Cielo and Planet Payment to Launch Multi-Currency Solutions in Brazil
November 26 2012 - 8:00AM
Cielo, Latin America's leader in electronic payments solutions, and
Planet Payment, Inc. (LSE:PPT) (LSE:PPTR) (OTCQX:PLPM), a leading
international and multi-currency payment processor, today announced
an initiative to deliver Planet Payment's Pay in Your Currency® and
Shop in Your Currency™ services to Cielo's portfolio of merchants
in Brazil.
The solution can offer significant value-added benefits to
Cielo's merchants and their customers, especially tourists expected
to visit Brazil during the two major global events – the World Cup
in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. With the new tool, which will be
available for 1.3 million Cielo merchants next year in Brazil,
international customers are offered the convenience of paying in
their home currency at the point-of-sale.
"Cielo has maintained its position as the top merchant services
provider in Latin America by listening to the needs of its clients
and driving innovative products that allow merchants to conduct and
grow their businesses more efficiently," said Eduardo Chedid,
Products and Business Vice-President at Cielo. "With more
international visitors choosing Brazil as their destination for
leisure or business travel, this feature is a natural fit for our
merchants and an important addition to our product
offering."
The customers are handed a receipt, or pointed to an electronic
terminal which show the transaction amounts in Real and their home
currency, together with the daily exchange rate and other service
details. The customer then makes their currency choice on the
receipt or device. International travelers can enjoy a more
comfortable shopping experience by knowing what they are paying in
their home currency, while simultaneously providing the merchants
affiliated to Cielo with an opportunity to increase their product
range and thus increase their sales.
"We are very excited about our entry into the Brazilian market
and are delighted to have been selected by Cielo to deliver our
innovative products and services to their customers," said Philip
Beck, Chairman and CEO of Planet Payment.
Brazil has seen steadily increasing levels of inbound
international travel, with this upward trend expected to continue
in the future. According to statistics released by The
Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, a total of 5.4 million international
visitors traveled to Brazil in 2011 -- an increase of over 5% over
2010 visitor levels.
Online Sales
Cielo and Planet Payment will also be launching Shop in Your
Currency which enables Brazilian e-commerce merchants to more
effectively target foreign markets and close more sales from
international customers. This solution allows merchants to
localize their offering and simplify the shopping experience for
international customers who can now view pricing and pay in their
home currencies, while the merchant receives settlement in Real as
they do today.
"We believe that our solutions will provide Cielo merchants with
the tools to enhance customer service and improve profitability
while improving the shopping experience for international
customers," said Drew Soinski, SVP and Managing Director of the
Americas for Planet Payment.
About Cielo
Cielo SA (Bovespa:CIEL3) (OTC:CIOXY) is the Latin America's
leader in electronic payment solutions. It is responsible for
acquiring merchants and for the capture, transmission, processing
and settlement of transactions made with credit cards and debit
cards in Brazil. Through thousands of simultaneous and reliable
operations, Cielo connects banks, card companies and merchants to
power businesses and boost the economy.
The high technology applied in Cielo's network allows the
company to operate with an availability rate of 99.995% over the
year and 100% availability in major retail dates. With more than
1.3 million active establishments (considered those that had
transactions effected at the terminals of Cielo in the last 60
days), Cielo covers 99% of Brazilian territory.
For the last twelve months ended March 31st, 2012, Cielo's
transactional financial volume under the accounting criterion
totaled R$ 337.7 billion. It captured 4.8 billion transactions in
the same period.
About Planet Payment
Planet Payment is a leading provider of international payment
processing and multi-currency processing services. We provide our
services in 18 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific
region, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe,
primarily through our more than 45 acquiring bank and processor
customers. Our point-of-sale and e-commerce services help merchants
sell more goods and services to consumers, and are integrated
within the payment card transaction flow enabling our acquiring
customers to process and reconcile payment transactions in multiple
currencies, geographies and channels.
Planet Payment is headquartered in New York and has offices in
Atlanta, Beijing, Bermuda, Delaware, Dubai, Dublin, London, Hong
Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai and Singapore. Visit
www.planetpayment.com for more information on the Company and its
services. For up-to-date information follow Planet Payment on
Twitter at @PlanetPayment or join Planet Payment's page on
Facebook.
Forward-Looking Statements. Information contained in this
announcement may include 'forward-looking statements'. All
statements other than statements of historical facts included
herein, including, without limitation, those regarding an intended
definitive agreement and future service launches with Cielo, and
whether such events occur and the timing thereof, are
forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are
based on a number of assumptions regarding Planet Payment's present
and future business strategies and the environment in which Planet
Payment expects to operate in future, which assumptions may or may
not be fulfilled in practice. Actual results may vary materially
from the results anticipated by these forward-looking statements as
a result of a variety of risk factors, including, regulatory
changes and changes in card association regulations and practices,
changes in domestic and global economic conditions and changes in
volume of international travel and commerce, customer and merchant
adoption of Planet Payment's services and the risks related to
international expansion and international business uncertainties.
See the Company's filed Registration Statement on Form 10 for other
risk factors which investors should consider. These
forward-looking statements speak only as to the date of this
announcement and cannot be relied upon as a guide to future
performance. Planet Payment expressly disclaims any obligation or
undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any
forward-looking statements contained in this announcement to
reflect any changes in its expectations with regard thereto or any
change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any
statement is based.
CONTACT: Planet Payment
Contact: Joel Mayer
Telephone: +1.516.941.1813
Email: jmayer@planetpayment.com
www.planetpayment.com
Redleaf Polhill (UK PR for Planet Payment)
Contacts: Emma Kane / Henry Columbine / David Ison
Telephone: +44.20.7566.6720
Email: planet@redleafpolhill.com
ICR (US PR for Planet Payment)
Contacts: Don Duffy / Dara Dierks
Telephone: +1.646.277.1212
FSB Comunicacoes (Cielo Press Relations)
Mariana Ribeiro
Mariana.ribeiro@fsb.com.br
(11) 3165-9705