Lesaka to Expand its Merchant Division’s Footprint in South Africa’s Informal Market with the Acquisition of Touchsides (Pty) Ltd from Heineken International B.V.

By: Lesaka Technologies via GlobeNewswire

February 05, 2024 at 16:05 PM EST

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lesaka Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: LSAK; JSE: LSK) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Touchsides (Pty) Ltd (“Touchsides”), a leading data analytics and, insights and merchant services company, from Heineken International B.V. The Touchsides and Kazang businesses are highly complementary, and the acquisition is expected to significantly expand Kazang’s footprint in the tavern industry in South Africa’s informal market.

Touchsides has an active base of over 10,000 POS terminals across South Africa’s informal licensed taverns, and processes more than 1.5 million transactions per day. The business provides platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to licensed tavern outlets, enabling the measurement of sales activity in real-time, management of stock levels and informing commercial decisions, such as pricing and promotional offers. The data and insights gathered from these terminals carries significant value and potential to be monetized through relationships with a range of clients including fast-moving consumer goods companies, retailers, wholesalers, route-to-market suppliers, and financiers.

The licensed tavern market in South Africa consists of an estimated 45,000 establishments, is a major vertical in South Africa’s informal market and provides a real growth opportunity for Kazang.

Lesaka head of Merchant Division and CEO of Connect Steve Heilbron said: "Touchsides is an exciting acquisition target and aligns perfectly with our strategy of adding scale and broadening our service offering in our Merchant division. With its installed network and deep data and insight capabilities, we expect to have a strong platform to better understand and further penetrate South Africa’s informal markets."

"We have identified multiple growth levers from this acquisition that we are ready to execute on," added Heilbron. "Operating as an independent company unaffiliated to a major beverage supplier, we see a distinct opportunity to significantly grow Touchsides' tavern base and to monetize its real-time data. Additionally, we see opportunities for Kazang not only in providing services to Touchsides base, but also in leveraging its data monetization experience and point-of-sale expertise across our large informal merchant base outside of the tavern industry."

The acquisition, funded by internal cash generation of the Group, is expected to close in March 2024 and is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. As part of the acquisition, Heineken’s operating business in South Africa has agreed to a long-term renewable contract with Touchsides for access to Touchsides’ tavern data and services.

About Lesaka (www.lesakatech.com)

Lesaka Technologies, (Lesaka™) is a South African Fintech company that utilizes its proprietary banking and payment technologies to deliver superior financial services solutions to merchants (B2B) and consumers (B2C) in Southern Africa. Lesaka’s mission is to drive true financial inclusion for both merchant and consumer markets through offering affordable financial services to previously underserved sectors of the economy. Lesaka offers cash management solutions, growth capital, card acquiring, bill payment technologies and value-added services to formal and informal retail merchants as well as banking, lending, and insurance solutions to consumers across Southern Africa. The Lesaka journey originally began as “Net1” in 1997 and later rebranded to Lesaka (2022), with the acquisition of Connect. As Lesaka, the business continues to grow its systems and capabilities to deliver meaningful fintech-enabled, innovative solutions for South Africa’s merchant and consumer markets.

Lesaka has a primary listing on NASDAQ (NasdaqGS: LSAK) and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE: LSK). Visit www.lesakatech.com for additional information about Lesaka Technologies (Lesaka ™).

About Kazang (www.kazang.com)

Kazang is a leading provider of cash and digital solutions to merchants in Southern Africa’s informal economies. Its fintech solutions include a wide range of value-added services (VAS), card acquiring, secure cash vaults and supplier payments platforms. Kazang operates a network of over 75,000 active devices, and processes around 2.2 million transactions daily.

Kazang is dedicated to helping small and medium merchants grow and succeed, through increasing their sales, making their businesses more efficient and reducing their risks with its holistic portfolio of products and services.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such statements are subject to the safe harbor created by those sections and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such statements may be identified by their use of terms or phrases such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “will,” “intends,” “outlook,” “focus,” “seek,” “potential,” “mission,” “continue,” “goal,” “target,” “objective,” derivations thereof, and similar terms and phrases. Forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, which could cause future events and actual results to differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements. In this press release, statements relating to future financial results and future financing and business opportunities are forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statement is contained in our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, as filed with the SEC, as well as other documents we have filed or will file with the SEC. With respect to our proposed acquisition of Touchsides, additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by the forward-looking statements include, among others: (1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the share purchase agreement relating to the proposed acquisition; (2) the ability to satisfy all conditions to completion of the proposed acquisition, including obtaining regulatory approvals; (3) unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the transaction; (4) the disruption of management’s attention from our ongoing business operations due to the proposed acquisition; (5) changes in the financial condition of the markets that Touchsides serves; (6) risks associated with Touchsides’ product and service offerings or its results of operation; (7) the challenges, risks and costs involved with integrating the operations of Touchsides with ours; and (8) our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed acquisition. We assume no obligation to update the information in this press release, to revise any forward-looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements.

Investor Relations Contact:
Phillipe Welthagen
Email: phillipe.welthagen@lesakatech.com
Mobile: +27 84 512 5393

FNK IR:
Rob Fink / Matt Chesler, CFA
Email: lsak@fnkir.com