Neu-Isenburg, 03/03/2015

Lufthansa AirPlus, Germany’s leading provider of payment and settlement solutions for business travel, is selling its Visa and MasterCard Acquiring portfolio to technology and financial services provider Wirecard. This transfer will enable AirPlus to strengthen its focus on business travel management, its core business. Contracts for services AirPlus offered mainly under the Acceptance brand will transfer to Wirecard over the course of the first half of 2015.

As part of the transaction, Wirecard will acquire the services that provide cashless payments to merchants through the Visa and MasterCard networks. Wirecard will pay 13 million euros plus earn-out components of up to approximately 1 million euros for the years 2015 and 2016 to AirPlus to assume the company’s existing contracts regarding credit card acceptance, its agency services and its network provision services. Subject to approval from the Federal Cartel Office of Germany and the responsible bodies of the two parties, the transaction is scheduled to be finalized in the second half of 2015.

“Disposing of our Acquiring portfolio will allow us to concentrate on our core segment: business travel management, including the AirPlus Corporate Card and the AirPlus Company Account,” said AirPlus Managing Director Patrick W. Diemer. “Existing contracts will be transferred to Wirecard and our customers will benefit from the company’s excellent services.” Wirecard Group Director Markus Braun said: “By taking over AirPlus’ Acquiring business segment we will continue to expand our portfolio in the airline/travel business.”

Contact:
Anne Dreesen
AirPlus International
Phone: +49 (0) 61 02. 2 04 - 72 61
Email: communications@airplus.com