CT-Payment Inc. (subsidiary of Central Tax Inc.), a company specializing in electronic payment processing, announces today that it acquired the Assure Pay Debit and Credit Card processing business from TELUS Corporation (TSX:T)(TSX:T.A)(NYSE:TU). This business unit offers custom payment solutions across a wide range of communication protocols. It supports transactions from all major credit cards, as well as private-label, travel & entertainment and fleet cards. The newly combined CT-Payment transactional volume will excess 110 million transactions annually, serving government's agencies, large merchants, telecommunication companies, service companies and retailers. The platform is also able to meet the payment processing needs of large oil companies.
"Barely one year after the purchase of the CGI Group payment solution, CT-Payment is thrilled to add to it the powerful switching capabilities of the newly acquired TELUS platform." explained Denis Savard, CEO of CT-Payment. "This acquisition is consistent with our strategy and makes us the largest third party payment processor with actual connections to all Canadian acquirers. Our integrated solution combined with our neutral stance towards acquirers makes it possible for our merchant-customers to switch acquirer without operational impacts. Merchants will use this capability to better negotiate the credit card processing rate - or merchant discount rate - charged to them."
CT-Payment will immediately interface its newly acquired platform to its current payment solution. To insure a trouble-free and smooth transition, TELUS and CT-Payment have entered into a set of managed service agreements, the first one ensuring a seamless transition for the application development, maintenance, support and client care functions. The second one will ensure the hosting, operations, and overall management of the IT infrastructure for a duration of 5 years. CT-Payment and TELUS will work closely together to maintain high quality services for all customers.
"Both CT-Payment and TELUS are committed to ensuring the integration is operationally seamless and transparent for our customers." said Keith Nugara, senior vice-president, TELUS Financial Services.
This transaction was made possible by the financial contribution of three Quebec institutions: The Solidarity Fund QFL who is at the center of the financial montage with a significant investment, along with Investissement Quebec and the National Bank of Canada.
"CT-Payment is driven by a solid business model and shows a very favourable growth outlook. This new acquisition strengthens even more its product portfolio. In the highly competitive field of the new technologies, these are strong assets that make us confident about the company's future. With this investment and by bringing its expertise to the table, The Fund is proud to support CT-Payment management in their Canadian expansion" declared Gaetan Morin, Senior Vice-President Investments at The Solidarity Fund QFL.
About CT-Payment
Born from Central Tax Inc., which was founded in 2002, CT-Payment is a new company which operates in two domains: the electronic processing of debit and credit card payments, and the management and payment of property taxes. CT-Payment objective is, for both these fields, to centralize and standardize the processing of transactions in a secure, stable, reliable, and high-performance environment. For more information, please visit www.ctpayment.com.
About The Solidarity Fund QFL
The Solidarity Fund QFL helps drive our economy. With net assets of $7.0 billion as at November 30, 2009, the Fund is a development capital company that through its RRSP channels the savings of Quebecers into investments in all sectors of the economy to help create and maintain jobs and to further Quebec's economic growth. The Fund is a partner, either directly or through its network members, in 2,000 companies. It currently has nearly 571,000 shareholders and has helped, on its own or with other financial partners, to create, maintain and protect nearly 143,000 jobs. For more information, visit www.fondsftq.com.
