11th Sep 2014 07:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC said Thursday that its wholly-owned payment processing business, Kalixa, has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Latin America and Africa-focused telecommunications and media company, Millicom.
The FTSE 250-listed online gaming company said the payments service provider has established the joint venture to develop a payments service provider for Africa and Latin America and comes just three months after Kalixa acquired the PXP Solutions card payment processing business.
At the time of the acquisition in May, Bwin said the acquisition of Hertfordshire-based PXP was an important step in the acceleration of its three-year growth plan for Kalixa. The firm said integrating PXP would significantly grow the size of Kalixa's payment processing volume and is 2expected to generate substantial revenue synergies in the areas of credit and debit card acquisition and issuance."
Operations are set to begin in Colombia and Brazil later this year with Kalixa and Millicom each making an initial investment of USD4 million into the project. In its initial phase, the joint venture will provide an end-to-end service for ecommerce providers.
Both companies will also appoint two directors each to the board of the joint venture.
Payment acceptance services will be offered by the joint venture for both businesses and consumers, including payment gateway and point of sale solutions for merchants as well as a one-click payment and eWallet provision for online customers, said Bwin, with the end-to-end payment service set to offer cross-platform, multi-device options.
Millicom's existing reach across Africa and Latin America through its high-profile 'Tigo' infrastructures in 14 countries and its online partnerships in 33 countries will support the joint venture. Tigo provides digital services including mobile communications, pay TV and platforms offering entertainment, mobile money, internet and broadband.
Bwin said the joint venture will also draw on Kalixa's experience of providing a range of payment services, including issuing, acquiring and acceptance services across markets. Kalixa is Bwin's payment processing business; the company separated from the platform last year to concentrate more resources on building out its gaming operations.
"This joint venture is part of our three-year plan to grow the Kalixa group and leverage its strong technology and payment processing capabilities to increase shareholder value. As developing markets, Latin America and Africa represent a combined $1.78 trillion opportunity for the payments industry," said ED Chandler, chief executive of Kalixa.
Shares in Bwin.party Digital Entertainment were Thursday trading 1.83% higher at 94.45 pence per share.
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
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