10:14 AM EDT, 03/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Nuvei Corp. ( NVEI ) announced overnight Sunday that it is aware of recent media reports speculating as to a potential going-private transaction involving the company.

This comes after Reuters on Saturday cited a source familiar with the matter as saying private equity firm Advent International is in advanced talks to buy Nuvei ( NVEI ), a Canadian payments technology company that has received financial backing from actor Ryan Reynolds. The Wall Street Journal first reported about Advent's talks with Nuvei ( NVEI ).

The company confirmed that its board has set up a special committee of independent directors to evaluate and consider, in consultation with the special committee's and the company's respective financial and legal advisers, expressions of interest received by the company and any other strategic alternatives.

Additionally, Nuvei ( NVEI ) said it is engaged in talks with certain third parties in connection with a potential transaction involving continued significant ownership by certain of the holders of multiple voting shares, including Phil Fayer, Nuvei's ( NVEI ) founder, chair, and chief executive officer.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets on March 17 noted that the timing of a possible discussion with private equity "made sense" as the stock was down near 17% year to date and near 46% over the past 12 months.

This came before Nuvei ( NVEI ) had responded to press reports and the details were very slim, with the WSJ reporting in an unconfirmed article.

Also, RBC noted that following a difficult second quarter of 2023, which brought the stock down materially given a weaker second half of 2023 guidance, the company has been slowly rebuilding investor trust over the past two quarters.

RBC believes the company has set guidance expectations appropriately for 2024. "RBC noted no price talk was floated in the article, but with the shares trading at near 8.4 times FY24 estimated EV/EBITDA and 2.5 times net debt to TTM EBITDA, RBC believes there are multiple options for Private Equity to pay a premium to Friday's closing price," the analysts said.

Nuvei's ( NVEI ) stock, which fell 2.8% in Canada on Friday, soared over 25% on last look on Monday. The stock was up over 26% in US trading on Monday.

Price: 36.95, Change: +7.47, Percent Change: +25.34