In a letter to prospective investors included in the filing, Mr Bisignano outlined the company's recent challenges of "continuous management change, a restructuring plan largely based on selling assets, $24.5 billion of debt and flat revenue growth the year before I joined" but added that the IPO will be part of a strategic transformation and an emphasis on enterprise services. "We have what so many innovators often lack - the ability to distribute to a large client base," wrote Mr Bisignano. As one of the largest processors in the payments industry, US-based First Data works with over six million merchants and, in 2014, handled more than 74 billion transactions globally, including 45% of US credit card transactions.

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