March 2015: Mike Maloney, CEO, Payzone

Pictured: Mike Maloney, CEO, Payzone (Business Person of the Month for March 2015 in association with AIB Private Banking).

On March 9th, Carlyle Cardinal Ireland agreed terms to acquire Payzone, valuing the payments network at an estimated €40m.

Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI), the Irish private equity fund founded by The Carlyle Group and Cardinal Capital Group recently announced that it had agreed to acquire Payzone Ireland, the largest provider of multi-channel consumer payments across Ireland.

The change in ownership will have no impact on the day-to-day business operations of Payzone in Ireland and the senior management team, including Mike Maloney, CEO, Jim Deignan, managing director and Nigel Bell, CFO will remain in their roles.

With 11,800 points of sale across 7,000 agents, Payzone Ireland has one of the largest physical retail payments networks in Ireland. It is estimated that 97% of all consumers in Ireland are within a quarter of a mile of a Payzone agent.

In addition, Payzone is at the forefront of developing the e-payments industry in Ireland and processes more than one million transactions per week in retail, online and mobile phone payments. Its recent focus has been in the areas of transport, utilities and financial services, where consumers are increasingly using electronic payments.

Peter Garvey, director of Carlyle said: “As well as being a prominent and reputable brand in Ireland, Payzone is a high quality business with a great management team who have helped grow and diversify the business in recent years. CCI’s extensive experience in backing consumer and financial services businesses means that we are well-placed to work with Payzone’s leadership to continue their growth journey in the coming years.”

Charlie Troup, partner at Duke Street and majority shareholder in the Payzone Group, added: “We are proud to have worked with Payzone’s talented management team through the journey of de-listing a public company in 2010, restructuring the group and its balance sheet, growing and selling its Cashzone ATM operations, while strengthening the market position of the remaining Payzone businesses. This hard work has delivered an attractive business with significant further growth potential. We see CCI as well qualified to back management for the next phase of growth.”

Equity for the investment will come from CCI, a €292m Irish private equity fund focused on growth capital and buyout investment opportunities across Ireland whose investors include the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and Enterprise Ireland. The fund has also made investments in the Kildare-based premium chocolate manufacturer Lily O’Brien’s, and General Secure Logistics Services (GSLS), an Irish cash management solutions provider.