HOUSTON – Private equity firm TA Associates, which financed Cardtronics Inc., plans to ride the company’s stock climb and sell half of its stake in the country’s largest ATM operator.
Plans by two of the firm’s venture funds, CapStreet II, L.P. and CapStreet Parallel II, L.P., to sell 6 million Cardtronics shares comes as the company’s stock price has climbed to more than $10 a share, from as little as 90 cents just last January during the stock market crash. The rising stock price comes after the company finally broke into the black last year, with a $1.7 million net for the fourth quarter and a $5.8 million net for the year.
Cardtronics, which operates 25,000 ATMs in the U.S., is a critical electronic switch for credit unions connecting to almost every credit union in the country through CO-OP Financial Services, Credit Union 24, Financial Service Cooperative and Allpoint network.
TA helped fund the creation of Cardtronics in 2001, when the fledgling ATM operator bought several independent ATM companies. In 2005, TA made an additional $75 million investment to finance Cardtronics’ acquisition of 7-Eleven convenience stores’ 5,500 ATMs. The company went public in December 2007.
The TA funds own approximately 12 million Cardtronics shares, about a 30% stake in the company.
Cardtronics will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares.
