MELBOURNE , AUSTRALIA: Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) has entered into a highly material and transformational binding agreement to acquire 100% of Payment Assist Ltd for a total of $28.5 million, a news release said.
Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Managing Director and CEO of Openpay, Michael Eidel said, “In Payment Assist, we saw a unique opportunity to acquire a profitable, market-leading player in the £26.7 billion UK addressable automotive market.
The proposed acquisition of this fast-growing business accelerates our automotive market entry and secures a significant foothold for Openpay in the UK. Material growth synergies exist between Openpay and Payment Assist.
We also have shared values and a common vision to become the leading BNPS provider in our verticals, globally. We want to be a responsible provider of alternative payment and credit solutions to our customers – importantly, it’s a core tenet of our strategy to embrace regulation in all of its forms. With this proposed acquisition, Openpay joins with a business that is already embracing UK Financial Conduct Authority regulation and brings a responsible approach to its customers and merchants. I look forward to welcoming Payment Assist into the Openpay family.”
Neil Jeffery, Managing Director at Payment Assist commented, “By teaming up, Payment Assist and Openpay bring combined expertise and market knowledge which is unrivalled in the UK automotive industry. We are delighted to be joining with Openpay and look forward to the benefits we can bring to merchants and customers.”
Payment Assist was founded in 2013 in the UK and has served around 500,000 customers with easy payment plans for automotive servicing and repair. It is currently available at more than 7,000 locations across the UK and has 177,000 Active Customers.
In CY 2020, Payment Assist achieved a Total Transaction Value of £78.1m, up 26% on FY 2019 and is targeting TTV of £105.3m in CY 2021. With a total addressable market of £26.7 billion per annum across 42,000 UK garages, the acquisition provides Openpay with significant expansion and scale opportunity in the automotive vertical and beyond.
The deal will be one of the largest acquisitions made by a BNPL firm in the UK to date. Openpay will retain the Payment Assist brand, with the business having a large established base of Active Customers and an excellent rating on Trustpilot.
Openpay will contribute its greater marketing expertise towards growing Payment Assist’s merchant network. Current Payment Assist customers include the AA, Auto HC, BMW, eDynamix, EMaC, Formula 1 Autocentres, Gardx, Halfords Autocentre, Honda Financial Services, Hyundai, Mini, National Tyres and Autocare, Renault, Stellantis, Stoneacre and WhoCanFixMyCar, together with many others.
The combined customer base will cement Openpay as a major player in the UK BNPL market, benefiting merchant acquisition efforts in the currently served verticals, as well as in new verticals and adjacencies. The respective customer bases from non-overlapping verticals but of comparable demographics will bring valuable cross-sell opportunities.
Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) is a fast-growing and highly differentiated player in the global ‘Buy now pay later’ (BNPL) payment solutions market. The Company’s strong platform enables it to deliver the most flexible plans in the market with durations of 2–24 months and values of up to $20,000.
Openpay focuses on industries where it can make a true difference: Automotive, Healthcare, Home Improvement, Memberships and Education; and its target customers are finance-savvy and of an older demographic who use Openpay plans as a cashflow management tool.
Openpay also has a unique B2B offering, OpyPro (formerly Openpay for Business), a SaaS-based platform that allows companies to manage trade accounts end-to-end, including applications, credit checks, approvals and account management in the one system.
Openpay provides services to Customers and Merchants in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and entered the USmarket, under the brand name Opy, in December 2020.
Openpay Group Ltd ASX: OPY
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22 Jun, 4:10 pm GMT+10 ·Disclaimer
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