A takeover battle has broken out between two of the world's credit card giants for payment solutions business Earthport PLC (LON:EPO).
Mastercard today trumped Visa’s previously agreed offer by 10% with its own bid worth 33p per share cash or £233mln in total. Visa‘s offer was 30p per share but Earthport has now recommended the bid by Mastercard.
In a brief statement, released in the afternoon noting the move, Visa said it "is considering its options and a further announcement will be made in due course".
READ: Earthport surges as it recommends £200mln offer from Visa
In late afternoon trading, Earthport shares jumped by 29.1% to 35.90p, pointing to the possibility of a higher bid. In December, shares in Earthport were trading at 7.45p.
Mastercard has more than 100 offices in 66 countries around the world and intends to consolidate the offices of the two companies if the bid goes through.
Sunil Sabharwal, Earthport’s interim chairman, said: "The Board of Earthport is pleased to recommend Bidco's cash offer for Earthport which is at a 10 per cent. premium to the Visa proposal. This offer provides our shareholders with even greater value in cash for their shares."
Earthport provides cross-border payment services to banks and businesses but had a difficult 2018 that included the loss of a major payment customer, reduced transaction volumes and a management shakeup. Revenues in the year to June were £31.9mln with operating losses of £8.4mln.
Commenting on the move, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: “The question now is will Visa come back with an improved bid.”
He added: “Longer-term investors in the company may be less enthused by this new 33p bid, given the shares were trading above 40p as recently as 2015, but the inability to make the breakthrough into profitability since listing on AIM way back in 2001 suggests a cash exit is not the worst outcome.”
-- Adds Visa statement, updates share price --