CD&R pursues buyout of $40bn card processor Global Payments
Deal for US company would rank among largest buyouts in history
Clayton Dubilier & Rice is pursuing a take-private of payments processor Global Payments, which has an enterprise value of roughly $40bn, in what would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history.
The talks with CD&R follow a spell of poor performance which has caused the US payment-processing giant’s shares to drop to near-decade lows.
CD&R has teamed up with private equity group GTCR, Global Payments’ biggest shareholder, on a joint bid for the company, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks are ongoing and a deal may not materialise, they added.
Global Payments’ market capitalisation stood at $23bn as of Friday afternoon, and it carries more than $17bn in net debt. Any deal would likely involve a premium, people added, making it far larger than industry-defining deals such as Blackstone’s $26bn takeover of Hilton in 2007.
Shares in Global Payments rose more than 9 per cent in early afternoon trading after the FT’s report.
Global Payments’ shares were hammered in 2025 shortly after it struck a deal to buy Worldpay from GTCR for more than $24bn. Many shareholders criticised the cash and stock deal as a strategic blunder that would distract the company, add leverage and dilute investors.
GTCR accepted cash and stock from Global Payments, turning the Chicago-based private equity group into the company’s largest outside shareholder.
Many shareholders panned the deal and caused Global Payments’ stock value to plunge about 20 per cent. Activist shareholder Elliott Management later took a stake in the company, eventually striking a co-operation deal which added two mutually agreed-upon directors to Global Payments’ board.
The wider payments sector has struggled in recent years as older companies have been outmanoeuvred by technology-focused companies such as Adyen and Stripe. Earlier this year, Stripe teamed up with private equity group Advent International on a $53bn takeover offer for PayPal, but early talks over a deal stalled, the FT previously reported.
CD&R and GTCR declined to comment. Global Payments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.