Dive Brief:
- Canadian payments processor Nuvei, which is touted in online ads by investor and movie star Ryan Reynolds, plans to sell stock to the private equity firm Advent International in a transaction that will take the company private and hand certain existing shareholders a $560 million windfall.
- Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer will sell shares in the transaction, as will the investment firm Novacap and the Canadian pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the companies said in a joint press release Monday. Still, Fayer, Novacap and the pension fund will continue to be shareholders after the stock sale.
- Fayer and his management team will still lead the payments fintech after the sale and it will remain based in Montreal, the release said. The transaction values the business at $6.3 billion, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
Fayer, who is also the company’s chair, founded a predecessor to Nuvei in 2003 and expanded the business with help from acquisitions, including buying the Atlanta integrated payments company Paya last year.
Reynolds, who starred in the action flick series Deadpool, disclosed in a press release with Nuvei last year that he had made an investment in the company, while acknowledging that he knew very little about financial technology. Still, he cited his track record for making his investments pay off, noting wireless provider Mint Mobile, which was acquired by telecom behemoth T-Mobile for $1.35 billion last year.
Nuvei, which has about 2,000 employees, has focused on providing e-commerce and mobile payments processing as well as card issuing, local acquiring and fraud management services.
The company works with Visa’s cross-border payments unit to provide some international services. Nuvei says it helps marketplaces pay their sellers; enables insurance companies to make payouts to customers; allows crypto investors to move money; and lets Chinese travelers pay abroad with WeChat Pay, according to its website.
Nuvei, which operates in 200 markets around the world, reported a net loss for last year of about $700,000, down from net income of $62 million for 2022, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report. Still, revenue for last year jumped 41% over 2022 to $1.19 billion on a payments volume increase of 59% to about $200 billion processed.
Nuvei has targeted revenue growth of 15% to 20% over the medium term, the investment firm William Blair said in commenting on the deal in a Monday note to investors.
The deal is expected to close later this year or early next year, according to the press release.
