Private-equity firms Blackstone Group and CVC Capital Partners have agreed to acquire online-payments company Paysafe Group for £2.96bn ($3.9bn).
Under the terms of the deal, Blackstone and CVC will pay 590 pence a share for Paysafe –which represents a premium of approximately 42% over the firm’s average value over the past year.
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Also, Paysafe Merchant Services Limited (PMSL), a subsidiary of Paysafe through which it conducts its Asia Gateway business, will be sold to Spectrum Global for nearly $308m.
However, the Neteller business of PMSL will be retained within the Paysafe group as part of the PMSL disposal.
Paysafe chairman Dennis Jones said: “The offer from the Consortium represents an opportunity for shareholders to crystallise a certain cash value from their investment in Paysafe. The Paysafe Independent Directors believe that Paysafe will continue to play a key role in payments innovation, leveraging the state of the art technology it has built over a number of years.”
Commenting on the deal, Blackstone senior managing director Martin Brand said: “Paysafe’s innovative alternative payment systems and risk management capabilities form a strong value proposition for consumers and merchants alike.
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“As a leading technology investor, Blackstone believes that Paysafe is an ideal platform for continued innovation in the payments space, and look forward to supporting Paysafe’s growth both organically and through acquisitions.”
CVC global co-head of financial services Peter Rutland said: “Paysafe is an important and innovative online payments partner for merchants and customers across the globe. Our investment experience in financial services, and particularly the payments sector, provides us with the ability to understand and value the company and its future growth. We are very grateful to have the opportunity to invest in Paysafe and look forward to helping support its growth going forwards.”
The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2017.
