Global Payments – GPN – Agrees to Acquire Accelerated Payment Technologies

NYSE: GPN), a leading, worldwide provider of electronic transaction processing solutions, announced today an agreement to acquire Accelerated Payment Technologies (APT).  APT is an innovative provider of fully-integrated payment solutions for small to medium sized merchants producing approximately $8 billion in annual card volume.  APT markets its products and services primarily through a network of 700 value-added resellers (VARs) covering 30 different vertical markets.

Global Payments’ Chairman and CEO Paul R. Garcia said, “Over the course of our long-standing relationship with APT, we have been impressed with the quality and growth of their payment technology solutions.  APT serves merchants from attractive growth verticals such as the dental, medical, pharmacy, specialty retail, automotive and veterinary markets.  We look forward to having their talented management team join Global Payments.”

Matthew T. Vettel, Managing Partner of Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm and owner of APT said, “The APT team has successfully positioned themselves as a leading provider of integrated payments with a rapidly expanding network of software partners.  Global Payments has been a key strategic partner for APT, and we expect the combined businesses will continue to thrive.”

Under the terms of the agreement and pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, Global Payments will pay $413 million in cash to acquire APT from Great Hill Partners. The transaction is expected to close during Global Payments’ second fiscal quarter 2013.  Global Payments currently processes the majority of APT’s transactions under its existing ISO processing relationship and, as a result, Global Payments’ revenue will not materially change.  For the partial year of fiscal 2013, the Company expects the transaction to be dilutive to fiscal 2013 earnings per share on a GAAP basis and about neutral on a cash earnings basis and accretive to cash earnings thereafter.  Additionally, the Company expects the transaction to be significantly accretive to both North American and total company cash operating margins on an annualized basis.  The Company will provide further details when the transaction closes.

About Global Payments – GPN

Global Payments Inc. (GPN) is a leading provider of electronic transaction processing services for merchants, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, government agencies and multi-national corporations located throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.  Global Payments, a Fortune 1000 company, offers a comprehensive line of processing solutions for credit and debit cards, business-to-business purchasing cards, gift cards, electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification and recovery including electronic check services, as well as terminal management.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.