REG - TBC Bank Group PLC - Acquisition of the remaining 49% stake in Payme

TBC BankAnnouncement

23/05/2023 11:30

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20230523:nRSW3716Aa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 3716A  TBC Bank Group PLC  23 May 2023

Acquisition of the remaining 49% stake in Payme

TBC Bank Group PLC ("TBC PLC" or the "Group") announces that it has signed a
Sales and Purchase Agreement ("SPA") to acquire the remaining minority share
of 49% from the founding shareholders in LLC Inspired, the Group's payments
subsidiary operating under the Payme brand ("Payme") in Uzbekistan. Following
the acquisition of the minority share of Payme, TBC PLC has become the 100%
shareholder of Payme.

Payme is a leading digital payments provider in Uzbekistan for individuals and
small businesses. It offers high-quality payment solutions via its
multi-vertical app including P2P transfers, bill payments, QR payments,
e-commerce, cross-border money remittances, loan repayments, personal
financial manager (PFM) services and government services.

The transaction was conducted within the scope of the shareholder agreement
entered by both parties during the Group's initial acquisition of 51% in Payme
in April 2019. The exercise price of the option was based on a set of
pre-determined parameters defined at the time of the original agreement,
including Payme's revenue, EBIT and the number of active customers.

Since then, Payme has grown significantly.  The total revenue and profit
before tax for the year to December 2022 amounted to USD 17.5 million and USD
11.4 million, respectively, compared to USD 1.6 million and USD 0.8 million,
respectively, in 2018. The number of monthly active customers was 3.1 million
at the end of March 2023, compared to 1.3 million users in April 2019.

The consideration to be paid for the 49% stake is USD 55.7 million and will be
satisfied in cash within 10 banking days from the date of the completion,
implying a total valuation of USD 113.6 million for Payme. Based on the first
quarter 2023 annualized net profit, this valuation implies a 2023 P/E multiple
of 6.5x.

Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are delighted to be completing the minority buyout of Payme, giving us
100% ownership of this dynamic payments platform. This acquisition is in line
with our previously outlined expansion strategy in Uzbekistan to create a
leading fintech ecosystem. It will allow us to capture the strong synergy
potential between the payments business and our digital bank, TBC UZ, by
leveraging a large user base and a diverse product range. I strongly believe
that our joint efforts in these two businesses will accelerate the achievement
of our mid-term targets for our Uzbek operations: return of equity of at least
30%, monthly active users of 5 million, and 10-15% share of the Group's net
income."

 

 

For further enquiries, please contact:

Director of Investor Relations and International Media

Andrew Keeley

 

Or

 

Head of Investor Relations

Anna Romelashvili

ir@tbcbank.com.ge
(file:///C:/Users/NGikoshvili/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/OZXDEM6G/ir@tbcbank.com.ge)

 

 

 

About TBC Bank Group PLC ("TBC PLC")

TBC Bank Group PLC ("TBC PLC") is a public limited company registered
in England and Wales. TBC PLC is the parent company of JSC TBC Bank ("TBC
Bank") and a group of companies that principally operate in Georgia in the
financial sector. TBC PLC also offers non-financial services via TNET, the
largest digital ecosystem in Georgia. Since 2019, TBC PLC has expanded its
operations into Uzbekistan by operating fast growing retail digital
financial services in the country. TBC PLC is listed on the London Stock
Exchange under the symbol TBCG and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It
is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index Series and the MSCI United Kingdom
Small Cap Index.

 

TBC Bank, together with its subsidiaries, is a leading universal banking group
in Georgia, with a total market share of 39.1% of customer loans and 39.3% of
customer deposits as of 31 March 2023, according to data published by the
National Bank of Georgia.

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  ACQBXLFLXELLBBX