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Paysafe Group has confirmed its intentions to re-list as a public company, following its takeover by US special purpose acquisition company ‘Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II’ for $9 billion.
This afternoon, Paysafe published its deal prospectus under the ownership of Foley Trasimene, the ‘blank cheque company’ formed by finance and sports magnet Bill Foley, to acquire the global multichannel payment services provider.
The SPAC acquisition has rocked the global payment sector as Foley serves as a director of Fidelity Information Services (FIS), the operating company of Paysafe competitor WorldPay.
Foley Trasimene will acquire the majority shareholdings in Paysafe from US private equity funds Blackstone Group and CVC Capital for a total transaction of $9 billion inclusive of corporate debt.
In 2017, Blackstone and CVC agreed to a co-financed deal acquiring Paysafe for £3.3 billion, delisting the company from its London Stock Exchange foundations.
Agreeing to the sale, Blackstone and CVC underlined that Paysafe had reached its maximum potential under its shared ownership, in which the payments group had reached the milestone of processing $100 billion in payment volumes through its integrated B2C and B2B payments platform.
Peter Rutland, Managing Partner at CVC, said: “Under Blackstone’s and CVC’s ownership the management team have transformed Paysafe into a leading global payments provider by investing in its technology, products and customer proposition. We are looking forward to remaining significant shareholders alongside Foley Trasimene for the next stage of Paysafe’s growth.”
Taking ownership of Paysafe assets, Foley Trasimene stated its imminent intentions of securing a New York Stock Exchange listing by early 2021 under the trading symbol ‘PSFE’.
Once listed as an NYSE enterprise, Foley Trasimene will support Paysafe’s objectives of becoming the leading B2B and B2C global payment solutions provider for merchants and consumers – offering the most comprehensive portfolio of digital wallets, ecash and integrated processing solutions.
The deal prospectus highlighted Paysafe’s proven track record in igaming, in which the company and its services are “well-positioned to capitalize on the expanding US iGaming market”.
“Today’s announcement begins an exciting new chapter in our company’s history and we’re excited about the partnership with Foley Trasimene, Blackstone and CVC. Today, more than ever, businesses and consumers need to connect and seamlessly transact via digital commerce,” said Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe.
“This is what Paysafe does best through our industry-leading payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions. This transaction will allow us to accelerate our growth opportunities across the business, particularly in fast-growth sectors such as iGaming where we are the payments partner of choice.”
