Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), a leading provider of electronic transaction processing solutions, announced today that its Asia-Pacific joint venture with The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited ("HSBC"), Global Payments Asia-Pacific, has completed its agreement to expand into the Philippines to provide payment processing services to merchants.
"We are excited to complete the expansion of our joint venture with HSBC in the Asia-Pacific region, and can now offer merchants in the Philippines our comprehensive processing solutions," said Global Payments' President of Worldwide Processing, Carl Williams. "Global Payments Asia-Pacific now provides payment processing services to merchants across eleven countries and territories of Brunei, the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), India, the Macau SAR, mainland China, Malaysia, Maldives, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the Philippines."
"We intend to continue to execute on our commitment to aggressively grow the payment processing market in the Asia-Pacific region," said Ian Courtnage, managing Director for Global Payments Asia-Pacific. "We would like to welcome the customers and employees of HSBC Philippines and look forward to leveraging our technological expertise to provide advanced products and services in the country," Courtnage continued.
Under the terms of the agreement announced at the end of July, Global Payments Asia-Pacific paid HSBC approximately $20 million in cash based on current exchange rates. Global Payments' cash obligation for the acquisition equating to its 56 percent ownership interest in the joint venture was approximately $11 million. The Philippines will also be added to the current ten-year marketing alliance agreement, in which HSBC refers new merchant customers exclusively to the joint venture for payment processing services.
The transaction is expected to be slightly accretive to Global Payments' diluted earnings per share in the first year.