Page 54 - Pay Magazine s2014

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finance & strategy
The
ABCs
of the Industry’s IPOs
By Bill Grabarek, Senior Editor
The payments industry M&Aactivity has
U.K.-based payments processor at £4.8 billion (US$7.4 billion when trading began), and it was cele- brated as the largest IPO in Lon- don last year. Incidentally, Worldpay had at least two major players, Wirecard and Ingenico, making acquisition o ers. However World- pay’s owners, private equity rms Advent International Corp. and Bain Capital, decided to take the rm public instead.
Other companies opting to “ring the bell” to begin public trading last year included, Littleton, Colo.-based card manufacturer and payments company CPI Card Group Inc., and San Francisco- based m-payments service provider Square. (See sidebar, on page 55.)
has seen several high-pro le IPOs in
the past few years. While companies can use the infusion of capital from public investors in myriad ways, it may
come at a price.
been hot in
payments, but the industry also saw some
record-breaking initial public o erings in 2015. Many experts agree that global stock markets have been relatively strong overall, resulting in some companies eschewing acquisition overtures
in favor of taking their chances on the public markets.
Two companies broke records
in 2015: Atlanta-based payments processing and technology com- pany First Data set a record for 2015’s largest U.S. IPO with the company raising $2.5 billion. Across the Atlantic, Worldpay Ltd. began listing on the London Stock Exchange with an IPO valuing the