Software company Sage is to sell its payment processing unit Sage Pay for about £232 million (€271m) to Elavon, a payments company and unit of US Bancorp.
Growth in payment systems has kept deals rolling with Fidelity National Information Services's buyout of Worldpay for about $35 billion (€31.6 billion) earlier this year. In January, US-based Fiserv bought payment processor First Data for $22 billion.
Sage Group expects a statutory profit on the disposal of about £180 million following completion of the deal.
The disposal comes more than two months after the company first said it was looking into potential options for its payments arm. It said the divested business would remain an important payments partner after completion.
“The acquisition extends Elavon’s market share in the UK and Ireland, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises where Sage Pay is a highly-trusted payments gateway with a loyal customer base,” Elavon said.
Sage Group also agreed to sell its US payroll outsourcing business earlier this year for £78 million as part of its strategy to focus on subscription services by moving more products to the cloud.
– Reuters
