{"id":645332,"date":"2026-05-05T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=645332"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:04:40","slug":"south-africans-in-r1-billion-buyout-of-foreign-shareholders-from-major-payment-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/645332-south-africans-in-r1-billion-buyout-of-foreign-shareholders-from-major-payment-platform.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africans in R1 billion buyout of foreign shareholders from major payment platform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s Competition Commission announced the approval of the R1 billion acquisition of major payment platform Pay@ by South African fintech group Araxi, through its African Resonance arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay@ looks set to become 100% South African-owned, as the acquisition will see the 40% stake held by an unnamed US private equity firm transferred into South African hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Hardie, Pay@ CEO, told MyBroadband that the remaining 60% of the shares were held by a group of private local investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay@ handles payments for thousands of local entities, including the SABC, municipalities, banks, and insurance companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the Commission announced the approval of the acquisition of an 80% stake by JSE-listed acquiring group Araxi. Its African Resonance subsidiary facilitated the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Commission has approved the proposed transaction whereby African Resonance intends to acquire Pay@ and IPH, without conditions,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPH is Pay@’s cross-border expansion arm, providing payment services only in Botswana and Zimbabwe, while Pay@ provides services in South Africa and Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission added that the proposed transaction was “unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any relevant market.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi stated in February<\/a> that the acquisition would mean Pay@’s profits will be reinvested locally, the negative effects of currency volatility will be reduced, and the shareholder base will be simplified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since launching in 2007, Pay@ has become a critical payment aggregator for South Africa, providing bill presentment and collection services for cash, card, mobile money, EFT and voucher payment methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its reach spans several payment networks, including over 9,000 retail locations, as well as banks, telecommunications providers, and financial technology companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay@’s billing system is used by utility companies, insurers, municipalities and other service providers across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it had foreign shareholders, the Stellenbosch-founded Pay@ remained a major player in the South African payments landscape, processing over R60 billion annually for its customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi said that Pay@ managed the largest network of independent payment processing channels in South Africa, including 150,000 mobile POS payment end-points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that the acquisition of the Pay@ Group would significantly strengthen its payment capabilities, enabling the group to offer more competitive customer offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portfolio of South African tech firms joined by Pay@<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Capitec is a major user of Pay@’s services.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Araxi Group hoped to add Pay@ to its portfolio technology platforms, including cloud and AI expert business Synthesis and payment-as-a-service Dashpay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi was formerly known as Capital Appreciation before rebranding<\/a> in October 2025. It purchased Dashpay in 2017 and, in 2021, expanded its geographical presence to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi said it looked for companies with major enterprises or institutions as clients, rather than individual customers or businesses that are cash-generative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In addition, the Araxi Group seeks innovative technologies with significant growth potential that can easily cross regional and continental borders,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The extent to which the prospective acquisition presents meaningful and near-term synergies, with its existing operating units, is also a consideration in Araxi’s decision.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will invest a total of R1 billion into the acquisition, funded by R200 million and R800 million in senior debt. Pay@ will receive R975 million, while the remaining R25 million will go to IPH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi explained that Pay@ had already achieved strong profitability while maintaining a high standard of client service, and that its offering complemented Araxi’s payment division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pay@ management team is expected to continue working with Araxi to expand the Pay@ platform further following the acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araxi’s plan for Pay@ is to expand its geographic reach and enhance its services with new, diversified features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Pictured in article thumbnail: Bradly Sacks, chief executive officer of Araxi Limited. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Araxi has been given the green light by the Competition Commission to buy out the United States shareholders of Pay@, one of South Africa’s biggest payment aggregators. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":645338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[100494,105014,105013,105015,85799,3222,100493,39268,104102,63565],"class_list":["post-645332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-african-resonance","tag-andrew-hardie","tag-araxi","tag-barry-williams","tag-capital-appreciation","tag-competition-commission","tag-dashpay","tag-fintech","tag-pay-2","tag-synthesis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645332"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":645672,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645332\/revisions\/645672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}