Global private equity firms Bain Capital and Advent International on Aug. 6 signed an agreement with The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to acquire its subsidiary business, RBS WorldPay, for an enterprise value of up to £2.025 billion (US$3.2 billion or 2.44 billion euros), including a £200 million contingent consideration.
The companies were said to be in negotiations last month (
Royal Bank of Scotland will hold a minority stake of 19.9% in the new WorldPay business. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, and the companies expect to close the deal before the end of the year.
In 2009, London-based RBS WorldPay, also known as RBS Global Merchant Services, processed 6.8 billion transactions worldwide with a value of £243 billion. It is largest provider of card-payment services globally and the largest in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Royal Bank launched RBS WorldPay in 1989 to consolidate its portfolio of payment brands, which includes Streamline, a leading provider of point-of-sale payment services in Europe. RBS WorldPay offers a broad array of services, including transaction capturing, merchant acquiring and transaction processing.
