FIS Could Sell Majority Stake of Worldpay in $15 Billion Deal
FIS is reportedly considering selling a majority stake in Worldpay to private equity groups.
The deal, as reported Friday (June 30) by the Financial Times (FT), would worth more than $15 billion. It would also mark a reversal of FIS’ previously reported plan to spin off Worldpay, the merchant services company it acquired in 2019.
According to the report, which cites a number of unnamed sources, buyout firm Advent, part of the group that once owned Worldpay, is considering a bid. Also interested is GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm that sold a business to Worldpay in 2010.
PYMNTS has reached out to FIS and GTCR for comment but has not yet received a reply. A spokesperson for Advent declined to comment. The sources told the FT that large Wall Street banks have discussed financing the deal.
As noted here in February, FIS had begun exploring a tax-free spinoff of its merchants operations, the bulk of which come from Worldpay. That move followed a strategic review the Florida-based company embarked on in 2022 under pressure from hedge funds D.E. Shaw and JANA Partners.
FIS began the review in December, PYMNTS reported, amidst a change in leadership, as Gary Norcross stepped down as CEO after 34 years with the firm. The review apparently involved a “comprehensive assessment” of FIS' strategy, businesses, operations and structure, with the aim of improving results, shareholder value and client services.
Last month saw the news that FIS had acquired embedded finance startup Bond Financial Technologies, a move that, as PYMNTS wrote, adds experienced banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance talent.
It also closes a gap in FIS’ embedded finance capabilities and expands FIS’ portfolio of solutions for FinTechs.
“FIS likely saw in Bond’s tech the ability to power branded embedded banking services at scale, making them available to the customers of the thousands of small banks and credit unions who use the FIS core banking platform,” PYMNTS' Karen Webster wrote last month.
It also makes those services available quicker and cheaper than FIS could otherwise, even via a collaboration with Bond or another BaaS company. The acquisition, Webster wrote, makes Bond an integral part of FIS evolution into a platform that can power an array of connected economy offerings via embedded finance.
“Now the hard work of executing against these capabilities begins,” she added. “The payments and connected economy landscape is evolving quickly, but incumbents don’t always keep pace, even with fast-moving, hard-charging FinTech entrepreneurs inside of the company leading the race.”
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