Cross-border payments provider Corpay, Inc. (NYSE: CPAY) signed a definitive agreement on 19 June 2024 to acquire GPS Capital Markets, LLC, a US-based provider of business-to-business cross-border and treasury management solutions to upper middle market companies. Corpay’s investor presentation accompanying the announcement disclosed a transaction value of $725 million.
GPS Capital Markets ranks as the third largest acquisition in Corpay’s history, according to comments from Chairman and CEO Ron Clarke in the announcement. The deal expands Corpay’s existing cross-border payments capabilities and slots into the company’s Corporate Payments segment, which Corpay has stated it expects to scale to nearly $2 billion in revenue by 2026.
Cross-Border Payments Deal at a Glance
Corpay announced the acquisition on 19 June 2024 and completed it on 2 December 2024, several weeks ahead of the originally guided early-2025 close target. GPS Capital Markets brings business-to-business cross-border solutions, FX netting technology, an FX specialist team, and a US-centred upper middle market client roster to Corpay’s existing global footprint. Following completion, Corpay processes payments for approximately 23,000 customers in more than 145 currencies across six continents.
Inside GPS Capital Markets
GPS Capital Markets, LLC was founded in 2002 and operates from a Salt Lake City, Utah headquarters. The firm specialises in corporate foreign exchange services, including cross-border payments, balance sheet hedging, international payments, currency risk management, global cash management, and intercompany netting. Beyond its US footprint, GPS runs offices in Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, with regional expansion stretching back to its 2017 East Coast Charlotte office opening and 2021 Australian launches in Perth and Sydney.
The company’s flagship platform, FXpert, is a cloud-based FX suite covering payments, balance sheet hedging, intercompany netting, balance reporting, cash flow forecasting, analytics, and trade execution. The platform allows corporate treasury teams to hedge at the subsidiary level while maintaining GAAP and IFRS compliance. FXpert was named Best System for Assessing Risk and Hedging Strategy in Global Finance Magazine’s 2023 FX Tech Awards. Brandon Parke serves as President and CEO of GPS Capital Markets, with Ryan Gibbons remaining as Founder and Managing Partner.
In a companion press release on 19 June 2024 issued by GPS Capital Markets, Brandon Parke stated that the combination with Corpay would allow GPS to deliver expanded value to cross-border payments clients through enhanced delivery channels and broader access to FX services across global markets. Parke characterised the cross-border payments transaction as enabling unparalleled value delivery to GPS clients and employees through the combined company.
Cross-Border Payments Deal Terms and Synergies
The $725 million transaction value is disclosed in Corpay’s acquisition and capital allocation update presentation accompanying the 19 June 2024 announcement. Corpay characterised the deal as accretive to its 2025 cash earnings per share, with both revenue and expense synergies expected. Ron Clarke described GPS in the announcement as offering a blue-chip client roster, an FX specialist team, and market leading FX netting technology, and stated that the transaction puts Corpay on track to scale its Corporate Payments segment to approximately $2 billion in revenue by 2026.
Corpay itself is a global S&P 500 corporate payments company, helping businesses and consumers manage and pay expenses across vehicle-related expenses such as fueling and parking, travel expenses such as hotel bookings, and accounts payable including domestic and international payments. The Atlanta-based company traces its corporate payments lineage to FleetCor Technologies, which rebranded as Corpay following its 2024 corporate restructuring designed to align the company’s name with its expanded payments segment portfolio.
In the acquisition completion release on 2 December 2024, Clarke stated that the GPS acquisition combined with Corpay’s earlier Paymerang acquisition would push the Corporate Payments segment past $1.5 billion in revenue in 2025. The two corporate payments deals closed during 2024 are together expected to contribute over $200 million in revenue and approximately $0.50 of cash EPS accretion in 2025, according to Corpay.
Combined Cross-Border Payments Footprint
Following completion of the acquisition, Corpay’s combined cross-border payments operation processes payments for approximately 23,000 customers in more than 145 currencies across six continents. The footprint reflects Corpay’s pre-existing global business and the addition of GPS Capital Markets’ US client base. The expanded customer count and currency range appear in the original 19 June 2024 Corpay press release and in subsequent coverage.
GPS Capital Markets joins a Corpay portfolio that includes vehicle payments, lodging payments, and corporate payments segments. The cross-border payments capability specifically gains GPS’s FXpert platform and FX netting technology, which upper middle market corporates use to consolidate multi-currency exposures across multiple subsidiaries while maintaining GAAP and IFRS compliance. Corpay describes its post-acquisition footprint as positioning the company among the larger global corporate FX and treasury management providers.
Closing Timeline and Q2 2024 Outlook
Corpay originally guided that the GPS transaction would close in early 2025, subject to regulatory approval and standard closing conditions. Actual completion took place on 2 December 2024, ahead of that timeline.
In the same 19 June 2024 release, Corpay provided a Q2 2024 financial outlook, stating that second-quarter results were expected to be in line with the midpoint of the financial guidance issued in the company’s 8 May 2024 earnings release. Corpay hosted an investor conference call discussing the GPS cross-border payments acquisition at 4:30 p.m. ET on 20 June 2024, with the live webcast available through the Corpay investor relations website. The company released its supplemental investor presentation prior to the call, and made a replay available through 27 June 2024.
The transaction continues a busy 2024 of Corpay M&A activity. Corpay had announced its agreement to acquire Paymerang, a Richmond, Virginia-based accounts payable automation provider, in May 2024. Paymerang serves clients across education, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing verticals, and was described by Clarke at announcement as growing at over 20% within the corporate payments segment. Together with the GPS cross-border payments deal, Paymerang anchors Corpay’s 2024 expansion of its accounts payable and FX capabilities. Corpay also closed a majority investment in Brazilian vehicle payments company Zapay earlier in 2024, gaining access to Zapay’s two million monthly users and around nine million driver reach in Brazil. Corpay reported its second-quarter 2024 results in early August 2024 in line with the guidance reaffirmed alongside the GPS announcement.
This Corpay GPS Capital Markets deal sits alongside other transactions tracked in the corporate acquisitions category at FintechBits, with the wider corporate M&A cycle continuing through the European fintech recovery into Q1 2025.
