ISTANBUL- Turkish payment systems firm Papara has mandated Raiffeisen Bank to arrange a minority stake sale, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the agreement, with two saying offers worth at least $250 million had been received.
The sources, who requested anonymity as the matter is confidential, told Reuters that foreign fintech companies were interested in Papara, which provides online money transfers, foreig-exchange transactions and bill-payment services.
They did not reveal the size of the stake for sale.
Papara and Raiffeisen Bank both declined to comment.
One of the sources said Raiffeisen had received offers worth $250-300 million. A second source said an expected deal could be worth $250-350 million.
Papara was launched in 2016 and says it has about 7 million lira ($1 million) in capital. According to startup news website Webrazzi, it has four million users and has so far executed 100 billion lira in transactions.
The company has grown quickly and attracted interest from abroad, a third source said. "The sale process is still going on," the person added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed merger deals in Turkey's energy, infrastructure and other sectors. But, much like elsewhere in the world, activity has increased in the technology, telecoms and fin-tech sectors.
In June, San Francisco-based Zynga agreed to buy Turkish mobile-game maker Peak for $1.8 billion, Turkey's largest deal this year. Zynga also took 80% of another Turkish game-maker, Rollic, for $168 million.
Turkey Wealth Fund bought Swedish telecom company Telia's stake in mobile operator Turkcell for $530 million in a deal also announced in June.
(Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Pravin Char)
