LI company TransFirst weighs IPO, report shows

TransFirst, a Hauppauge-based payment processing company, is exploring going public, according to a report from online financial publication peHUB.

The report, which cites sources in the banking industry, said TransFirst would probably go public in 2015 and has not hired an investment bank. TransFirst is owned by Manhattan-based private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The firm purchased TransFirst in 2007 for $683 million.

A spokeswoman for TransFirst declined to comment on the report.

TransFirst employs about 50 people at its Long Island headquarters and has more than 1,000 employees overall. The bulk of its operations are in Colorado, the spokeswoman said.

A Moody's Investor Services report on TransFirst in December said the company's revenue was $232 million for the year ended Sept. 30.

Long Island has in recent years seen an ebb of public companies as they move away or are bought, and there have been few IPOs to add new public companies. In the last month, software maker CA Technologies moved its headquarters from Islandia to Manhattan and Plainview-based aerospace manufacturer Aeroflex Holding Corp., which manufactures aerospace parts, was bought by a British company.