Wirecard Payment entities in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand have been acquired by Finch Capital, through Nomu Pay, after an agreement was reached.
The transactions are expected to be completed in May 2021 for Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and for the Philippines later in the year. In March 2021, Nomu Pay announced plans to acquire Wirecard Turkey. Details on Management, Strategy and Rebranding will be provided at closing.
This investment is part of Nomu Pay’s larger plan to build out a leading unified payment company in high growth customer segments in EMEA and Asia. Following these deals, Nomu Pay will be active in five countries, with access to markets of 300 million people and a GDP equal to that of India.
Radboud Vlaar, Managing Partner Finch Capital, comments: “As a pan-European and pan-Asian firm we are bullish on the growth in these regions and have reserved significant capital to invest in them through Nomu Pay. Acquiring Wirecard APAC’s key entities provides us with access and infrastructure to invest in improving the payments landscape for millions of people.”
Nomu Pay’s interest in Wirecard subsidiaries in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines is the unique opportunity to deliver unified payments services to these markets:
- Hong Kong is the main financial centre of the region, and through Wirecard, Nomu Pay can deliver payment services to clients in this regional and financial hub. Merchant acquiring is currently not regulated in HK and there are local (principal) memberships in place with the largest card schemes.
- Thailand is a fast-growing market, and this is a unique opportunity to deliver payments services there with an E-Payment service license from the Bank of Thailand.
- Malaysia is a fully operational regional hub for delivering payment services in the region, and Wirecard Malaysia is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard and registered merchant acquirer under the supervision of the local central bank.
- Wirecard Philippines has a payment license, EMI license and local (principal) memberships with the major card schemes. In the Philippines both payment and e-money services are included, so we can offer payment issuing, acquiring and wallet services to local businesses.
Hans de Back, Managing Partner at Finch Capital, comments: “The Covid-19 outbreak has drastically accelerated Southeast Asia’s shift to a cashless world, with unprecedented growth in the number of e-payment transactions. With this acquisition, we hope to play a substantial role in the next frontier of the region’s payments infrastructure.”
