Euronet launches prepaid services in Italy by signing SMA S.p.A., one of the largest grocery chains in the country
LEAWOOD, KANSAS — November 29, 2007 — Euronet Worldwide Inc. ("Euronet" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leading electronic payments provider, today announced an electronic mobile top-up (e-top-up) agreement with SMA S.p.A. ("SMA"), one of the largest grocery chains in Italy. The agreement with SMA marks Euronet's entry into the Italian prepaid market, Europe's largest prepaid market and Euronet's 14th prepaid market.
Under the agreement, Euronet will integrate its convenient e-top-up solution with the existing electronic cash registers (ECRs) at SMA stores, which comprises of company-managed stores branded Sma, Punto Sma, Simply and Cityper. With Euronet's e-top-up service, SMA can sell mobile top-up minutes from all four Italian mobile operators without adding new equipment on their store counters and without the costs of holding inventory or incur losses due to theft with prepaid scratch cards. SMA is one of the first retailers in Italy to replace its existing scratch card distribution system with e-top-up.
A pilot project will be launched at select SMA stores towards the end of November with TIM, Italy's leading mobile operator, and Euronet expects a full rollout of service for all four mobile operators in all SMA stores by first quarter 2008.
"Euronet's proven prepaid processing services offer us a cost effective, simple and reliable e-top-up solution. SMA will be able to control its costs when offering prepaid products, yet still provide its customers with the convenient and secure service they have come to expect," said Antonello Sinigaglia, SMA managing director. "Euronet's state-of-the-art technology platform allows us to rapidly deploy e-top-up services for prepaid mobile airtime throughout our network and provides the opportunity to expand our offerings into other prepaid products in the future above all: gift cards and pre-paid debit cards."
The Italian mobile phone market is one of the largest in Europe with approximately 80 million subscribers in 2006, a nearly 140 percent penetration rate. Despite the high saturation of the market, new subscriptions are still on the rise with a 13 percent growth rate in 2006. An estimated €13 billion in mobile top-up minutes was sold this year in Italy.
"We are excited to enter a prepaid market the size of Italy and a partner like SMA with large retail footprint gives us immediate scale," said Michael J. Brown, Euronet chairman and CEO. "The global trend is towards replacing inefficient scratch cards with an electronic system to offer profitable prepaid products. Euronet's leading e-top-up solution and strong expertise in prepaid processing makes us the provider of choice for retailers looking to update their distribution channels."
About Euronet Worldwide
Euronet Worldwide is an industry leader in processing secure electronic financial transactions. The Company offers payment and transaction processing solutions to financial institutions, mobile operators and retailers which include comprehensive ATM and POS operation and management services; credit and debit card outsourcing services; card issuing and merchant acquiring services; software solutions; consumer money transfer and bill payment services; and electronic distribution of top-up services for prepaid mobile airtime and other prepaid products. Euronet operates and processes transactions from 39 countries.
Euronet's global payment network is extensive – including over 10,500 ATMs and approximately 48,000 POS terminals which are under management in 16 countries; a growing portfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services and card software solutions; a prepaid processing network of 370,000 point-of-sale terminals across 189,000 retailer locations in 12 countries; and a consumer-to-consumer money transfer network of over 11,000 sending locations in 13 countries and more than 56,000 payout locations in approximately 100 countries. With corporate headquarters in Leawood, Kansas, USA, and 35 worldwide offices, Euronet serves clients in approximately 130 countries. For more information, please visit the Company's web site at www.euronetworldwide.com.
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