Alantra advises Grupo El Comercio on the $108.5m sale of PagoEfectivo to Paysafe
SECTORTechnology; FIG
ServiceM&A
Value $108.5 million
Buenos Aires and San Francisco – Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management specialist, has advised Empresa Editora El Comercio S.A., (“Grupo El Comercio”), Peru’s largest independent media company, on the $108.5 million sale of PagoEfectivo (“the Company”), a Peruvian alternative payments platform, to Paysafe Limited (“Paysafe”), a leading specialized payments platform.
PagoEfectivo, a subsidiary of Grupo El Comercio, is a market-leading provider of eCash and online banking payments in Latin America, which allows merchants to offer alternative payment methods (APMs) at check-out and enables consumers in the region, many of whom are underbanked, to transact online. PagoEfectivo’s platform uses a reference payment code, which can be paid by the end-user through online or mobile banking, bank agents, or in person at over 140,000 points of sale in Peru and Ecuador. The Company’s solutions are particularly popular with merchants operating in the iGaming, digital goods, travel and eCommerce industries, amongst others.
Based in London, United Kingdom, Paysafe is a leading specialized payments platform, which connects businesses and consumers across 70 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world. Paysafe’s core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading solutions for payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions. Paysafe has over 20 years of online payment experience, an annualized transactional volume of $92 billion in 2020, and approximately 3,400 employees across 16 global locations.
Supported by Paysafe’s cloud-based technology stack and global enterprise relationships, this transaction will accelerate PagoEfectivo’s strong growth, as well as reinforce Paysafe’s investment and growth strategy in its payments processing, digital wallets, eCash and online banking solution offerings. In addition, the acquisition provides Paysafe a strategic foothold in Latin America, one of the world’s fastest-growing online markets.
Alantra teams from Buenos Aires and San Francisco partnered on the transaction, leveraging the firm’s international scope and industry expertise.
Hernán Sambucetti, Partner at Alantra, commented: “We are delighted to have supported Grupo El Comercio on the sale of its fast-growing business, PagoEfectivo, to a specialized payments company, Paysafe. This transaction enhances our track record with Latin American corporates and entrepreneurs and serves as a positive milestone in the active cross-border Fintech/Alternative Payments sector.”
“The Company’s alternative payments innovation uniquely fostered financial inclusion and access to the digital economy,” added Irfan Iqbal, Partner at Alantra. “PagoEfectivo has a proven vision for modernizing the bridge between un/underbanked and online commerce. “We are excited to see how they continue advancing the market with Paysafe, a global industry leader.”
