Mint Payments (Mint) has announced the successful transformative acquisition of IPG Group, a leading full-service eCommerce payment gateway.
Established in 1997, IPG Group has delivered white label payment gateway solutions to large merchant acquiring organisations in Europe and has built a best of breed, enterprise payment gateway, establishing an extensive global network of acquirers with a wide range of payment methods.
Strategic Rationale
The acquisition is transformative for Mint, with the combined organisation processing over $2 billion in transaction value and over 80 million transactions annually. This acquisition delivers over $10m in revenue, resulting in the business being EBITDA and cash flow positive for the year.
Mint and IPG are strategically aligned, providing market leading end-to-end payment solutions across targeted industry verticals. The combined group will have a strong focus in the following industry verticals:
Travel
Education
Ticketing and Events
Insurance
General eCommerce
IPG’s focus on online education, ticketing and events, insurance and general eCommerce verticals will provide Mint with diversity and fast-tracks Mint’s own expansion plans within these lucrative industry verticals.
From a technology perspective, both Mint and IPG will leverage their combined strengths in Card Present (CP) and Card Not Present (CNP) capabilities to deliver a truly omnichannel payment solution that will allow for opportunities to cross-sell new products and grow revenues across all customers and industry verticals.
Successful Capital Raising of $10M
To support the acquisition and underpin expansion plans, Mint successfully raised $10m from existing and new investors through the issue of $7m in convertible preference shares and $3m in convertible notes from a new institutional investor, HGL Limited. The composition of the capital raise delivers the optimal funding structure for the business moving forward and supports Mint’s growth plans and aspirations for the future.
Mint Payments CEO, Alex Teoh said:
“We are excited to have completed this transformative acquisition of IPG Group, which has established itself as one of the most reliable, full-service, enterprise-grade online payment gateways in the Asia-Pacific region. We have been incredibly impressed with the founders and leadership team and look forward to the next stage of our journey together.
By bringing the two businesses together, the clear synergies and strategic alignment between the two organisations will unlock value and reinforces the merit of this transaction to Mint and its shareholders.
We are pleased and thankful for the strong support we have received from new and existing investors, both recognising the unique value proposition of Mint and IPG and the opportunity that lies ahead as we position ourselves for the inevitable recovery in travel”.
In September 2021, Mint successfully launched a new real-time Mint EFT payment product and, in the process, secured significant new agreements with Helloworld and Flight Centre. Mint continues to deliver its strategy and vision to be a leading full-service, end-to-end payments provider across the travel, education, ticketing and events, and general eCommerce markets.