Net1 Acquires Controlling Stake in Masterpayment and Signs Strategic Co-Operation Agreement With Bank Frick

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - April 04, 2016) -  Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. ("Net1" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: UEPS) (JSE: NT1) today announced that it has acquired a 60% interest in Masterpayment AG ("Masterpayment"), a specialist payment services processor based in Munich, Germany.

Masterpayment provides payment and acquiring services for all major European debit and credit cards; and invoicing for online retail, digital goods and content. Masterpayment currently has a client portfolio of approximately 5,000 registered merchants.

In collaboration with Bank Frick & Co. AG ("Bank Frick"), a Liechtenstein-based bank, Masterpayment provides its e-commerce merchants with working capital optimization by providing a flexible form of financing, which employs a trading transaction instead of traditional bank credit. Masterpayment's "Finetrading" product enables the seamless financing of a merchant's inventory orders, resulting in accelerated payment settlement and the elimination of the requirement for a merchant to maintain rolling reserves or cash advances.

As part of the transaction, Net1 and Masterpayment have entered into a long term co-operation agreement with Bank Frick, in terms of which Bank Frick will become Net1's strategic banking partner and will provide the Company with the support and banking services required to deploy Net1's products and services, including VCPay, Finetrading and money remittances in Europe.

The management team of Masterpayment and a Bank Frick-affiliate will retain the remaining 40% interest in Masterpayment. Net1 has negotiated an option to purchase the remaining 40% shareholding upon the achievement of certain milestones.

"The acquisition of a majority stake in Masterpayment and the strategic co-operation agreement with Bank Frick provides Net1 with the critical tools required to expand our product suite and geographic reach into Europe," said Serge Belamant, Chairman and CEO of Net1. "The Masterpayment management team has developed a very interesting and unique business model that will provide us with specialist processing, business development and marketing resources in Europe and we look forward to their contributions as part of the Net1 group. We are delighted to have Bank Frick as our strategic banking partner and we are completely aligned with bank's progressive vision of enabling innovative payment products and financial technology across Europe," he concluded.