By Milana Vinn and Amy-Jo Crowley
NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Private equity firms CD&R and GTCR have dropped their pursuit of Global Payments, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The buyout consortium walked away from talks to acquire the payments processor after exploring a potential deal over the past several weeks, the people said. The talks, which were in early stages, did not advance given the complexities of arranging a take-private of this scale, prompting the firms to put their efforts on hold, the people added.
The end of the discussions removes one of the largest potential leveraged buyouts in the payments sector, at a time when buyout firms are grappling with higher borrowing costs and tougher financing markets for mega-deals.
It is possible that CD&R and GTCR will resume the talks with Global Payments at a later date or another buyer for the company may emerge, the people said.
CD&R declined to comment. Global Payments and GTCR did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Atlanta-based Global Payments, which has a market value of about $26.4 billion, is one of the world’s largest payments processors, helping merchants accept card and digital payments while also providing software and technology services to businesses. The company has been under pressure in recent years from slower growth in some of its business lines, intensifying competition and investor demands to improve profitability.
Global Payments has already been reshaping its portfolio. In April 2025, it agreed to acquire Worldpay from FIS and private equity firm GTCR in a transaction valued at more than $24 billion, while simultaneously agreeing to sell its issuer-solutions business to FIS. The transactions were aimed at sharpening Global Payments’ focus on merchant services and expanding its scale in payment processing.
A takeover of Global Payments would have ranked among the largest private equity transactions attempted this year. But arranging financing for deals of that size remains challenging, particularly amid market volatility and lenders’ scrutiny of leverage levels for large buyouts.
Earlier this year, a consortium of Stripe and Advent International walked away from its pursuit of PayPal after submitting a bid valuing the payments company at more than $53 billion, Reuters reported.
(Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York and Amy-Jo Crowley in London; Editing by Echo Wang and Matthew Lewis)
