Verifone Systems Bought Out by US Private Equity Funds

The American POS payment specialist just agreed to be bought out by an investor group led by Francisco Partners, which focuses on next-generation technologies. This transaction stresses their market potential for investors, and confirms Verifone’s successful shift into an omni-channel payment services provider.

The consortium will be paying 23.04 dollars per share in cash for Verifone, or a premium of roughly 54% to their closing share price on April 9, prior to the announcement. The overall amount would reach 3.4 billion dollars.

This interest paid by Equity funds confirms long-term growth perspectives for this American group. This transaction also reflects their progress as they seek to evolve from designing hardware to providing payment and commerce-dedicated services in hope that they will contribute to securing the loyalty of their merchants.

This buyout should be completed by Q3 this year. Crédit Suisse, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Canada also took part in this transaction. Verifone will then become a privately held company. The agreement, however, includes a one-month “go-shop” period, allowing the group to consider alternative acquisition proposals.

Comments – Verifone aims for growth

This US POS devices manufacturer faced 71 million dollars in net losses in Q3 32017; their turnover then dropped by 4.3%. During Q4 2017, Verifone recorded 3.1 million dollars in net profit, which still wasn’t up to their expectations. Funding from Francisco Partners and other investors should help the group maintain their growth and achieve their transformation process.

Verifone’s growth also depends on a fast-evolving competitive environment. Besides competition from new mobile offers, including by the US start-up Square and their quite transparent pricing scale, larger players’ offers should also be considered: First Data and their direct rival Ingenico, for instance. Prices per share of the French POS devices maker has also been increased after Verifone’s buyout was announced: +6.9% to 72.5 euros.