Private equity firms Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners submitted a 2.9 billion pound ($3.7 billion) bid for Paysafe Group.
In bidding on Paysafe (NFAFF), they joined a rush to snap up payments companies.
Britain’s Paysafe offers pre-paid cashcards and online wallets. They announced that separately it was also planning to buy Merchants’ Choice Payments Solutions for $470 million. This would strengthen its presence in the United States.
Payments companies have become sought-after targets as more shoppers switch from cash to paying for purchases by smartphone or other mobile devices and a series of deals has driven share prices in the sector higher in recent weeks.
NVAFF said it had been approached in early May. After turning down a number of indicative proposals, it had granted the bidders due diligence access on the basis of the 590 pence per share proposal.
