Clayton Dubilier & Rice is pursuing a take-private of payments processor Global Payments, which has an enterprise value of roughly $40bn, in what would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history, according to The Financial Times.
The talks with CD&R follow a spell of poor performance which has caused the US payment-processing giant’s shares to drop to near-decade lows.
CD&R has teamed up with private equity group GTCR, Global Payments’ biggest shareholder, on a joint bid for the company, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks are ongoing and a deal may not materialise, they added.
Global Payments surges on report CD&R pursuing takeover
Shares in Global Payments rose more than 10 per cent in afternoon trading after the FT’s report. Global Payments’ shares were hammered in 2025 shortly after it struck a deal to buy Worldpay from GTCR for more than $24bn.
Global Payments’ market capitalisation stood at $25.6 bn as of Friday afternoon, and it carries more than $17bn in net debt. Any deal would likely involve a premium, people added, making it far larger than industry-defining deals such as Blackstone’s $26bn takeover of Hilton in 2007.
The wider payments sector has struggled in recent years as older companies have been outmanoeuvred by technology-focused companies such as Adyen and Stripe. Earlier this year, Stripe teamed up with private equity group Advent International on a $53bn takeover offer for PayPal, but early talks over a deal stalled, the FT previously reported.
CD&R and GTCR declined to comment. Global Payments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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