Optimal Payments Plc, the online money transfer company, expects to beat this year’s profit forecast.
Healthy sales at its Neteller e-wallet business drove the company’s pre-tax profit for the first half of this year up 78 percent. Pretax profit jumped to $27.5 million for the six months ended June 30, from $15.5 million a year ago. Share prices also saw a rise of 7.8 percent to 510 pence on the London Stock Exchange early on Wednesday. Overall, Revenue from Optimal’s payments processing business, which contributes nearly 74 percent to the total, rose 31 percent to $117.4 million, while that from Neteller was up 46 percent.
“The acquisitions of Meritus and GMA in July satisfy our previously stated objectives to strengthen our presence in the US market and provides Optimal Payments with a springboard for strong North American growth,” Chief Executive Joel Leonoff said in a statement.
Leonoff also expects to integrate Apple Inc’s mobile payments offering, unveiled yesterday, into Optimal’s current payment processing system. How and when this is likely to happen has not been announced, but company attributes their growth to the growing popularity of e-wallets. Apple’s market majority is likely to prompt many such companies to integrate with their new mobile payments service.
Source: Reuters
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