PayPoint has announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Handepay and Merchant Rentals.
The deal with the specialist card payments and card terminal leasing businesses, from a consortium of private investors, enhances the PayPoint offering as the firm continues on a period of growth.
It comes as engagement in card payments in the UK continues to accelerate, with it being the preferred payment method since 2016, with significant increases in usage seen over the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, there remains substantial growth potential, with circa 2 million SMEs still not accepting card payments. In line with the move to local convenience shopping, 81% of people claimed they would be more inclined to shop locally if they knew shops accepted cards.
Nick Wiles, Chief Executive Officer of PayPoint plc, said: “Our acquisition of Handepay and Merchant Rentals will significantly increase our card payments capability and broaden our SME customer base. This important step refocuses PayPoint towards a core growth area and creates synergies through cross-selling of other PayPoint services and leveraging the scale of the combined business.
“Handepay has delivered a resilient performance through Covid-19, through the breadth of its customer base and strong recovery of active merchants after the first lockdown, and has a proactive plan in response to the most recent national restrictions. I am equally pleased to welcome the Handepay management team into the PayPoint Group and look forward to working with them as we deliver on the exciting potential of the combined card business.”
The acquisition of Handepay will create a combined national card payments business with significant customer diversity: over 30,000 SMEs, spanning the grocery, auto trade, clothing, household goods and hospitality sectors.
Andy Peake, Chief Executive Officer of Handepay, added: “I’m incredibly proud of the business we’ve built, now serving over 21,000 merchants and ranked the no.1 card service processing provider on Trustpilot.
“I believe we’ve found the right home in PayPoint to take us to the next stage of our growth. The whole team are excited to be joining the PayPoint Group and benefiting from the scale, expertise and market leadership that they have built in omni-channel payments and technology over the last 24 years.”
