NETeller, MoneyBookers: Data Theft

LONDON and MONTREAL (30 November 2015) - Further to the announcement on 29 October 2015 relating to historic personal data breaches, Paysafe Group Plc (LSE AIM: PAYS "Paysafe", the "Group" or the "Company"), can update on the findings of its investigation, which are as follows:

• The illegally-obtained data in the hands of third parties relates to limited account details from 3.6m NETELLER accounts and basic personal details relating to 4.2m Skrill accounts. Less than 2% of those NETELLER and Skrill accounts were active in the six months to 1 November 2015. Such data does not include passwords, card data or bank account information. Paysafe engaged a major accounting firm as part of its investigation, which has verified these findings.

• The Company believes that this data emanated from the cyber-attacks in 2009 and 2010 and is not aware of any similar breaches since that time.

• The Company is confident that this data will not in itself allow any existing NETELLER or Skrill customer accounts to be accessed.

As previously announced on 29 October 2015, in 2010 the Company's subsidiary NETELLER was the target of a cyber-attack, which resulted in certain customer information being stolen. NETELLER reported this to the appropriate authorities at the time, and a third-party, independent forensic report was undertaken by a major accounting firm. The recommendations of the report were then followed and security was significantly strengthened with the aim of taking NETELLER beyond the industry standard.

The Company became aware that around 1,500 customers subsequently had their accounts compromised following the 2010 cyber-attack. The Company immediately took action to restore these accounts and all customers were reimbursed. The Company is not aware of any other remimbursal requests related to this incident since 2011.

In 2015, the Company bought Skrill Group. Skrill (then operating as Moneybookers) had experienced a cyber-attack in 2009, which resulted in customer information being stolen. As with NETELLER, Skrill reported the hack to appropriate authorities at the time. A third-party, independent forensic report was undertaken by a major accounting firm. The recommendations of this report were then followed and security was also significantly strengthened.

The Group's executive management team, IT leadership and security protocols and standards have changed considerably since the breaches more than five years ago. The significant investment made to cybersecurity in recent years will continue into the future as Paysafe works to ensure it has the appropriate systems in place to defend against cybersecurity threats.

About Paysafe

Paysafe Group Plc (formerly Optimal Payments Plc) is a global provider of online payment solutions, trusted by businesses and consumers in over 200 countries and territories to move and manage billions of dollars each year.  Merchants use Paysafe's services and gateway platforms and innovative prepaid products and solutions to simplify how they accept credit and debit card, direct‑from‑bank, and alternative and local payments; while Paysafe's NETELLER®, Skrill® and paysafecard® services are used by merchants to increase revenues and capture new customers. Consumers use the multilingual and multicurrency NETELLER, Net+® Card, Skrill and Skrill Card stored-value offerings and the paysafecard prepaid solutions to make secure and convenient payments and payolution® for their invoices and instalment payments. Paysafe also supports a wide variety of prepaid programmes - from white-label prepaid cards to bespoke solutions.

