LONDON (Alliance News) - Payments company eServGlobal Ltd Monday said it swung to a first-half pretax profit on the back of a gain from the creation of its HomeSend SRCL joint venture with MasterCard Inc and Belgacom's BICS, as well an increase in revenue due new customer wins.
In a statement, eServGlobal, whose core business focuses on mobile payments in emerging markets, where it can help customers who do not have traditional banking facilities to make and receive payments, said it made a AUD33.8 million pretax profit in the six months ended April 30, compared with a AUD2.1 million pretax loss in the corresponding period a year earlier. Revenue increased to AUD16.9 million from AUD13.6 million, while expenses for research and development, sales and marketing, and administration rose to AUD11.2 million from AUD9.8 million. Foreign exchange gains were up to AUD1.4 million from AUD1.1 million.
But the single largest item in the company's profit or loss statement was the AUD33.9 million gain arising from the creation of the HomeSend joint venture, which is tasked with enabling cross-border remittances and domestic transfers between individuals' mobile money accounts, payment cards, bank accounts or cash outlets from anywhere in the world. MasterCard will have a majority share of the joint venture, while eServGlobal will hold 35%.
Meanwhile, eServGlobal said that it has appointed Duncan Lewis as its permanent non-executive chairman. He replaces Steve Baldwin, who had been acting in the role after Richard Mathews quit in March due to his increased workload as chief executive and managing director of RungePincockMinarco, a mining services company traded on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Lewis has held senior roles at BT PLC, Cable and Wireless Communications PLC, and is currently an independent director of Spirent Communications PLC. He also has served as a senior adviser to Carlyle Group, the US asset manager known for its private equity arm.
Chief Executive Paolo Montessori told Alliance News that Lewis will provide useful insight as eServGlobal moves into the next stage of its development.
"Management and board's focus over the past couple of years has been on restructuring the business and getting the costs in line. Now that cash position has improved, we have the ability to start looking at inorganic opportunities. We're in a position for the first time in many years, from both a financial and even in an operational bandwidth perspective, to focus on inorganic opportunities," Montessori told Alliance News.
?We'll consider many opportunities. It can be an adjacent vertical. It can be an expansion of our geographic capabilities from our core. There's many things to consider," Montessori added. "We've achieved our three-year plan by turning this business back to profitability," the CEO said.
"We will focus the next three years on growing our core business."
eServGlobal shares were Monday quoted at 41.50 pence, down 4.1%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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