PayPoint has acquired rival card payments company Handepay and its associated leasing provider, Merchant Rentals, for approximately £70m.

Announcing the deal to investors, PayPoint hinted it would be looking to boost its revenues by persuading PayPoint customers to undertake Handepay card payment agreements and vice versa.

Chief executive Nick Wiles said the deal “creates synergies through cross-selling of other PayPoint services and leveraging the scale of the combined business”.

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Alongside PayPoint’s existing 9,000 retailer card payments customers, Handepay brings with it more than 21,000 new merchants spanning grocery retail, hospitality, food services and motor mechanics.

The convenience EPoS company said there was “very little overlap” between its customers.
PayPoint said despite the rise of card payments during the coronavirus pandemic, “there remains substantial growth potential, with circa two million [small and medium businesses] still not accepting card payments.

‘PayPoint retailer contracts breach competition law’ says regulator

“In line with the move to local convenience shopping, 81% of people claimed they would be more inclined to shop locally if they knew shops accepted cards.”

While PayPoint said Handepay had a “best-in-class customer proposition”, referencing its 4.9/5 Trustpilot rating, several retailers expressed concerns to Better Retailing over what they described as lengthy, hard-to-exit contracts and unwarranted charges.

Read more about Paypoint and EPoS