DPO Group to acquire Botswana, Namibia operations of Virtual Card Service

Online payments service provider The Direct Pay Online Group (DPO Group), has announced the 100% acquisition of the Botswana and Namibia operations of Virtual Card Service (VCS).

The complete 100% equity acquisition of VCS’s South African operations are still being finalised and will follow at a later date.

Ventureburn asked about the financials details of the African deal, though DPO did not want to disclose the amount.

“The VCS team have built a leading market position in the Botswanan and Namibian payments landscapes by offering a distinguished suite of services to all organisations requiring automated, high volume and secure card payment processing,” says the DPO Group chairman, Offer Gat, in a press release to Ventureburn.

The CEO and major shareholder of VCS, Gordon Ashby, explains why the company is joining the DPO Group.

“We were drawn to the Group’s experience in the online payments processing arena and its deep understanding of Africa. As a management team, we believe that the firm’s knowledge of what it takes to be successful in our markets and its proven track-record of having built the business over 20 years is a great fit for our growth strategy in the future.”

In September last year, the DPO Group announced an R100-million investment into payment facilitator PayGate, as well as the company merging under DPO.

According to the press release, the combination of VCS and PayGate under the DPO Group will “provide a single contact point for merchants looking to accept payments across the continent”.

VCS was first established in SA in 1996 and later expanded into Botswana in 2008 and Namibia in 2010.

“VCS Namibia and Botswana will complement the DPO Group in various areas including technology, expansion of the client base and growth in this geographical area,” says DPO Group CEO, Eran Feinstein.

Our aim is to accelerate the intensification of payments in Africa, as we seek to empower every person and organisation to have the option to pay and be paid online anywhere, anytime, and by any mode of payment.”