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Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc., a smart-card technology and payment-services company registered in the United States but based in South Africa, purchased an 80.1% stake in Austria-based BGS Smartcard Systems SG, a spokesperson for Net 1 tells CardLine Global. BGS sells smart card payment systems to banks and other organizations in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, Oman and Vietnam. The company has provided some 5 million chip cards to Sberbank, or the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, the Net 1 spokesperson says, though it was unclear how many of the cards were debit or credit cards. The Russian bank is the largest customer for BGS, Net 1 says. The bank owns 19.9% of BGS. For its stake, Net 1 paid about 75.1 million euros (US$109.9 million) and issued to "certain shareholders" 40,134 shares of Net 1 common stock. The spokesperson says Vietnam is the only country where Net 1 and BGS both have operations. Further acquisitions by Net 1 this year are "unlikely," the spokesperson says, as this deal provides "amazing synergies." Net 1 on Friday reported a net income of nearly US$86.7 million (59.2 million euros) for the fiscal year ended 30 June, up 36% from US$63.7 million for the last fiscal year.
