International Game Technology Monday announced the sale of its payments business, LISPAY S.p.A., to PostePay S.p.A for 700 million euros.
The sale price represents an enterprise value of 630 million euros and approximately 70 million euros of net unrestricted cash.
Per the agreement, IGT will sell LIS Holding S.p.A. and indirectly LISPAY S.p.A., wholly owned subsidiaries conducing IGT’s proximity payment business.
LISPAY is a payment technology platform that allows consumers to pay bills such as utilities, buy prepaid phone sim cards, pay taxes, among other services, through 54,000 point of sale locations.
“New IGT CEO Vince Sadusky was appointed Jan ’22, and we think one of his main goals is to monetize and or highlight undervalued portions of the story. We think this is a great example, as we doubt investors were widely aware of this business prior to the sale announcement today, and we don’t recall it being discussed commonly by IGT. IGT previously reported the segment within other commercial services, within the lottery business,” said Ben Chaiken, analyst with Credit Suisse.
“This transaction provides us with an opportunity to monetize IGT’s market leadership in the Italian proximity payment business at an attractive value as we continue to execute our long-term strategy,” said IGT CEO Vince Sadusky in a statement. “Streamlining our products and solutions portfolio enables us to focus our efforts and resources on our core and strategic assets, as we position IGT for industry leadership and increased shareholder value.”
LIS Holding S.p.A. and iLISPAY S.p.A. conduct IGT’s proximity payment business. Services offered by the companies range from payments services, including bill payments and prepaid payment cards; commercial services providing telco and e-vouchers top up; and technological solutions, including merchant and enterprise services.
LIS Holding S.p.A. and iLISPAY S.p.A. generated about 228 million euros in gross revenues in 2021, reflecting a valuation multiple in line with the most recent Italian transactions in the proximity payments sector.
IGT will use net proceeds from the transaction primarily to reduce debt.
IGT’s Board of Directors has approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2022.
