Payment and electronic transaction processing company Ventury Group is considering a listing, and aims to grow its share of the payment-processing market.
The company this week changed its name from CGS Financial Technologies to Ventury and is on the hunt for acquisitive growth. CEO Richard Smuts-Steyn says acquisitions would be in the transactional processing arena.
He says while listing is not a priority, should the company need to go to market to raise cash for a large acquisition, it will look at listing either locally or internationally at that stage. Smuts-Steyn says the market must be right, as it does not make sense to list when the market is down. The company is in a strong cash position at the moment, he says.
"We`ve been flying under the radar for a couple of years, but we feel we`re ready to assert ourselves as a major player now in the South African transaction and payment processing space," he says.
"Ventury Group has already achieved a 10% share of SA`s credit and debit card transactions and is looking to grow even further as it builds new relationships and alliances in the financial services arena.
"We`re looking to span the entire spectrum of electronic transactions far more strongly, including prepaid vouchers, stored value cards and, in particular, the rapidly growing gift card space."
The company`s turnover is over R1 billion, it collectively processes about 20 million transactions a month, and is privately owned. It is a holding company for several subsidiaries, including 40% of TransUnion cheque guarantee services, 51% of card acquisition company iVeri and 40% of financial services technologist Itex.
The company also owns CiGi Cell, which sells R800 million in airtime a year, stored value card X-Card and TDC, which supplies and services more than 6 000 point of sales terminals countrywide. Ventury also owns 28% of CGS in the US and CiGi Cell operations in Nigeria.
Its 5% share of India Prepaid Services, which Smuts-Steyn says is already as big as Ventury`s entire South African operation, is expected to grow by a factor of 20 in the next four years. It has operations in Nigeria, C^ote d`Ivoire, Rwanda, Botswana, India, China, the US and Puerto Rico.
"We`re looking to get fairly aggressive internationally, especially in emerging markets, like India, China, Vietnam and Brazil," says Smuts-Steyn. "We`ve got several card deals in the pipeline, including one with a major Irish retailer and a pilot project in Puerto Rico involving some huge international banks."
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