Bwin.party grows B2B payments arm with PXP buy
Acquisition for undisclosed sum expands Kalixa payments business in move to grow external revenue stream
Bwin.party has announced the acquisition of UK-based card payments company PXP Solutions, a move which significantly accelerates the growth of its B2B payments arm.
The deal for an undisclosed sum is part of the operator’s plans to expand its Kalixa payments business and increase the proportion of revenue it generates from external sources.
Kalixa processed 2.5bn of transactions in 2013, just 8% of which derived from outside of bwin.party and the operator set a target to grow external revenues to 85% by 2017.
When combined with PXP Solutions, Kalixa will process a total transaction volume of more than 10bn a year. Both will continue to operate under their existing brand names.
PXP’s in-store payments technology is used by 8,000 merchants and retailers in 27 countries worldwide. It processes 3.6 million transactions per month.
Bwin.party formed Kalixa from bwin’s internal payments department last year and it now operates as a standalone subsidiary with its own management team.
It has started to pick up new business including Italian gaming company Sisal in September last year, and Goodbody gaming analyst Gavin Kelleher said today’s acquisition is a “step in the right direction” from bwin.party’s B2B payments arm.
“The group has highlighted for some time that within its non-core assets, Kalixa could potentially be an area that it could realise value from for shareholders,” he said.
“In addition, PXP appears to be involved solely in processing payments at the moment, but the opportunity for Kalixa is to increase its penetration into PXP customers to include the acquiring and issuing of payments.”
Earlier this year Playtech founder Teddy Sagi floated payments provider SafeCharge on London’s Alternative Investment Market in order to raise around $100m in new equity. SafeCharge is thought to process transactions worth 3.5bn each year.
Bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger said Kalixa is on-course to become a significant player in the digital payments arena and that the firm was working on further strategic initiatives that will “further enhance the future prospects for Kalixa and its value to the Group”.
“Today’s acquisition provides excellent cross-selling opportunities for both Kalixa and PXP and has created a payments business with a balanced portfolio of customers, sectors, and geographies across Europe starting to enter the US and APAC,” he said.