SOUTH PORTLAND – Credit-card processing company Wright Express Corp. said it would hold a news conference Thursday to announce “important news about the company’s future.”
Wright Express Chairman, President and Chief Executive Michael Dubyak will make remarks and answer questions related to the announcement. The news conference will be held in front of the entrance of Wright Express’ headquarters in South Portland.
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The company said the announcement was not related to the potential move of its headquarters, but did not elaborate.
Wright Express previously said it had hired commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to help it explore options for its facilities. It had said it was pleased that existing and new facilities in the Portland area provided it with opportunities to maintain its headquarters in Maine.
Wright Express, which is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 31, has about 900 employees, 622 of them in Maine.
The company processes credit-card transactions and fuel purchases for fleets of corporate and government vehicles, and has been growing quickly through acquisitions to expand its range of products and industries, and its international presence.
Its stock has jumped about 74 percent in the past 12 months.
Wright Express made a series of recent acquisitions, including a $369 million deal earlier this month to buy fuel-card company Fleet One from private-equity firms.
Other recent deals include buying 51 percent of UNIK SA, a Brazilian provider of payroll cards, for about $21.9 million, as well as acquiring CorporatePay, a London-based provider of corporate prepaid cards for the travel industry, for about $27.5 million in cash. The company also acquired Wright Express Australia in 2010 and rapid! PayCard last year.
Wright Express normally announces acquisitions via news releases.
The company has been evaluating options for its offices. Local real estate and city government sources previously said that one location Wright Express was looking at was The Forefront at Thompson’s Point, a $105 million hotel, office and arena complex to be built in Portland.
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