Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) has sold TransFirst Holdings to Vista Equity Partners for $1.5 billion. WCAS acquired TransFirst from GTCR in June 2007. The transaction is expected to close later this year.
“We have enjoyed our close partnership with the TransFirst management team over the last several years.” said Eric Lee, General Partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. “John Shlonsky, CEO of TransFirst, and his leadership team have done an outstanding job building the company into a market leader. We are confident that TransFirst will continue to build on its continued successes together with Vista Equity Partners.”
TransFirst is a provider of secure transaction processing services and payment technologies to the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market. In 2013, the company served more than 200,000 merchants and processed $42 billion in volume, ranking it as the seventh largest non-bank merchant acquirer in the US. The company has operating facilities in Aurora, CO; Broomfield, CO; Franklin, TN and Cypress, CA. TransFirst was founded in 1995 and is headquartered on Long Island in Hauppauge, NY (www.TransFirst.com).
“With over 200,000 merchants and more than 1,300 partners, we are well positioned to continue our current growth trajectory and solidify our position as the leading provider of payment processing solutions in the SMB Space,” said TransFirst CEO John Shlonsky. “We are very grateful for the terrific partnership that we have had with WCAS since 2007, during which we have built TransFirst into an industry leader, and are incredibly excited to be entering this next phase of growth with Vista, who has such a strong track record of improving operational performance, supporting their management teams, and creating long-term sustainable value.”
Vista Equity Partners has more than $13 billion in committed capital and makes equity investments in enterprise software businesses and technology-enabled services companies. The firm was founded in 2000 and has over 50 investment professionals operating out of San Francisco, Chicago and Austin (www.vistaequitypartners.com).
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe is focused exclusively on investments in business, information and healthcare services. Since its founding in 1979, Welsh Carson has organized 15 limited partnerships with total capital of over $20 billion. The firm is currently investing through its latest fund, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe XI, and is currently raising its 12th fund with a $3 billion target. The firm is based in New York (www.welshcarson.com).
Jefferies acted as financial advisor to Vista. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Evercore, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, William Blair, Wells Fargo, Raymond James, FT Partners, Credit Suisse, and Solebury Capital acted as financial or capital markets advisors to TransFirst.
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 10-14-14
