SPY 0.65% $1.56 smartpay holdings limited ordinary shares

Ann: GENERAL: SPY: ASX Listing and Business Updat

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    SPY
    26/08/2013 09:53
    GENERAL
    
    REL: 0953 HRS Smartpay Holdings Limited
    
    GENERAL: SPY: ASX Listing and Business Update
    
    AUCKLAND, 26 August 2013 - Smartpay (NZX: SPY) is pleased to provide its ASX
    Listing and Business Update, below and attached.
    
    ASX Listing
    
    As the final part of the ASX listing process that we began last year,
    Smartpay is pleased to announce that its Information Memorandum listing
    document has been released to the ASX under the code SMP.  While we have yet
    to receive the final date for the admission of our shares to trading on the
    ASX, we expect to receive this confirmation imminently and will update the
    market in due course.
    
    This represents another significant milestone for Smartpay which we expect
    will deliver benefits to shareholders through access to a broader investor
    base and the deeper Australian equity markets.
    
    With Australia being a key growth market for our payments products we also
    expect that being listed on the ASX will further promote our market position
    with both retail merchants and bank partners as a leading and reputable
    provider of innovative merchant payment solutions.
    
    Business Update
    
    Overview
    
    The payments technology landscape continues to evolve, creating opportunities
    for specialist providers such as Smartpay, where we provide the enabling
    technology bridging the gap between increasingly sophisticated merchants'
    payments requirements and existing bank offerings.  Offering innovative,
    value add payments technology products is the core differentiator of our
    business and the key driver of value and growth.
    
    Following the integration of the Viaduct business acquired earlier this year,
    the focus has been on finalising development of  a new range of payments
    products and value add solutions for delivery to both the New Zealand and
    Australian markets.
    
    Technology Update
    
    Smartpay has made significant progress across our technology platforms with
    the recent introduction of a number of new payments technology products and
    solutions including:
    
    o "Touch and Go" contactless technology: A full range of contactless
    enabled terminals, including introducing the first contactless mobile
    terminal in New Zealand.  These terminals accept all contactless card
    payments as well as payments from contactless enabled mobile phones.  These
    terminals will also work with the new TSM mobile payments standard currently
    under development between the New Zealand Telcos and Paymark.
    
    o Smartphone and tablet integration: Next generation mobile payments
    terminals including full function mobile EFTPOS integrated with smartphone
    and tablet devices for true mobile payment.  This is a market first and the
    product will soon be available to our New Zealand merchants with development
    planned for the Australian market this year.
    
    o Syncro 3 POS integration: Syncro 3, our next generation Point Of Sale
    payments integration solution is now ready for integration to point of sale
    systems.  This is our core corporate product which allows larger corporate
    customers to integrate our payments terminals to their PC based Point Of Sale
    systems.  This represents significant progress as this is an area where we
    have historically been strong and with our new product now ready and offering
    market leading features and performance we will be looking to expand our
    corporate revenue opportunities.
    
    o China Union Pay acceptance: We have concluded a deal with the
    regional representative of China Union Pay, the largest card scheme in China,
    to offer acceptance of their cards on our terminals.  This is a growing
    market with increasing numbers of Chinese visitors wanting to pay with their
    local cards when travelling abroad.  Smartpay's proprietary "Union Pay
    Direct" solution offers both retail merchants and their customers a higher
    level of service in both Australia and New Zealand than is available anywhere
    else in these markets. We expect this value add service to be attractive to
    retail merchants operating in the tourist, education and luxury goods markets
    and expect it to grow as an additional revenue line.
    
    o Retail payment "apps": We have recently certified a number of our
    retail payment "apps" for release in Australia, including our hospitality
    "Tipping" app, "Smartcharge", our scheme compliant surcharge app and
    "Smartlink", our app for interfacing our payments terminals to cash
    registers.  These apps are now available for sale in Australia on our
    contactless terminal range offering market leading functionality.
    New Zealand
    
    Our position as New Zealand's leading EFTPOS and payments provider has been
    expanded through our recent appointment to preferred supplier status with a
    3rd New Zealand bank.  Smartpay is now the preferred / exclusive supplier of
    merchant payment solutions to three of the four major New Zealand banks. This
    validation by New Zealand's leading financial institutions combined with our
    innovative payments solutions positions Smartpay to continue our growth in
    this market.
    
     In addition to seeking market share growth, a core strategy in our New
    Zealand business is the increase in revenue per unit as we promote our
    expanding range of payments products and value add solutions across our
    extensive merchant footprint.  Examples include offering our "Union Pay
    Direct" solution to relevant customers and our range of contactless and
    mobile enabling technologies.
    
    Australia
    
    The focus in our Australian business has been on two areas:
    
    1. Readying our products for market; and
    2. Building our sales channels and capability.
    
    We are pleased to report that we recently gained certification for the first
    of our contactless terminals in Australia which together with a number of our
    value add "apps" running on those terminals creates a unique value
    proposition for a range of retail merchants.  We currently have a number of
    additional contactless terminals undergoing certification including a fully
    mobile contactless terminal which we expect to have ready for deployment
    shortly.  We also expect to have the first of our next generation wi-fi and
    smartphone / tablet integrated terminals certified for use in Australia by
    the end of this year which will give us what we believe will be market
    leading products in this market.
    
