Payment processor SafeCharge expects Revenue of $61 million in 2014, EBITDA of $18 million.
IPO fever is in the air….. Israel business newspaper Globes reports that payment processor SafeCharge is going to pursue an IPO on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market. SafeCharge is owned 90% by online gaming software magnate Teddy Sagi of Playtech fame, and 10% by SafeCharge CEO David Avgi. Sagi is also behind the Markets.com and TopOption brokerage brands.
SafeCharge is fairly well known across each of the Forex, Binary Options, and online gaming universes as a leading provider of payment processing and payment related risk management solutions. Many retail forex brokers use SafeCharge to make sure their clients can deposit (and withdraw) money quickly and safely.
Globes reports that SafeCharge is looking to raise in the neighborhood of $100 million, all new shares to be sold by the company, at a company value of about $300-400 million. The Company employs about 200 people at offices in the UK, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Israel, Germany and Austria.
SafeCharge processed roughly $5 billion in transactions in 2013. According to UK investment bank Shore Capital, which will act as underwriter the offering, SafeCharge expects $61.2 million revenue in 2014 (42% growth over 2013), and EBITDA of $18.1 million.
Just earlier this week we reported on another planned London AIM IPO, that of iGaming affiliate XLMedia. It seems as though there certainly is demand out there among public market investors for companies whose revenues and earnings are derived from these types of activities and business models. We expect to soon hear of Forex brokers also taking advantage of the raging bull market and the IPO window of opportunity to go public.
Stay tuned to LeapRate….
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