EuroBusinessMedia (EBM): Ingenico, a leading provider of payment solutions, reports its full-year results for 2011. Philippe Lazare welcome. You are the Chairman and CEO of Ingenico, what are your comments on your 2011 results?
Philippe Lazare: Very proud first. It’s the first time we are at that level of revenue. First time that we are at €1 billion of revenue in the history of this company, so it’s great news. And profitability is there. And emerging markets are contributing to that significant growth, and we are back on the US market. So it’s all good news!
EBM: And what about your performance in Europe?
Philippe Lazare: You know that 47% of our revenue is coming from Europe and, of course, it’s a key market for us. And you’ve probably seen that we have been able to grow, even in that very mature market in which we have a very significant market share, so it’s good news. The processing offers, the solution offers, the services offers are developing and more and more contributing to the revenues and profitability within the SEPA, which is the European region for us.
EBM: How is the Transactions & Services part of your business doing?
Philippe Lazare: If you look at what we were expecting from that business when we made the acquisition of easycash -- it was now something like two or three years ago -- and we were expecting to be at something like 20-25% of recurring revenue coming from Services. The reality, the fact is that we’re at something like 30%, so it’s bringing more and more value to the company, so we are extremely happy with that.
EBM: What is your outlook for 2012?
Philippe Lazare: As far as growth is concerned, we will be at least at the same level as in 2011, probably a bit better. Same for profitability. You know that there is something pretty clear to us, that when we grow on a revenue perspective we are able to do the same in profitability, so we will be at the same level -- at least at the same level -- as 2011.
EBM: And finally, what can you tell us about your recent acquisition of ROAM Data?
Philippe Lazare: ROAM Data is a small US-based company. They developed an application to turn any type of smartphone into a payment terminal – meaning to be paid, not to pay, but to be paid. The heart of our strategy is to be present on such a market, because it’s a very promising one. We started within ROAM Data as a minority stakeholder, and then we discovered the company, we understand better what they are doing and we made the decision to control it -- in very good intelligence and very good understanding with the CEO -- and it’s going to be the heart of our strategy within the mobile payment.
EBM: Philippe Lazare, Chairman and CEO of Ingenico, thank you.
Philippe Lazare: Thank you