NETeller Optimal Payments Trading Statement

LONDON, MONTREAL and NEW YORK (21 May, 2015) - Optimal Payments Plc (LSE AIM: OPAY, "Optimal Payments" or the "Group")announces a trading update for the year to date ahead of the Annual General Meeting taking place later today.
Revenue and EBITDA in US Dollars (the Group's reporting currency) for the year to date for Optimal Payments' existing operations are in line with expectations notwithstanding the recent weakness of the Euro.  The consolidation of Meritus and GMA in the US, acquired in July 2014, has progressed well and these businesses are being managed as one integrated business unit together with the NETBANX Straight Through Processingbusiness.  The strong trading we experienced in 2014 has continued in 2015 with both the NETELLER Stored Value and NETBANXbusinesses performing very well.
Acquisition of Skrill
The principal focus of corporate activity in this financial year has been on the acquisition of Skrill for a total consideration of €1.1 billion and its associated funding.
In the period since the announcement of the transaction, the equity element of this funding has been accomplished through a fully underwritten rights issue of five new ordinary shares at 166p for every three shares held to raise a total of £451 million.  Acceptances were received from qualifying shareholders for almost 97 per cent. of the total new ordinary shares being offered with the balance being placed with institutional investors at 290p.  In addition, a funding term loan of €500 million, also fully underwritten by BMO, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, has been successfully raised together with the arrangement of a €78 million revolving credit facility.
Completion of the acquisition is now subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, which primarily comprises regulatory approval by the UK's FCA, which is expected to be received in Q3.  On completion, the vendors of Skrill will receive the agreed cash consideration of €720 million and approximately 37.5 million new ordinary shares in Optimal Payments, representing 7.9 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital of the Group.  These shares are subject to lock-in arrangements for a period of 180 days from the date of issue.
Management has continued to plan the integration of Skrill into the Group with a dedicated internal team addressing all aspects of combining the two groups and focusing in particular on the combination of Skrill's Stored Value businesses with NETELLER.  As originally announced, the Group expects to generate some $40 million of synergy benefits by the end of the first full year of ownership to 31 December 2016.  These benefits are in addition to the customer and geographic diversification and the increased scale and market presence of the enlarged Group.
At the time of the announcement of the transaction, it was stated that Skrill was due to complete a small acquisition of its own - Ukash, a pre-paid e-money payment provider.  This acquisition completed on 31 March 2015 and will be merged into Skrill's paysafecard business.
Main market listing
As a consequence of the substantially increased size of the enlarged Group, it was announced that Optimal Payments would seek admission to listing of its ordinary shares on the premium segment of the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities. The process to move from AIM to the main market is underway and, following such a move, it is expected that the Company's ordinary shares would be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 Index of the London Stock Exchange.
Half Year results and Capital Markets Day
Half Year results for the existing Optimal Payments businesses to 30 June 2015 are expected to be announced on 26 August 2015.
The Group intends to host a Capital Markets Day during Q4 for investors, analysts and lenders. At the event, management will set out its strategy for the combined businesses of Optimal Payments and Skrill and report on integration progress.  It is expected that this event will take place in November 2015 and will be accompanied by a trading update.
Commenting on today's trading update, Joel Leonoff, President & CEO, said:
"We were delighted with the response from all of our shareholders to the acquisition of Skrill which  is a real game changer for us. The enlarged Optimal Payments, on completion, will become a leading player in the markets we serve and create additional opportunities for further profitable growth.  It will also deliver benefits to our shareholders in the shape of accretive earnings from next year, enhanced liquidity from the intended move to the main market and, in due course, inclusion in the FTSE 250."
Dennis Jones, Chairman of Optimal Payments, said:
"On behalf of the Board, I'd like to thank our shareholders for their support and our management team and staff for their hard work in turning the acquisition of Skrill from an aspiration into a reality."
About Optimal Payments Plc
Optimal Payments is a global provider of online payment solutions, trusted by businesses and consumers in over 200 countries and territories to move and manage billions of dollars each year. Merchants use the NETBANX® platform and services to simplify how they accept credit and debit card, direct-from-bank, and alternative and local payments; and the NETELLER® service to increase revenues and capture new customers. Consumers use the multilingual and multicurrency NETELLER and Net+® Card stored-value offering to make secure and convenient payments. In addition, Optimal Payments Card Services, another division of Optimal Payments, provides innovative prepaid products and services to merchants.  Optimal Payments Plc is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM, with a ticker symbol of OPAY. Subsidiary company Optimal Payments Ltd is authorized and regulated as an e-money issuer by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 900015).

Deposit BitCoin into NETeller

Bitcoin is an online payment system and so is NETeller. Now you can use the one to fund the other. BitCoin is peer-to-peer; users can transact directly without needing an intermediary. Transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the block chain. The ledger uses its own unit of account, also called bitcoin. The system works without a central repository or single administrator. Bitcoin is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency. NETeller on the other hand is more like a traditional bank. Optimal Payments, the company behind NETeller, is the central instance.


Today Optimal Payments Plc announced that they allow customers to use Bitcoin to top up their NETeller accounts. This announcement follows the entering into of an agreement between Optimal Payments and BitPay Inc., one of the world’s largest Bitcoin payment providers and processors and makes Optimal Payments one of the first major financial institutions to facilitate digital currency transactions on a global scale.

Through Optimal Payments’ agreement with BitPay, NETELLER customers will now be able to top up their accounts by exchanging Bitcoin into one of the currencies offered by NETELLER.

