Innova Capital, the fund that exit Orange Romania, took a 96% share package of Provus and its 100% owned subsidiary RomCard, from Turkven Private Equity and a consortium of Turkish investors.

Provus & Romcard acquisition represents the third transaction made ​​by Innova in Romania, after the acquisition of Orange Telecom in 1999- company sold after six years by France Telecom- and taking over la Fantana business in 2008.

Innova Capital has been assisted by Badea Clifford Chance while PricewaterhouseCoopers was the financial advisor for the transaction. The transaction value was not disclosed.

The acquisition is surprising as the card processor Provus Services Provider, controlled by the Turkish investment fund Turkven, and present on the local market since 2001, bought just last year RomCard, card processing company with a turnover of 1.3 million euros in 2009 and held BCR, BRD, UniCredit Tiriac Bank, Raiffeisen Bank and Financial SA.

Provus and RomCard are leading providers of card issuance and personalization, operations and transaction processing ATM and POS terminals and switching services and e-commerce, operating on the market for more than ten years. “The acquisition creates the conditions to accelerate the development of both local and regional companies and reaffirms the long-term interests of Innova Capital in Romania,” the private equity fund stated.

“We had many reasons to invest in Provus” said Krzysztof Kulig, Innova Capital partner and new Supervisory Board Chairman of Provus.

Provus, founded in 2001, has all the necessary certifications from international organizations MasterCard and Visa, offering a complete range of card processing services for both issuing and acceptance. The company also provides card personalization services as well as banking loyalty applications. Provus manages over 1,500 units ATM, POS 4500, 3 million cards and more than 3.5 million transactions per month.

RomCard is an industry veteran and the first card processing center in Romania. Established in 1994, the company continued to focus on transaction processing and has expanded into e-commerce services, currently being the only 3D-Secure platform certified by Visa and MasterCard, in Romania.

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