By Echo Wang and Milana Vinn
NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc and Warburg Pincus are exploring a sale of IntraFi that could value the financial technology company at more than $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The private equity firms have hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Securities to advise IntraFi on the sale process, which is in its early stages, said the people, who requested anonymity speaking about matters that are not public.
No final decision has been
made and Blackstone and Warburg could opt to hold onto the business, the people added.
Blackstone and IntraFi declined to comment. Guggenheim, Morgan Stanley and Warburg Pincus did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Arlington, Virginia-based IntraFi operates what it describes as the largest reciprocal deposit network in the United States, helping banks spread customers' money across multiple banks to provide federal deposit insurance on balances exceeding $250,000.
The company's network also allows banks to buy and sell deposits. Banks with excess deposits can sell them to banks that need funding, with IntraFi earning fees from the transactions.
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 made customers more selective about where they kept their money, intensifying competition among banks for deposits.
Founded in 2002 by three former bank regulators, IntraFi was acquired by Blackstone in 2019 from a group of backers that included Bank of New York Mellon, when the company was known as Promontory Interfinancial Network. Warburg Pincus invested in the business in 2022. IntraFi generates $630 million in annual EBITDA, the sources said.
The sale process comes as private equity firms seek to capitalize on improving dealmaking conditions. Warburg Pincus recently agreed to sell McGill and Partners and WildFire Energy, while Blackstone this month agreed to sell Clarion Events to Informa for about 2.2 billion pounds.
The two firms previously explored a sale of IntraFi, Bloomberg News reported in 2024.
(Reporting by Echo Wang and Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
