A planned $29 billion buyout of First Data Corp., the world’s largest processor of credit card payments, by investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will shortchange investors, a shareholder said in a lawsuit.
KKR announced on April 2 that it would pay $34 in cash for each First Data share. A lawsuit filed Tuesday by stockholder Chris Larson in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington seeks an order blocking the deal “until the company adopts and implements a procedure or process to obtain the highest possible price.”
KKR’s offer, a 26 percent premium at the time, “is wholly inadequate, as First Data is worth far more than $34 a share,” Larson said in the complaint, which seeks class-action status.
Greenwood Village-based First Data, with $7.07 billion in sales last year, said April 2 that the buyout was approved by a committee of three independent directors, and that the board would “actively solicit proposals” for 50 days.
Founded in 1976, KKR has completed more than 150 transactions with a total value of more than $345 billion.
Colin Wheeler, First Data spokesman, wouldn’t comment on the suit. David Lilly, a spokesman for New York-based KKR, said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation “as a matter of policy.”
