Wirecard has found a buyer for its UK division in competitor Railsbank, Sifted has confirmed.
Wirecard announced in June that it was unable to locate $2bn worth of cash in its trust accounts, causing the company once valued at $13bn to collapse into bankruptcy.
As a result, German administrators were called in to sell off key assets like its UK entity, Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS), which once settled card payments for 70 fintech clients including Revolut, Pockit, Soldo and Curve.
Railsbank, a rival banking and payments infrastructure-provider, will now acquire WCS’ remaining assets, clients and a number of employees, according to people briefed on the matter. London-based Railsbank confirmed to Sifted it had given a purchase term sheet to WCS, set to be finalised in November, but declined to comment on the amount.
Founded in 2016, Railsbank now joins an army of around 140 potential buyers reported to have been in talks to buy Wirecard’s various divisions.
“A large number of investors from all over the world have already contacted us who are interested in acquiring the core business or the independent and successfully operative business divisions,” Michael Jaffé, the insolvency administrator, told The Wall Street Journal in July.
Jaffé also said an agreement has been reached to sell Wirecard’s Brazilian business to Sao Paulo-based PagSeguro Digital, one of the nation’s largest mobile payment-based eCommerce companies.
“It is particularly pleasing that the sale of Wirecard Brazil has been the first success with respect to the sale of assets, because the framework conditions of the Wirecard insolvency proceedings have been, and still are, very difficult,” Jaffé said in a statement.
In addition, he noted that the sale of some of the company’s operations in Britain and North America could be announced soon.
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Railsbank picked up $10 million in September 2019 for its Series A, with Visa among investors. In addition to the money, Visa has agreed a five-year partnership with Railsbank to help push its Banking as a Service offering in Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Railsbank has also become a Visa principal issuing member.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
