PayPoint acquires Handepay and Merchant Rentals to reach more SMEs in the UK

PayPoint, a London-based legacy payments company, will acquire Handepay and Merchant Rentals, two card payments and card terminal leasing businesses in the UK, from a consortium of private investors. The price tag is expected to read around £70 million on a cash-free debt free basis, and the deal is forecast to close in January 2021 after regulatory approvals. PayPoint has extended its current financing facility of £75 million to £95 million to fund the acquisition.

The corporation, which held its IPO back in 2004 and has made four other acquisitions since then, wants to rope in the estimated 2 million local businesses in the UK that still don’t accept card payments. 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. 

Management will shake out like so: Mark Latham, currently Chief Commercial Officer at Handepay, will join the PayPoint Executive Board as Card Services Director, responsible for the combined cards portfolio. Ian Kennedy, currently Sales Director at Handepay, will join the business as Sales Director leading both the PayPoint and Handepay sales teams, reporting to Ben Ford, PayPoint’s Retail Services Director. Andy Peake will continue as CEO of Handepay until the deal is sealed, and then will act as a consultant to PayPoint.