The acquisition includes the cash on NetGiro's balance sheet at completion. At 31 December 2006 this was approximately EUR3.5 million.

Stockholm-based NetGiro is a payment service provider targeting the card-not-present e-commerce market. For the year ended 31 December 2006, NetGiro earned unaudited profits before tax of approximately Skr8 million and had unaudited net assets of Skr41 million.

The company has a range of integrated European payment networks which combine to enable NetGiro's clients to take payments in the customer's local currency. Datacash says the acquisition of NetGiro will extend the international reach of its product offering by providing clients with access to local European payment instruments such as Dankort, Carte Bleue, international direct debits, bank wire transfers and Giropay.

David Bailey, deputy chairman at Datacasg says: "Our stated vision is to provide a global risk and payment processing solution for Internet merchants, and this acquisition is another step towards this, broadening our international offering and providing access to other European payment types."

Datacash says it expects the acquisition to be earnings-enhancing from 2008.

The deal is subject to shareholder approval at NetGiro's holding company NetGiro International and is expected to close by 31 March 2007.