Payment technology, card processing and security company First Data files for IPO
Payment technology company First Data Corp., which says it had more than $11 billion in revenue in 2014, filed for an initial public offering of stock on Monday.
The New York company said it expects to raise $100 million from the IPO, although that figure is just an estimate that is used to calculate First Data's filing fee. The company did not say how many shares it plans to sell or what price it expects.
The company was spun off from American Express Co. in 1992 and was taken private by the private equity firm KKR & Co. LP in 2007. First Data says it processed 74 billion transactions in 2014, or 28 percent of e-commerce worldwide, in 2014. It has expanded its business with a series of acquisitions and now provides credit card and payment card processing for banks and retailers and sells network and security products.
In a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, First Data said it lost $458 million in 2014, compared to a loss of $869 million the year before. Its revenue grew 3 percent to $11.15 billion. The company has around 11,500 employees.
First Data says KKR invested another $1.2 billion in the company in 2014. It will control most of the voting power of First Data's common stock after the company's IPO.