya in 2017 and, alongside Paya’s management team, helped transform the business through accelerated organic growth and several accretive acquisitions. In October 2020, Paya became a NASDAQ-listed public company.
“Nuvei’s acquisition of Paya marks a significant milestone in the transformation of this business,” said Aaron Cohen, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services & Technology at GTCR. “Since the initial corporate carveout from Sage, the Company has worked side-by-side with our team to implement a growth strategy centered on investing in technology and an enhanced product suite to reach new customers in attractive markets.”
“Paya’s evolution from a corporate subsidiary to a highly strategic business within the broader payments ecosystem is a great illustration of the GTCR Leaders StrategyTM,” said Collin Roche, Managing Director and Co-CEO of GTCR. “We’d like to thank Jeff Hack and the rest of the Paya management team for their hard work which led to this important achievement.”
“Today is the culmination of a five-year journey for the Paya business alongside GTCR, and we see a very bright future for Paya with Nuvei,” said Jeff Hack, Paya CEO. “GTCR has been an exceptional partner. They have worked closely with management to transform our business and their contributions to Paya’s strategy and success have been invaluable. Together, we were able to leverage GTCR’s deep domain expertise in payments and Paya’s leading-edge solutions to execute an organic growth and M&A investment plan that has established the Company as one of the leading providers of integrated payments solutions.”
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Raymond James & Associates are serving as financial advisors to Paya and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as Paya’s legal advisor. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal counsel for GTCR.
About GTCR
Founded in 1980, GTCR is a leading private equity firm that pioneered The Leaders Strategy™ – finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. GTCR is focused on investing in transformative growth in companies in the Business & Consumer Services, Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare and Technology, Media & Telecommunications sectors. Since its inception, GTCR has invested more than $24 billion in over 270 companies, and the firm currently manages over $26 billion in equity capital. GTCR is based in Chicago with offices in New York and West Palm Beach. For more information, please visit www.gtcr.com.
Source: https://www.gtcr.com/gtcr-backed-paya-to-be-acquired-by-nuvei/
