Boxhill Tech to buy Timegrand, slowdown in card payments

Shares in Boxhill Technologies tumbled on Friday after the payment software firm said that there was a slowdown in operations in the payments division following changes to credit card regulations, while it is to buy Timgrand, a special purpose vehicle.

There was a slowdown in credit card processing in the payments division during the second half of 2016 due to new regulations introduced by card scheme operators and banks.

The new rules have restricted the ability of certain suppliers to provide the market with the full range of credit card transactions, and the company believes that this has vindicated its decision to acquire FreePaymaster, which has been rebranded as EmexGo to suit SWIFT requirements, and now offers a cross border payments, alternative payments and peer to peer payments.

Executive chairman Lord Razzall said: "The changes to regulations for credit card processing introduced particularly by Visa have resulted in a temporary slowdown in the operation of the Payments Division. We have taken this opportunity to develop and enhance the business in ways which will produce positive results in the coming months, as will the development of EmexGo.

During the slow period, the EmexPay business upgraded its security systems including rolling out 256bit encryption tools across all data sets, and expanded its network gaining new banks such as Pasta Bank in Latvia, the State Bank of Mauritius, and Sparkasse Bank in Malta.

In the lottery division direct bank payments for clients was introduced in September and taken up by around 30% the company's clients, while it also launched a new Weather Lottery website in January.

Its Soccerdome joint venture in Nottingham is operating satisfactorily in line with expectations, as it focused on increasing awareness of its venue to increase sales.

Meanwhile, the company has agreed to buy Timegrand, a recently incorporated special purpose vehicle, for 500m shares at 0.1p each which will hold intellectual property and software including a licence to use an advanced payment gateway software system with advanced analytics and security. Boxhill said that it is already using elements of this software suite, as well as its customers.

Lord Razzall said: “The acquisition of Timegrand saves both time and money by delivering increased efficiencies and resource-saving functionality which, with one eye on the future, will assist as we continue to make planned progress within our payments division.”

Shares in Boxhill Technologies were down 20.32% to 0.147p at 0925 GMT.