Dubai: Network International, the Middle East and Africa region’s leading payment solutions provider is entering a new phase in its growth journey as it plans to expand and consolidate its market share and explore further expansion opportunities in the region, Simon Haslam, Group CEO, told Gulf News in an interview.
Network emerged as the dominant player in payment solutions business in the Middle East and Africa region following its acquisition of Emerging Markets Payments Holdings Limited (EMP) from private equity investor Actis in March 2016. Today, the company has presence across 71 countries, servicing over 200 banks as clients and more than 70,000 merchants across the Middle East and Africa.
Network International is jointly owned by Emirates NBD, one of the largest banking groups in the UAE, and global investment firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic.
- Simon Haslam, Group CEO of Network International
The company underwent a number of changes at the top management recently with the focus on driving growth in market share, revenue, profitability and innovation. The company has recruited leading talent in the global payments industry as it prepares for vertical and geographical expansion across its core Middle East and African markets.
Network will continue to expand within its core markets across Middle East and Africa and will actively pursue acquisition opportunities if these fit the overall strategy of expanding the company’s market share and profitability.
“We are pursuing aggressive vertical growth in existing markets and geographical expansion across our core market, the Middle East and Africa. We will consider M&A opportunities if they can help forge ahead with our strategy, but our strategy is not built on M&A,” said Haslam.
The MEA region is a high-growth corridor for the payments industry and as the market leader in the region, the company is now focused on optimising this opportunity by expanding as well as deepening it footprint in the region.
The acquisition of EMP came with extensive footprint for the company in MEA region, serving more than 35,000 retailers and 130 banks and processing over nine million accounts — all run along four key business lines that include bank processing, merchant acquiring, retailer processing and ATM services.
“The acquisition [of EMP] made perfect sense and enabled us to get foothold into a number of new markets. There were some overlap of functions in a few markets, but acquisition has gone well. We are still undergoing the rebranding process. The company is planning to have the single branding across the Middle East and Africa,” said Haslam.
Network is a big merchant acquirer on its own in the UAE with the largest market share. It is also doing issuer processing in a number of GCC countries. But the acquisition of EMP has brought more of issuer processing business. Networks’ customers in these markets are largely banks rather than retailers.
Post-acquisition [of EMP], Network is in the process of integrating its back offices which are now in Dubai and Egypt. While synergies will be a key driver in the integration process, Haslam said the company will have appropriate presence in all key markets where it operates.
“Our acquisition of EMP last year brought in operations and technology capabilities in Jordan and Egypt, giving us access to a bilingual talent pool right here in the region. As a result, we have shifted our strategy to focus on expanding our operations capabilities in Cairo to develop a shared services centre of excellence model to support all our businesses across the region,” said Haslam.
Focus on profitability and innovation
Profitability is on top of the company’s agenda. “We are doing all it takes to streamline our business; partner with the right people, regionally and internationally; innovate to serve customers better and focus on the opportunities that the MEA has to offer that fit our investment criteria and parameters,” said Simon Haslam, Group CEO told Gulf News in an interview.
Innovation extends beyond creating the next big thing (product), it is often about creating greater efficiencies to help serve customers better. “We see innovation as a means to an end, with the end being happier customers,” he said.
Digital payments solutions are becoming more and more important within this market and other markets in the GCC and Africa. With the arrival of the likes of SamsungPay and ApplePay, the move is gaining momentum and the governments obviously have the plan to digitise all their products and service and Network is helping them to do that with payments.
The payments industry is at the heart of the UAE government’s and Dubai’s Smart City initiative to enable UAE citizens, residents and visitors avail government services at the click of a button. “We are an active partner of this initiative. Case in point being our recent partnership with the RTA (Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai) and ENOC to transform ENOC petrol stations into contactless, cashless zones,” he said.
Network has also collaborated with the RTA to enable card payment for taxi fares via NOL card. In fact, the Tesla electric cars that have been added to RTA’s limo fleet recently all have our point of sale terminals.
Despite the growing digital adoption, he said Network’s role will continue to expand as the company is involved in enabling the payment whether it is done digitally, through cards or through any other mode. Haslam doesn’t expect to see the death of cards anytime soon.
