CAIXABANK, S.A. CaixaBank, Spain's largest bank by market share, Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN), a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services, and Erste Group Bank AG, a leading financial services provider in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), announced today an agreement to form a joint venture to provide merchant acquiring and payment services in three core locations in Central and Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
Global Payments and CaixaBank will pay €30 million in cash to acquire a 51 percent majority ownership in the venture. Erste Group will contribute its existing merchant acquiring businesses in each of the three countries to the joint venture and will hold a 49 percent interest. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2016, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
CaixaBank is a leader in technological innovation worldwide and has pioneered new payment systems, while it is also a strategic partner of Global Payments in Spain and Brazil, and of Erste in Central and Eastern Europe. It has a total of 14 million cards in circulation and a market share of 22.73%. It was the first bank in Spain to introduce contactless payment technology, with more than 4 million contactless cards now in circulation and over 200,000 contactless-ready POS.
Erste Group Bank, headquartered in Vienna, is one of the largest financial institutions in the eastern part of the EU. Ever since its foundation in 1819 as Central Europe's first savings bank, Erste Group has been pursuing a business strategy focused upon the real economy. Erste Group has a large consumer banking footprint with more than 2,800 branches in 7 countries and 16.2 million clients.
Expanding CaixaBank's international footprint
"This joint venture will see CaixaBank fortify its international presence by harnessing two of its biggest strengths: its capacity for technological innovation, for which it has earned global renown, and collaboration with international partners such as Global Payments and Erste Group Bank", said Gonzalo Gortázar, Chief Executive Officer of CaixaBank.
"We are pleased to enter into this partnership with CaixaBank and Erste Group," said Jeff Sloan, Chief Executive Officer of Global Payments. "The joint venture will allow us to significantly expand our direct distribution footprint in Europe with leading financial partners, catalyze our capabilities to service multinational customers across the common European payments area and leverage our global product and service offering to Erste Group Bank's merchants. The partnership positions our European business for accelerated growth at a favorable time in Europe."
"Our clients expect from their acquiring bank innovative technology, better service availability, reduced transaction costs and top class information management. By joining forces with two strong expert companies in this field we will increase the focus on our acquiring business and further upgrade the quality service that we provide to merchants across Central and Eastern Europe. The deal represents an important step for Erste Group in CEE and we expect it to lead to further growth in our payments business," commented Peter Bosek, Erste Group Board Member responsible for retail banking.
About Global Payments
Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services that delivers innovative solutions driven by customer needs globally. Our partnerships, technologies and employee expertise enable us to provide a broad range of products and services that allow our customers to accept all payment types across a variety of distribution channels in many markets around the world.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with more than 4,300 employees worldwide, Global Payments is a Fortune 1000 Company with merchants and partners in 29 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil. For more information about Global Payments, our Service. Driven. Commerce brand and our technologies, please visit www.globalpaymentsinc.com.
About CaixaBank
CaixaBank is Spain's leading bank by market share, and operates in retail banking and insurance. It also holds an international banking portfolio and is firmly committed to growth. The bank, overseen by Chairman Isidro Fainé and CEO Juan María Nin, serves 14 million customers and operates a network of 5,438 branches. It is the market leader in consumer banking thanks to its robust commercial footprint, risk-appropriate management, foresight and consistent innovation.
Considered a global leader in innovation, CaixaBank has pioneered new payment methods. It was named the World's Most Innovative Bank in 2013 and 2014 at the Euromoney Awards, and recently won the Innovative Spirit in Banking accolade at the 2014 Global Banking Innovation Awards,organised by the Bank Administration Institute and Finacle.
In addition, CaixaBank leads in online banking, where it has 4.5 million customers, and mobile banking with 2.5 million active customers. The bank also has 70 applications available, which have been downloaded more than 11 million times.
About Erste Group Bank
Erste Group is the leading financial services provider in the Eastern part of the European Union (EU). Around 46,000 employees serve 16.2 million clients in 2,700 branches in 7 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia). It has over 11 million active payment cards in use across Austria and Central and Eastern Europe and it recorded a four times increase in the number of contactless transactions processed in 2014 compared to the previous year, up to 123 million transactions. As of Q1 2015 Erste Group posts a net profit of EUR 225.8 million and total assets of EUR 202.6 billion. The core tier-1 ratio (Basel III phased-in) stood at 10.5%.
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