Monitise takes full ownership of Asia Pacific JV

17 October 2013

Monitise takes full ownership of its Asia Pacific joint venture

LONDON - Monitise plc (LSE: MONI) ("Monitise", the "Company" or the "Group") announces today that it has agreed to acquire full ownership of Monitise Asia Pacific Limited ("Monitise Asia Pacific"), its 50:50 joint venture with First Eastern Mobile Investments Limited ("First Eastern"), a leading Hong Kong-based investment group controlled by Victor Chu.

Under the deal, Monitise has paid a total consideration of 20m ordinary shares of 1p each in Monitise plc ("Ordinary Shares") to First Eastern for the remaining 50% stake in Monitise Asia Pacific, valuing First Eastern's stake in the joint venture at £11.25m, based on Monitise's closing share price on Wednesday 16 October 2013 of 56.25p.

Application has been made for 20,000,000 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that admission of the Ordinary Shares will take place at 8.00 a.m. on 21 October 2013. Completion of the acquisition is conditional only upon admission taking place. Following admission, Monitise will have 1,640,029,298 Ordinary Shares in issue. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Following the transaction, Monitise will take full control of Monitise Asia Pacific's 49% stake in its Indonesian joint venture with PT Astra Graphia Information Technology. That partnership, which was entered into in 2011, was created to develop new mobile services for financial institutions targeted at both banked and unbanked consumers in Indonesia.

Monitise Group Chief Commercial Officer Lee Cameron said: "First Eastern under the guidance of Victor Chu has been a formative partner for us, playing an extremely valuable role in the development of our relationships and capabilities in the Asia Pacific region over the past three years. At Monitise, we have a track record for taking control of joint venture relationships to help streamline and simplify the international structure of our global business."

Lee Cameron, who accompanied UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on the government's trade trip to China this week, added: "We are excited by the growing opportunities we face in a region that has nearly 10 of the world's top 15 countries by population and markets with the highest new mobile subscription rates globally."

From a regional base in Hong Kong, Monitise is currently working with local partners PCCW-HKT mobile and JETCO, the major ATM switch serving the majority of banks in Hong Kong, to launch new mobile payments services. Bank of China (Hong Kong) will be the lead partner bank and the initial service, which allows the mobile operator's customers to top up their mobile airtime and data SIM cards, will go live once regulatory approval has been secured. It is based on Monitise's proven technology platform and will also represent Monitise's first Chinese language mobile app.

About Monitise

Monitise (LSE: MONI) is a world leader in Mobile Money - banking, paying and buying with a mobile device. Leading banks, payments companies, retailers and mobile networks utilise Monitise's technology platforms and services to securely connect people with their money. 

Already 24 million consumers benefit from our patented technology to 'bank anywhere', 'pay anyone' and 'buy anything', accounting for $50bn of payments, purchases and transfers annually. More information is available at www.monitise.com.