Australia’s Westpac Banking and Tyro Payments End Acquisition Talks

Westpac Banking has scuttled its consideration of an acquisition of Tyro Payments.

The two firms said Monday (Dec. 12) in separate press releases that they had had preliminary discussions but those talks have ended.

“On [Oct. 18] Westpac announced it was in preliminary discussions with Tyro Payments Limited to acquire 100% of the company’s issued share capital,” Westpac said in its Monday press release. “Westpac has now undertaken due diligence on Tyro and has decided that submitting an offer is not in the best interests of Westpac shareholders at this time.”

In October, Westpac had confirmed the preliminary discussions while also noting that there was no certainty that any transaction would result.

“An acquisition would strengthen Westpac’s small business proposition, enabling it to better support customers and grow merchant acquiring, particularly in the hospitality and healthcare sectors,” Westpac said in an Oct. 18 press release.

For its part, Tyro Payments said in its Monday press release that Westpac’s approach expressing an interest in a potential change of control transaction of Tyro was unsolicited and that it has now concluded the discussion.

Tyro added in the release that the discussion had not resulted in a proposal that its board believed fairly values the company.

“Tyro remains open to engaging with any credible change of control proposal it receives that represents compelling value for Tyro shareholders,” the company said in the release. “Based on the board’s assessment of the company’s attractive growth prospects in the Australian payments and business banking markets, no such proposal has been received, and accordingly the board and management will continue to focus on executing on Tyro’s current strategy.”

In the release, Tyro added that all its operating metrics are currently toward the top end of guidance and that its strategic priorities — Tyro Go, Tyro Pro and automated customer onboarding — are seeing good progress.

Tyro focuses on providing Australian businesses with payment solutions and value-adding business banking products.

Its Tyro Go is a new electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) reader that is small enough to fit in a pocket, while its upcoming Tyro Pro is a next-generation terminal that is to be released in 2023, the company said in a Nov. 14 press release.

Westpac Banking is one of four major banking organizations in Australia and one of the largest banks in New Zealand, according to its website.

In August, the bank and Australian payments company Afterpay ended their partnership.