Magex to Add Stored-value Card Processing
Business
London and Phoenix, AZ, September 13, 2004 – Magex
Holdings announced today that it had acquired Open
Payment Technologies Inc. (OPT) and would immediately
begin distributing OPT’s stored-value card processing,
loyalty programs, and transaction authorization services
to merchants, value-added resellers, and financial services
institutions globally. Magex will maintain OPT as wholly-owned
division and retain the Opticard® brand name. Dave Ingwersen,
President of OPT, will become President of Magex’s
Card Services Division with global oversight of the Card
Services business worldwide. The acquisition gives Magex
its first fully owned subsidiary in the United States where
it sees future growth.
For more than nine years, Open Payment Technologies has
been a leader in North America providing stored-value products
and electronic payment processing to vertical markets, including
retail, hospitality, restaurants and supermarkets. The Opticard®
Platform provides retailers with a total electronic stored-value
processing solution. Program types include electronic gift,
retail merchandise credit, promotional, and loyalty all
on a single private label card. OPT also provides customers
with efficient front-end services for processing check,
debit, credit, ACH, and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)
authorization services. OPT’s applications support
over 17,000 POS terminals throughout the US and Canada,
and serve leading retailers such as Claim Jumper Restaurants,
Barbeques Galore, and Books-A-Million.
“Becoming part of Magex is a tremendous opportunity
for OPT,” said Dave Ingwersen. “Together we
will leverage Magex’s relationships with European
banks, its investors, and other partners to bring European
retailers the same high-quality and sales expanding programs
that have been so successful in the U.S. and Canada. And
with Magex’s additional resources we plan on quickly
growing the types of stored-value card programs we offer
in the US to include healthcare, payroll, insurance claims,
and corporate incentives.”
“The acquisition of OPT is a natural step for Magex
as it grows into other forms of electronic stored-value
programs,” said Josh Groves, CEO of Magex. “We’re
enjoying success with the person-to-person services we’ve
deployed for The Royal Bank of Scotland’s FastPay
service and MasterCard’s MoneySend™ funds transfer
and remittance service. With OPT’s capabilities we
can now extend our existing services with stored-value cards
as well and bring the stored-value card program directly
to European customers. Acquiring OPT gives Magex a larger
presence in the U.S. where together we will work on winning
more of the nearly $100 billion stored-value market as well
as distributing Magex’s services to US customers.”
“OPT and Magex share a vision to build a leading
payments infrastructure company that leverages our proven
electronic payments platform, specific market knowledge,
and business relationships in the US and Europe,”
said Steven L. Fingerhood, Magex’s Chairman. “As
businesses increasingly seek reliable and trusted electronic
payment solutions, Magex will meet their needs by providing
strategic partnerships, offering industry expertise and
an increased scope of services. The expansion of Magex,
both with its internal growth and active acquisitions strategy,
demonstrates our commitment to meet client requirements
as the electronic payments infrastructure industry evolves.”
About Magex Holdings Limited.
Magex provides electronic payments services that create
useful and compelling applications for financial services
institutions, telecommunications operators, and retailers.
Using Magex’s hosted payments platforms, Magex’s
customers are offering their consumers P2P and P2M payments,
cross-border remittance services, mobile payments, and end-to-end
stored-value card services. This enables Magex’s customers
to provide a branded offering to their consumers to make
payments across the Internet, POS and mobile networks. Through
its account-based system, the Magex service can transfer
funds between various funding and withdrawal mechanisms:
debit card, credit card, bank account, and cash. The Magex
technology addresses the security and transaction complexities
associated with Internet and mobile payments, enabling fast,
safe and easy financial transactions. The Magex client list
includes NatWest Bank, part of The Royal Bank of Scotland
Group, MasterCard International, and retailers throughout
the United States.
Magex Ltd. is headquartered in London with offices in San
Francisco and Phoenix; its shareholders include SLF Partners,
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Capital Z, and RVC.
