Paysafe returns to ‘sustainable’ growth in first half

Paysafe Group has reported year-on-year growth across various key financials in the six-month period through to June 30.

The company, which owns Skrill, Neteller and Paysafecard, achieved revenue of $538.7m (€458.5m) in the first half of this year, up 11% from $486.7m in the opening six months of last year.

Paysafe said that this result represents more ”sustainable” growth for the company, which in the first half of 2016 saw revenue rocket by 118% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased from $144.2m to $169.2m, while adjusted EBITDA margin climbed to 31.4%.

Statutory operating profit jumped from $89.7m to $99.6, while adjusted profit after tax was up from $101.4m to $124m, and statutory profit after tax increased from $64.5m to $73.7m.

In addition, net debt at the firm was cut to $279.8m from £359.9m, with adjusted fully diluted earnings per share improving from $0.20 to $0.25 and statutory fully diluted earnings per share climbing from $0.13 to $0.15.

Dennis Jones, chairman of Paysafe, said: “After exceptional trading in 2016, Paysafe Group has returned to a more sustainable level of low-double-digit revenue growth in the first half of 2017.

“This reflects our increasingly diversified set of businesses as the management team continues to build a stable and robust global payments platform.

“To that end, we were pleased to announce the acquisition of US-based MCPS in July, which strengthens our processing business, increases Paysafe Group’s scale in North American acquiring and helps us to continue re-balancing our portfolio away from online gambling.”

Confirmation of the results comes after Paysafe last week reached a deal on the terms of a takeover offer from a consortium featuring Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners.

In a statement, Paysafe said that the acquisition values the company at approximately £2.96bn.

Related article: Paysafe agrees terms on takeover bid