By Isla Binnie, Sabrina Valle and Milana Vinn
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Software provider Waystar, whose products are used by hospitals and doctors to manage payments, is exploring options including a potential sale that could return it to private hands two years after a stock market listing in New York, seven sources familiar with the matter said.
The Lehi, Utah, and Louisville, Kentucky-based company has hired investment bank Evercore to advise on the process, which is currently at an early stage,
two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information. Barclays is also advising Waystar on the process, another person familiar with the matter said. The plans could change and a sale may not materialize, they cautioned.
Waystar and Barclays declined to comment. Evercore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Waystar's shares rose more than 8% after the Reuters report.
This clawed back some of a slide which had shaved off nearly a quarter of its market value this year through Monday, amid a broader selloff in the software sector. After Tuesday's rise, the company is worth about $5.2 billion, based on Reuters calculations.
An auction process could gauge whether investor appetite for software businesses is returning.
Waystar sought to position itself as a healthcare software company, selling technology to automate and manage administrative work, rather than as a healthcare services business that relies more heavily on people to perform those tasks. The strategy aimed to win the higher valuations typically afforded to technology companies.
Investors initially embraced the story, helping drive the shares from $20 to a 2025 peak of $45, but the stock later came under pressure as investors grew concerned that advances in artificial intelligence could disrupt software companies, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report in July.
Waystar was formed in a 2017 merger between healthcare revenue management companies Zirmed and Navicure. Its biggest backers, buyout firm EQT, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and alternative investment firm Bain Capital, took it public in 2024.
EQT remains the company's largest shareholder with a 13% stake, followed by CPPIB with 10% and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company with 8%, according to LSEG data.
EQT declined to comment. CPPIB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. BlackRock declined to comment.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie, Sabrina Valle, and Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Echo Wang and Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama )
