Source: Euronet Worldwide
Euronet Worldwide (“Euronet” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leading electronic payments provider, today announced the recently completed acquisition of 100% of the shares of Brodos SRL, a subsidiary of Brodos AG, a privately-held German company providing retail and electronic distribution services to the mobile telephone industry.
Brodos SRL ("Brodos Romania") is a leading electronic prepaid mobile airtime processor in Romania. The acquisition of Brodos Romania marks the entry of Euronet into the Romanian prepaid market, which is Euronet's 12th prepaid market.
Established in 2001, Brodos Romania specializes in processing electronic purchases of prepaid mobile phone airtime primarily on point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Brodos Romania also offers electronic recharge or top-up services for mobile airtime through ATMs, PC and electronic cash register systems. The company currently supports top-up purchases at more than 14,000 POS terminals in Romania. In addition to prepaid mobile top-up, Brodos Romania also offers prepaid long distance calling cards and internet services cards.
Brodos Romania has multi-year processing agreements with Vodafone S.A. and Orange S.A., the two largest mobile operators in the market. Additionally, Brodos Romania has direct relationships with the country's leading distributors of prepaid mobile airtime, as well as major retailers and petrol station chains.
"As the world's largest transaction processor for prepaid mobile airtime, our proven POS prepaid technology and product offerings are unparalleled in the industry. Brodos Romania enables us to enter the emerging Romanian prepaid market with an established presence. We plan to leverage Brodos' network to offer additional prepaid products to retail customers in Romania and expand their revenue streams," said Michael J. Brown, Euronet Worldwide chairman, CEO and president. "Our expertise in prepaid processing including our international best practices will enable us to further expand our prepaid business in Romania."
Euronet has consolidated Brodos Romania's processing platform including all customer connections and point-of-sale (POS) network into Transact, the Company's German prepaid business. The Company expects the full year financial impacts of the acquisition of Brodos Romania to be slightly accretive to Euronet's 2007 results.
In markets like Romania, top-up or recharge growth comes from an increase in prepaid users, from the mobile operators' shift from scratch-off cards to electronic distribution and from the addition of new retailers and POS devices. Currently, the Company estimates indicate approximately 70 percent of Romania's 22 million population to have mobile phones, of which, more than 60 percent represent prepaid accounts. The increase in mobile phone subscribers in the market continues to fuel prepaid user growth.