Following the deal, TNS will own and manage over 4,000 terminals for 800 polling customers. The integration of Arval's terminal rental and management business into TNS provides an additional managed outsourcing solution and follows the incorporation of Process Logistics into the TNS business last year.

The new terminal management solution takes the headache out of handling the installation and maintenance of payment terminals at the retailer's point of sale and includes a dedicated EMV compliant Chip and PIN solution for the petrol sector.

TNS will migrate Arval's polling customers to its existing polling infrastructure. TNS already runs one of the UK's leading polling services, enabling smaller retailers to poll offline transactions and other data to their acquiring bank overnight.

"The acquisition of Arval's terminal management and polling business provides yet another string to our bow. Owning and managing our own terminal infrastructure means that instead of having to deal with multiple providers, banks and retailers can just deal with one party for all their needs," says Alan Stephenson-Brown, TNS' Director of Business Development. "TNS is emerging from being a leading transaction and networking specialist to becoming a complete end-to-end retail technology partner for retailers and the banking community."

"In its sale of the polling business to TNS, Arval continues to reshape its business to focus on development and delivery of its core products to its corporate customers within the fleet and fuel industries" says Robert Pieczka, Marketing and Product Director for Arval. "TNS, leading the way in point of sale transaction solutions, is the ideal enterprise to take on Arval's polling interest. This transaction allows both companies to focus on their core strengths and is therefore a win-win solution."