First Data Heading Toward 2015’s Largest IPO

The First Data IPO is officially underway, and it’s looking like it might be the year’s largest.

The Atlanta-based payments tech firm has unveiled its official plans to offer up 160 million shares at prices between $18-$20 a share. At a $19 median stock price, the IPO would raise as much as $3.2 billion and give First Data a market cap in the $16 billion range.  The total enterprise value, including the $21 billion in enterprise debt that it holds, would clock in at around $37 billion.

Thus far, 2015 has been short on big money IPOs. Only two other firms — Columbia Pipeline Partners and Tallgrass energy — made it over the $1 billion mark, but neither surpassed $1.5 billion.

First Data is presently owned by private equity giant KKR, which acquired the firm in 2007 for a whopping $28 billion. Last summer, the firm invested another $1.2 billion — leading an investment round worth $3.5 billion in total.

So far this year, First Data’s reported net loss is $30 million on $5.57 billion in revenue, compared to a $142 million net loss on $5.48 billion at the same time last year.  The losses derive from interest payments on the company’s outstanding debt, which added up to $813 million in the first part of this year.

The net proceeds from the IPO will be allocated to redeeming  the $510 million aggregated principal amount of its 11.25 percent  senior unsecured notes due 2021.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and KKR will be the joint bookrunning managers of the offering and the representatives of the underwriters.

Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman, Sachs & Co., HSBC, Mizuho Securities, PNC Capital Markets LLC, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as bookrunners of the offering, and Allen & Company LLC, BBVA and Cowen and Company are acting as co-managers of the offering.

The firm will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FDC.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.