gretel
05 Jul 2017
SCH far cheaper than Worldpay Vantiv have now announced agreed terms with SCH's sector competitor Worldpay.FT Alphaville were reporting a current year EV/EBITDA of 18.5 for Worldpay's US and UK business, and 23 for Global eCom.According to this research, SCH are on a current year EV/EBITDA of only 11.5, falling to just 9.95 for next year:[link] has considerable ground to make up on its sector comparators!
gretel
27 Jun 2017
RNS : impressive new product launch [link] launches Marketplace Manager, a one-stop shop solution for marketplaces to outsource paymentsThe single API solution takes care of pay-ins, pay-outs and everything in betweenCopenhagen, June 27th 2017: SafeCharge (LON: SCH), the payments services partner for the world's most demanding businesses, today launches Marketplace Manager. The single API based solution relieves all payment pain points for marketplaces while enabling them to remain in full control of operations and user experience, for both buyers and sellers. It is the first solution to cover all the payment functions a marketplace needs, from a white label onboarding seller process, to ready to use checkout pages, and pay-out to sellers, all in a fully compliant way. Marketplaces are seeing unprecedented growth. According to a study by the Ecommerce Foundation, almost 40% of the world's online retail market will be controlled by marketplaces by 2020.etc"
gretel
22 Jun 2017
Tipped And it doesn't even mention the £100m+ of cash which represents over 25% of the market cap:[link] yield Safecharge International(LSE: SCH) is another hidden financial stock that looks attractive as an income investment. At the time of writing, the shares support a historic dividend yield of 4.9%, but analysts are expecting management to hike the payout by 11% this year for an estimated 14.1p or yield of 5.3%. Further growth is expected for the following year. Analysts have pencilled-in dividend growth of 5% for 2018 giving a projected yield of 5.5%. And I wouldn't rule out upward revisions to these estimates. Safecharge's earnings are rising rapidly. Earnings growth of 24% is expected this year, followed by 13% during 2018. This rapid earnings rise may encourage management to hike dividend payouts further. At the time of writing shares in Safecharge currently trade at a forward P/E of 15.5 falling to 13.8 for 2018. Considering the company's fast earnings growth, this high valuation does not appear to be too demanding. "
gretel
15 Jun 2017
Terrific news this morning Some "Wow" news just out this morning - it really should be RNS'd, or at least issued as an RNSNON....WeChat has more than 600 million users 
))[link] 15, 2017 SafeCharge enables businesses to tap into growing WeChat Pay user baseSafeCharge (LON:SCH), the leading payments technology company, today announced that it is partnering with Tencent Holdings, the leading provider of internet value added services in China, to add WeChat Pay, the booming payment service of the Chinese messaging giant and China’s most popular social media on its global payments platform.With more than 600 million monthly active user accounts in China at the end of December 2016, WeChat Pay is one of the most popular payment methods used by Chinese nationals today in and outside of China. A recent Counter Intelligence survey found that Chinese air travel to Europe increased by almost 20% in 2016, with travellers to Europe predicted to hit 90m by 2025. In 2016 Chinese tourists spent $87bn via OTA platforms, up 34% year on year.adding WeChat Pay to SafeCharge’s global payments platform, both online and brick and mortar retailers’ in Europe are now able to accept this incredibly popular Chinese payment method in their own or local currency.“This agreement with SafeCharge enables online merchants to offer Chinese visitors to Europe the opportunity to pay quickly and easily with their preferred payment method. Smoothing the payment experience and reducing the trouble of forex exchange means that European brands become far more accessible to Chinese tourists,” stated the Vice President of Tencent Holdings.“SafeCharge continues the rapid development of its innovative payment platform. making WeChat pay available for retailers both online and in store, we demonstrate again our commitment to serve the world’s most demanding merchants looking for a strong global omnichannel payment solution,” stated David Avgi, CEO, SafeCharge.”
gretel
26 May 2017
RNS : expansion in the USA Looks like a biggie:[link] serves more than 250,000 merchants and 560,000 locations across the United States. The company processed 16.88bn transactions in 2016 and this, according to Nilson, makes them the third largest acquirer in the US, representing around 20% of the market."
