Paypoint : Announcement of sale of PayPoint's Mobile Payments business

23 December 2016Group news

PayPoint plc announces the sale of Mobile Payments to Volkswagen Financial Services AG for £26.5 million paid in cash at completion today. A dividend of the gross sale proceeds, which amounts to 38.9p per share, will be paid on 11 January 2017 to shareholders on the register on 6 January 2017.
This sale marks the conclusion of the restructuring set out in the announcement made in May 2015 and follows the sale of Online Payments in January this year. The mobile payments business is performing better than expected, with record transaction volumes and mobile app downloads driving growth in revenue. However, its sale is in line with PayPoint's strategy of narrowing our focus on multi-channel payments in territories in which we have retail networks.
The mobile payments business comprised PayByPhone Technologies Inc., PayByPhone Limited, Mobile Payment Services SAS and Adaptis Solutions Limited. The aggregate loss before tax of the mobile business was £2.6 million for the year ended 31 March 2016. The gross assets were £5.2 million at 30 September 2016. The business contracts with parking authorities to provide mobile phone payment of parking charges in the UK, USA, Canada, France and Switzerland. The net book value at completion was £2.3 million and there was an adverse balance on the exchange translation reserve of £2.0 million, in relation to the non-UK mobile payment subsidiaries.
Dominic Taylor, Chief Executive said: 'I am delighted to have found such a well suited company to acquire our PayByPhone business and take it forward. We wish the buyer and the employees of PayByPhone the best for the future. With the major restructuring completed in line with our strategy, we can now direct our entire focus on the development of our retail business, including the continued rollout of our new PayPoint One terminal and EPoS.'

Deloitte LLP acted as corporate finance adviser and Mills & Reeve LLP as legal adviser to PayPoint on the sale.

The information contained in this announcement includes inside information for the purposes of the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.596/2014

ABOUT PAYPOINT

PayPoint is an international leader in payment technologies, its solutions transforming payments for everyone from consumer and financial services companies to retailers, utilities, media, e-commerce, gaming and government clients.

PayPoint delivers payments and services by taking the complexity of multi-channel payments and translating it into convenient, simple, value-added solutions. It handles almost £10 billion from over 694 million transactions annually.

With the backing of 24/7 operations centres with dual site processing, PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in payment systems, smart technology and service.

Retail networks
The PayPoint retail network across the UK numbers over 28,200 local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express, One Stop, Asda, Londis and thousands of independents), where it processes energy meter pre-payments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences, cash withdrawals and a range of other transactions. In Romania, the retail network numbers 9,700 terminals in local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, over 500 terminals in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.

Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel, provides a parcel drop-off and pick-up service at 5,800 PayPoint retailers. PayPoint's ATM network numbers more than 4,000 'LINK' branded machines across the UK, and 10,000 PayPoint terminals enable retailers to accept credit and debit cards.