Kuala Lumpur. April 3 – GHL Systems Bhd sees the emergence of a new major shareholder, Actis, a leading growth markets investor, headquartered in London and with a growing portfolio of investments across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Actis has today acquired a 44.4% stake from Cycas, a unit of Creador, a private equity firm and Simon Loh, the Executive Vice Chairman of GHL to emerge as the largest shareholder in GHL.
Creador, who has been a shareholder of GHL since 2014, will dispose of their entire 28.3% stake to Actis which marks their exit whereas Simon will remain as a substantial shareholder retaining a 19.1% stake in GHL.
Actis will also undertake a Mandatory General Offer for the remaining shares in GHL which are not owned by them.
Actis has extensive experience in growth markets payments, having invested in and helped build out leading payments platforms that have spanned more than 50 countries.
Actis’ investment into GHL will give it an immediate exposure to the exciting prospects of the fast growing ASEAN payment space with its 620 million population, have a growing consumers middle class driven by favorable demographics.
A nascent payment infrastructure and current high cash usage present opportunities during the migration of cash to e-payments both in the physical world, mobile solutions as well as online e-commerce.
Simon Loh, Executive Vice Chairman of GHL said “I am very excited to welcome Actis as a partner, as they bring an impressive track record in the payments sector, especially in emerging markets. Together, we are fully aligned in our ambition to become the leading end-to-end payment service provider in ASEAN by deploying world-class payment infrastructure, technology and to further expand our growing footprint into new ASEAN markets.”
Commenting on the investment, Hossam Abou Moussa, Partner at Actis, said: “Investing in market leading businesses in the sectors we understand is a core pillar of our growth markets investment strategy. We are extremely excited by the opportunity to partner with Simon and the GHL management team and bring what we have learned in other markets to help GHL to scale and cement its position as a regional leader.”
Ali Mazanderani, Actis’s Fintech lead added: “Investing in South East Asia and in GHL is a continuation of Actis’ strategy to be integral to and support the development of landmark payments platforms across our markets. If follows on from our investments in Emerging Markets Payments in Africa and the Middle East, PayCorp in Africa and DLP Payments in Latin America.”
GHL’s group CEO Danny Leong further added, “I truly believe that with our experience in ASEAN and Actis’ in other emerging markets, we would be able to continuously offer relevant world class solutions and services to our merchants, financial and non-financial institutions partners. I am very excited to work closely with them to bring GHL to the next level.”