PayPoint Romania FY Net Revenue Falls 13.6% To GBP21M

05.26.2011 By Florentina Dragu

British specialist payments company PayPoint Plc Thursday reported a 13.6% drop in net revenue at its Romanian unit to GBP21.03 million for the year ended March 27, due to declining mobile top-ups transactions.

Nonetheless, PayPoint Romania recorded 12 million bill payment transactions in the fiscal year to March 27, more than double on the year.

Groupwide, PayPoint reported net revenue of GBP82.7 million, up 6.9% on the year.

"I am pleased to report the return to growth in earnings as a result of good performance by our UK retail network, excellent internet payment growth and substantial progress in our Romanian network and Collect+," Chairman David Newlands said in a statement.

PayPoint said it has expanded its Romanian retail network by over 1,100 service terminals to 6,000 units in March 2011, while removing all the old mobile top-up only sites.

Under a new contract with Western Union, PayPoint Romania is expected to roll out money transfer in 2011.

"Increasing bill payment volumes have continued to provide growth in Romania and we will launch money transfer services this year. In addition, we are adding new sites to cover more neighborhoods and optimizing existing sites to improve their profitability," CEO Dominic Taylor said.

He said the Romanian business is expected to break even in 2011.