Paysafe reveals NYSE listing intentions after Foley SPAC takeover

Added: December 8, 2020

Paysafe Group has revealed its intentions to re-list as a public company. This comes after it was taken over by US special purpose acquisition company ‘Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II’ for $9 billion.

Paysafe has published its deal prospectus under the ownership of Foley Trasimene, the ‘blank cheque company’ which was formed by Bill Foley, the finance and sports magnet, in order to obtain the global multichannel payment services provider. The SPAC acquisition has shaken the global payment sector as Foley serves as a director of Fidelity Information Services (FIS), the operating company of Paysafe competitor WorldPay.

It is said that Foley Trasimene will be acquiring the majority shareholdings in Paysafe from US private equity funds Blackstone Group and CVC Capital which will amass a total transaction of around $9 billion, inclusive of corporate debt. Back in 2017, Blackstone and CVC had agreed to a co-financed deal allowing them to get hold of Paysafe for £3.3 billion, delisting the company from its London Stock Exchange foundations.

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.”

Both agreeing to the sale, Blackstone and CVC stressed on the importance of the fact that Paysafe had reached its maximum potential under its shared ownership, since the payments group had come to the milestone of processing $100 billion in payment volumes through its integrated B2C and B2B payments platform. After acquiring the ownership of Paysafe assets, Foley Trasimene explained its imminent intentions of getting hold of a New York Stock Exchange listing by early 2021 under the trading symbol ‘PSFE’. Once listed as an NYSE enterprise, Foley Trasimene will be embracing Paysafe’s goals of becoming the leading B2B and B2C global payment solutions provider for merchants and consumers, offering the most comprehensive portfolio of digital wallets, e-cash and integrated processing solutions.

“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.”

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