Wirecard's acquisitions, 2009–2018

analysisWirecard's expansion into Asia began on 16 December 2009 with an agreement to buy all of E-Credit Plus Pte. Ltd. of Singapore and its subsidiaries; the shares were transferred on 28 December 2009, Wirecard obtained control on 1 January 2010, and the 2010 report puts the purchase price at EUR 13.283 million. From 13 January 2011 it took over Procard Services FZ LLC of Dubai, a provider of payment processing, card acceptance and card issuing services, for EUR 670,000 plus EUR 11.561 million of assumed debt, and in December 2011 it bought Systems@Work Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, known for its TeleMoney brand, with subsidiaries in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, for EUR 34.726 million in cash plus two earn-out components of up to SGD 22.5 million. ^{1 2}

analysisIn the same month the newly formed British subsidiary Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd. took over Newcastle Building Society's prepaid card issuing business, about 1.5 million cards in six European countries, in two phases: first as outsourcing provider for the main functions, then taking control once the UK Financial Services Authority authorised it as an e-money institution. The chief executive's letter for 2011 notes that Wirecard Bank was the first non-Chinese bank to offer China UnionPay's online acquiring licence and that the platform processed EUR 15.5 billion that year. ²

analysisThe purchase of Citi Prepaid Card Services, announced on 29 June 2016 as a combined share and asset deal, closed on 9 March 2017 with control over Ecount Inc. and the individual assets; the transaction vehicle Kestrel Mergers Acquisitions Corp. of Conshohocken merged into Wirecard North America Inc. On 6 March 2017 Wirecard bought MyGate Communications Pty Ltd. of Cape Town, a payment service provider with about 20 staff, for EUR 13.1 million. ¹

analysisOn 13 March 2017 Wirecard agreed with the Citigroup subsidiaries Citibank, N.A. and Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation to acquire the customer portfolios of Citi's card-acceptance business in eleven Asia-Pacific markets with more than 20,000 merchants; the Malaysian portfolio passed on 31 January 2018, the Indian on 31 August 2018 and those of Australia and New Zealand on 25 October 2018. Mainly as a result, goodwill rose by EUR 39.7 million to EUR 705.9 million at the end of 2018. EY treated the acquisition as a key audit matter because management had to judge whether it was a business combination, how to allocate the price and how to value liabilities from customer contracts. The 2018 report also describes partnerships with Crédit Agricole Payment Services in Europe and with Mizuho Bank for Japanese retailers in Singapore and Hong Kong. ²