Shareholders in Paypoint PLC (LON:PAY) got an early Christmas present as the payments company announced the sale of its Mobile Payments business and said it will return proceeds from the disposal to them via a special dividend.
PayPoint has sold the business to Volkswagen Financial Services AG, a unit of German carmaker Volkswagen for £26.5mln in cash.
From those proceeds, the FTSE 250-listed firm said it will pay a 38.9p per share special dividend to shareholders on January 11.
PayPoint said its Mobile Payments arm is currently performing better than previously anticipated, but the sale is in line with its strategy of narrowing its focus on multi-channel payments services in regions where it has retail networks in place.
PayPoint chief executive, Dominic Taylor said: “ With the major restructuring completed in line with our strategy, we can now direct our entire focus on the development of our retail business, including the continued rollout of our new PayPoint One terminal and EPoS."
Shares in Paypoint ended the half-day trading session 2% higher, up 19p at 965p.