Advent’s TSG, Clearent Merger Would Create $3 Billion Payments Firm

A merger of payments firms Transaction Services Group (TSG) and Clearent is said to be in the works by the private equity firm Advent International, Bloomberg reported on Thursday (Feb. 25), citing sources. The combined entity will be valued at $3 billion including debt, one of the sources said.

The newly combined firm — Xplor Technologies — will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and headed by TSG CEO Floris de Kort, who will serve as the new chief executive. Clearent’s CEO Pamela Joseph will be the executive chairman, per Bloomberg.

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Clearent is a credit card processing firm that offers services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Its tools include payments software, business loans and reporting tools.

Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, TSG provides payment software for various industry sectors, including insurance, health, fitness and theme parks with membership models.

Advent backed Clearent in 2018 and TSG in 2019, Bloomberg noted.

Advent was possibly mulling an initial public offering (IPO) of InPost, its Polish postal lock provider, and tapped Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase to be the global coordinators. InPost enables customers to have packages delivered to an assigned locker.