Fresh from its $175 million convertible bond sale, US electronic payments processor and ATM operator Euronet has acquired Instreamline, an e-payments processing subsidiary of Greece's Piraeus Bank, for around EUR14.7m.
Euronet said last month that it was selling $155 million of convertible debt and would use the net proceeds to finance acquisitions.
Instreamline, the first acquisition, provides outsourced credit card and point-of-sale services, in addition to debit card and transaction gateway switching services to Piraeus Bank.
Under the deal Euronet has acquired Instreamline's shared POS network in Greece and its related host-to-host connections to five banks in the country.
As part of the acquisition Euronet says Instreamline has signed an exclusive eight-year agreement with Piraeus Bank to provide outsourced credit card and POS services to the bank in Greece and its affiliates in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. Additionally, Euronet will provide ATM outsourcing services for Piraeus Bank's ATMs in the Balkan region.
Commenting on the acquisition, Daniel Henry, Euronet president and COO, says: "The rationale behind this move is straightforward - Euronet acquired a knowledgeable company providing Western European standard credit card and POS outsourcing services, which complements our current EFT outsourcing offering and enables us to gain a stronger foothold in Greece and the Balkan region with a leading multinational bank."
Euronet says it expects Instreamline to add between one and two cents to its fully diluted earnings per share as it integrates the newly acquired business into its EFT processing division.