Equity Firms Bid for Ceridian and its Comdata Unit

NEW ORLEANS – Private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone Group have submitted offers to take over Ceridian Corp., parent of payments processor and cards issuer Comdata, according to several Wall Street Sources. The pursuit of the company comes as a major Ceridian shareholder, hedge fund manager William Ackman, pushes for a spin-off of Ceridian's fast growing Comdata division, which provides services to hundreds of credit unions. Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which previously prodded burger chains McDonald's Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. into corporate changes, has urged Ceridian to spin off Comdata and focus on running its other division, Human Resource Solutions. Comdata offers payment processing and issues credit cards and debit cards primarily for the U.S. trucking and retail industries. Human Resource, the larger of the two divisions, offers payroll, benefits administration and other services. Ackman, who owns 14.3% of Ceridian, is waging a proxy contest to try to replace the company’s eight-member board with directors more amenable to his spin off plan.