Global Payments shares plunge 17% on $24 billion Worldpay deal

Global Payments shares tumbled 17% on Thursday after the company said it is buying Worldpay for more than $24 billion while simultaneously selling its Issuer Solutions business to Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS.

The company said that in acquiring Worldpay, which FIS had purchased in 2019 before later selling a majority stake, it is expanding its reach and will be able to serve more than six million customers across more than 175 countries, enabling $3.7 trillion in annual payment volume.

In selling its Issuer Solutions unit to FIS for $13.5 billion, Global Payments is divesting a unit for back-end financial processing that has long been viewed as a stable provider of growth. In the end, Global Payments is going bigger in providing payments services to merchants, while FIS is focusing on issuer processing.

FIS bought Worldpay for about $35 billion in 2019 and sold most of its stake last year to GTCR.

Global Payments said on Thursday that it obtained committed bridge financing and plans to issue $7.7 billion of debt “to replace the bridge commitment and refinance Worldpay’s outstanding debt.”

Global Payments CEO Cameron Bready called it a “defining day,” and said the transaction gives the company “significantly expanded capabilities, extensive scale, greater market access and an enhanced financial profile.”

But Wall Street was less enthusiastic. While the acquisition gives Global Payments a larger footprint in payment processing, analysts at Mizuho described it as a strategic step backward.

Mizuho reiterated its neutral rating on the stock, warning that “the business could be seeing more meaningful margin pressure than investors acknowledge.” The analysts wrote that FIS won the trade, getting the “crown jewel” with Global Payments getting “more of the same.”

FIS shares rose more than 8% on Thursday.

Both deals are expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.