Vista Looks To Sell Huge Stake In Finastra FinTech

Vista Equity Partners is reportedly thinking about selling a stake in London-based FinTech Finastra.

Bloomberg is reporting that the sale could value Finastra at $10 billion with debt included. Vista is collaborating with Goldman Sachs to look for companies that might be interested in buying. Vista could be looking to sell as much as 50 percent of the company.

FinTechs in Europe have been experiencing a rise in value as many investors look for alternatives to run-of-the-mill, brick-and-mortar banks. Digital banks are generally seen as more attractive, as they are no longer struggling to find a solid foothold after the financial crisis a decade ago.

As one example, the FinTech Adyen has seen its value double in Amsterdam since it started trading in the middle of last year.

Vista purchased DH Corp. for $2 billion two years ago, and then combined that business with its Misys unit to create Finastra. The company handles payments, retail banking, treasury desks and mortgage lending for about 90 of the top 100 banks in the world.

Finastra has been successful, with $1.9 billion in annual revenue and 10,000 workers. The company also has about $6 billion in debt.

Last year, Finastra acquired Malauzai, a provider of mobile and internet banking solutions for community financial institutions (FIs). In a press release, Finastra said the purchase reflects its commitment to the U.S. retail and business banking sectors by further enabling digital transformation for community banks and credit unions around the U.S.

Simon Paris, CEO of Finastra, said in the press release, “Credit unions and community banks are the fabric of American financial services. We strive to help them realize the benefits of digital transformation – including being able to deliver outstanding experiences right across their consumer and business customer lifecycles. Together, our two companies deliver a fully integrated, open core platform for payments, lending and digital, across Finastra’s 4,500-strong U.S.-based community market customers and Malauzai’s non-core U.S.-based customers. We value Malauzai’s market leadership and its open approach, which is in perfect alignment with our open platform vision.”