BUCHAREST (Romania), November 29 (SeeNews) – UK-based cash, mobile and online payments operator PayPoint said on Thursday its revenues grew strongly in the first half of 2018/2019 financial year on the back of good results of its Romanian operations.
PayPoint's revenue increased 8.8% to 106.1 million British pounds ($136 million/ 120 million euro), while pre-tax profit for the period ended September 30 was 25.3 million British pounds, up 4% on the year, the payments company said in a press release.
Performance in Romania benefited organically and from the acquisition of local e-payments company Payzone in October 2017, PayPoint said.
PayPoint's revenue in Romania jumped by 33.2% to 6.8 million Britsh pounds, due to a strong transaction growth of 43.8% to 55.8 million pounds, largely driven by the Payzone acquisition.
Romania’s retail network comprised 18,984 sites on 30 September 2018 with over 1,500 low performing sites removed since end-March 2018 from the Payzone network, which will improve future profitability.
"PayPoint, with its technology platform and unique network strength and brand recognition, is uniquely placed to drive further opportunity as the market in Romania continues to evolve. This will include, over time, growth in automated, digital, parcel and card payments solutions. Cash bill payment remains a mass market proposition and will continue to be a robust and growing category," PayPoint said.
For the second half of the fiscal year, PayPoint aims to continue optimising the network in Romania, which will result in the network reducing to 18,000 sites, and to complete the first phase of the Payzone migration which will migrate almost 1,300 sites to PayPoint’s systems.
PayPoint is a British business offering a system for paying bills in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Romania. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
(1 GBP=1.133 euro)