Optimal Payments may be moving to strengthen its position as the leading transaction company for online gambling sites through a purchase of Skrill.
Reports say the company is preparing a €1.1 billion bid for its competitor. Optimal Payments runs Neteller.
According to reports, Optimal Payments would fund the purchase with a €700 million cash offer, financed by a group of banks including Barclays, Montreal Bank and Deutsche Bank. The rest would be funded by the distribution of 37.5 million new shares, 23 percent of which would be distributed to investors Sentinel Group Holdings who would take a 7.9% stake in the new company
Skrill recorded corporate profits of $89 million in 2014. Optimal hopes to have the acquisition completed by the third quarter of this year.
“We are taking advantage of an exceptional opportunity to acquire a business we know very well which, combined with Optimal Payments, will be a leading UK based online payments business with the essential scale necessary to be highly successful,” Dennis Jones, Optimal’s chairman, said in a press release. “These opportunities are few and far between. The board believes this transformational transaction will be earnings accretive for shareholders from the first full fiscal year of ownership, will further diversify our client base and, additionally, will enable us to deliver enhanced services to existing and prospective merchants and customers in all of our global markets.”
In another announcement, Optimal Payments said it will now allow customers to use Bitcoin in their Neteller accounts. The company has entered into an agreement with BitPay Inc., one of the world’s largest Bitcoin payment providers and processors, the company said in a press release.
“Neteller already provides merchants and customers a broad and diverse set of online payment options and the addition of Bitcoin gives them another valuable payment method to help convert more transactions” said Joel Leonoff, president and CEO of Optimal Payments. “We recognize the important role that crypto-currencies play in the future of payments and we look forward to working with BitPay as the acceptance rate grows.”
