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EML Payments (ASX:EML) acquires Sentenial, enters open banking market in Europe

Technology
ASX:EML      MCAP $371.1M
07 April 2021 10:30 (AEST)
EML Payments (ASX:EML) - CEO & Managing Director, Tom Cregan

Source: EML Payments

EML Payments (EML) has entered into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Sentenial and its open banking product, Nuapay.

EML provides an innovative payment solutions platform to businesses all over the world. Its latest acquisition, Sentenial, offers open banking and account-to-account payments to major banking customers across the U.K. and Europe.

Through the agreement, EML will take over the European payment provider for an upfront enterprise value of €70 million (A$108.6 million) plus an earn-out component of up to €40 million (A$62.1 million).

The deal is slated to broaden EML’s payment offerings by incorporating alternate products into its platform, such as non-card and non-scheme payments, to address customer demand.

Further, the company says combining its platform with Nuapay presents an opportunity to deepen EML’s customer relationships, enter new industry vehicles and diversify its revenue streams.

EML Payments Managing Director and Group CEO Tom Cregan said the company has transitioned over several years from primarily being a gift-card company to having a diverse revenue base across multiple prepaid products.

“The acquisition of Sentenial will be the next evolution for EML, as we transition into a broader payments business by adding instant account-to-account payments into our suite of solutions for current and prospective customers,” Tom said.

Sentenial Founder and CEO Sean Fitzgerald also commented on the deal.

“The revolution in payments caused by open banking and real-time payments is rapidly building momentum globally and we are hugely excited by this opportunity to move to a global scale as part of EML,” Sean said.

“Joining EML and becoming listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as a result of this transaction is an exciting step for our organisation, which will help us rapidly scale and deliver a broader and more complete set of solutions to our clients and partners.”

EML will work on extending Sentential’s European platform to its other regions in the coming 12 to 18 months.

Following the acquisition, the company expects to process in excess of $90 billion annually.

EML Payments shares are in the grey, trading at $5.14 each at 10:04 am AEST.

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