Banks are unlikely to sell their full stake in electronic transaction switching company Bankserv, as they like to keep control of their processes, analysts say.
"Bankserv is an essential cog in the National Payments System, but it doesn't make a lot of money as it is there to provide a necessary service and offers none of the shareholders a competitive advantage," one banking analyst says.
Another analyst, Daniel Malan of Regarding: Capital Management, says the reported overture by global merchant processing group First Data is typical of the types of businesses that foreign companies tend to buy in SA.
"Typically, foreign investors like to buy companies that are in an oligopoly situation and earn high margins, such as we saw with the recent purchases of Absa by Barclays and Vodacom by Vodafone," he says.
Both analysts say possible scenarios are that only a portion of the shares are sold to First Data or that it is sold entirely, but the banks keep a behind the scenes hold on the company.
Bankserv has 92.5% of its shareholding owned roughly equally by the big four commercial banks: First Rand, Absa, Standard Bank and Nedbank. Smaller banks own the remainder, through a company called Dandyshelf.
According to today's Business Day, First Data approached Bankserv and they have signed a formal non-disclosure agreement. However, none of the major commercial banks are aware of any formal offer being made.
Commission spotlight
Bankserv was formed 14 years ago as a means to streamline the payments systems between the banks. It controls the national automated teller machine (ATM) network, Saswitch, which makes it possible for a bank's client to draw cash at any ATM.
The National Payments System and Bankserv have come under the ongoing Competition Commission investigation on banking charges, as the commission tries to find how the commercial banks arrive at the charges they levy.
During the Competition Commission hearings, evidence was also presented that the smaller commercial banks were being charged higher rates than the big four commercial banks.
Dirk Ehlers, head of electronic banking at Cape-based commercial bank Capitec, says Bankserv's charges are modelled on a normal commercial basis.
"Their charges are based on transaction flows: the more transactions, the lower the price. While this may look large in percentage terms, in monetary terms it is quite small," he says.
Bankserv was unreachable for comment this morning.
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