BPTY.L Regulatory News (BPTY)

11 September 2014

bwin.party digital entertainment plc

Kalixa forms joint venture with Millicom

Kalixa, the payments service provider wholly owned by bwin.party digital entertainment plc, today announces the establishment of a 50:50 joint venture with Millicom, a leading international telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa.

The joint venture, which comes just three months after Kalixa acquired the PXP Solutions card payment processing business, represents a significant step in continuing to build externally generated business volume and revenue. The joint venture will develop a payments service provider for Africa and Latin America. Operations are scheduled to begin in Colombia and Brazil later this year with Kalixa and Millicom each making an initial investment of $4m and appointing two directors each to the joint venture's Board.

Payment acceptance services will be offered by the joint venture for both businesses and consumers, including payment gateway and point of sale solutions for merchants as well as a one-click payment and eWallet provision for online customers. This end-to-end payment solution will offer cross-platform, multi-device services.

The joint venture will benefit from Millicom's existing reach across Africa and Latin America through its high-profile 'Tigo' infrastructures in 14 countries and its online partnerships in 33 countries. Tigo provides a range of digital services including mobile communications, pay TV and platforms offering entertainment, mobile money, internet and broadband. The joint venture will also draw on Kalixa's experience of providing a full range of payment services, including issuing, acquiring and acceptance solutions to over 8,000 merchants across 100 markets.

Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa, said: "This joint venture is part of our three-year plan to grow the Kalixa group and leverage its strong technology and payment processing capabilities to increase shareholder value. As developing markets, Latin America and Africa represent a combined $1.78 trillion1 opportunity for the payments industry."

Millicom's CEO and President, Hans-Holger Albrecht, said: "Working with Kalixa will enable us to offer a complete digital payments service in markets where ecommerce is growing rapidly and where we already have a strong presence. It is a great combination of our respective expertise."

In its initial phase, the joint venture will provide an end-to-end service for ecommerce providers. Brazil is the largest market in Latin America with around 60% of its ecommerce by volume and 80% of the continent's top 500 e-merchants are present there. In Colombia, Millicom's largest market in Latin America, ecommerce is growing significantly at over 60% annually with 50% of internet users enjoying online shopping.

For bwin.party digital entertainment plc this joint venture agreement constitutes a Class 2 Transaction under Chapter 10 of the UK Listing Authority's Listing Rules, because of the exit provisions in the agreement. The exit terms for both parties allow the right of first refusal to purchase the exiting party's interest in the joint venture. The price to be paid in such circumstances may be determined by an independent expert and the joint venture agreement puts no cap on the consideration that the purchasing partner may be required to pay.

Contacts:

bwin.party digital entertainment plc 

Investors

Peter Reynolds +44 (0) 20 7337 0177

Media

John Shepherd +44 (0) 20 7337 0141

About Kalixa:

With its single payments platform, Kalixa provides merchants of all sizes with omni-channel payments from one supplier. It delivers value to customers by reducing costs, eliminating complexity, creating new revenue streams and delivering a seamless payments experience across multiple channels. Kalixa's four core products are Kalixa Pay, a prepaid e-wallet with 200,000 users across Europe, Kalixa Pro, an mPOS for small businesses and sole traders, Kalixa Accept, which allows merchants to accept more than 200 payment methods and the PXP Payment Gateway with customers including Urban Outfitters, Intercontinental Hotel Group, bwin.party and MasterCard. Kalixa has an addressable market of more than 100 countries worldwide. It has over 200 employees internationally and offices in London, Gibraltar, Cologne, Vienna and New York. For more information visit: www.kalixa.com

About Millicom:

Millicom is a leading international telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. Millicom sets the pace when it comes to providing digital lifestyle services to the world's emerging markets, giving access to the world, primarily through mobile devices. Operating in fifteen countries, Millicom offers innovative and customer-centric products. Millicom employs more than 10,000 people and provides mobile, cable, broadband, TV content, online and financial services to over 50 million customers. Founded in 1990, Millicom is headquartered in Luxembourg and listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the symbol MIC. In 2013 Millicom generated revenue of $5.16 billion and EBITDA of $1.9 billion.