Sage Is Mulling A Sale Of Its US Payment Processing Unit

Sage Group, the U.K. software company, is launching a review of the company’s payments business and is mulling a sale of the U.S. arm of that business.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Sage said it had been exploring options for Sage Payment Solutions, the U.S. payment unit that processes and manages cards and mobile payments for merchants. In addition to exploring options for the U.S. business, it’s also launching a review of the global payments business.

“We are looking not just in North America but more generally,” Chief Financial Officer Steve Hare said during an earnings conference call covered by Bloomberg. The CFO noted that, if Sage ends up selling Sage Payment Solutions, it doesn’t mean the businesses outside of the U.S. will also be unloaded. Previously, Bloomberg reported the U.S. payments group has seen interest from Worldpay Group, EVO Payments International and Global Payments.

According to Bloomberg, Sage also promoted Seamus Smith, head of Sage Pay U.K., to run the banking and payments businesses globally and lead the review of the payments business. The report noted Sage is also aiming to diversify the business from installed software to new technology, like migrating users to cloud services.

The company also has an accounting chatbot named Pegg that has more than 20,000 users located in 110 countries. Citing data from The Nilson Report, Bloomberg reported Sage Payment Solutions was the 25th largest merchant acquirer in 2015 in the U.S. with more than $17 billion in processed transactions. For the three months ended Dec. 31, Sage reported an organic revenue increase of 5.1 percent and backed its full-year target of 6 percent organic growth in revenue. Wall Street firm Investec said in a report that a sale of the U.S. payments business would be dilutive to earnings but only mildly dilutive. Cash from the sale, said the investment firm, would likely go to mergers and acquisitions in the future.