First Data Eyeing IPO Over Next 12 Months - FBN's Gasparino

FOX Business Network's (FBN) Senior Correspondent Charlie Gasparino reported that First Data Corporation is looking into an initial public offering (IPO) to take place "over the next 12 months." Gasparino went on to report that this "could be among the most lucrative deals in the coming months, generating as much as $40 million in fees."

On whether First Data Corporation is looking to get an IPO soon:

"Wall Street's top firms believe the initial public offering of First Data Corp., a little known payment processing company, could be among the most lucrative deals in the coming months, generating as much as $40 million in fees, the FOX Business Network has learned. Officials at First Data, a company that works with banks and merchants in the field of processing payments, led by its chief executive Frank Bisignano, have been meeting with investment bankers in recent weeks about a possible financing over the next 12 months that would include not just a public offering, but also a restructuring of First Data's debt, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Private equity firm KKR & Co. (KKR) took First Data private in 2007 in a $30 billion transaction hatched just before the financial crisis began to squeeze such financings. In the subsequent years, First Data came to drag on KKR's balance sheet so much that the private equity firm pumped another $1.2 billion into the company this summer. The June 2014 financing was designed to prop up First Data's value, primarily by reducing its debt load-a precursor for an IPO at some later date, bankers say. That date is rapidly approaching, bankers who have been dealing with First Data officials tell FOX Business. The company, through its CEO Bisignano, has been suggesting that KKR wants to cash out of the investment in the next year if possible. First Data officials have indicated that the company represents as much as 10% of KKR's balance sheet and is its biggest investment-a number neither KKR nor First Data press officials would deny."

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