PHILADELPHIA -- With the financial sector already among the busiest for mergers, private equity firms and other buyers are looking deeper at behind-the-scenes payment processors and business-services providers as takeover targets, analysts said Tuesday.
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This week alone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. said it would buy First Data Corp., which processes credit card payments, for $26 billion, while Wisconsin bank Marshall & Ilsley Corp. announced Tuesday it would separate its payment-processing unit, Metavante Corp.
Private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone Group are also among the bidders for Ceridian Corp., which owns payment-processing business Comdata, sources familiar with the situation said last week.
"The payment-processing technology area is attractive because it has stable cash flows, and there is capacity for buyers to add more debt. That's the classic LBO (leveraged buyout) scenario, though buyers will have to accept lower credit ratings," said Richard Hofmann, a financial services analyst with CreditSights Inc.
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"Payment processing is a growth area as consumers move further away from cash, and payments become increasingly electronic and automated," Hofmann said.
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Shares of Marshall & Ilsley rose 8.7 percent to $49.83 on Tuesday ahead of the confirmation of Metavante's separation. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus will buy 25 percent of Metavante for $625 million, Marshall & Ilsley said.
"It's obvious that investors are looking at this area from an M&A perspective," said Scott Kessler, head of technology sector equity research at Standard & Poor's.
"Six to 12 months ago, these companies might have been satisfied to operate their businesses. But it's clear that buyers and investment bankers are looking at whether the businesses have unrealized value," Kessler said.
"If the companies aren't getting the message given the performance of their rivals' stocks, certainly shareholders are communicating it to them," he added.
FINANCIAL FEEDING FRENZY
The financial services sector was the third-most active for mergers in the first quarter of 2007, according to research firm Dealogic.
With the First Data and Metavante deals, Lehman Brothers analyst Jason Goldberg said the pressure would likely mount for Synovus Financial Corp. (SNV) to unload its majority stake in payment-services company Total System Services Inc .
"Ever since TSS announced it lost BAC (Bank of America) as a major consumer processing customer in late December, 2005, SNV began more openly discussing the possibility of cutting its TSS stake," Goldberg said in a research report.
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TSS would be better able to make acquisitions and diversify its revenue base more if it was separated. Yet Synovus has a high price-to-earnings ratio of 16.4, which is above the norm of 13.2 for the regional banking sector, analysts said.
Synovus, which owns 81 percent of TSS, gained 73 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $33.08. TSS added 25 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $32.29.
Shares of other financial services firms also rose. Western Union Co. gained 30 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $22.48. Alliance Data Systems Corp. added $1.21, or 1.9 percent, to $64.02, while Ceridian rose 38 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $35.04.
JP Morgan analysts cited CheckFree Corp., which makes software for online credit card transaction processing company Global Payments Inc., and payment-processing company Wright Express Corp. as potentially getting a boost after the First Data deal.
Other analysts, however, viewed the recent spate of financial-services deals as just part of an existing trend — rather than a new sub-sector being targeted.
"I look at it as more a continuation, perhaps an acceleration (of a trend)," said Glenn Gurtcheff, managing director with M&A advisory firm Harris Williams & Co.
"There is some pressure on financial institutions to continue to deliver earnings and make sure their balance sheets are as pristine as they can make them," Gurtcheff said.
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