Mashreq seals NeoPay stake sale to Arcapita, Dgpays for $385m

Dubai’s Mashreq has completed the sale of a majority stake in its payments business, NeoPay, to a consortium led by Arcapita Group and DgPays.

The deal, valued at $385m, will see Mashreq retain a minority stake in NeoPay, a payment solutions provider that offers a range of services, including point-of-sale terminals, e-commerce, mobile payments, and other non-cash payment methods.

Mashreq said in a bourse filing that the majority stake sale represents a milestone for NeoPay. The payments firm plans to scale its operations, enter new markets and advance its service offerings across the Middle East.

The Middle East leads the world in real-time payment growth, with transactions projected to surge to $2.6bn by 2027, an impressive 30.6 per cent compound annual growth rate, according to ACI Worldwide.

With a total annual processed payment volume of more than $30bn, NeoPay has pioneered key innovations in the payments space in the region. Mashreq carved out its payments arm into a new unit in March 2022 to focus on digital transactions.

NeoPay processed more than 400 million transactions in 2023 and is used by more than 10,000 merchants in the UAE.

Read: Joel van Dusen on how Mashreq is driving innovation in banking