LHV Group set to acquire paytech EveryPay

AS LHV Group (LHV Group) concluded a contract for the acquisition of EveryPay AS (EveryPay), in which LHV Group will acquire 100% of EveryPay shares, for EUR 8 million. For the amount received, EveryPay shareholders will subscribe to new shares issued by LHV Group. In essence, this is a share exchange transaction.

A prerequisite for the transaction taking place is its approval and the respective decision to increase share capital at the general meeting of shareholders of LHV Group, which will be held on 30 March 2022. The purchase price and other basic conditions of the transaction (in the non-confidential extent), as well as the conditions for increasing share capital, will be announced to the shareholders of LHV Group with the notice calling the general meeting. This transaction is not a transaction with a person for the purposes of stock exchange regulations, and the Supervisory Board and Members of the Management Board of LHV Group have no personal interest in the transaction.

EveryPay is a platform for receiving payments, established in 2012 and introduced to the market in 2015, that interfaces banks and e-commerce companies with modern payment methods, such as card payments and open banking payments. Major banks in the Baltics, several smaller financial institutions, and over 2000 e-commerce companies use the services of EveryPay. Every year, EveryPay processes over 15 million payments, totalling over EUR 800 million.

About 70% of Estonian online card transactions and approximately 50% of those in the Baltics, are currently made through EveryPay. EveryPay employs 30 people. The most important founders of the company, Joel Mitt and Lauri Teder, will continue working in the business to be acquired.

The main product of EveryPay is a payment gateway platform of card payments and open banking, which acts as a connecting link between e-commerce merchants and the bank offering payment acquiring services and/or an institution offering alternative payment methods. Merchants are offered the receipt of payment services, and banks are offered a technologically strong payment gateway that enables the bank to serve e-commerce merchants if the bank does not have their own respective platform.

Right now, card payments and open banking payments belong to EveryPay’s product portfolio. Additionally, they offer comfort products related to payments, such as automatic payments, mass payments, standing payments, and the LinkPay payment link. In acquiring EveryPay, LHV Group sees the following opportunities for growing business:

• Expansion into the e-commerce business that is rapidly growing around the world. By acquiring EveryPay, AS LHV Group is more actively entering the rapidly growing e-commerce segment, both in Europe and the world in a wider context. Through EveryPay, LHV is able to provide added value in e-commerce to the main target groups: the local retail banking segment, the financial intermediaries segment, and the United Kingdom e-commerce companies segment.
• Acquiring technology. The EveryPay platform has been developed with high quality and skill for collecting payments, and it corresponds to modern security requirements. Developing and operating an alternative platform in this extent would require significant financial and development resources.
• Acquiring development talent. EveryPay’s key employees have long-term experience and are mainly aimed at developing the product and technology. EveryPay has created long-term relations with external development partners, enabling them to manage IT development flexibly, and scale as required.

“More than before, we wish to grow business activities related to payment services. This has become an important part of LHV’s strategy. We see the local retail banking segment, the financial intermediaries segment, and the United Kingdom e-commerce companies segment as our target groups across LHV Group’s companies. Payment collection business related to e-commerce, such as online card payments and open banking payments, are rapidly increasing in terms of the Estonian retail banking segment. The joint offer of LHV and EveryPay to e-commerce merchants is one of the best in Estonia. In terms of the international financial intermediaries segment, we see an opportunity to increase sales volumes, revenues and profit by offering the service to existing clients. In terms of the United Kingdom’s e-commerce companies segment, it is a necessary product for developing new products and client offers of LHV UK Limited for online card payments, open banking payments and the ‘buy now, pay later’ product, with which to provide a comprehensive offer for companies engaged in e-commerce in the United Kingdom,” commented Madis Toomsalu, CEO of LHV Group.