Payments services company Paysafe Group Plc (LON:PAYS) has released its 2016 financial results, showing phenomenal top line growth of 63%, as the company joins the $1 billion annual Revenues club.
Paysafe operates the Skrill and NETELLER online payments brands.
Paysafe shares were hit hard in December, when a report issued by short selling firm Spotlight Research surfaced, questioning Paysafe’s ties to one of its largest clients bet365 and its role in facilitating supposedly not-so-legal gaming activities by Chinese clients. Paysafe shares reacted by trading down as much as 38%, with Paysafe responding by calling the report inaccurate.
Paysafe then instituted a share buyback program, and its shares have more than recovered from where they were trading before the episode.
Back to Paysafe’s 2016 results… Highlights included:
Financial highlights
- Group exceeds $1bn in revenue for the first time and delivers adjusted EBITDA of $301m and statutory operating profit of $194m.
- Exceptional year-on-year growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin.
- Group continues to demonstrate impressive cash conversion and balance sheet strength, with significant debt capacity at 31 December 2016.
- Elevation to the FTSE 250 alongside ensuring strong financial management and appropriate governance framework, control environment and enhanced reporting.
Operational highlights
- Completed Skrill integration five months ahead of schedule.
- MeritCard and Income Access acquired, adding diversification of risk profile and additional product capability.
- Continued investment to maintain best-in-class KYC, risk management and operational third-party technology.
- Commenced development of consolidated, comprehensive and scalable payments platform with continued modular launches planned for 2017.
- Launched developer self-service portal.
Paysafe’s full release on its 2016 results can be seen here.