LONDON (Alliance News) - Payments company Mastercard Inc has made a takeover approach to Vocalink, Sky News reported on Thursday, a critical piece of payments infrastructure in the UK.
In the UK, VocaLink processes over 90% of salaries, more than 70% of household bills and almost all state benefits. Nearly every business and person in the UK uses its technology and last year the company processed over 11 billion transactions with a value of GBP6 trillion.
Last week, the UK's Payment Systems Regulator said said that Vocalink's ownership structure should change. Lloyds Banking Group PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC are among the biggest shareholders in Vocalink.
According to Sky News, a deal for Vocalink could be worth more than GBP1.0 billion. US-based Mastercard expressed interest in a takeover prior to the Payment Systems Regulator's comments, which followed a review into the ownership and competitiveness of the infrastructure that supports Bacs, Faster Payments System (FPS) and LINK.
Citing people close to the company, Sky News said that Mastercard is keen to acquire at least a partial stake in Vocalink.
Mastercard declined to comment, while Vocalink could not be reached, Sky News said.
http://news.sky.com/story/1652754/mastercard-plots-1bn-vocalink-takeover-bid
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Barclays (BARC)
Lloyds (LLOY)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
