Global Payments establishes joint Eastern European payments venture

Global Payments, CaixaBank and Erste Group Bank AG have formed a joint payments venture, providing merchant acquiring and payment services in three Eastern European locations.

Global Payments is one of the world’s biggest providers of payment technology services. Caxiabank is Spain’s largest bank by market share and Erste Group Bank provides financial services throughout Eastern and Central Europe.

The payment technology firm is using the joint venture to expand further into Eastern Europe, a region which Jeff Sloan, Global Payments CEO thinks will ‘‘catalyze our capabilities to service multinational customers across the common European payments area and leverage our global product and service offering to Erste Group Bank’s merchants.’’

The payment firms will be using their technology and expertise within three European locations: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

Global Payments and CaixaBank will pay €30 million in cash to acquire a 51 percent majority ownership in the venture. Erste Group has acquired a 49 per cent stake by offering up its existing merchant acquiring businesses in each of the three countries to the joint venture.

The joint venture is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2016. Global Payments doesn’t expect the venture to have a significant impact upon its financial earnings.

‘‘By joining forces with two strong expert companies in this field we will increase the focus on our acquiring business and further upgrade the quality service that we provide to merchants across Central and Eastern Europe,’’ commented Peter Bosek, retail banking head for Erste Group.

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