BY Richard Summerfield
Corporate payments group Corpay Inc has agreed to acquire British financial services provider Alpha Group in a $2.2bn all-cash deal.
Under the terms of the deal, Alpha shareholders will receive £42.50 per share, representing a 55 percent premium to Alpha’s undisturbed closing share price on 1 May 2025. The terms of the acquisition value the entire issued and to-be-issued ordinary share capital of Alpha at approximately $2.4bn. The acquisition is to be affected by means of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under part 26 of the UK Companies Act 2006.
Alpha’s board intends to unanimously and unconditionally recommend that its shareholders vote in favour of the scheme at the court and general meetings. Morgan Tillbrook, Alpha founder and former chief executive and a significant shareholder, has signed an irrevocable undertaking in support of the transaction as well. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and standard closing conditions. The deal is to be funded through a combination of cash, debt, bank capital optimisation and non-core divestitures.
“We couldn’t be happier to acquire Alpha,” said Ron Clarke, chairman and chief executive of Corpay. “This transaction meaningfully expands our relationships with investment managers and results in four Cross Border customer segments: corporates, financial institutions, investment funds and digital currency providers.
“We’re acquiring Alpha for three reasons,” he continued. “First, it’s a large, highly complementary, fast-growing corporate payments asset with good prospects. Second, Alpha is a leading provider of alternative bank accounts to European-based investment managers. There is significant runway to expand those investment manager relationships into the US and Asia with our help. The banking account product and Alpha’s technology extend our Cross Border solution set and further diversify our revenue streams. And third, we expect the acquisition to be meaningfully EPS accretive in 2026.”
“We’re delighted to consummate this transaction with Corpay,“ said Clive Kahn, chief executive of Alpha Group. “Corpay’s position as the leading non-bank provider of B2B cross border solutions is the perfect home for our people and will broaden their career prospects over time. Additionally, Corpay’s global footprint, licenses, bank relationships, technology, and balance sheet will accelerate our growth momentum, particularly in our institutional investor business.”
Corpay said the acquisition will boost its cross-border payments strategy by combining Alpha’s advisory-led European foreign exchange and private markets business with its own scale and platform. The company expects the deal to be accretive to cash earnings per share by at least $0.50 in 2026 and to generate significant revenue and cost synergies.
News: Payments firm Corpay signs $2.2 billion deal for UK's Alpha Group