SPIRE PAYMENTS MAKES BOLD MOVE BY ACQUIRING ALTIUS PLUS FOR REINFORCEMENT OF R&D AND STRATEGIC POSITIONING WITHIN CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPEAN MARKET

Spire Payments announced today the acquisition of Altius Plus, recognised experts in the development of payment applications, terminal management systems, loyalty schemes, ticketing solutions and client server-based architectures within the payments industry.  With a client list including top Romanian Banks such BRD (Group Societe Generale) and BCR (Erste Bank Group) together with  Raiffeisen Bank (Romania, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo) and  Payzone (Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland) as well as having developed EFT and certified HOST solutions for more than 20 international banks and financial organisations worldwide, Altius Plus have significant, proven  technical capabilities and an extremely high level of credibility in the sector. Apart from the significant increase in R&D capability to complement Spire’s centres of excellence in Spain, England, Scotland and China, this move will provide a springboard to exploit multiple opportunities the business is forging in Central Eastern European markets and is a perfect fit in Spire’s strategic acquisition programme. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Altius Plus will become Spire Payments Eastern Europe LCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spire Payments and will play a pivotal role within the business to cement its position as the third largest PoS vendor in Europe. Kazem Aminaee, CEO and President of Spire Payments, says of the move, “This acquisition is yet another decisive step in our drive to deliver our global payment strategy and to accelerate our revenue growth in the emerging markets. Following on from the launch of our new product range and the purchase of Thyron Systems in 2013, our customers can now benefit from a diverse range of payment solutions. The abilities of Altius will further leverage these solutions to offer additional value-added software application development services to cardholders, merchants and payment processors alike. As a business we are, more than ever, positioned to deliver exceptional added value to our customer base.”

Altius Plus was founded in 2006 by payment industry experts who had accumulated over a decade’s worth of experience working as part of the Hypercom Corporation team in CEE. The business has expanded significantly to form a team of specialised developers with a wealth of expertise in the payments industry. The Altius team’s main activities include the development of PoS terminal applications, such as Spire’s new SP range, loyalty and bonus schemes, terminal management systems (TESS), web-based GUIs (RCS), client server architectures, together with retail peripheral and host interfacing expertise. Of particular note is the feature-rich terminal management system utilizing web-based GUI interface, and a client server-based architecture. Spire truly believes such capabilities will be central to the payment solutions of the future.

Zdenek Bubak, Spire’s Head of Central and Eastern Europe stated, “This is a significant acquisition that considerably strengthens Spire’s technical and commercial presence in the region.  In addition, Altius will become a hub to support our ever expanding network of partners and distributors in the Central Eastern European market.”

Aminaee concludes, “We are confident our payment solution portfolio, experience and vision, combined with the proven technical capabilities of our new team, will drive an industry-leading payments proposition.”