Deals

CVC and EQT back second round of sponsorless funding for Paymentsense

The card services provider has received a second injection of cash after a year of strong growth.

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CVC Credit Partners and EQT Credit have arranged a £218 million refinancing for Paymentsense.

The funding package consists of a mix of senior and subordinated financing for the sponsorless firm.

The deal is the second round of funding for Paymentsense, a merchant services provider. EQT and CVC both backed a £110m unitranche facility for the firm in November 2016.

UK-based Paymentsense provides card processing services for 65,000 small and medium-sized businesses, processing approximately £7 billion of transactions per annum. When CVC and EQT first backed the firm in 2016 it served 50,000 customers and processed £5 billion of transactions.

Commenting on the deal, Andrew Cleland-Bogle, director at EQT Partners, said: “Paymentsense is led by an entrepreneurial and growth-oriented management team, whose stewardship has seen the business rapidly expand its market share. Notably, this impressive organic growth has been without the involvement of a financial sponsor.”

Some private credit funds are looking more closely at non-sponsored investment opportunities as record fundraising activity increases competition in the market. With many credit funds looking to capture private equity sponsored business, there has been a growing concern that terms and covenants are being eroded to compete.