Wire Card AG (DE) - Wire Card AG plans to acquire XCOM Bank AG

Wire Card AG plans to acquire XCOM Bank AG


Milestone in the strategic development of the company

Berlin/Munich, September 8, 2005. Wire Card AG (stock market symbol IGP; WKN 747206), which is listed in the Prime Standard at Frankfurt Stock Exchange, announces today that it plans to acquire XCOM Bank AG. In connection with this transaction, the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Wire Card AG intend to carry out a share capital increase in cash from authorised capital.

Background to acquisition and strategic rational

XCOM Bank AG has a universal banking licence and holds material licences for the issuing and acceptance of credit cards.

With a technical overall solution approach in the areas of real-time payment processing and risk management, Wire Card AG has positioned itself successfully in the international market environment for online payment transactions. The acquisition of XCOM Bank AG represents a major addition to the value chain for Wire Card AG. It is an important aspect that the company will now be able to enter the credit and debit card issuing business which has significant strategic potential. In this new area of business Wire Card will concentrate on marketing innovative card products of the major credit card organisations which are especially suited for online applications.

Dr. Markus Braun, CEO of Wire Card, comments this important strategic step: "As one of the few independent European players which holds a universal bank licence, Wire Card will be able to increase its competitive advantage. This acquisition and the coverage of the new business area will significantly improve our gross margin and consequently our profitability in the medium and long term."

Wire Card AG continues to position itself as an independent provider in the areas of payment transactions and credit card processing. Specifically, there will be further expansion of the existing strategic partnerships with large processing banks and especially credit card acquirers in parallel to the development of in-house solutions. Wire Card will maintain its strategy adopted in the past by being able to provide a solution that is as flexible as possible and is tailor-made to meet the individual customer´s requirements focused on the benefit of its customers.

The planned acquisition is a major step in the realisation of the strategic vision of the Wire Card Group of becoming the leading European full service provider for real-time payment solutions.

Transaction structure

Subject to the approval of the German financial services supervisory authority (BaFin) and the German banks´ auditing association (Prüfungsverband deutscher Banken e.V.), Wire Card AG will be acquiring all the shares in XCOM Bank AG via a subsidiary with effect from 1. January 2006. The purchase price including the estimated overall investment costs is of the order of EUR 18 million. To finance this acquisition including the transaction costs and the necessary operating integration and running-in costs, the Management Board and Supervisory Board intend to carry out a capital increase. The company will announce further details in the next days.

About Wire Card AG:

Wire Card AG is one of the leading European providers of payment systems, risk management and communications services. The Company provides customers with a wide range of payment options (credit card, direct debit, transfer, invoice, cash in advance, debit cards) along with CLICK2PAY as an alternative Internet payment system. The software platform is being used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe.


Presse contact:
Iris Stöckl,
Wire Card AG,
Tel. 089 4424 2034,
iris.stoeckl@wirecard.com

Dr. Kay Baden,
Kirchhoff Consult AG,
Tel. 040 609 186 39,
baden@kirchhoff.de

Wire Card AG
Voigtstrasse 31
10247 Berlin
Internet: www.wirecard.de




The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

This release was published on openPR.