Deal of the Month April: Payzone acquired for €100 million

AIB and First Data will acquire a majority stake in the company from Carlyle Cardinal Ireland.

AIB and First Data have joined together to acquire payments company Payzone in a deal estimated to be worth €100 million. The two companies will acquire a majority stake in the company. The Payzone management team have held on to 4% of the business but AIB says a plan is in place to acquire that stake at a later date.

Payzone – the largest payments network in the country

Payzone,which processes mobile phone and travel card top-ups, debit and credit card transactions, motorway toll payments as well as pre-paid utility, parking payments and parcel collection services, has 7,000 retailers and 300,000 users. The company processes 125 million transactions annually for over 100 client companies and operates Ireland’s largest retail payments network with 11,500+ points of sale throughout the country.

Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI), the private equity fund established by The Carlyle Group and Cardinal Capital Group, acquired a majority shareholding in Payzone in March 2015 for €39 million. CCI worked with the management team to diversify the business and develop the company into a multichannel payments provider, employing 90 people.

The future of Payzone

Following the takeover the company will still be led by current chief executive Jim Deignan and chief financial officer Nigel Bell who will both remain as shareholders in the business. Speaking about the acquisition, Jim Deignan said,

We see significant opportunity to grow our footprint in the fintech sector and this can only be enhanced further with the backing and support of our new shareholders, who bring deep industry expertise to make things happen.

CCI representatives Peter Garvey and Robert Easton of The Carlyle Group and Daragh Lane of Cardinal Capital Group will step down from the Payzone Board on completion of the transaction.