by Renee Israel

Skrill Group, the online payment company, has been purchased by the buyout
group, CVC Capital Partners for €600 million. This sum includes debt.

Skrill was put up for sale by the Bahrain based private equity firm
Investcorp, and this group has now achieved a return of eight times its initial
investment.

CVC will acquire a 75% stake in Skrill and the deal will be funded with €250
million in equity, and debt financing from a number of sources, including Credit
Suisse. Investcorp will retain what it terms “a substantial minority position,”
as well as a seat on Skrill’s board.

Skrill Shows Rapid Market Growth

The Senior Managing Director of CVC Capital Partners, Peter
Rutland spoke about the new acquisition of Skrill, formerly known as
Moneybookers.

“Skrill is a high-quality business that has demonstrated its ability to grow
rapidly into a market leading provider of online payments serving the online
gaming, gambling, digital media and e-commerce industries,” he said.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest in Skrill and support its
management team as they continue to grow their range of online payment options
across the globe.”

Over the past few years, Skrill has indeed shown rapid growth,
including its acquisition of Paysafecard from the Austrian based Wertkarten for
€140 million last year.

Approximately 700 people are employed by Skrill around the
globe, and the company boasts 35 million account holders and partnerships with
150,000 merchants.

Skrill is seen as direct competition to some of the biggest
names in the industry such as PayPal and Google Checkout and is a popular form
of payment for online gamblers seeking to transfer and withdraw funds to and
from their casino accounts.

Skrill Celebrates Acquisition

The Chief Executive of Skrill Siegfried Heimgaertner said that the group was
“delighted” to have CVC Capital on board, while still retaining Investcorp as a
significant investor.

“CVC’s global reach and experience will support our goal to become the first
choice in payments on a global basis,” said the executive. “The value based
transformation we began in 2012 will continue unabated through this year and
into 2014.”

As CVC acquires Skrill it should be remembered that the group was
involved in negotiation talks earlier this year to take over the British online
betting exchange, Betfair. However, in May, the two companies ended $1.5 billion
talks after they failed to agree on price and strategy.

At the time, analysts said that CVC had “stretched the realms of
realistically making a significant return on investment at the top level.”