Mobile banking giant Monitise clinches new Visa deal as placing hands it £32m
Mobile banking specialist Monitise said it would raise £32.4m through a share placing and subscription, and extended its partnership with credit card giant Visa by a year, sending Monitise’s shares up 12 per cent in early trading.
The company said it would raise £23.6m by placing 114m shares at 20.75p a share, which is a 1.2 per cent discount to the stock’s Monday close.
The company said it would also raise £6.6m through share subscriptions by a unit of Visa and £2.1m by existing shareholder First Eastern.
Monitise plans to use the proceeds to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific and Indian regions.
Visa’s stake in Monitise would increase to 14.4 per cent from 12.6 per cent following the completion of subscriptions, Monitise said.
Under the five-year strategic deal signed in June last year, Visa would help Monitise develop technology to provide SMS alerts and secure payment mechanisms for holders of Visa’s roughly two billion cards worldwide. Monitise also forecast revenue for the year ended 30 June to be about £6m, more than double last year. A spokesman for IS Research said: “The proceeds give Monitise a significant war chest to exploit the various opportunities available. Monitise is one of the best positioned players in the mobile money market.”
The shares eventually closed 8.6 per cent higher at 22.5p yesterday.
ERIC SANSCHAGRIN
PIPER JEFFRAY
ADVISING Monitise was Eric Sanschagrin at Piper Jaffray. He is responsible for the firm’s European technology banking team. He was previously at Citigroup, where he was managing director and led the firm’s European technology team. In this role Sanschagrin worked closely with corporates, VC companies and private equity firms in all European markets in the technology sector.
Prior to this he was an associate in Deutsche Bank’s M&A and corporate finance division. He started his career as a financial markets analyst at Bank of Canada before completing an MBA.
He also holds a bachelor of commerce degree with joint honours in economics and finance from McGill University.
Also advising was Tim Worlledge is head of corporate finance at Evolution Securities. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Whinney Murray (now Ernst & Young) and has since had over 25 years experience in investment banking and corporate broking at ANZ, Williams de Broë, Beeson Gregory and Evolution, working with growth companies.
He was also a member of the executive committee of the QCA for six years. He has completed over 50 IPOs and numerous fundraisings and advisory mandates for growth companies.