Net1 makes Fortune 100’s fastest-growing firms list

ALTERNATIVE payment systems provider Net1 UEPS Technologies has joined the list of Fortune 100 fastestgrowing companies for the year as it gears up to take on the traditional banking institutions.

The ranking confirms Net1’s position as a market leader in the innovation of alternative payments, days after it announced plans to step up the roll-out of its mobile branches and to carve a larger market share in Nigeria and Uganda.

Net1 ranked 60th for earnings per share (EPS) growth, 91st for revenue growth, 78th for total return and 99th overall in the Fortune index.

Net1 shares on the JSE climbed by as much as 12 percent to R280 yesterday. The stock was closed up 8.8 percent at R272.

Affirmation

Net1 chief executive Serge Belamant said the ranking was an affirmation of the effort the group had put into building the firm’s growth over the past three years.

“Our ranking in the top 100 affirms the efforts of the Net1 global team over the last three years, and I look forward to sustaining the momentum as we diversify our activities,” he said.

Fortune’s methodology includes companies that have posted an annualised growth in revenue and EPS of at least 15 percent annually over the three years ended on or before April 30.

Companies that meet these criteria are ranked by revenue growth rate, EPS growth rate and three-year annualised total return for the period to June.

Net1, which has a primary listing on the Nasdaq and a secondary listing on the JSE, posted a set of results last week that beat analysts expectations with an 8 percent rise in full-year revenue to $625 million (R8 billion).

The company operates in four segments: smart card accounts, international transaction-based activities, financial services, as well as hardware and software and related technology sales.

Belamant said last week that Net1 was a becoming a serious contender in banking according to the response it was receiving for its financial inclusion products. The products were free to connect to and provided an array of services mostly on a pay-per-use basis.

He said in Nigeria, One Credit, in which Net1 has invested, was trying to replicate its achievement in Uganda where it had cornered a largely under penetrated market of 40 million people.

Strategy

He said in South Africa, EasyPay Everywhere (EPE) was a part of its strategy to provide financial inclusion to anyone in the country.

“We also believe the success of this business will more than compensate for any loss of the Sassa (South African Social Security Agency) contract if and when it were to go away,” Belamant said.

To illustrate the point, he said Net1 had launched EPE as a pilot project in May with a handful of branches and now was managing 140 000 EPE accounts. It was planning to set up more branches and ATM infrastructure, as well as mobile branches in the near future.

“By the end of this calendar year, we expect to have over 1 000 ATMs installed in under-served areas and a further 25 physical branches. We are already processing about 600 000 transactions per month and adding 4 000 new EPE customers every day,” he said.

Belamant said Net1 was not far from its target of opening more than 150 000 EPE accounts every month.