Complete Merchant Solutions Announces Investment Led by GCP Capital Partners

NEW YORK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

A group of investors including GCP Capital Partners, Western Heritage Capital, and Performance Equity Management have acquired a significant stake in Complete Merchant Solutions ("CMS"), a leading provider of merchant acquisition services, credit card/debit card transaction processing services, and payment solutions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Orem, Utah, CMS was founded in 2008 by President David Decker, Chief Operating Officer Trever Hansen and Chief Information Officer Kyle Hall, and the three founders will retain a substantial stake in the business. CMS is able to leverage its in-house risk management capabilities to work closely with merchants to meet their unique processing needs. CMS has also developed several technology solutions and has partnered with many independent software vendors to provide integrated payments solutions to merchants. As a result, CMS has experienced strong growth in merchants served and processing volumes, and the Company currently processes over $2 billion of volume annually.

"We are thrilled to have attracted such experienced investors to further accelerate our growth," said Dave Decker. "It was important to find the right partners as we focus on providing our merchants leading technology solutions that deliver affordable, reliable and secure processing."

"We've had success investing in the merchant processing industry as one of the initial institutional investors in Heartland Payment Systems HPY. We are very excited to be partnering with Dave, Trever, and Kyle, and we believe CMS' highly differentiated business model offers a compelling value proposition to merchants," said Robert Niehaus, Chairman and Founder of GCP Capital Partners.

"Western Heritage has known all the parties involved for many years," said David Glenn, founder of Western Heritage. "Given CMS' robust merchant acquiring platform and strong growth in integrated payments, we are confident that this partnership will help CMS expand on its track record of growth."

About Complete Merchant Solutions

Complete Merchant Solutions is a full-service electronic payments solutions provider for over 3,500 merchants. CMS facilitates electronic payment processing for all major credit and debit cards, gift and loyalty cards, ACH, remote deposit capture as well as other non-cash payment methods. CMS' innovative, customizable solutions include a wide variety of integrated point-of-sale software, terminals and machines, e-commerce and wireless payment processing solutions. CMS was founded in 2008 and is based in Orem, Utah.

About GCP Capital Partners

GCP Capital Partners manages the Greenhill Capital Partners private equity funds totaling $1.6 billion in committed capital. GCP has a successful track record investing $1.3 billion in over 55 portfolio companies. GCP's managing directors have over 100 years of combined private equity experience and have substantial personal capital invested in the funds. GCP has made both control and growth equity investments in a number of industries, including financial services and insurance, business services, and energy. GCP Capital Partners is the successor to Greenhill Capital Partners, the merchant banking business of Greenhill & Co., Inc. GHL which the principals formed in 2000. For more information about GCP Capital Partners, please visit www.gcpcapital.com.

About Western Heritage Capital

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and founded by David W. Glenn, a former senior partner of Cerberus Capital Management and Lightyear Capital, Western Heritage Capital, LLC focuses on doing business with small and medium-sized companies operating within the broader Mountain West region of the United States. For more information about Western Heritage Capital, please visit www.westernheritagecap.com

About Performance Equity Management

Performance Equity Management ("PEM") is a global private equity manager with a team of partners who average nearly 20 years of private equity experience. PEM's capabilities extend across strategies, including direct portfolio company investments, fund investments, and secondary transactions, and its investment strategies include both broad-focused separate account management and single-strategy commingled vehicles, reaching across the private equity spectrum. For more information about Portfolio Equity Management, please visit www.peqm.com.

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