Paysafe Posts Strong Results in H1 2017 as Payments Sector Grows

It is a busy time for Paysafe, the UK-based Payments service provider, as it announced its unaudited interim results for H1 2017 for the period ending June 30, close on the heels of news of a bid for its acquisition by the Blackstone Group.

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Its total revenue jumped 11% year on year, coming in at $538.7 million as against $486.7 million in H1 2016. Though this shows robust growth, it should be noted that this is much less than the extraordinary 118% growth that Paysafe achieved last year.

The Adjusted Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) came in at $169.2 million, which indicates an EBITDA margin of 31.4%. This compares favourably to the 29.6% achieved during the same period last year. This improvement came about due to improved gross margins in its payment processing and digital wallets divisions, two of the fastest growing sectors throughout the payment industry.

Statutory operating profit for H1 2017 came in at $99.6 million, an 11% increase against $89.7 million in H1 2016.

Other Highlights of Half Year

Other highlights for the first half of 2017 included the Acquisition of Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions (MCPS) for $470 million, of which $380 million was financed by debt. So, considering this acquisition, the revenue of Paysafe group would have increased by $167 million and adjusted EBITDA would have increased by $25 million.

Paysafe also increased its headcount by 9% to 2,299 from 2,116 in December 2016, which reflected the increased need for platform development and maintenance and compliance operations. The company also migrated its tax governance from the Isle of Man to the UK.

Paysafe Chairman Dennis Jones said: “After exceptional trading in 2016, Paysafe Group has returned to a more sustainable level of low-double-digit revenue growth in the first half of 2017. This reflects our increasingly diversified set of businesses as the management team continues to build a stable and robust global payments platform. To that end, we were pleased to announce the acquisition of US-based MCPS in July, which strengthens our processing business, increases Paysafe Group’s scale in North American acquiring and helps us to continue re-balancing our portfolio away from online gambling.”

Due to the offer given by Blackstone Group for the acquisition of Paysafe, the company has been restricted from giving its forward guidance for 2017. Overall, the numbers reflect strong and robust growth in the company, which is no surprise considering the fact that it is a leader in one of the fastest growing sectors in the financial world.