Net1 Acquires Strategic Stake in Bank Frick

Net1 UEPS Technologies (NASDAQ:UEPS) (JSE:NT1) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 30 percent interest in Bank Frick & Co AG, a fully licensed bank based in Balzers, Liechtenstein. The completion of the investment is subject to approval from the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority and following the successful completion of this investment, the Company will have a two-year option to acquire a further 35 percent in Bank Frick.
As quoted in the press release:

Bank Frick provides a complete suite of banking services, with one of its key strategic pillars being the provision of payment services and funding of financial technology opportunities. Bank Frick holds acquiring licenses from both Visa and MasterCard and operates a branch in London.
“We entered into a long term co-operation agreement with Bank Frick last year to become our strategic banking partner for the provision of the support and banking services required to deploy Net1’s products and services, including VCPay, Finetrading and money remittances in Europe,” said Serge Belamant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Net1. “We have received invaluable support from Bank Frick and we have jointly identified many exciting joint opportunities that would require funding, whether for our working capital finance, card issuing and acquiring or transaction processing activities. We decided to become a strategic investor in Bank Frick to cement a critical component of Net1’s international activities as we are completely reliant on having a stable, long term and strategic relationship with a fully licensed bank – being a significant stakeholder is the best way to ensure alignment and longevity. We have agreed with Bank Frick that approximately USD 30 million of its free equity will be utilized as seed capital for a fund dedicated to our future activities.”

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