Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (the “Firm” or “WCAS”), a private equity
firm exclusively focused on information/business services and
healthcare, announced the sale of its portfolio company, TransFirst
Holdings, Inc. (“TransFirst” or the “Company”).
WCAS completed its proprietary acquisition of Hauppauge, NY-based
TransFirst in June 2007. The Company is a leading provider of payment
technology solutions to merchants in the United States. WCAS’s strong
history in the payments processing space includes past deals such as
Harbridge Merchant Services, Card Establishment Services, ComData,
Alliance Data Systems, Ruesch, and GlobalCollect. These past
transactions have generated over $2.5 billion of gains.
TransFirst combines its integrated platform, multi-channel capabilities
and partner-centric distribution model to deliver a superior value
proposition to the small- and medium-sized business (“SMB”) market. In
2013, the Company served more than 200,000 merchants and processed $42
billion in volume, ranking it as the seventh largest non-bank merchant
acquirer in the U.S.
WCAS and TransFirst partnered to drive several strategic growth and
operating initiatives, including the build-out of a world class
management team, investments in the Company’s proprietary integrated
technology platform, focused improvements across key operating
disciplines, and the successful development of multi-channel
distribution and processing capabilities. These initiatives enhanced
TransFirst’s service quality and solution breadth and drove meaningful
growth.
“We have enjoyed our close partnership with the TransFirst management
team over the last several years.” said Eric J. Lee, General Partner at
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. “John Shlonsky, CEO of TransFirst, and
his leadership team have done an outstanding job building the Company
into a market leader. We are confident that TransFirst will continue to
build on its continued successes together with Vista Equity Partners.”
With strong private and public market demand, WCAS has continued to
pursue attractive exits during 2014. This year, WCAS has sold
GlobalCollect, Solstas Lab Partners and Peak 10 and announced the sale
of Matrix Medical. Earlier this year, WCAS also completed the initial
public offerings of Paycom Software, Inc. (NYSE: PAYC), and K2M Group
Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTWO). Including pending transactions, WCAS has
generated distributions to investors of over $5.4 billion since the
beginning of 2013. This has resulted in WCAS’s investors receiving $5.82
of distributions for every $1 of capital called.
About Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe focuses its investment activity in two
target industries, information/business services and healthcare. Since
its founding in 1979, the Firm has organized 15 limited partnerships
with total capital of $20 billion. The Firm is currently investing an
equity fund, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe XI, L.P. See www.welshcarson.com
to learn more.
Copyright Business Wire 2014