Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund, has purchased a “sizeable stake” in Global Payments, reported Financial Times, citing sources.  

 The payment processor has been facing investor backlash after its $24.2bn Worldpay acquisition pushed shares to a ten-year low, the report said. 

The company announced acquisition of Worldpay this year in a cash-and-shares deal with GTCR and Fidelity Information Services (FIS), despite earlier 2024 promises to focus on divestments and shareholder returns. 

FIS, which agreed to sell its 45% Worldpay stake and buy Global Payments’ issuer solutions business for $13.5bn, saw its shares rise. 

To fund the three-way deal, Global Payments cut its 2025–2027 capital returns from $7.5bn to $7bn and took on $7.7bn in debt. 

Elliott, managing $72.7bn and known for stakes in BP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has not revealed its stake size or intentions.  

The deal’s structure avoids a shareholder vote, but Elliott may influence Worldpay’s integration, the report added.  

In May, Global Payments’ CEO Cameron Bready linked the market’s negative reaction to the deal’s timing, following US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.  

He was quoted by Financial Times as saying: “Certainly it’s not lost on us that the timing, perhaps from a market standpoint, wasn’t ideal.”  

He added: “There’s not a scenario that I contemplate where we’re not better off by doing this transaction than we were obviously continuing forward with our standalone plan.”