Having acquired Retail Decisions (ReD) back in 2006 through a take-private deal alongside other co-investors, Palamon Capital Partners has now disposed of its interest.
Built as a payment fraud prevention offering for merchants, card issuers, acquirers and processors, ReD has customers in six contents and seven global offices.
On the back of the 2006 acquisition, and subsequent global economic crisis, Palamon ‘fully de-levered’ the business and returned 80 per cent of invested equity through the sales of three divisions: UK Fuel Cards; Australian company and European fuel card business.
Paul Stanley, who became CEO of ReD in 2011 and oversaw the launch of a number of new platforms, says that Palamon’s understanding of the e-commerce market as well as knowledge of payments and enterprise software has got the company to where it is today.
‘Significant investments in new products and sales channels have further strengthened our global platform and we are well placed to continue delivering strong growth,’ he adds. ‘We look forward to working with ACI Worldwide in the next phase of our development.’
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Under Palamon’s ownership, ReD accelerated growth through its remaining payments fraud prevention business, after selling off other divisions, and investment capital into product innovation and partner channel expansion.
Palamon partner Fabio Massimo Giuseppetti comments, ‘As the largest investment in the Palamon II portfolio, ReD has been a highly successful result for Palamon.
‘Having de-levered the business and returned most of our investment capital through the early divisional divertimentos, we were able to focus on the “jewel in the crown” – the global fraud prevention business.’
New acquirer ACI Worldwide is a payments service business based in Florida. The company processes $13 trillion each day in payments and securities transactions.
ACI says that, if as expected the deal closes in the third quarter of 2014, ReD will generate some $18 million of revenue and $4 million of EBITDA for the rest of 2014.
