Erste Group and Global Payments together with CaixaBank form joint venture in CEE to provide merchant payments services

Erste Group and Global Payments together with CaixaBank form joint venture in CEE to provide merchant payments services (press release):

Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) announces it has entered into an agreement with Global Payments Inc., a leading worldwide provider of payment technology solutions, to establish a joint venture providing merchant acquiring and payment processing services to retailers in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. Upon completion of the transaction and pending regulatory approvals, Erste Group will sell 51% of its merchant acquiring businesses in the three countries for EUR 29.94 million to Global Payments, resulting in a joint venture where Erste Group will hold a 49% stake.

Furthermore, the two companies have signed an agreement with CaixaBank, the largest retail bank in Spain and one of Erste Group’s key shareholders, whereby CaixaBank will hold a stake in the joint venture based on its existing strategic partnership with Global Payments Inc.

On the occasion of the framework agreement sealing, the officials of the companies commented:

“Our clients expect from their acquiring bank innovative technology, better service availability, reduced transaction costs and top class information management. By joining forces with two strong expert companies in this field we will increase the focus on our acquiring business and further upgrade the quality service that we provide to merchants across CEE. The deal represents an important step for Erste Group in CEE and we expect it to lead to further growth in our payments business”, said Peter Bosek, Erste Group Board Member responsible for retail business.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with CaixaBank and Erste Group,” said Jeff Sloan, Chief Executive Officer of Global Payments.“The joint venture will allow us to significantly expand our direct distribution footprint in Europe with leading financial partners, catalyze our capabilities to service multinational customers across the common European payments area and leverage our global product and service offering to Erste Group Bank’s merchants. The partnership positions our European business for accelerated growth at a favourable time in Europe.”

“This joint venture will see CaixaBank fortify its international presence by harnessing two of its biggest strengths: its capacity for technological innovation, for which it has earned global renown, and collaboration with international partners such as Global Payments and Erste Group Bank“, said Gonzalo Gortázar, Chief Executive Officer of CaixaBank.

The transaction is expected to close during Q4 2015. The joint venture will locate its headquarters in Prague, the Czech Republic and have sales offices all across the region.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services that delivers innovative solutions driven by customer needs globally. Our partnerships, technologies and employee expertise enable us to provide a broad range of products and services that allow our customers to accept all payment types across a variety of distribution channels in many markets around the world.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with more than 4,300 employees worldwide, Global Payments is a Fortune 1000 Company with merchants and partners in 29 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil. For more information about Global Payments, our Service. Driven. Commerce brand and our technologies, please visit www.globalpaymentsinc.com.

About CaixaBank

CaixaBank is Spain’s leading bank by market share and among the 10 largest banks in the Eurozone by market capitalisation. CaixaBank’s activities span Spanish retail banking and insurance, an international banking portfolio and industrial and real estate assets. Its origins can be traced back over 100 years. It is majority owned by “la Caixa” Banking Foundation. CaixaBank, with Isidro Fainé as Chairman and Gonzalo Gortázar as CEO, has the largest client base in Spain (14 million clients by March 2015); €293 billion in client funds, and €212 billion in client loans. It has the largest footprint in Spain with 5,438 branches and the widest network of ATMs at 9,683.

In Spain, CaixaBank has more than 14 million cards in circulation and a market share of 22.7%. CaixaBank was the first bank in Spain to introduce contactless payment technology, with more than 4 million contactless cards now in circulation and over 200,000 contactless-ready POS. [The bank has a 25.8% market share in the merchant services segment.]

In addition to its strong foothold, CaixaBank leads in online banking, where it has 4.5 million active customers, and mobile banking with 2.5 million active customers, accounting for 22% of all mobile banking transactions. The bank also has 70 applications available, which have been downloaded more than 11 million times.

About Erste Group Bank

Erste Group is the leading financial services provider in the Eastern part of the European Union (EU). Around 46,000 employees serve 16.2 million clients in 2,700 branches in 7 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia). It has over 11 million active payment cards in use across Austria and Central and Eastern Europe and it recorded a four times increase in the number of contactless transactions processed in 2014 compared to the previous year, up to 123 million transactions. As of Q1 2015 Erste Group posts a net profit of EUR 225.8 million and total assets of EUR 202.6 billion. The core tier-1 ratio (Basel III phased-in) stood at 10.5%.