Ingenico Acquires Xiring
- After a successful tender offer on Xiring shares, Ingenico now holds over 91% of voting rights on the French strong authentication solutions provider.
- The French POS terminal manufacturer takes control of a company specialising in secure access to health care services (Vitale card, card payments at chemist’s as well as with health professionals) and identity (law enforcement forces, municipalities, mobile control terminals for NaviGO transportation pass, etc.).
- Xiring is present in Germany, Belgium and in Slovenia. Its manufacturing activity is subcontracted in China.
- Ingenico integrates state-of-the-art services to further grow along the payment value chain. After having acquired the German processor and acquirer easycash in 2009, the French manufacturer enhanced its skills beyond payment solutions in 2010. It runs prepaid products with Payzone France (now Ingenico Prepaid Services France), merchant processing with First Data Iberica (Ingenico Services Iberia) and, more recently, air-time transfer with TransferTo. This has increased its recurring revenues. Ingenico grows stronger to face its US leading competitor, the recently merged VeriFone/Hypercom. Ingenico has more than 15 million POS terminals installed in over 125 countries, a 35% market share.
- Xiring, for its part, counts 48 employees, having sold in 2010 its e-banking security unit to manufacturer and security provider Gemalto. Services account for more than half of Xiring’s annual revenue of about 18 million euros in 2010. With this stock purchase agreement, it manages to avoid a hostile bid made possible by its until then disseminated shareholdership. Through improving its critical size, Xiring intends to grow throughout Europe in sectors such as health card schemes by 2014. It aims to be part of the top-three e-identity solution providers at that time.