Paycorp, one of South Africa's leading payment services companies, has acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Saicom Group, the holding company of Kazang Prepaid and Saicom Payphones.
Kazang, considered one of Southern Africa's leading providers of value added transaction services, provides prepaid voice, mobile data and electricity through proprietary mobile vending terminals that handle thousands of micro-payments every minute. Other services include DSTV subscription payments and RICA registration. Saicom Payphones, powered by Kazang, offers GSM-based community payphone services that run off the Vodacom network.
The acquisition of Kazang is Paycorp's first major transaction since private equity firm Actis acquired a majority stake in the group in November last year. This acquisition complements Paycorp's existing suite of payment products and services and, with an established footprint across Africa, Kazang provides valuable new channels, expertise and insights to facilitate the business's expansion further into the continent.
Steven Kark, Paycorp CEO, said, "With Actis supporting us, Paycorp is actively looking to expand its suite of products and services as well as its geographic reach. Paycorp is an active, growing company, interested in synergies with other companies and Kazang has an established footprint in sub-Saharan Africa. We intend to remain the market leaders in providing payment solutions in South Africa and other emerging economies."
Paycorp provides and operates a range of payment solutions including ATMs, card issuing and acceptance technology. ATM Solutions owns and operates a network of over 5 000 ATMs across southern Africa, DrawCard is an award-winning deployer of Visa-certified card programmes including Reload Mobile Money, and EFTPOS provides merchant debit and credit card acceptance solutions.
Paycorp's approach to delivering payment solutions is founded on entrepreneurial spirit and driven by innovation. This ethic combined with the company's ambition to be the leading emerging markets payment provider, sees it expanding its reach well beyond southern Africa.
Financial inclusion is a key strategic thrust fo for Paycorp which supplies a range of payment services to underserved rural and peri-urban areas. "Kazang's convenient and secure vending of value added services creates valuable cross selling opportunities for both parties," Kark said.
"This is an exciting new chapter in our growth which will allow us to take Kazang to the next level and provide opportunities for both our customers and employees," said Kazang CEO Martin Wright.