Global Payments' (GPN) planned acquisition of Worldpay and sale of its Issuer Solutions business may trigger distractions for management in the next 12 months to 18 months, spurring "risk" and "noise" for 2025 results, RBC Capital Markets said Friday in a report.

On April 17, Global Payments agreed to buy Worldpay from GTCR and Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) for $24.25 billion in cash and stock and sell its Issuer Solutions business to FIS for $13.5 billion.

"The complexities of absorbing Worldpay, while also undergoing its existing platform consolidation strategy, creates more noise and execution risk," RBC said. Global Payments' "path to a more simplified story has taken a wrong turn," the report said.

Investors may have to wait until 2027 for single-digit accretion to adjusted earnings, which makes Global Payments "less attractive to own in the near term," RBC said.

RBC downgraded Global Payments' stock to sector perform from outperform and cut its price target to $86 from $139.

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