(Information supplied from interest.co.nz)
Paymark’s bank shareholders have agreed to sell the electronics payments processor to French company Ingenico Group for NZ$190 million, pending Commerce Commission and Overseas Investment Office approval.
ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac each own 25% of Paymark meaning the sale will give them $47.5 million each.
Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Ingenico Group operates in 170 countries with its payment terminals used in New Zealand.
The Paymark sales process began two years ago in February 2016 when the owners commenced a strategic review of their shareholdings.
Paymark processes debit and credit card transactions through its switching infrastructure, with switching the process that connects a customer’s card used at a retailer’s payments terminal with the bank or other institution that issues them the card.
A statement released on Wednesday evening on behalf of ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac says the banks believe Ingenico will be a good owner for Paymark as it’s a payments specialist and will be able to bring a high degree of technical skill and innovation to the New Zealand company which has about 150 staff.
For the year to March 31 last year Paymark posted a $1.5 million, or 8%, rise in annual profit after tax to almost $21 million.
Opinion
The purchase of the Paymark network will undoubtedly lead to more Ingenico EFTPOS machines to be on the market. Their hardware shouldn’t change as much, just the availability, but we’ll make sure all our EFTPOS Paper Rolls fit their machines.