    With our new products now coming on line, we have been focused on developing
    our sales capability with a focus on 6 key channels:
    
    1. Web
    
    We have recently launched new sales focused websites for both Australia
    (www.smartpay.com.au) and New Zealand (www.smartpay.co.nz).  With retail
    merchants increasingly searching for EFTPOS and payments solutions on-line
    this is a growing sales channel and we have invested in a "Search Engine
    Optimisation" strategy aimed at driving traffic to our websites to stimulate
    merchant demand.
    
    2. Direct
    
    Our Direct channel is focused on selling direct into the SME market which is
    the largest component of the Australian EFTPOS market. We have identified
    and are currently in the process of appointing a national Sales Manager
    experienced at building and managing merchant facing direct sales teams.  We
    expect this channel to be a key driver of organic growth in our Australian
    business.
    
    3. Resellers
    
    We have appointed a number of "reseller" partners experienced at selling
    EFTPOS and related banking products.  These are businesses managing teams of
    sales professionals experienced in selling EFTPOS and related banking
    products to retail merchants, typically on behalf of banks.  This is a
    success based commission only channel which leverages our sales reach at low
    financial risk.
    
    4. Partners
    
    Similar to our "reseller" channel, our "partner" channel comprises a network
    of businesses that sell related products to our target market for example
    point of sale vendors where our payments products are a naturally
    complementary product, particularly where we are able to integrate our
    payments technology directly to their point of sale systems / cash registers.
    Again this is a success based commission only model.
    
    5. Banks
    
    Our banking channel is focused on offering banks and their merchants a higher
    level of payments innovation and also securing merchant business to offer
    back to our bank partners.  We are seeing increased interest from Australian
    banks in our suite of innovative payments products and while lead times are
    long with Australian banks we expect this will be a channel of growing
    importance.  We currently have two bank partner relationships in Australia
    and are focused on expanding this number to offer broader choice in banking
    to our merchant base.
    
    6. Taxis
    
    One of Smartpay's core payments solutions is the provision of payments
    terminals, transaction processing and related technology to the taxi
    industry.  To date Smartpay has not participated directly in the taxi
    payments industry but has provided these solutions to large taxi payment
    operators in both New Zealand and Australia.
    
    In Australia, the taxi payments industry has been the subject of ongoing
    regulatory review and recent changes legislated by the Victorian government
    will see the transaction fees charged on card payments reduce to 5% on 1 July
    2014 from the current the current level of 10% (although this may be subject
    to change pending the outcome of further review by the relevant regulatory
    bodies).
    
    While there is a degree of uncertainty as to the impacts these changes will
    have on the Australian taxi industry, with the contract with our sole taxi
    customer in Australia currently due to expire at the end of next year,
    Smartpay believes that there is a growing opportunity and we are currently
    developing a strategy to participate directly in the Australian taxi payments
    industry rather than through the current model of supplying terminals and
    transaction services to a single customer.  Further detail on the nature of
    the changes underway in the Victorian taxi market and our current taxi
    contract are contained in our recently released ASX listing Information
    Memorandum.
    
    Corporate Update
    
    Banking Facilities
    
    We are pleased to announce that we have recently renewed our banking
    facilities with the ASB Bank in New Zealand.  As the original 3 year facility
    was entering its second year we were pleased to accept the ASB's offer to
    extend the facility until July 2016. This extension is to the term of the
    facility only. Our facility limits remain unchanged and current drawn
    facilities remain comfortably below the facility limits and continue to
    reduce through our internal cash generation.
    
    Summary and Outlook
    
    Overall we are pleased with the progress we are making in the business.  With
    the ASX listing process now largely complete, we go forward with a singular
    focus on maximising the value from our leading market position in New Zealand
    and leveraging the scale, capability and innovation of our combined business
    into the growing Australian opportunity.
    Corporate Directory
    
    Registered and Principal offices
    
    New Zealand:
    
    182 - 192 Wairau Road
    Wairau Valley, Auckland 0627
    
    Email: [email protected]
    Phone: +64 (0)9 442 2700
    Fax: +64 (0)9 442 2722
    
    Website:
    www.smartpay.co.nz
    
    Australia:
    
    Level 2, 3 Carlingford Road
    Epping, NSW 2121
    
    Email: [email protected]
    Phone: +61 (0)2 8876 2300
    Fax: +61 (0)2 9869 4223
    
    Website:
    www.smartpay.com.au
    
    Shareholder Enquiries
    
    Enquiries concerning shareholdings should be addressed to:
    
    New Zealand:
    
    Computershare Investor Services Limited
    Private Bag 92119, Auckland 1142
    
    Phone: + 64 (0)9 488 8700
    Fax: + 64 (0)9 488 8787
    
    Australia:
    
    Computershare Investor Services Pty Limited
    GPO Box 3329
    Melbourne, VIC 3001
    
    Free phone: 1 800 501 366
    Fax: +61 (0)3 9473 2500
    End CA:00240174 For:SPY    Type:GENERAL    Time:2013-08-26 09:53:34
    				
 
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