July 15 (Reuters) -

Activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management has built

a sizable stake in Global Payments ( GPN ), less than three

months after the financial technology company inked one of the

year's biggest acquisitions for payment processing company

Worldpay, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The size of Elliott's stake and what the hedge fund may

want the company to change could not be learned.

A representative for Global Payments ( GPN ) did not immediately

respond to a request for comment while a representative for

Elliott declined to comment.

Elliott, one of the world's biggest activist investors,

swooped on Global Payments ( GPN )

as the company seeks to concentrate solely on processing

payments for businesses.

Atlanta-headquartered Global Payments ( GPN ) paid $24.3 billion

in a three-way deal to buy Worldpay from FIS and private

equity firm GTCR while selling its issuer solutions unit, which

offers card processing and account services, to FIS.

Global Payments' ( GPN ) stock jumped 5.4% in after-hours

trading on news Elliott now owns a stake, first reported on

Tuesday by the Financial Times.

The jump comes after investors reacted negatively in

April to the acquisition, briefly pushing the stock price down

20% to its lowest level in a decade. It has recovered some

ground since then, leaving the company with a market value of

$19 billion.

Investors punished the company for the takeover after

management had previously promised to focus on divestments and

returning cash to shareholders.

The deal does not require a shareholder vote, which will

prevent Elliott from trying to block the deal altogether.

Over the last years, Elliott, with nearly $73 billion in

assets, has become known as the world's most formidable

corporate agitator, taking on brand name companies including

Southwest Airlines ( LUV ), Honeywell ( HON ), BP and

Phillips 66.

In the first half of 2025, Elliott deployed nearly $9

billion in activist campaigns and won seven board seats at

companies including

Charles River

and

Phillips 66

.