Visa and Interswitch are in advanced talks in a deal that will see the former becoming Africa’s latest technology ‘unicorn’, Blueprint has gathered.
According to report, the move by Visa to acquire a 20 per cent, valued at $200 million, stake is targeted at becoming a cornerstone investor in Interswitch ahead of the company’s prospective initial public offering (IPO) in London next year.
Interswitch which has revived its plans for an initial public offering, via a dual listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, is said to have hired financial advisers, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Standard Bank Group, as firms working on the potential initial public offering.
While Visa’s move to acquire a 20 per cent stake in Interswitch is largely connected to the planned IPO, this is also a move by the company to make a strong statement against its closest rival, MasterCard.
Earlier in the year, MasterCard had invested $300m in Dubai-based Network International ahead of its stock market debut in London. Network International, is the largest payment processor in Africa and the Middle East.
The rush to build stakes in African businesses by Visa and MasterCard is being driven by a desire to take advantage of established platforms in markets that are both fast-growing and under-penetrated.
Interswitch is considered Nigeria’s first unicorn in the Fintech space and has dominated Nigeria’s payment channels gateway for over a decade.
It is also one of the largest Africa-focused electronic payments and infrastructure companies, with point-of-sale terminals, online consumer payment platforms and its own card, Verve.
