Visa ups bid for payment network Earthport to £247m in race with Mastercard

Visa has increased its bid for UK payment company Earthport to around £247m as the race with Mastercard intensifies.

Last month, Mastercard offered around £233m for the assets but Visa has now trumped that with its latest offer of 37p per share, 23 per cent more than its original bid.

Earthport's shares have grown by more than five-fold since Visa's initial offer and rose to 42p in the wake of the US-based card network's latest bid on Friday.

The global payment network has advised shareholders to accept this latest offer, despite previously recommending that the Mastercard deal was accepted.

“Earthport can complement the development of Visa’s payment solutions and intends to use its resources to help Earthport grow,” Visa said.

Rivals Mastercard encouraged Earthport shareholders to take “no action” to the Visa bid, while it considers its options.

Earthport allows for banks and money transfer firms to have a single relationship rather than multiple ties with various payment companies around the world.

It is cheaper than traditional payment systems and is an area that is becoming increasingly popular for deal making down in large to the technological changes in the way consumers pay.