“NETELLER already provides merchants and customers a broad and diverse set of online payment options and the addition of Bitcoin gives them another valuable payment method to help convert more transactions” said Joel Leonoff, president and CEO, Optimal Payments. “We recognise the important role that crypto-currencies play in the future of payments and we look forward to working with BitPay as the acceptance rate grows.”

BitPay's processing offering mitigates the risk of Bitcoin price volatility by allowing the merchant to accept Bitcoins and immediately convert them to the currency of choice. Since BitPay works across multiple currencies, it is a suitable payment option for those who sell their products and services throughout the world. Merchants have the ability to accept Bitcoins with numerous open source plugins and hosted solutions. Bitcoin is a payment solution that not only saves money in transaction fees by being digital,  but also saves time when compared to other payment options that require the manual input of information in order to complete a transaction. BitPay helps make accepting bitcoin payments easy and services over 140 different countries.

“Bitcoin’s popularity is growing rapidly and has established itself as the most secure, most widely accepted digital currency” said Sonny Singh, chief operating officer, BitPay Inc. “This relationship with Optimal Payments will help us to drive merchant acceptance on a global scale.”

For over a decade, the NETELLER stored value service has provided businesses and individuals with a fast, simple and secure way to move money online. As one of the world’s largest independent money transfer businesses, it processes billions of dollars’ worth of transactions each year. NETELLER is constantly seeking ways to enhance its services to merchants and help them expand their businesses globally.

Optimal Payments Presents 2014 Full Year Results

Monday, 23 March 2015 – Optimal Payments Plc (LSE: OPAY) (the “Group”), a leading global provider of online payments, today announces its results for the year ended 31 December 2014.

Highlights

• Full year performance reflects significant organic and inorganic growth:
• Revenues up 44% to $365.0m (2013: $253.4m).
• EBITDA up 65% to $86.1m (2013: $52.2m).
• Profit after tax increased by 83% to $57.7m (2013: $31.5m).
• Adjusted diluted EPS increased 50% to $0.38 (2013: $0.25); statutory EPS increased 64% to $0.36 (2013: $0.22).
• Revenue and profitability significantly boosted by the World Cup in the first half.
• Successful acquisition of the Meritus and GMA businesses in the US in July 2014, contributing to the growth and diversification of the Group.
• Substantial improvement in NETELLER Stored Value (“SV”) business: revenues up 50% to $89.6m (2013:
• $59.8m) driven by underlying improvements in customer conversion and further development of VIP programs.
• Strong growth from NETBANX Straight Through Processing (“STP”) business: revenues up 42% to $274.7m (2013: $193.0m), incorporating revenue from the acquired US businesses, underlying growth of 19% excluding Meritus and GMA revenues incorporated in the second half of 2014.
• Highly cash generative with Group cash (net of merchant cash) of $106.5m (31 December 2013: $93.8m).
• Free cash of approximately $44.0m (31 December 2013: $38.0m) – after funding $26.6m in part consideration and acquisitions costs for the US businesses.
• Net debt position of $26.3m – bank facility of $150m was secured to fund US acquisitions; remaining shareholder loans cleared in January 2014.
• Significant progress on key strategic initiatives:
• Principal Membership with Visa Europe and MasterCard Europe achieved; this service was launched to merchants in the European Union in Q4 2014 and positions our NETBANX offering to service more of the payment value chain and provide an efficient, cost effective proposition to the market.
• NETELLER and Net+ products launched in the US in March 2014 with good adoption by merchants in the three states which have regulated online gambling.
• Successful partnerships forged in the rapidly developing area of fantasy sports leagues, confident of the prospects for growth in payment processing in this market.
• Launch of a new card issuing services division and the NETELLERGO! offering for ecommerce merchants outside of gaming to contribute to continued growth.
• Integration of the US businesses acquired in July 2014 progressing well.

Dennis Jones appointed as Non-Executive Chairman with Andrew Dark and Ian Jenks appointed as Non-Executive Directors of the Board in July 2014 to strengthen governance. Brian McArthur-Muscroft appointed as CFO, with effect from 1 January 2015, to contribute to the continued growth of the Group.