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I could see this climbing to €7.50 in the next twelve months ahead of Govt looking to offload another 30% and take their holding below 50%. - any thoughts ?

The numbers The Consortium offer is $3.7bn including newest acqn MCPS for $470mn - so for the combined Skrill and PAYS business $3.2 bn. not to mention FANS and Access Income which have also been acquired since then. Optimal payed CVC $1.2bn for SKrill in 2015 ( remember CVC had only bought Skrill 2 yrs earlier for $400m) - At the time of the acquisition the combined business had a turnover of $697 - that is now closer to $ 1.2bn for 2017 ( assuming on 8th we continue with previous year growth trajectory) - we will know on the 8th how we are doing mid- year but I suspect we won't be far off that. Profitability and cashflow in the last two years have also grown exponentially and we are almost debt free. So on that basis - lets do a sum of the parts two years on - firstly combined business is now almost twice as large and growing strongly - plus all of the integration work is done and development spend for future proofing the business ( so a multiple of at least 2.5 times where we were pre Skrill acqn). After all we are in a consolidating market and size and scale of PAYS is key !! * Skrill = $1.2bn x 2.5 times - $3bn * MCPS is worth the purchase price +premium - $0.5bn * Optimal = $1.2bn x 2.5 times more - $3bn So a FV for the business to capture the combined entity, improvements in sales and margin, execution of merging of the two business and re-positioning it is $6.5bn (£5bn) per share that is something in the region of £10.30 Board should point out the above basic math to the folks over at CVC - after all they would just be rehashing their model to them !!

amen to that Tincup - 590 is just the opening salvo - PAYS wallet will be bought for much more ....already we have seen Barclays and Canacord are saying this is a low ball offer - I suspect we will get their revised target prices in the next fortnight - possibly after H1 update on the 8th but certainly pretty soon thereafter. A joint bid from Wirecard and Alipay is highly probable IMHO - the PAYS wallet is just too valuable to their global ambitions - who knows with a hotly contested bidding war we might even get £10+

so PAYS sells Asia gateway to the proposed buyer already lined up lets say for 9 times EV, fills the void left with the US acqn just announced (perhaps one or two more for good measure) but with less debt due to sale of Asian gateway and hey presto we are re-rated to 20x EV same as peers - so Mar Cap virtually doubles seems simple - I suspect others will also look at it in that regard and table new bids - Blackstone and CVC will be happy to take a 40%+ uplift in whatever shares they have acquired - activist investing at its most sublime !!

****right ...aaarrrrgh autocorrect :)

Cheers UJ - even a broken clock is write twice a day - so that puts my achievement into perspective :) agreed this is too low - I suspect we will see higher offers being flushed out with this bid - especially as folks know the Asian gateway business has a buyer lined up - so that removes a possible issue that might have been stopping other bidders. I would suspect an offer closer to 800p might be where this ends up but this offer at least puts us in the shop window. Clearly 590p is not doing it for investors with volumes today being less than 1% of issued share capital - so even pi's not blown away and sitting on hands. PA have been called in over the weekend apparently - so if they pass OLG before the deadline of the 18th Aug for the consortium bid then even 800p will look conservative. Watch this space IMHO

just a matter of time - digital wallet is jewel in the crown in the race to be a competitor to 800lb gorilla that is PAYPAL

Interesting .... by my math at 385p a share WPG was sold at a PE of 27 ...the weak FX rate of 1.13 compared to the 1.57 pre Brexit really has made higher PE multiples logical for US acquirers of UK plc's. At 515p PAYS is on a 2018E PE of 9.6 - so I suspect US multinationals might quickly see PAYS as very cheap given the weak cable FX rate

Brokers likely to up target sp of digital payment providers in coming weeks - WPG reported price tag of 450-500p puts it on a 30+ PE multiple PAYS target sp currently at PE of 11-13 is just way too cheap - just a matter of time before we become a target

The M&A season is now officially open in the Payments sector !! - this can only be good news in eroding the massive discount to peers - attractive targets like PAYS who are generating cash at a phenomenal rate and are virtually debt free and growing at double digit levels annually and significant pipeline of new digital products - I suspect our sp will soon start to reflect our true worth !!

Still long and strong Uncle John :) ....... get the feeling we are not far away from an announcement - perhaps we will see the higher end of your prediction in the not too distant future. GLA

That is a very good spot - 2/3 months early - and I note the "when they are exercised" very "forward looking statement" when compared to the bog standard RNS in JULY 2016 - perhaps something in it

I think I just saw a flying kitchen sink Technie :)

Thanks Technie- will be nice to be into the 500's - of course news of M&A and I expect us to go much higher.

@Technie - great to see you back posting - where do you see the next level of resistence ?

Here's hoping so nen2319 !! interestingly : * Oxford Asset mngmt has cut reported short to below the reportable level * was the RNS back in April a requirement for others to be willing to execute on "bold M&A" - if not then why the detailed RNS ? * neither JL nor BM-M(CFO) sold any of their LTIP shares last time even to cover tax liabilities - guessing they see a much higher sp on the horizon..... * PYPL and Wirecard have both reported stellar Qtr 1 results of +31% & 21% - so we should beat our "low double digit"

AGM is only a little over a week away so if there is going to be news we won't have long to go. Qtr 1 trading updates from Paypal ( +21% revenues) and Wirecard ( 30%) aurgur well for the sector - so at a minimum we have 5 -10 % But PAYS is trading at PE of 11 to PE of 27 for Wirecard and 41 for Paypal - so unless PAYS executes a deal soon it could very well be on the end of a bid from someone else - under a more diverse revenue group PAYS would be worth more than double and close to triple current value IMHO We have roughly the same revenue and profitability as Wirecard yet we trade at PE of 11 to their PE of 27 - PAYS MV= €2.6bn -v- Wirecards MV of €6 bn - hard to justify IMHO.

Yep - looks like we are nicely set up for a nice leg up as a minimum, maybe more :) .... tomorrow of course sees the closing of the door on EFH....but as they say when one door closes another one opens.....here's hoping it has M&A written on it :)

Agreed - feels like a bit of a tree shake to me - I wonder will start of next week be interesting GLA

looks good for next leg up next week - finished strong on low volumes which I read as a good sign GLA