PayPoint Signs Agreement to Acquire Handepay and Merchant Rentals

PayPoint announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Handepay Limited ("Handepay") and Merchant Rentals Limited ("Merchant Rentals"), leading card payments and card terminal leasing businesses, from a consortium of private investors. The cash consideration for the acquisition is expected to be £70 million on a cash free debt free basis, after closing balance sheet adjustments.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and, therefore, completion is anticipated to take place in January 2021. PayPoint has extended its current financing facility of £75 million to £95 million which will be used to fund the acquisition.

Nick Wiles, Chief Executive Officer of PayPoint plc, said: "Our acquisition of Handepay and Merchant Rentals will significantly increase our card payments capability and broaden our SME customer base. This important step refocuses PayPoint towards a core growth area and creates synergies through cross selling of other PayPoint services and leveraging the scale of the combined business. 

"Handepay has delivered a resilient performance through Covid-19, through the breadth of its customer base and strong recovery of active merchants after the first lockdown, and has a proactive plan in response to the most recent national restrictions. I am equally pleased to welcome the Handepay management team into the PayPoint Group and look forward to working with them as we deliver on the exciting potential of the combined card business."

Andy Peake, Chief Executive Officer of Handepay, said: "I'm incredibly proud of the business we've built, now serving over 21,000 merchants and ranked the no.1 card service processing provider on Trustpilot. I believe we've found the right home in PayPoint to take us to the next stage of our growth. The whole team are excited to be joining the PayPoint Group and benefiting from the scale, expertise and market leadership that they have built in omni-channel payments and technology over the last 24 years."