Edenred Buys Out the American FinTech CSI

The meal voucher specialist Edenred enters the US corporate payment market as they announce one of their largest acquisitions to date. They just bought out the American FinTech Corporate Spending Innovations (CSI) for $600 million (roughly €526 million).

CSI was founded over 28 years ago in Florida. They first sold fuel cards for corporate customers before aiming for B2B payments. This FinTech claims roughly 800 corporate clients and streamlines payments to their 475,000 vendors.

CSI reported a double-digit revenue growth and expects to manage payment volumes of around $11 billion, processing roughly 900,000 transactions for 2018. Edenred did choose CSI for a good reason: they believe this FinTech will achieve annual revenue growth of around 20% over the next few years.

Following this announcement, Edenred shares jumped by 3.47% to €34.57. The transaction should close in early 2019.

Comments – Edenred making headway in North America

Just weeks ago, Edenred was rumoured to be among potential contenders to acquire Ingenico. This rumour came to an end and this acquisition now takes over the headlines. This announcement is in line with a two-year partnership between the two companies. It also further stresses Edenred’s focus on B2B payments.

The North American corporate payment ecosystem is famous for being one of the largest and most dynamic. As they acquire Corporate Spending Innovations, Edenred will be able to speed up their development on this key market while enhancing their digital payment platform. This transaction should also contribute to increasing the group’s EBIT from 2019.

Furthermore, this buyout also highlights the ongoing consolidation process in the payment market. It echoes the acquisition of Citi Prepaid Card services by the German e-payment specialist Wirecard, which also aimed to strengthen their presence in North America.