Reuters
European buyout fund Eurazeo has hired Citigroup and Evercore to prepare the sale of its payments business Planet in a deal that could value the Irish firm at up to $2.22 billion.
According to sources, Eurazeo wants to launch an auction process in March as it seeks to capitalize on the rise of online shopping and mobile phone payments.
Citi and Evercore won a contest in December to handle the sale, which comes just days after U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake agreed to merge Planet’s rival Global Blue with Far Point – a vehicle set up by hedge fund Third Point and led by the former president of the New York Stock Exchange.
Planet, based in Galway on Ireland’s west coast, serves more than 400,000 merchants and 100 partner banks and provides both tax refunds and a wide range of payments services.
