Network International Holdings provides technology-enabled payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The company was founded in the United Arab Emirates as a payments subsidiary of Emirates Bank in 1994. Mainly operating in the Middle East and Africa region it became the first independent vendor in the Middle East to be certified by Mastercard and

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

for payments, and a member of the JCB and UnionPay card schemes. The Abraaj Group bought a 49 per cent stake in the business in 2011. In January 2017, Simon Haslam, CEO of US payments processor Elavon replaced Bhairav Trivedi as CEO. Nandan Mer, Mastercard Strategy Head for International Markets, took over Simon upon the latter’s retirement in 2021. The Abraaj Group sold its stake to a joint venture between

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

and

General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...

in 2015. In a deal worth $340 million, Network acquired Emerging Markets Payments (EMP) from Actis in March 2016, creating the largest payments processor in the MENA region, estimated as five times larger than CSC in Lebanon by Bhairav Trivedi, the CEO of Network at the time. It remains the largest payments processor in the region. In March 2019, Network announced its intention to float on the

's main market, as well as the appointment of Ron Kalifa OBE, British payments rival Worldpay's former CEO, as Chairman. The company was the subject of an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

in April 2019. It was the largest float of that year until that point, listing with a valuation of £2.2 billion in the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. It also joined the FTSE 250 index of companies. Network International sold 40% of its shares at the IPO. In addition to this, Mastercard bought a cornerstone investment of $300 million, though the deal subject to a 9.99% limit, which it stated it would invest in shared projects with Network in the

MENA region MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

as part of the deal. Mastercard is now the fourth largest shareholder in Network International after

and

Emirates NBD Emirates NBD Bank PJSC is Dubai's government-owned bank and is one of the largest banking groups in the Middle East in terms of assets. History and profile Emirates NBD was initially formed as National Bank of Dubai (NBD) on 19 June 1963 by the ...

. While there were some concerns regarding Brexit's impact on market conditions Kalifa commented that the London IPO would not be troubled by Brexit, as Network's business is not reliant on the UK-EU relationship. In September 2021, Network announced the completion of its acquisition of DPO Group for $291.3 million. DPO is the largest online payments platform operating across Africa, operating as a payments partner for merchants across 21 African countries.

References

External links

* {{FTSE 250 Index constituents Companies established in 1994 Companies based in Dubai