BGS’ shares acquired by Net 1 UEPS Technologies

This week a new acquisition was undertaken by Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. The company purchased 80.1% of BGS Smartcard Systems AG, an Austrian private company that provides smart card-based payment systems to banks, enterprises and government authorities in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Vietnam, India and Oman.

In 1993 Net1 licensed to BGS its UEPS technology. Then BGS developed its Dual Universal Electronic Transactions, or DUET solution which was a derivative of the first version of Net1's UEPS.

The main customer of BGS is Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia, which owns the remaining 19.9% of BGS. Under the deal Net1 paid the selling shareholders about €71.5 million in cash while issuing some shareholders with its holding of 40,134 shares of Net1 common stock.