Report: Nuvei on Verge of Buyout Deal With Advent

Canadian FinTech Nuvei is reportedly close to being acquired by private equity company Advent International.

The payments processor, backed by actor/investor Ryan Reynolds, is in advanced discussions with Advent, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (March 17), citing sources familiar with the matter.

The WSJ noted that Nuvei’s $3 billion market capitalization would make a purchase one of the largest private equity buyouts in recent memory, amid a downturn in the market for such deals.

Nuvei issued a statement late Sunday confirming that its board had formed a committee to evaluate “expressions of interest” in the company.

“The Company further confirms that it is engaged in discussions with certain third parties in connection with a potential transaction involving continued significant ownership by certain of the holders of multiple voting shares, including Phil Fayer, Nuvei’s founder, Chair and Chief Executive Officer,” the statement read.

Reynolds made an unspecified investment in Nuvei last year, following a series of other high profile ventures: a 25% stake in Mint Mobile — a wireless provider sold to T-Mobile for $1.35 billion — as well as investments in American Aviation Gin and the U.K.’s Wrexham Football Club.

Last year also saw Nuvei complete its $1.3 billion acquisition of payment platform Paya in a bid to increase its footprint in “high growth” verticals like healthcare, nonprofit, government, utilities and other business-to-business (B2B) markets.

Nuvei earlier this month reported quarterly results that showed the company seeing double-digit growth in demand and momentum from enterprise clients, and in its B2B and independent software vendor-related businesses.

Nuvei has also collaborated with PYMNTS Intelligence on research, including the recent report “The Role of Fraud Screening in Minimizing Failed Payments.”

As noted here earlier this month, a key theme in that study is the importance for eCommerce merchants in distinguishing between payments that fail due for mundane reasons such typos and those that are shut down due to possible fraud.

“Merchants who can make that distinction are able to more accurately and confidently target recovery methods, understand process-related issues and improve customer satisfaction,” PYMNTS wrote. “As any entrepreneur knows, incorrectly turning away a customer or declining a transaction not only undermines customer loyalty but hurts the bottom line.”

That’s why the report also examines the effectiveness of eCommerce merchant/payment service provider (PSPs) collaborations to more accurately identify the reasons payments get declined.

“Nearly 85% of those merchants who actively collaborate with PSPs can confidently encourage customers to try completing their transaction a second time using the same payment method, presumably because they have a better sense about the origins of the first declined payment,” PYMNTS wrote.