TelCell acquires Mega Pantera in Armenian market of terminal payments

• Friday, February 17, 06:53

The Armenian market of instant payments has experienced an acquisition deal. ArmInfo has been told by well-informed sources that the instant payments operator TelCell has acquired the Mega Pantera settlement-payment organization. Being the largest player in the market, TelCell has adjusted all the payment terminals of its former competitor to its own software.

TelCell has refused to comment on this deal. The company's press service rather strangely explains its refusal to give any comments by the repair work in the office and by the temporary absence of the head of the company. For his part, the head of the marketing service said that he was busy and refused pointblank to comment on the given deal over the telephone. All this run-around makes one think that the company has no desire to make the deal public.

To note, the market of terminal payments in Armenia only started developing in 2007 and now has 4 players. The average monthly volume of the instant payments market is 500 mln AMD. 65-70% of the summary volume of payments fall on mobile communication, 20-25% - on utility payments, the rest 5- 10% - on internet, television services, etc.

Experts say that the average pay-off period of 1 terminal is about 2 years. The average pay-off period of the whole business, with the monthly profit from one "active" terminal being 5 thsd USD, is about 6-8 years, whereas under normal conditions the return on investment within the frames of this business is ensured in 2.5-3 years. To recall, the TelCell settlement-payment organization is the first and largest payment acceptance network in Armenia.

The company was founded in 2007. At the moment the company accepts payments in favor of 85 communication operators and providers of various services via the payment terminals. The system has 300 payment acceptance points in the large cities of the republic. Within the short-term outlook the company is going to expand its network to 400 points. The official website of the company provides no information about its shareholders.

The settlement-payment organization Mega Pantera represented the MegaPay instant payments system. The system included 350 payment terminals, 273 of them in Yerevan and 77 in the towns and villages of Armenia. Unlike TelCell, no commission fee was levied during the payments via MegaPay.