Capita agrees to sell Pay360 to Access Paysuite

Professional services firm Capita has agreed to the sale of its payments company, Pay360. The deal sees Access PaySuite, a division of The Access Group, purchase Pay360, while Capita expects to receive gross proceeds of around £156 million upon completion.

Capita CEO Jon Lewis commented on the move, “We are pleased to have agreed the sale of Pay360 to Access, as part of our strategy to simplify and strengthen Capita. The sale is a great opportunity for the new owners to help Pay360 realise its full potential, and our colleagues at Pay360 will also benefit from the focus that this change of ownership will bring.”

The move comes as a previously announced non-core disposal programme continues in earnest at Capita. As the firm sought to strengthen its balance sheet amid the pandemic, and focus on its two core divisions, Capita Public Service and Capita Experience, it agreed to offload a number of other practices, with a deal for its REI and GLH wings taking total proceeds from the disposal programme to more than £800 million.

With the move to sell Pay360, this figure will climb toward the £1 billion mark. Capita will utilise the cash proceeds of the sale to benefit its digital offerings for clients and further reduce net debt.

Pay360 is a UK-based, FCA regulated payments business has 2,500 customers across the public and private sectors, offering gateway and acquiring services, as well as payment solutions across the payments value chain. It has recently expanded its capabilities into payment facilitation, with the launch of its Evolve platform. In 2021, the business processed £8.6 billion in transaction value across 142 million transactions.

The senior management team and employees will remain with Pay360, as they transfer to new ownership. Access PaySuite, a division of The Access Group, will use the deal to strengthen its payments processing capabilities by adding card payments and Payment Facilitation (PayFac) to its existing payments solutions.

Commenting on the acquisition, Andrea Dunlop, managing director of Access PaySuite, noted, “The addition of Pay360 into Access PaySuite is further evidence of our commitment to invest in innovative payment solutions that give businesses and organisations the confidence that they have a credible, secure and scalable payments partner. I am confident that there is a great cultural fit between the two companies, and we’re committed to improving customer success and product development to become the payments provider of choice for current and future customers.”