gretel
24 May 2017
New anti-fraud partnership New collaboration to enhance SCH's anti-fraud and "Know your customer" capabilities:[link] Partners with Sphonic to Provide Leading-Edge Digital KYC and Fraud Prevention Services LONDON, May 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Collaboration enables enhanced customer verification and fraud prevention capabilities SafeCharge (LON:SCH), a leader in advanced payment technologies, has partnered with Sphonic, a data network of leading 3rd party vendors that provides real time authentication and fraud management decisions to a burgeoning digital world, to address industry-wide KYC and fraud prevention challenges. This partnership enables SafeCharge to add complimentary compliance services such as KYC, document verification, PEPS/Sanctions and enhance the company's propriety, award-winning fraud prevention solution with additional capabilities.To meet the growing needs of regulated gaming businesses and CFD brokers and to be prepared for a changing regulatory landscape, including PSD2 and the 4th AML Directive, SafeCharge has selected Sphonic's Workflow Manager (WFM) to provide Know Your Customer (KYC) and document verification capabilities, while reducing customer friction and operational overheads.Using Sphonic's connection to multiple leading vendors, SafeCharge will create a vendor agnostic solution that will allow merchants to select and work with their KYC and document verification vendor of choice as well as increase onboarding customer conversion. The service includes:•Multi-bureau KYC verification, with intelligent in-flight routing based on pre-defined criteria such as geography, match rate level, commercial viability and more•Regulatory AML checks for PEPS/Sanctions•Enhanced digital insight including Device ID and Reputation capability, email/phone verification and validation, geo-location and distancing - and a host of others coupled with Sphonic's unique approach in fusing multiple services to derive greater contextetc"
gretel
23 May 2017
SCH looking good in its sector SCH looks like the safest/best play in its sector at present given: (1) Worldpay's downgrade to a Sell yesterday by analysts citing unimpressive fundamentals, struggles in the USA and customer migration to a new platform, and (2) Paysafe is coping with shorter attacks/criticism over its activities in China and Turkey.
gretel
19 May 2017
Excellent AGM update just out Expect a nice bounce now:[link] Board reiterates expectations for full year 2017 performance.Revenue has shown solid growth versus Q1 2016, driven by new customer wins in H2 2016.The Board is encouraged by the pipeline of high quality business with a number of large new customers due to start processing in the second half of the year.The growth of SafeCharge Acquiring remains on track.The Group continues to invest in key new sales and marketing people, who are bringing new customers and a greater awareness of SafeCharge's capabilities outside our traditional markets.The Board remains confident that the outcome for the year will be in line with market expectations. "
gretel
02 May 2017
New recent highs, and new Buy tip New recent highs now....And SCH were tipped as a Buy in the IC on Friday. Here's the IC article:[link] SafeCharge International In line with its strategy of expanding and diversifying products and services, payment processing company SafeCharge International (SCH) has been moving into new sectors and geographies in 2016, announcing its first airline customer in its travel vertical and launching platforms for new customers in Romania, Italy and Portugal. Alongside this, it took its first steps into card-present and land-based payments acquiring. As part of this strategy it has been looking to maximise the number of low-risk, high-quality customers on its books. It has also been driving up volumes, increasing transactions processed 17 per cent to $8.1bn (£6.3bn) in 2016, compared with 2015. This was driven by increased volume from existing customers, and the addition of new, high-volume clients. Growth in SafeCharge Acquiring, its dedicated platform, was also impressive, jumping to volumes of $970m for the year, up from $190m in 2015. With a run rate in excess of $1.2bn, the platform is likely to continue growing. This growth doesn’t look likely to slow. The group reported further expansion in volumes for both its core payment processing and in acquiring since the 2016 year-end. It also expects another $1bn in annualised volumes during 2017 delivered by customers that begin processing during the year.Acquisitions also look likely to add to organic growth. Cash generated from operating activities was high at 80 per cent of adjusted cash profit and the group finished the year with net cash of $115m. The group is also continuing to “invest significant resources identifying and investigating potential acquisitions”, and seeking to add complementary products.Safecharge’s growth is undeniable, and it seems to be making all the right moves with its expansion across new areas and the launch of the acquiring platform. The shares are up more than a fifth year so far this year, but this still represents only 14 times forecast earnings, at time of writing, well below the three-year average of 25 times. Cut out the cash on the balance sheet and the valuation looks even better. We maintain our buy call. TD "
gretel
12 Apr 2017
Another new client win [link] April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Daily Fantasy sports platform Sportito has engaged in a partnership with SafeCharge, global provider of payment services with more than 12 years of experience in its business. Sportito is now processing all the web and mobile transactions with their customers through the services provided by SafeCharge. The partnership will allow SafeCharge to offer an effective and efficient payment service for Sportito users.SafeCharge has been operating since 2007, with certification of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The Group has introduced innovations in payment technologies for online and mobile transactions to make it stress-free for the businesses and their customers.With proprietary technologies and methodologies provided by SafeCharge, Sportito will be able to improve the deposit and withdrawal process of their users. This will also provide a secure service to protect the users from scams when using their card back online on Sportito. It has improved the experience by integrating systems to give more choices such as the option to use different currencies for the deposits and withdrawals of the users.Commenting on the partnership, the CEO of Sportito Riccardo Mittiga said, "We have decided to use SafeCharge for our transactions because of the advanced technologies SafeCharge uses to make the deposit and withdrawal experience better for the customers. I'm sure that this partnership will make life easier for our users and will support our growth too."Sportito have other amazing partnerships coming up in the near future to provide the best platform for the Daily Fantasy Sports fans in Europe. With every partnership, they become stronger day by day.About Sportito:Sportito was launched in August 2016 and has come a long way with partnerships with two English Football clubs as their Official Fantasy Sports Partner. Burnley FC in Premier League and Fulham FC in Championship had signed their deals with Sportito not so long ago, to bring a unique Daily Fantasy Sports experience to their fans. Sportito is now operating in the UK with Gambling Licence from UKGC and will be operating soon in other countries in Europe, once their licences are approved from Malta and Italy."
