British banking group HSBC Holdings Plc (LON:HSBA) said on Friday that it had reached a deal to dispose of its 44% interest in a card processing joint venture in the Asia-Pacific region to partner Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) for USD242m (EUR196.9m) in cash.
Under the terms of the agreement, HSBC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd, will sell its entire 44% stake in Global Payments Asia-Pacific Ltd (GPAP) to the US electronic transaction payment processing specialist. Global Payments holds the rest of the shares in GPAP after participating in the inception of the JV in 2006.
The move is part of HSBC’s strategy to divest non-core operations. It is awaiting regulatory clearance and the agreement of the terms of certain ancillary commercial contracts. Completion is scheduled for the second half of the year.
The parties have agreed that following closing, GPAP will act as the preferred strategic provider of card merchant acquiring services for HSBC in the Asia-Pacific region. The entity covers 11 countries and territories.
London-headquartered HSBC has about 7,200 offices in more than 80 countries and territories in Europe, North and Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa as well as in the Asia-Pacific region.
