The Australian tech firm, EML Payments Limited announced on Monday that it has received approval from the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to go ahead with the acquisition of Sentenial.
The companies entered into a binding agreement last April for the acquisition of all stakes in Sentenial. They agreed to an upfront enterprise value of €70 million, along with an additional earn-out component of up to €40 million.
As Sentenial is regulated by the financial regulators in the United Kingdom and France, both the regulators need to approve the acquisition deal.
“EML is pleased to announce that after market close on Friday 18 June 2021, the FCA provided its approval to the change of control,” EML stated in the press release. However, the company is yet to receive a green light from Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), which is the French financial market regulator.
The company is expecting to close the deal by the first quarter of the financial year 2022.
One of the Largest Open Banking Players
Sentenial is a payments company that handles transactions of more than 45 billion euros every year. The platform is connected to 1,750 banks and aggressively growing its presence across Europe.
EML is determined to Leverage Sentenial’s existing services to strengthen its open banking services. Though the company has eyes on the global markets, it will first target the North American and Australian markets.
Last month EML partnered with Sydney-based fintech Frollo for the launch of the EML Nuapay product suite.
“The acquisition of Sentenial will be the next evolution for EML, as we transition into a broader payments business by adding instant account-to-account (Open Banking) payments into our suite of solutions for current and prospective customers,” EML's MD and Group CEO, Tom Cregan, said earlier.
