28 Jun 2012
Skrill (formerly Moneybookers), the online payment company owned by Investcorp, today announced that it has agreed to acquire 100% of paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG, an Austrian provider of prepaid vouchers that enable consumers to shop online. The total consideration for the acquisition is up to €140 million.
paysafecard provides a prepaid electronic payment method. People who want to pay online, but do not have access to a credit card or bank account or do not wish to provide card details on the internet for security reasons, can visit one of the 450,000 retail outlets linked to paysafecard and convert their cash into electronic money in the form of eVouchers that they can use for online purchases. Skrill is already a leader in the global online payments business, and with this acquisition it is combining its digital wallet and online payments services with paysafecard’s extensive offline distribution network in 31 countries across Europe, North and South America.
Hazem Ben-Gacem, Managing Director at Investcorp and Non-Executive Chairman of Skrill, said: “At Skrill our aim is to offer innovative, online payments services to our millions of merchants and end-users. The paysafecard acquisition establishes Skrill as a complete alternative payments platform, addressing both on and off-line channels, and offering merchants and end-users much greater flexibility in making and receiving payments. The two companies’ combined functionality will allow millions of people who are under-banked to benefit from Skrill’s payment services, and therefore enjoy the many advantages of online shopping. Both businesses have grown around 50% per annum over the last few years and we are confident that the combined company will continue to expand rapidly in this fast-growing online payment space”.
The combined group will have over 27 million end-users, almost 130,000 merchant customers and over 100 different payment options in more than 40 currencies.
The acquisition of paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG and the indirect acquisition of regulated subsidiary paysafecard.com Wertkarten Vertriebs GmbH and Prepaid Services Company Limited is subject to the approval of both the Austrian Finanzmarktaufsichtsbehörde (FMA) and the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA). The acquisition is also subject to merger control approvals.
Jefferies International Ltd acted as Skrill’s exclusive financial advisor on this transaction.