First Data Completes Acquisition of Majority Interest in NYCE; First Data Acquires Approximately 64% of Electronic Payments and EFT Network
biz.yahoo.com
DENVER, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC), a leader in electronic commerce and payment services, and NYCE Corporation, a premier electronic payments organization and the owner of the NYCE® electronic funds transfer network, today announced the completion of First Data's purchase of a majority interest in NYCE. Under the agreement, First Data has taken approximately a 64% equity interest in NYCE.
As previously announced, NYCE will continue as a separate entity, maintaining its existing management team. NYCE services 48 million cardholders through 45,000 ATMs and 275,000 point-of-sale locations. The joint venture leverages the strong presence at the point of sale, the global processing capability, and the product development resources of First Data with NYCE's real-time payments expertise and capabilities.
In addition, building on First Data's successful alliance strategy of partnering with banks to provide premier payment services, four of NYCE's long-time principal shareholders -- Citibank, FleetBoston Financial, HSBC USA Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. -- will continue as equity partners, together with First Data.
``The alignment with NYCE is clearly a strategic move for First Data as we continue to expand our leadership role in offline and online debit payment services. Together, we will move forward in delivering premier debit payment offerings to the marketplace,'' said Charles T. Fote, president and chief operating officer of First Data Corp.
Dennis Lynch, president and chief executive officer of NYCE Corp., said, ``The business model created by the agreement between NYCE and First Data brings together the optimal blend of people, capital, technology, and financial institution point-of-view. These factors better position NYCE to offer real-time payments capabilities that are designed to help network participants attract and retain new customers, and generate new sources of revenue in electronic payments.''
Final terms of the transaction were not disclosed. First Data anticipates that the transaction will be non-dilutive to earnings in the first year and accretive in future years.
The transaction builds upon First Data's current debit business. In the U.S., First Data is the leading offline debit processor and with the addition of NYCE, First Data now touches well over one billion online debit point-of- sale transactions each year. Since 1992, First Data also has operated one of the largest debit switches in Australia. |
