DENVER, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC), a
global leader in electronic commerce and payment services, today announced
that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has advised
that it will not oppose First Data's proposed acquisition of Cashcard
Australia Limited, the leading merchant ATM deployer in the Australian
marketplace.
"We are pleased to pass this significant milestone in our planned
acquisition of Cashcard and remain committed to closing this transaction,"
said Pam Patsley, president of First Data International. "The combination of
First Data and Cashcard will provide a competitive payment transaction
processing company for both Australian financial institutions and retailers.
Together, the companies will bring expanded service offerings to our clients
in the Australian marketplace."
In December 2003, First Data entered into a Merger Implementation
Agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Cashcard Australia Limited.
"Cashcard is very pleased with the ACCC's advice and regard this as a very
important step in the merger process," said Greg Baker, managing director of
Cashcard. "We are working closely with First Data to close this transaction
as quickly as possible."
The transaction remains subject to Australian Federal Court approval
followed by Cashcard shareholder approval. First Data expects to close the
transaction in the second quarter of 2004. Financial terms of the transaction
were not disclosed.
About First Data
First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC), with global headquarters in Denver, helps
power the global economy. As a leader in electronic commerce and payment
services, First Data serves approximately 3.1 million merchant locations,
1,400 card issuers and millions of consumers, making it easy, fast and secure
for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form
of payment. With 29,000 employees worldwide, the company provides credit,
debit, smart card and stored-value card issuing and merchant transaction
processing services; Internet commerce solutions; money transfer services;
money orders; and check processing and verification services throughout the
United States. First Data also offers a variety of payment services in the
United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands, the
Middle East and Germany. Its Western Union and Orlandi Valuta money transfer
networks include a total of approximately 182,000 agent locations in more than
195 countries and territories.
About Cashcard
Cashcard is one of Australia's premier payments services provider. It
provides high volume payment services across the entire consumer electronic
payments spectrum, including ATM and EFTPOS, Direct Entry and BPay, Telephone
and Internet payments. The group now services more than 50 member financial
institutions and several thousand merchants and has processed around 2.5
billion EFT payments since 1993, making it one of the largest independent
transaction providers in the region. For further details please visit
http://www.cashcard.com.au .
FDC-1
SOURCE First Data Corp.
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Related links:
http://www.cashcard.com.au
CONTACT:
Mary Walker of First Data Corp.,
+1-770-857-7188, mary.walker@firstdatacorp.com; or Jenny Miller
of First Data International - Australia office, +61 2 9959 7358,
jenny.miller@firstdata.com.au
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