CROX Crocs Inc

Blackstone Group LP is nearing a deal to pump more than $800 million into NCR Corp. after the ATM maker's effort to sell itself foundered.

The world's largest private-equity firm now plans to announce a deal as soon as Thursday to make the minority equity investment in NCR, people familiar with the matter said. NCR also plans to announce a $1 billion share buyback, some of the people said.

Blackstone is expected to receive convertible preferred shares that pay a dividend and two board seats in exchange for the investment, some of the people said.

The New York buyout firm will end up with an ownership stake in NCR exceeding 15%, they said. The preferred shares are convertible to regular stock at $30, they added. NCR stock closed Wednesday at $26.78, giving the Duluth, Ga., company a market value of $4.5 billion.

As always, it is possible the deal could fall apart at the last minute.

The expected agreement comes after Blackstone and other private-equity firms vied for a possible leveraged buyout of NCR, which carried more than $3 billion of debt as of September. That would have made it one of the largest recent LBOs, the pace of which has been slowed by regulatory and other headwinds.

NCR, founded in 1884, makes cash registers and other so-called point-of-sale devices in addition to cash machines. The company has struggled with lower demand as retail customers gravitate toward mobile-payment devices such as Apple Inc.'s Apple Pay. NCR stock has lost more than half its value from a 2007 high.

Blackstone is betting in part on a revival in NCR's software business, which powers kiosks that accept mobile payments and self-checkout lanes at many retailers, some of the people said.

The deal would be an example of a so-called private investment in public equity. Known as PIPEs, they are sometimes used as a fallback when a company strikes out on a full sale, and can serve as a source of cash to help facilitate strategic or other changes. In 2014, shoemaker Crocs Inc. took a $200 million investment from Blackstone after abandoning an effort to sell itself.

The Wall Street Journal reported in April that NCR was exploring strategic options including the spinoff or sale of assets or a return of cash to investors through a dividend or share buyback.

--Joann S. Lublin contributed to this article.

Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com and Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 11, 2015 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

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