ANZ New Zealand says it's selling EFTPOS New Zealand - one of two providers of the EFTPOS electronic payment system alongside Paymark Ltd - to US company VeriFone Systems, which is also acquiring New Zealand's Sektor Payments.
Founded as EFTPOS Rentals by Peter Marshall and Mark Thomson in 1994, the company changed its name to EFTPOS New Zealand in 1996 and was acquired by ANZ in 2000. Its last accounts filed with the Companies Office show profit after tax of NZ$6.7 million in the year to September 30, 2010, down from NZ$8.4 million the previous year.
EFTPOS NZ provides card payment services, including terminal supply, point of sale switching, and merchant acquiring on behalf of ANZ for about 40,000 New Zealand customers. After its sale ANZ says EFTPOS NZ will continue providing terminal supply and point of sale switching services, but acquiring services will be provided by ANZ as “ANZ Merchant Business Solutions”.
Alongside ASB, BNZ and Westpac, ANZ retains a 25% ownership stake in Paymark, which processes around 75% of New Zealand's electronic transactions. EFTPOS NZ has about 160 staff, and ANZ says there'll be roles for all permanent staff at the completion of the sale.
“In recent years ANZ NZ has embarked on a simplification strategy focusing on our core business," said Fred Ohlsson, ANZ NZ's managing director of business banking.
While the merchant acquiring business is part of our core bank offering, the terminals and point of sale switching businesses are an increasingly specialist technology business and it makes sense for it to be owned by VeriFone.”
ANZ says the transaction isn't material to it and the terms of the sale aren't being disclosed.
Meanwhile, the San Jose, California based and New York Stock Exchange listed VeriFone says it has also struck a deal with New Zealand's Sektor Group to acquire its Sektor Payments operation. VeriFone says EFTPOS NZ will continue operating under its current branding. Sektor Payments is to operate as VeriFone New Zealand, and will be the exclusive VeriFone distributor in New Zealand.
VeriFone describes itself as a global supplier of payment services, operating in about 110 countries with about 5,000 staff.
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