IGT has announced the sale of its Italian proximity payment business from its IGT Lottery subsidiary to PostePay for a total consideration of €700 million. 

NYSE-registered IGT will directly sell LIS Holding and indirectly sell LISPAY, the two wholly-owned subsidiaries that constitute and provide its payments operations, which has established a prominent place in Italy.

The sale price consists of an enterprise value of €630 million and approximately €70 million of net unrestricted cash, whilst IGT maintains that its payments subsidiaries granted around €228 million in gross revenues and close to €40 million in EBITDA in 2021.

The firm asserts that these earnings are a reflection of a ‘valuation multiple in line with the most recent Italian transactions’ in the proximity payments sector, and adds that the proceedings from the transaction will be used to reduce its debt. 

By acquiring the two businesses, PostePay is securing a payment technology platform and a domestic network of 54,000 points of sale in Italy, with services including bill payments, prepaid payment cards to commercial services providing telco and e-voucher top-ups and technological solutions such as merchant and enterprise services. 

Vince Sadusky, IGT CEO, remarked: “This transaction provides us with an opportunity to monetize IGT’s market leadership in the Italian proximity payment business at an attractive value as we continue to execute our long-term strategy.

“Streamlining our products and solutions portfolio enables us to focus our efforts and resources on our core and strategic assets, as we position IGT for industry leadership and increased shareholder value.”

The transaction – which has received the approval of IGT’s Board of Directors – is expected to close during the third quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. 

IGT has procured the services of several firms for advice and guidance, including UBS AG as lead financial advisory and fairness opinion provider, UniCredit as a financial advisor, Advant-Nctm as legal advisory and KPMG as financial due diligence and tax adviser. 

The company began 2022 with some major leadership changes in January, as Group CEO Marco Sala was appointed Executive Chairman of the gambling technology group, with his position taken by former Univision Latino America Chief Executive Sadusky.