PayPoint (PAY) has sold its mobile payments business to Volkswagen Financial Services for £26.5m in cash, putting an end to its major restructuring project.
Shareholders will take a slice of the sale, with a dividend of the gross sale proceeds amounting 38.9p per share to be paid on 11 January.
The disposal marks the conclusion of the restructuring plan set out in May 2015 and follows the £14m sale of online payments to Capita division in January this year.
PayPoint said the mobile payments business, which handles more than 118 million payments for parking, payments and consumer services across UK, Canada, USA, France, Switzerland and Australia, was performing better than expected, with record transaction volumes and mobile app downloads driving growth in revenue.
“However, its sale is in line with PayPoint’s strategy of narrowing our focus on multi-channel payments in territories in which we have retail networks,” a statement added.
The mobile payments business comprised PayByPhone Technologies, PayByPhone, Mobile Payment Services and Adaptis Solutions. It made a pre-tax loss of £2.6m in the year to 31 March 2016.
PayPoint CEO Dominic Taylor said: “I am delighted to have found such a well-suited company to acquire our PayByPhone business and take it forward. We wish the buyer and the employees of PayByPhone the best for the future.
“With the major restructuring completed in line with our strategy, we can now direct our entire focus on the development of our retail business, including the continued rollout of our new PayPoint One terminal and EPoS.”
Shares in PayPoint are up 2% this lunch time to 964.5p on the back of the sale.
Deloitte acted as corporate finance adviser and Mills & Reeve as legal adviser to PayPoint on the sale.
Volkswagen Financial Services provides finance and insurance services to customers across the entire Volkswagen Group in the UK.
The PayPoint retail network across the UK numbers more than 28,200 local shops, including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express, One Stop, Asda, Londis and thousands of independents.
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