Cuscal - Hiding In Plain Sight, page-7

Yes it does appear to be a no brainer

Indue, the Brisbane-based payments business chaired by former JBWere executive Frank Gullone, is expected to be placed on the auction block after bringing in bankers to conduct a stealth strategic review.

Indue was responsible for the federal government’s controversial cashless payments card for welfare recipients. Nine News

Street Talk can reveal Indue has mandated Gresham Partners to explore exit options for the business, which offers payments infrastructure to clients under the new payments platform (NPP) architecture brought into force in 2018 to allow for round-the-clock transactions.

Sources say Indue generated $2 million in profit in the 12 months to the end of June last year, after earning $30.4 million in interest and almost $99 million in fees from facilitating transactions, sales and from licences. It is expected to be shopped with $10 million accounting EBITDA, and $6 million cash earnings.

Gresham managing director Stephen O’Shaughnessy and executive director Katherine Todd are spearheading the deal.

Indue traces its history back 50 years, and is owned by 15 financial institutions including credit unions and mutuals.

Potential acquirers can be expected to look to Cuscal, another payments infrastructure player backed by banks and credit unions and which debuted on the ASX last year after raising $336.8 million for its IPO.

That deal valued Cuscal at about 13.1 times the earnings forecast for the 2025 financial year, and its shares have risen about 20 per cent since.

In addition to NPP architecture, Indue offers fraud prevention via its Orion Financial Crimes Services brand, mobile payments, and gifts and prepaid programs. Indue was also responsible for the federal government’s controversial cashless payments card for welfare recipients.

Clientele includes not-for profits, governments and startups. The business is regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

Indue, like Cuscal and Australian Settlements Limited, is known as an “aggregator” with direct connections to the NPP. The latter is the payments system that was driven by the RBA for nearly four years, before being rolled out in 2018.