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Network Int'l net income rises 5%

Network International Holdings, the UAE-based payment solutions provider, reported on Wednesday a 5.1 per cent year-on-year growth in net income to $43.9 million in the first six months of 2019.
In its first interim results after going public in April, the company reported a 9.3 per cent growth in the Middle East for the first six months of 2019 on the back of increased total volumes, transaction growth and diversification provided by new products and services.
In a statement, Network International said the net income growth of 5.1 per cent was driven by Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) growth partially offset by a higher depreciation and amortisation charge as recent capex is brought into service. The company, which raised $1.4 billion through what was billed the biggest initial public offering in Europe this year, said its Ebitda increased by 13.9 per cent due to strong revenue growth, while underlying Ebitda margin excluding share of an associate was 47.2 per cent after absorbing incremental public company costs, in-line with guidance.
Network International priced its IPO at 435 pence a share in its London listing in April.
On Wednesday morning, shares in FTSE 250-listed Network International Holdings were trading at 596.07p each, up 0.2 per cent on the day and 37 per cent from its listing price.
"Profit from continuing operations decreased by 55.4 per cent due to higher specially disclosed items primarily relating to costs associated with listing including share-based compensation charge," it said.
The number of cards hosted increased by 6.3 per cent to 13.5 million, with transactions rising by more than 11 per cent to 367.4 million.
"Following our successful listing on the London Stock Exchange in April 2019, I am pleased to report that Network International has delivered a strong first half performance, with revenue and underlying Ebitda growth of 12.4 per cent and 13.9 per cent, respectively," said Simon Haslam, chief executive officer. "Over the last six months, we have successfully extended contracts with some of our largest customers, deployed exciting new products at scale and strengthened our sales and innovation pipeline. Africa continued its strong growth trajectory with a 21.6 per cent increase in revenues on the back of significant volume growth in the number of cards hosted and TPV, complemented by increased cross-sell across the customer base."
"Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we are well positioned to deliver on the guidance shared at the time of listing and anticipate delivering low double-digit constant currency organic revenue growth while maintaining stable underlying Ebitda margin. I am also pleased to report that our technology transformation remains on track for completion in 2019, with customers representing more than 96 per cent of revenues migrated to the new platforms already," said Haslam.
The company also announced a commercial deal with Mastercard, which took a 10 per cent stake in the company at the IPO, and said the deal would "help drive accelerated adoption of digital payments in our markets and provide incremental upside to our guidance in medium term."
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com