Evo Payments Hello payday. It's good to be a partner at Madison Dearborn Partners these days. Evo Payments, a payment processor (duh), has been backed by that PE firm since 2013 and is now exploring a sale that could bring $2 Billion. It's on a duel track process to either sell itself or do an IPO. Either way, its a nice payday for Madison Dearborn. Congrats.

(Bill Taylor/CEO)

"Evo Payments International, the payments processor backed by Madison Dearborn Partners, is exploring a sale that could value the company at about $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Atlanta-based company is working with Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to explore strategic options, including a possible initial public offering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The company has drawn interest from potential buyers including Vantiv Inc., one of the people said. No final decision has been made and the company could decide to remain independent. Exploring both a sale and an IPO, known as a dual-track process, is common for private equity-owned companies as a way to determine the best exit for an investment.

Representatives of Evo, Madison Dearborn, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Vantiv declined to comment.

Madison Dearborn took a minority stake in EVO in 2013 to fund international expansion. In 2015, the company held preliminary talks with French computer-services provider Atos SE about being acquired. Atos had looked to combine EVO with payments-services business Worldline SA, in which it owns a majority stake.

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