Paypoint rues mobile top-up declines

Paypoint, the payment systems operator, says bill payment and retail services have been strong since March but declining mobile phone top-ups have dented revenues.

The firm operates a network of 24,000 payment terminals in local shops in the UK which allow consumers to pay utility bills, TV Licence fees and buy transport tickets. Paypoint also has similar operations in Romania and Ireland.

Overall transactions processed since the year end in March were 181m, up 16% over the same period of 2011.

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Revenues since March have been £53m, 10% ahead of the previous year.

The problem for Paypoint appears to have been its mobile top-ups service which has been hit by a general trend away from pre-payment towards contract phones, the firm says revenues were "adversely affected" but does not supply figures.

Dominic Taylor, the Chief Executive, was keen to focus on the performance of the developing businesses. Romania is seeing impressive growth, with 5.7m transactions over the last three months, 34% up on the prior year. The Romanian operation is now profitable after reaching "breakeven" point last year.

Taylor described the momentum in the new businesses, which also include the PayByPhone and Collect+ services, as "encouraging".

The market was not convinced. By 09:29 the stock had fallen 2%.

BS