Wirecard acquires Provus Group for 32 million EUR

Polish Innova Capital Investments Fund has sold the entire shares package of Provus Group (altogether with Provus Service Provider, Romcard and Supercard Solutions & Services), the biggest payment processing center in Romania and one of the largest in Europe to German services supplier Wirecard, for 32 million EUR.

With a total of 114 employees, Provus is Romania’s leading payment processing and technological service provider. The payment provider supports companies in outsourcing acquiring and card processing, e-commerce payment transactions and point-of-sale (POS) operations. Its customer base includes major Romanian banks in addition to significant telecommunications and retail players. In addition, Provus has worked with the Romanian government in the digitisation of health and payment cards. Provus was set up in 2001 and ever since it has been present on the Romanian market with card processing transactions, card personalization, as well as retail services. The group has 114 employees and over time, it has served clients like Sensiblu, MOL Romania, Cora Profi, Metro Cash&Carry Romania, but also local branches of OTP, Unicredit, and Societe Generale.

Thus, Wirecard has started its expansion towards Eastern and Central Europe. Roland Toch, MD Wirecard CEE: “This acquisition will allow Wirecard to systematically step up its expansion into eastern Europe. The business model compliments our global payment gateway as well as our European acquiring and issuing licence.”

The vendors are a Polish private equity fund Innova Capital that bought Provus in January 2011, and in 2013 overtook the majority package of Supercard Solutions & Services.

Wirecard estimates a EBITDA operational profit of of 4 million EUR in 2016 and approximate costs of 500 000 EUR for integrating the activities.

Provus Group has had businesses worth 8.85 million EUR and a net profit of 2 million EUR in 2014. Wirecard is one of the biggest players globally on the electronic payments market, with 1 750 employees and with a EBITDA profit of 173 million EUR in 2014 and a 601 million EUR revenue.

by Mihaela Constantin