WSJ’s Deal Journal Australia blog had a post yesterday about the recent acquisition activity of lease, credit, and telecom provider FlexiGroup. The company just announced the acquisition of the Asia Pacific operation of online payment method Paymate. FlexiGroup plans to emulate its in-store leasing, rent-to-own, and financing options in the online auction space (namely eBay) and elsewhere through its new FlexiPay product.
A few highlights:
The deal follows a bullish outlook statement from FlexiGroup’s chief executive John DeLano last Wednesday where he revealed a key milestone for the company was “continuing to focus on value accretive acquisitions”.
FlexiPay is a deferred payment option like an in-store lay-by but unlike PayPal’s established equivalent Bill Me Later, it will be more suited to its Australian users and have no interest bearing component.
“This will help us support the 10,000 retailers we already have a relationship with as well as their 2 million customers who are increasingly shopping online,” Mr. DeLano added.
The company believes it will leverage its 20 years of experience in credit assessment and in processing 11 million payments a year in its offering.
Paymate turns over A$20 million in volume compared to PayPal which turns over A$2 billion despite launching five years prior but Mr. DeLano believes FlexiGroup’s E-Commerce team headed by PayPal Australia’s former managing director Andrew Pipolo has the capacity to snatch market share.
“There’s plenty of room to grow the business given that Paymate only services 3,500 of Australia’s 300,000 merchants who trade online in Australia,” he said.
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