Le Groupe La Poste will remain a prime business partner via a contract to distribute Titres Cadeaux gift vouchers in its post office branches, while Natixis Payments plans to step up development of Titres Cadeaux gift products with all its client groups, particularly works councils and the staff they represent.

Titres Cadeaux designs and manages the distribution of multi-brand gift vouchers and cards under the Cado Chèque, Cado Carte and E-Cado Carte names. It is the fourth largest operator on the gift voucher market in France and issued a total of €123m at end-2017, which it distributes to individual customers via post office branches and on a B2B basis through company works councils. The vouchers are accepted by 600 banners and 170 websites.

This acquisition rounds out Natixis Payments’ Benefits range, providing customers with an extensive value proposition on the prepaid gift market - which is worth more than €4bn in France - and also enables it to derive the benefits of similarities between Cado and its services Comitéo (platform and marketplace designed for works councils) and Le Pot Commun (online money pot and social payment). “Our teams can now work together to develop joint services, strengthen relationships with major brands and develop new digital uses by leveraging Natixis Payments’ and its S-money platform’s expertise in online gift cards and digital issue technologies. More broadly speaking, this move is part of Natixis Payments’ strategy to become a major name in prepaid services for companies and merchants” notes Nicolas Chatillon, Head of Issuing and Prepaid solutions at Natixis Payments.

This disposal is also part of La Banque Postale’s strategy to review its production and distribution model on its non-core businesses. Le Groupe La Poste will continue to exclusively distribute Titres Cadeaux products in both voucher and card form.