FIS is considering the sale of Worldpay at a valuation of $15 billion to a group of private equity companies in what would be one of the largest corporate carve-outs ever.
FIS to sell Worldpay?
Advent, which was previously part of a consortium that owned Worldpay, is among the parties studying a bid, according to the FT.
GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity group that sold a business to Worldpay in 2010, has also studied a bid.
If FIS were to accept an offer it would mark a shift from its strategy, announced in February, of spinning off Worldpay into a separate publicly traded business.
The talks come four years after FIS acquired Worldpay for more than $30 billion in a deal that was aimed at creating a diversified financial technology company offering payments processing services to large banks and merchants such as retailers.
Activist hedge fund DE Shaw last year urged FIS to review the structure of its business and was given a seat on the company’s board of directors.
No deal has been agreed but if a transaction is completed it would demonstrate how buyout firms flush with cash are pursuing large carve-outs of businesses.
Advent, which manages $92 billion in assets, bought a majority stake in the business alongside Bain Capital from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010 during the financial crisis.
It took full control in 2013.
Worldpay was subsequently sold to Vantiv in 2017 before FIS acquired the combined company two years later.
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