Acquisition Strengthens WEX’s European Fleet Solutions Business
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 25, 2019--
WEX
Inc. (NYSE:WEX), a leading financial technology service provider,
announced today that it plans to acquire the fuel card business (“Go
Fuel Card”) of EG Group, an independent fuel station and convenience
retailer in Europe. The anticipated transaction is subject to completion
of employee information and consultation processes, and other approvals,
as appropriate.
The Go Fuel Card business is headquartered in Breda, Netherlands with
approximately 200,000 proprietary cards in circulation across the
Netherlands, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Go Fuel Card offers fuel
cards for vehicles to a range of customers from small and medium
enterprises, commonly called SMEs, to larger fleet operators. Go Fuel
Card operates on an independent proprietary card network with acceptance
at over 5,000 retail sites.
“The addition of the Go Fuel Card business will strengthen our position
in Europe by expanding our footprint in attractive markets and
broadening our card acceptance through an independent, proprietary card
network,” said Scott Phillips, President, Global Fleet, WEX. “I am also
extremely excited about the opportunity to partner with EG Group to
expand our Fleet business throughout EG locations in the U.S., Europe
and Australia. This is an attractive business that projects further
reductions to our sensitivity to retail fuel prices, while providing us
a strong pathway for organic growth and value creation over time.”
WEX expects the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2019,
subject to customary closing conditions.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding: market expansion; projected reduction to retail
fuel price sensitivity; and, opportunities for growth. Any statements
that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be
forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words
“anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,”
“intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project” and similar expressions are intended
to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking
statements contain such words. These forward-looking statements are
subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially, including: the effects of general economic
conditions on fueling patterns as well as payment and transaction
processing activity; the impact of foreign currency exchange rates on
the Company’s operations, revenue and income; changes in interest rates;
the impact of fluctuations in fuel prices; the effects of the Company’s
business expansion and acquisition efforts; potential adverse changes to
business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the
completion of an acquisition; competitive responses to any acquisitions;
uncertainty of the expected financial performance of the combined
operations following completion of an acquisition; the failure to
successfully integrate the Company's acquisitions; the ability to
realize anticipated synergies and cost savings; unexpected costs,
charges or expenses resulting from an acquisition; the Company's ability
to successfully acquire, integrate, operate and expand commercial fuel
card programs; the failure of corporate investments to result in
anticipated strategic value; the impact and size of credit losses; the
impact of changes to the Company's credit standards; breaches of the
Company’s technology systems or those of the Company's third-party
service providers and any resulting negative impact on the Company's
reputation, liabilities or relationships with customers or merchants;
the Company’s failure to maintain or renew key commercial agreements;
failure to expand the Company’s technological capabilities and service
offerings as rapidly as the Company’s competitors; failure to
successfully implement the Company's information technology strategies
and capabilities in connection with its technology outsourcing and
insourcing arrangements and any resulting cost associated with that
failure; the actions of regulatory bodies, including banking and
securities regulators, or possible changes in banking or financial
regulations impacting the Company’s industrial bank, the Company as the
corporate parent or other subsidiaries or affiliates; the impact of the
material weaknesses disclosed in Item 9A of the Company's annual report
on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and the effects of the
Company's investigation and remediation efforts in connection with
certain immaterial errors in the financial statements of our Brazilian
subsidiary; the impact of the Company’s outstanding notes on its
operations; the impact of increased leverage on the Company's
operations, results or borrowing capacity generally, and as a result of
acquisitions specifically; the incurrence of impairment charges if our
assessment of the fair value of certain of our reporting units changes;
the uncertainties of litigation; as well as other risks and
uncertainties identified in Item 1A of our Annual Report for the year
ended December 31, 2018, filed on Form 10-K with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on March 18, 2019. The Company's forward-looking
statements do not reflect the potential future impact of any alliance,
merger, acquisition, disposition or stock repurchases. The
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release and undue reliance should not be placed on these statements. The
Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About WEX
Powered by the belief that complex payment systems can be made simple,
WEX (NYSE: WEX) is a leading financial technology service provider
across a wide spectrum of sectors, including fleet, travel and
healthcare. WEX operates in more than 10 countries and in more than 20
currencies through more than 4,800 associates around the world. WEX
fleet cards offer 11.5 million vehicles exceptional payment security and
control; Purchase volume in its travel and corporate solutions grew to
$30.3 billion in 2017; and the WEX Health financial technology platform
helps 300,000 employers and more than 25 million consumers better manage
healthcare expenses. For more information, visit www.wexinc.com.
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Source: WEX Inc.
Media:
Jessica Roy
jessica.roy@wexinc.com
207.523.6763
Investors:
Steve Elder
steve.elder@wexinc.com
207.523.7769