H.I.G.’s Onyx CenterSource again goes on the block

H.I.G. Capital has put Onyx CenterSource, the Dallas provider of payment-processing and recovery services for hotels and travel distributors, up for sale again, according to three sources.

H.I.G. is seeking $750 million for Onyx, one of the sources said. This is more than double what the Miami PE firm was seeking for the company the last time it was up for sale.

Harris Williams is advising on the process, a second person said.

Founded in 1992, Onyx processes more than $1.2 billion in payments annually from more than 60,000 hotels and 200,000 travel booking providers.

H.I.G. put Onyx up for sale in 2016, seeking bids in the high $300 million range, Buyouts reported. That process apparently failed to produce a buyer.

H.I.G.’s investment in Onyx dates to April 2013. The PE firm at that time acquired Pegasus Financial Services, which processes commissions that hotels pay to travel agencies. Pegasus Solutions Inc was the seller.

In October 2014, Onyx acquired Net Trans Services of Norway and Worldwide Payment Systems of Spain. Onyx then bought eCommission Solutions LLC, a provider of revenue recovery, data management and business intelligence, roughly three years later in May 2017.

The company has changed its name a couple times. In 2013, after Pegasus Financial was sold to H.I.G., the PE firm changed it to Onyx Payments.

The company ended up retiring the names Onyx Payments, as well as Net Trans Services and Worldwide Payment Systems, in 2016 and relaunched under Onyx CenterSource as it sought to unify its brands.

H.I.G. recently sold another former Pegasus unit. In August, Rategain, a Noida, India, travel company, acquired DHISCO. DHISCO, which stands for Distribution Hospitality Intelligent Systems Co, is the former distribution division of Pegasus Solutions. H.I.G. acquired the Pegasus unit in 2015 and changed the name to DHISCO.

It’s unclear which fund H.I.G. used to invest in Onyx. The PE firm is out marketing for H.I.G. Advantage Buyout Fund LP, which invests in “less complex” mid-market companies, Buyouts previously reported.

The fund launched last year, targeting $2.25 billion. H.I.G. apparently increased the target; a July amended SEC filing said the fund was targeting $2.75 billion.

Executives for HIG, Onyx and Harris Williams could not be reached for comment.

Action Item: For more information, call Onyx CenterSource CEO Mark Dubrow at +1 214-396-3280