gretel
10 Apr 2017
Featured in new Master Investor portfolio The new April issue of Master Investor magazine has set up a portfolio of 10 high yielding AIM-quoted small caps which might grow "from acorns to oak trees". Amongst them are SCH (and XLM, which I also own) with 5%+ yields, though neither are featured at length in this first feature:[link] AIM shares might trade at a low price for many reasons other than a market downturn, investors should reprice high yielding stocks eventually regardless of their size if they are of sufficient quality. So there should be a decent chance of the method working in a smallcap context and there might also be the opportunity for enhanced gains given the higher growth potential of smaller companies."
gretel
29 Mar 2017
Canaccord say Buy with 320p price target [link]
gretel
28 Mar 2017
Opus Capital: "severely undervalued" Excellent new article from Opus Capital about Safecharge - "severely undervalued":[link] Processing Industry Garnering AttentionThough many smaller players operate in various parts of the payment ecosystem, the company that is probably the closest proxy for SafeCharge is Adyen, which is privately held. Adyen is owned by a who’s who of PE and VC firms, including General Atlantic, whose portfolio includes Snapchat, Airbnb, and Uber, not to mention the secretive Iconiq Capital, which counts among its clients tech legends such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.While Adyen is more of a known quantity, given its Silicon Valley ties, SafeCharge’s initiative to move into additional verticals has the potential to boost its profile, as well as its valuation, into Adyen’s stratosphere. Adyen’s $2.3 billion valuation in 2015 occurred in a year when its CEO was targeting profits of $45 million. way of comparison, SafeCharge earned approximately $23 million in 2015. Whether applying this sort of private market multiple or looking at publicly traded peers, SafeCharge appears severely undervalued, and its growth initiatives could help push it beyond a $1 billion market cap, more than double its current capitalization."
gretel
27 Mar 2017
Tipped in the IC FYI the IC tipped SCH last week as follows - highlighting an ex-cash P/E of just 9..."Payments services company Safecharge (SCH) has continued to grow at an impressive rate. Its processing volumes - the value of transactions handled by the company - reached $8.1bn (£6.5bn) in 2016, up 17 per cent. This was due primarily to growth in volume from existing clients, supplemented by the addition of new high-volume customers. The group also expects a further $1bn in annualised processing volumes from clients during 2017. The group’s dedicated platform, SafeCharge Acquiring, also grew strongly, with volumes of $970m for the year, up from $191m in 2015.The restructuring of the group's Pay.com pre-paid cards business, other cost reduction initiatives and the higher revenue helped improve adjusted cash profit margins to 32 per cent, from 31.2 per cent in 2015. This measure is especially important given that the company continues to pay out three-quarters of adjusted cash profits as dividends.The group is looking to diversify into new sectors and geographies. During the year, it began the global rollout for its first airline customer, as well as taking on new customers in Romania, Italy and Portugal.Analysts at Canaccord Genuity are forecasting adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $36m, giving adjusted diluted EPS of 23¢ in 2017 (from $33.3m, 20.7¢ in 2016).IC VIEWSafecharge is growing strongly, and the cash position on its balance sheet remains strong. Excluding that cash, its shares are trading on a forward earnings ratio of nine. Given the yield on offer, it's hard to say no. Buy."
gretel
24 Mar 2017
Naked Trader buys SCH On top of the director buying, the Naked Trader has just bought in:[link] buy then is Safecharge (SCH) The company put out an excellent statement I thought this week. It is in the hot area of payments and has a mountain of cash. On top of that it sensibly tells us likely profits to base a valuation on - and it is moving to secure higher quality customers - and it has also massively raised the dividend. The share are tightly held so a bid might be difficult but surely one or two payment firms must be taking a look? "
