Private equity firm Advent International has agreed to buy Canada’s Nuvei NVEI.TO in a deal that values the payments technology firm, which has received financial backing from actor Ryan Reynolds, at $6.3 billion.

The deal, valued at $34 per share, will take Nuvei private almost four years after the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The buyout of Nuvei, which has a market capitalization of nearly $4.42 billion, would make it one of the more sizable take-private deals at a time when private equity dealmaking has slowed.

It represents a premium of 56% to the company’s NVEI.O closing price on the Nasdaq before a potential deal was reported in the media in mid-March.

Current CEO Philip Fayer will continue to lead the company and Nuvei will remain headquartered in Montreal, it said.

Nuvei provides payments technology to businesses, allowing them to pay and accept payments regardless of their customers’ location or preferred payment method.

Existing shareholders – Fayer, private equity firm Novacap and Canadian pension fund CDPQ – are expected to indirectly own or control about 24%, 18% and 12%, respectively, of the equity in the private company after the deal closes.

Payments processors thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic as customers turned to digital payment methods, but some have since struggled to maintain growth as competition mounted and inflation took off.

The deal is expected to close in late 2024 or the first quarter of 2025.

The company’s stock on both the Toronto exchange and the Nasdaq was last halted.

(Reuters)