(Reuters) - Shares of EVO Payments Inc (O:EVOP) rose as much as 26 percent in their debut on Wednesday, giving the company a market valuation of $1.54 billion.
EVO's shares opened at $20.05, above their initial public offering price of $16.
The offering of 14 million Class A shares by EVO Payments and selling stockholders raised $224 million, after being priced at the upper-end of its projected range.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based company facilitates payments by linking stores to customers' bank accounts and has operations in 50 markets worldwide including the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.
EVO said in its IPO filing that it competes with independent merchant acquirers and payment processors including First Data, Global Payments, Vantiv and TSYS.
The company intends to use proceeds from the IPO for buying a 19.8 percent economic interest in parent company EVO Investco LLC, through which the firm will operate and control all of the business and affairs of the parent.
EVO Payments, which collects fees primarily from the number and value of transactions processed, said revenue for full-year 2017 rose 20.4 percent to $504.7 million from a year earlier. The company recorded a loss of $32.3 million compared with a profit of $57.5 million in 2016.
J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup (NYSE:C), Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) Securities and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey are lead underwriters to the offering.