Optimal Payments eyes FTSE 250 listing

Online payments group Optimal Payments (OPAY) said trading remained strong in recent weeks and that it planned, once its acquisition of rival Skrill is complete, to move from AIM to the main market, where it expects to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index.

The company expects approval from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority for the £800m deal to be granted before the end of July, unless the regulator exercises its statutory right to interrupt the consideration period.

OPAY, which is scheduled to release interim results on 26 August, agreed in March to buy Skrill Group from CVC and its other private equity owners for an enterprise value of approximately €1.1bn, with a fully underwritten £451m rights issue to partly fund the deal.

The acquisition will expand its online payment and digital wallet services, with Skrill one of largest pre-paid online voucher providers in Europe.

Optimal, which is one of the world's leading providers of online and mobile payment processing services via its Netbanx and Neteller brands, has had a rollercoaster stock market history under its former guises as Neteller and Neovia Financial, which were left battered and bruised by the first rise of the US online gambling market in 2005 and 2006 before a swift political policy reversal.

Things are rosier now, with an acquisitive strategy seeing annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 65% to $86.1m (£57.7m), as announced in March, with revenue up 44% to $365m.