Worldpay to hire 6 banks for its planned £6bn London floatation

The private equity (PE) backers of payment processing company Worldpay will reportedly rope in six banks to lead the company's London floatation, valued at around £6bn (€8.19bn, $9.19bn).

PE firms Advent International and Bain Capital are close to hiring Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch as global coordinators for the planned share sale.

Worldpay has also tapped investment bank Lazard as an adviser to prepare for a stock market listing, Reuters reported.

Pursued by the news agency, Worldpay and Morgan Stanley refused to comment. Goldman Sachs and BofA could not be reached immediately for a comment.

Sky News first reported the news, adding that the company was set to hire Barclays, Credit Suisse and UBS as bookrunners on the deal. Pursued by Reuters, the three banks could not be immediately reached for a comment.

Worldpay will have to appoint a new chairman to substitute for current chairman John Allan, who is set to step down later this year, according to the firm's website. Allan also chairs troubled retailer Tesco and realty firm Barratt Developments.

Worldpay processes 26 million transactions per day and its half-yearly underlying revenue of £1.73bn was up 6.1% in the period ended June, 2014.

Advent and Bain acquired Worldpay from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2010.