STRATEGIC PARTNERS
April 14, 2003
DENVER -- First Data, which has signed an agreement to purchase Concord EFS for $6.77 billion, is taking a cautious approach to the acquisition, which would create a transaction processing superpower.
According to a report in the Denver Post, First Data has followed a low key approach to buyouts ever since struggling through its 1995 merger with Atlanta-based First Financial Management Corp., the parent of Western Union.
"We stopped reading our own press clippings and decided we weren't the best operating company," First Data chief executive and chairman Charles Fote told a Denver audience at the Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference on April 10.
First Data, based in Greenwood Village, Colo., considers a dozen or more deals a year, but only closes on three or four of them, Fote said. The Concord deal would be First Data's largest since the $6.6 billion combination with First Financial.
Analysts have speculated that antitrust regulators may require First Data to sell off assets as a condition of approving a merger with Concord. Some analysts believe that First Data could be pushed to sell its 64 percent interest in NYCE Corp., the Northeast's biggest ATM network, to appease regulators.
With the Concord merger, First Data would control 69 percent of the $900 million market of fees from ATMs and online debit transactions, according to the Nilson Report. First Data's share of the credit- and offline debit-card-processing market would grow to 49 percent from 42 percent.
Concord could help First Data beef up its transaction-processing business by giving it more strength in online debit, analysts said.
Antitrust concerns "are right now the biggest risk," said UBS Warburg analyst Adam Frisch. "If that delays the closing of this acquisition, the question is, will it impact Concord's ability to re-sign its bank contracts?"
According to the Post report, Fote said he recognizes the challenges of keeping Concord's customers and resolving regulatory issues.
"We know who (the customers) are, and we're working hard to get the business," he said, adding that First Data and Concord "feel pretty good about the antitrust issue."
To keep banks as members of its Star Systems network, Concord may have to pay about $500 million in "upfront capital payments" to convince them to stay, according to Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Dris Upitis.
Fote has said he would consider giving banks an interest in the network itself or sharing profits. "There are benefits to sharing," he said, pointing to the company's Western Union subsidiary, also based in Greenwood Village.
Fote took Western Union from 40,000 U.S. locations and 25,000 sites abroad to more than 160,000 worldwide by landing agreements with the postal services in India, China, Germany and France.
Western Union pays out about $650 million in commissions to its 382 "superagents" around the world, money some observers contend the company should try to pocket itself.
Western Union could have kept the commissions and been a much smaller company than it is today, Fote said. He has targeted 14 percent to 17 percent growth for First Data, possible because of Western Union's strong international growth.
Investors have remained skeptical of Concord deal, holding down First Data's stock price to below where it was before news of the deal leaked out on April 1.
