LONDON, 27 November 2013: Metric Capital Partners (“MCP”), the European private capital group, has announced today the completion of its growth capital investment in Secure Trading Limited (“Secure Trading” or the “Company”), a global payment services provider headquartered in London.
Secure Trading offers a comprehensive suite of payment solutions to online businesses, including an exceptionally reliable payment gateway, online accounting and treasury management, and sophisticated counter-fraud services. Metric’s investment will further drive its expansion in the online payments industry.
The Company is part of the UC Group, which owns several technology companies in the payments domain, including Cognosec, an IT security and PCI compliance specialist based in Vienna. This breadth of capabilities across the ecommerce space makes the group a highly differentiated and attractive service proposition for ambitious online businesses.
Secure Trading is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London with its infrastructure based in a state of the art facility in Bangor, UK. The Company has invested extensively in developing highly scalable and robust technology platforms, resulting in a resilient, fault-tolerant infrastructure, exceptional uptime and very high levels of customer satisfaction.
Commenting on the deal, David Scheurl, Principal of Metric Capital, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with a very driven and experienced management team to support the business as it enters the next phase of growth. The underlying market dynamics are highly attractive and this investment will allow Secure Trading to expand its role in the online payment industry.”
Kobus Paulsen, executive chairman of UC Group, said: “Secure Trading has a fantastic track record and market reputation. Metric’s investment will assist the group to expand growth by offering valuable services alongside our core patented payment platform and ultimately bring a true end-to-end payments solution to market. We are delighted to have Metric on board during this exciting time in the payment space.”
John Sinik, Managing Partner of Metric Capital, further commented: “Our investment in SecureTrading represents the fourth transaction completed in 2013 and the ninth transaction since our inception in 2011 as we continue to build a well diversified portfolio of investments across Europe for our investors. The growing opportunity set for our investment strategy, driven by the continued dislocation of capital allocation in the European mid-market, allows us to deploy capital efficiently into attractive financing opportunities.”
Launched in September 2011, MCP is an independent private capital group which invests in European small and medium-sized firms by providing debt and equity solutions to support the execution of strategic transactions including MBOs, MBIs, growth/development capital, refinancing and rescue financing.
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For further information please consult:
John Sinik, Managing Partner, Metric Capital Partners, Tel: +44 203 540 1558
David Scheurl, Principal, Metric Capital Partners,Tel: +44 203 540 1553