Neteller on the Move Again

With a sudden US market exit (due to certain .. legal entanglements) and the irritation with the American legal authorities more or less behind them, the Isle of Man based e-wallet Neteller is moving forward again. The international expansion strategy announcement came out this week with a new Asia-Pacific involvement.

Describing itself as an independent global online payments business, the company disclosed this week that it has recently acquired a strategic stake in Centricom Pty Limited.

Under the terms of the agreement, Neteller has arranged to invest a sum of AUD 5 million in consideration of a minority stake holding in Centricom, on a diluted basis. Part of the investment allows Neteller to appoint one director to sit on the Centricom board.

Through an existing partnership, Neteller has already introduced the POLi service to its Australian customers in January 2007 as a safe and convenient method of payment direct from their bank accounts. The POLi system permits customers to make payments online, from existing internet banking service, without releasing their bank or credit card details to the merchant.

A strong financial partner in the Melbourne-based Jagen Group backs Centricom, Jagen is an international investment group with interests across a broad range of industries in various countries around the world, will continue to own the majority shareholding in Centricom subsequent to the Neteller investment, along Centricom's directors and employees.

This investment advances the Neteller Group's existence in the important and expanding Asia Pacific online payment market, says President and CEO Ron Martin. Since launch in October of 2004, Centricom has progressively built and refined the online payment business. The POLi service at present operates in three countries; Australia, New Zealand and, with a partner ATM Solutions, South Africa.