DJ Payments Company Paya May Seek Buyer in $1 Billion Sale -- Barrons.com
By Luisa Beltran
Just a week after Plaid's $5.3 billion sale, another fintech may be nearing the auction block.
Paya, the payments company owned by GTCR, could go up for sale later this year, a person familiar with the situation said. The Atlanta company generates $50 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (also known as Ebitda). This is expected to hit $65 million this year, the person said. In the middle market, strong software and fintech payments companies can sell for 20 times Ebitda.
Paya is not up for sale right now but it could go on the block sometime mid-year, the person said.
Some, however, think Paya is already seeking a buyer. GTCR, which owns Paya, hired William Blair last year after receiving inbound interest for the company. Paya held meetings at Money2020, one of the fintech industry's biggest conferences, in Oct. 2019, people said. Paya was targeting bids of 20 times Ebitda, or more than $1 billion, people said.
"It's up for sale," one banker told Barron's.
"It's in process but it's not clear where [the sale is] at," another banker said.
Established in 1989, Paya processes more than $30 billion of annual payment volume for over 100,000 customers. It is the former Sage Payment Solutions. GTCR acquired Sage in 2017, paying $260 million cash and $20 million in deferred compensation, PE HuB reported at the time. Sage changed its name to Paya in 2018.
Payments is one of the hottest sectors in fintech. Visa (ticker: V) earlier this month agreed to buy Plaid, which provides the technology that eases consumer payments, for $5.3 billion. In Aug. 2019, Mastercard (MA) said it would buy Nets, a Denmark payments platform, for $3.19 billion, PYMNTS reported. Great Hill has put Affinipay, a payments technology company, up for sale, Barron's said in Dec. 2019.
GTCR is a veteran fintech investor; past deals include TransFirst, Verifone and FundTech. The firm closed its twelfth flagship fund on $5.25 billion in 2017. GTCR also invests in healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, and growth business services.
Paya and William Blair could not be reached for comment.
Write to Luisa Beltran at luisa.beltran@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 24, 2020 11:38 ET (16:38 GMT)
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