Dive Brief:

• Eyeing the emerging Latin American market, London-based Paysafe has agreed to acquire Miami-based SafetyPay for $441 million in an all-cash deal, the payments platform announced on Monday. The company confirmed in an email to Payments Dive that it will finalize the agreement by Q4 2021.
• Given SafetyPay’s operations in 11 Latin American countries, Paysafe noted that the acquisition enhances the arm of its business in that region. The merged SafetyPay and Paysafe operations will offer electronic cash and banking services in more than 60 countries across more than 1 million distribution points, the company said.
• The combined staffs will be headed by Paysafe e-cash CEO Udo Mueller once the deal is complete. SafetyPay's current CEO, Gustavo Ruiz Moya, will become the CEO for e-cash in Latin America and the global head of open banking and he will report to Mueller, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Paysafe’s SafetyPay purchase follows its acquisition of PagoEfectivo, a Peruvian alternative payments company, earlier this month for an undisclosed sum. The PagoEfectivo deal, which is expected to close by the end of August, is also part of Paysafe's plan to grow its Latin American presence, the company noted in its announcement. 

“We are very excited with today’s announcement as it will allow SafetyPay to continue its fast-paced growth in the region, offering clients and customers additional solutions as we integrate with Paysafe,” Ruiz Moya said in an email to Payments Dive. “We also hope to replicate the success that the SafetyPay team has achieved in Latin America in other emerging markets by enabling e-commerce transactions via open banking and e-cash solutions.”

In a report shared with Payments Dive, Cowen Equity Research said it expects the two acquisitions to add $60 million in annual revenue to Paysafe's results next year.

In its second-quarter earnings report also delivered Monday, Paysafe posted net income of $6.6 million and said revenue for the period rose 13% to $384.3 million, over the quarter last year.

The company attributed the growth of its e-cash business partly to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Europe and a subsequent rise in e-commerce spending. It also credited its integrated e-commerce business, including iGaming and other e-commerce verticals, for increasing its integrated processing business.