Canadians win £2bn bidding battle for payments processor

The Canadian investment giant led by Mark Carney has won a £2.2billion bidding war for payments firm Network International – making it the latest London-listed firm to be snapped up by foreign suitors.

Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to buy the credit card processor in a 400p-a-share deal – a 64 per cent premium to the group’s value before the takeover battle first kicked off in April.

The offer trumped a rival 387p-a-share proposal from a consortium including private equity giant CVC Capital Partners.

The proposed takeover by Brookfield, where former Bank of England Governor Carney is chairman, comes amid frenzied interest in British companies.

A host of targets were snapped up after Covid struck in what was dubbed ‘pandemic plundering’ as predators swooped on firms with bombed-out share prices. Last week veterinary drugs maker Dechra Pharmaceuticals agreed a £4.5billion takeover led by Swedish private equity outfit EQT.

London’s status as a global financial centre has also been called into question by Cambridge chip designer Arm’s decision to list in New York, and a switch by £29bn buildings materials firm CRH from the City to Wall Street.

Analysts said the purchase of Network International, the largest payment provider in the Middle East and Africa, and its pending removal from the London market was a further setback.

Danni Hewson, an analyst at AJ Bell, said: ‘It’s a decent deal for shareholders if you’re looking near-term but once again this is a London-listed company with a pretty sweet price tag. It’s exactly the kind of business that London wants to attract more of and its loss will rub a bit more salt in something of a festering wound.’

It is not all doom and gloom, however, with chemicals giant WE Soda and fintech firm CAB Payments this week opting to list in London. CAB looks set to be valued at £1billion, while WE Soda, the world’s biggest producer of natural soda ash for glass and batteries for electric vehicles, could be worth as much as £7billion.

The Brookfield swoop thrusts Carney into the spotlight alongside City bigwig Sir Ron Kalifa, who is chairman of Network International and author of a review for the Government in 2021 on how to boost Britain’s fintech sector. Kalifa is set for a £2.4m payout after the takeover, having joined Network in 2019.

Critics have urged ministers to do more to boost London’s position as a leading global financial centre. But City minister Andrew Griffith this week hit back at critics who have been sniping at the pace of reforms.

Six months after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt launched the so-called ‘Edinburgh reforms’ which are designed to boost the UK’s status as a financial centre, Griffith told the Mail: ‘This is a bumper package for the sector and – while some armchair generals remain determined to comment from the sidelines – we are delivering reforms that will maintain our status as a world-leading centre.’