Thursday, Jun 28, 2012
By Marietta Cauchi
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Investcorp Thursday said that its portfolio company Skrill, formerly Moneybookers, has agreed to buy paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG, an Austrian provider of prepaid vouchers that enable consumers to shop online.
The Bahrain-based private equity company is buying 100% of paysafecard.com and said that the total payment for the acquisition is up to 140 million euros ($174.8 million).
Paysafecard provides a prepaid electronic payment method for people who want to pay online, but don't have access to a credit card or bank account, or don't wish to provide card details on the internet for security reasons. Cash is converted into electronic money in the form of eVouchers at any one of the 450,000 retail outlets linked to paysafecard.
"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," said Hazem Ben-Gacem, Managing Director at Investcorp and Non-Executive Chairman of Skrill.
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.
Write to Marietta Cauchi at marietta.cauchi@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
28-06-12 1256GMT
