Kuala Lumpur, 4 February 2021: In a sign of the global payments industry’s increasing pace of consolidation and acquisition, LuLu Financial Holdings – a prominent UAE based holding company with investments in financial services and fintech products worldwide, has taken a 70.83% stake in Malaysia’s NS Cashpoint – a leading payments player in the APAC region.
The acquisition is a part of the strategic efforts of Lulu Financial Holdings to consolidate its position in the APAC region, keeping in mind Malaysia’s position as a leading hub of the payments industry. NS Cashpoint on its part, will be able to leverage the benefits of value chain management that Lulu Financial Holdings brings to the table as a recognized investor of financial services & products in the GCC, Indian sub-continent and APAC economies.
Speaking on the acquisition, Mr. Adeeb Ahamed, MD, LuLu Financial Holdings said, “We are delighted to increase our investment in NS Cashpoint, which has emerged as a key brand for our growth trajectory in the APAC region. Malaysia is a major outbound market in South-east Asia, serving several corridors dependent on the remittance economy. With this partnership, we aim to introduce the outcomes of our global investments in technology and process expertise, to further diversify the quality of financial services offered in the region.”
Malaysia’s fairly robust remittance industry primarily serves India, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam & Bangladesh corridors. The country also records high inward remittance from countries such as USA, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, UK, and Singapore.
Mr. Ahamed added that with this acquisition, NS Cashpoint will be able to play a proactive role in the region’s recovery and disrupt not just the remittances business, but also digital and wholesale currency payments. “As a financial investment company, we aspire to innovate value for our investments by designing modern solutions that can ease the financial journeys of our existing & new customers. NSC can leverage our strengths in the fintech space to their advantage in this regard. Furthermore, our position as one of the major players of wholesale currency in the Middle East can be used to expand its wholesale currency business, keeping Malaysia as the regional hub for sourcing and clearing of currencies.”
Mr. Jacob Varghese, CEO, NS Cashpoint, opined that the move by LuLu Financial Holdings, offered his company an opportunity to enhance capabilities in compliance, audit, monitoring and reporting, adding, “The combined synergy of the acquisition will allow us to offer a wider service basket to our customers, all the while pushing us to improve operational efficiency, expand the scope of business and position ourselves competitively as a regional and global player.”
Mr. Varghese also said that the holding company’s investments in digitizing the cross-border payments industry can be regionally enabled to make payments low-cost and more accessible to consumers in Malaysia’s remote and underserved locations.
As a part of the renewed partnership, NS Cashpoint will introduce new services, including instant money transfer, swift payments for b2b customers, online & mobile remittances, and payroll management solutions. The company will also introduce various value-added services such as multi-currency cards, utility bill payments, mobile top-ups etc. thereby giving it greater market access
