blokt.com
A £198 million payment will make Earthport Plc a part of Visa Inc., the leading global payments firm based in the US, as confirmed by Visa’s Thursday statement.
Earthport is also a partner of Ripple, a San Francisco based startup that is leading the world of digital currency payments and leveraging the traditional banking system.
What is Earthport?
Earthport is a British firm that helps in facilitating cross-border transactions for businesses and banks.
Visa International Service Association, a unit of Visa Inc. is offering 30 pence for each share of the British company. This is 4x the price of the company’s Monday closing share price of 7.45 pence.
The shares surged quickly on Thursday following the announcement and traded close to the offer price.
Headquartered in London, Earthport called Visa’s buyout proposal “fair and reasonable” and said that it would recommend shareholders to take up the all-cash offer by the company.
The company’s shares took a beating on the London Stock Exchange this year, as they fell over 28 percent with growing expenses and losses for the company.
The company noted last month that it needed “fundamental” changes to its strategy.
Earthport’s Crypto Connection
Earthport offers a low-cost alternative system of payments by allowing money transfer firms and banks to have a single connection instead of multiple payments channels.
The firm is a partner of Ripple and announced an API that could help in making banks connection with Ripple’s cross-border payments network easier for small institutions.
Cross-border payments are an important part of Visa’s businesses, facilitating transactions between two or more countries is a growing market.
The volumes of these payments increased by 10% in the fiscal year of 2018 alone, according to an October statement by Visa.
The British firm has top banks as partners across the globe, including Japan Post Bank and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The offer Visa proposed is revised from the company’s initial indicative offer given last month.
Visa was advised by Goldman Sachs while Earthport’s advisors were Rothschild & Co.
RELATED ARTICLES
MORE FROM OUR PARTNERS
Advertisement
[blokt] is a leading independent blockchain news outlet that maintains the highest possible professional and ethical journalistic standards. Journalists are required to meet our editorial policies and guidelines.