CaixaBank and Global Payments Joint Venture

CaixaBank, Spain’s largest bank by market share, Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN), a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services, and Erste Group Bank AG, a leading financial services provider in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), announced today an agreement to form a joint venture to provide merchant acquiring and payment services in three core locations in Central and Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

Global Payments and CaixaBank will pay €30 million in cash to acquire a 51 percent majority ownership in the venture. Erste Group will contribute its existing merchant acquiring businesses in each of the three countries to the joint venture and will hold a 49 percent interest. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2016, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

CaixaBank is a leader in technological innovation worldwide and has pioneered new payment systems, while it is also a strategic partner of Global Payments in Spain and Brazil, and of Erste in Central and Eastern Europe. It has a total of 14 million cards in circulation and a market share of 22.73%. It was the first bank in Spain to introduce contactless payment technology, with more than 4 million contactless cards now in circulation and over 200,000 contactless-ready POS.

Erste Group Bank, headquartered in Vienna, is one of the largest financial institutions in the eastern part of the EU. Ever since its foundation in 1819 as Central Europe’s first savings bank, Erste Group has been pursuing a business strategy focused upon the real economy. Erste Group has a large consumer banking footprint with more than 2,800 branches in 7 countries and 16.2 million clients.