Interim Management Statement
PayPoint plc
Interim Management Statement
25 January 2011
The board reports on events, transactions and trading from 27 September to 26
December 2010.
Bill and general payment transactions in the UK are up over 6% on last year,
which is ahead of our expectations. Â In prepaid gas and electricity especially,
the cold weather experienced by most of the country has benefited transaction
volumes.  The number of bill payments in Romania has doubled compared to the
same period last year, with 3.3 million transactions processed in the period.
Mobile top-up volumes in the UK, Romania and Ireland continue to be lower than
last year, as a consequence of mobile operators offering consumers more airtime
for lower prices. Â Retail services continue to show encouraging growth with
transaction volumes increasing by 29% on last year.
Internet transactions increased over 40% to 17 million compared to 12 million
for the same period last year. We expect to process transactions this financial
year for our three new large gaming merchants (Unibet, Sporting Bet, and Stan
James).
In Romania, we have now replaced all mobile only sites with full service sites
in our continuing efforts to broaden the business, making it less reliant on
mobile top-ups. Â We will introduce money transfer services across the country
through PayPoint terminals in the next financial year. Â Growth in bill payments
has been encouraging, but the continuing decline in mobile top-ups has pushed
back profitability into the next financial year.
Performance(1) for the period from 27 September 2010 to 26 December 2010(2) and
financial position(1) as at 26 December 2010
Terminal sites in the UK and Ireland increased by 318 and by 298 in Romania.
Transactions processed in the period were 162 million, including 3.6 million of
PayByPhone transactions, up 11% from 146 million in the same period last year.
Revenues of £51 million were up 1% on the same period as last year, including a
decline in mobile top-up revenues of £1.6 million.
Net revenues(3) for the period were up 7% to £22 million, as a result of growth
in bill payment, retail services and the acquisition of PayByPhone.
Earnings before tax and interest for the period to 26 December are in line with
market expectations, taking seasonality of trading into account.
After the payment of the interim dividend of £5 million, part repayment of the
short-term loan of £4 million and corporation tax of £2 million, net cash(4) at
26 December was £16 million (including client cash of £8 million), compared to
£13 million (including client cash of £7 million) at 26 September 2010.
(1) PayPoint's auditors have not been requested to review the performance or
financial
     position
(2) Comparative data is given for the similar 13 week period last year (i.e. 28
September to
     27 December 2009)
(3) Net revenue is revenue less the cost of mobile top-ups and SIM cards where
PayPoint is
    principal and costs  incurred by PayPoint which are recharged to clients
and merchants.
    These costs include retail agent commission, merchant service charges
levied by card
    scheme sponsors and costs for the provision of call centres for PayByPhone
clients.
(4) Net cash is cash after short-term borrowings
Enquiries
Finsbury+44 207 251 3801
Rollo Head/Don Hunter
Notes to Editors
PayPoint is a leading international provider of convenient payments and value
added services to major consumer service organisations in the utility, telecoms,
media, financial services, transport, retail, gaming and public sectors. We
handle over £10 billion from almost 570 million transactions annually for more
than 6,000 clients and merchants. Â We deliver payments and services through a
uniquely strong combination of local shops, internet and mobile distribution
channels.
Retail networks
PayPoint operates branded retail networks in the UK, Ireland and Romania. Â The
network in the UK numbers over 22,700 terminals located in local shops
(including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Londis
and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK. Our terminals process
energy meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport
tickets, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for most
leading utilities and many telecoms and consumer service companies.
In Romania, the branded retail network numbers over 5,300 terminals located in
local shops across Romania and is expanding. Â Our terminals process cash bill
payments for utilities and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, we
have over 500 outlets in shops and Credit Unions processing mobile top-ups and
bill payments.
We also supply added value services to our retail agents to improve the yield
from our network. Â In the UK, we have recently introduced a consumer parcel drop
off and collection service using PayPoint's retail network through Collect+, a
joint venture with Yodel (formerly Home Delivery Network and DHL Express UK
Limited). This service is already available in 3,400 of our convenience retail
agents. Clients include ASOS, Littlewoods, Woolworths, New Look, Dorothy
Perkins, Very, Mobile Phone Xchange, Virgin Media and Great Universal. Â In
addition, in the UK, we have over 2,400 LINK branded ATMs, mainly in the same
sites as our terminals.
Internet channel
PayPoint.net is an internet payment service provider, linking into all major UK
acquiring banks to deliver secure online credit and debit card payments for over
5,000 web merchants, including PKR, Betsson, Moneysupermarket.com, Severn Trent
Water, Moonpig and British Gas. Â We offer a comprehensive set of products
ranging from a transaction gateway through to a bureau service, in which we take
the merchant credit risk and manage settlement for the merchants. Â We offer
real-time reporting for merchant transactions and Fraudguard, an advanced
service to mitigate the risk of fraud for card not present transactions.
Mobile channel
We acquired PayByPhone in March 2010. Â PayByPhone is a leading international
provider of services to parking authorities allowing consumers to use their
mobile phones to pay for their parking by credit or debit card. Â It has
contracts in the UK, Canada, USA and France.
PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in payment systems, smart
technology and consumer service. Our high quality services are backed by a 24/7
operations centre with dual site processing for business continuity.
PayPoint sustains its competitive differentiation by aiming to meet clients'
payment needs, not just through a wide spectrum of payments, but also with
products that span payment channels. Â For example, PayCash enables cash payment
for internet transactions at PayPoint retail agents and our new home vending
solutions allow consumers to pay across the internet as well as through our
retail network. Â Our combination of distribution channels makes us unique in
this regard.
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Source: Paypoint plc via Thomson Reuters ONE
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