LEAWOOD, Kan. - Euronet Worldwide Inc., an electronic payments provider, has announced a stock purchase agreement to acquire Los Angeles-based Ria Envia Inc.
According to a news release, Euronet will buy 100 percent of Ria's outstanding common stock for $380 million in cash, $110 million in Euronet stock, and certain contingent value and stock appreciation rights. The transaction will be treated as an asset sale and is expected to close during the first or second quarter of 2007.
Ria, the third-largest global consumer-to-consumer remittance company, processes $4.5 billion in money transfers annually. The total market volume for money-transfer services in 2005 was estimated to be $256 billion, Euronet said.
Ria originates transactions through a network of more than 10,000 sending agents and 98 company-owned stores located throughout 13 countries in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia; it terminates transactions through a payer network that exceeds 32,000 locations across 82 countries. Ria's primary services include money transfer, bill payment, money orders and check cashing. Ria offers transfers under the brands Ria Money Transfer, AFEX Money Express and Kim Phu Money Transfer, and operates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Irish Republic, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and Australia. In addition, Ria has license applications pending in Belgium and Greece.
The acquisition is expected to create significant opportunities for Euronet, including the ability to provide money-transfer services to many of Euronet's 157,000 prepaid top-up locations, as well as to provide prepaid services through Ria's stores and agents across the globe. Euronet expects to use its banking and merchant/retailer relationships to expand money-transfer services to corridors across Europe and Asia, including high-growth corridors to Central and Eastern Europe.
