Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and GTCR have walked away from talks to take Global Payments Inc. private, according to people familiar with the matter, ending what would have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts attempted this year.
The two buyout firms had been exploring a joint bid for several weeks, as MERGER MONDAY reported on Nov. 2. The discussions never moved past an early stage, the people said, because of the difficulty of putting together financing for a company of this size. The firms could return to the table later, and another buyer could still emerge, the people added. CD&R declined to comment; Global Payments and GTCR didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The premium comes out
Global Payments shares opened Thursday a little above $100 and then dropped as much as about 13%, triggering a brief volatility halt, before closing down about 12% near $88. The stock had jumped when word of the talks first surfaced in late October. Before the drop the Atlanta company had a stock-market value of about $26.4 billion, and its enterprise value, including the debt it took on to buy Worldpay, is roughly $40 billion.
That debt load is the crux. A take-private would have required lenders to refinance much of Global Payments’ existing borrowing and stack new buyout debt on top, at a time when banks are more cautious about very large leveraged loans and investors are demanding wider spreads. GTCR already knows the business well: it sold Worldpay to Global Payments in a deal agreed in April 2025 that valued the processor at more than $24 billion, while Global Payments sold its issuer-processing unit to FIS.
Back to the standalone plan
Without a bid, investors are left with the company’s own turnaround: integrating Worldpay, paying down debt and trying to revive growth in merchant services against competition from newer payment platforms. Global Payments has said it is focused on executing that plan. The collapse of the talks also follows other big payments deals that failed to come together this year, a sign that the market for mega-buyouts remains selective even as smaller financings get done.
