Optimal Payments aims for the main market after Skrill buyout
OPTIMAL Payments looks set to make a leap on to the FTSE 250 after it announced plans for a €1.1bn (£804m) reverse takeover of rival firm Skrill.
Shares in the firm soared 24.66 per cent after it announced it would take over one of Europe’s leading digital payments firm.
The acquisition will give the enlarged group significant access to the increasingly lucrative online gambling market which is closely linked with digital wallet technology. Optimal Payments also expects to make £26m in efficiency saving each year until 2016.
To finance the acquisition, Optimal Payments has received £366m in credit through Bank of Montreal, Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank. In addition, the firm is planning on raising £451m through a rights issue which will see five new ordinary shares made available at 166p per share for every three existing shares.
Chairman Dennis Jones, described the takeover as an “exceptional” opportunity.