Mellat Bank’s Payment Service Provider (PSP) which is one of the 12 authorized PSPs in Iran is getting ready for an IPO.
What do Iranian PSPs do?
PSPs in Iran were formed to provide card and electronic payments in Iran. All of these PSPs were fully or partially owned by the banks for some time until new sets of rules prevented these companies to be fully owned by the banks. Currently there are 12 companies that have a PSP license. As of the moment it is not possible to acquire another PSP license if a company/bank requests, instead companies/banks are obligated to work with these PSP companies. The majority of these PSPs including Behpardakht Mellat are associated and partially owned by an Iranian bank. Currently these PSPs provide POS terminals for in-store card purchase, and IPG (Internet Payment Gateway) for online purchases using debit cards. In recent months new app purchasing services which still use the same IPG technology have also been available.
Not the first PSP that is going for an IPO
3 months ago another Iranian PSP license holder Asan Pardakht also went for an IPO which was the first PSP ( “Central Bank recognized” by definition as mentioned above) payment company in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Asan Pardakht solely focused on USSD technology transactions and later app related payments, and is thinking of providing POS terminals, such as its rivals. Asan Pardakht also has a majority bank ownership (40% was owned by Agriculture Bank before the IPO) though its services are not associated by any bank like most PSPs.
How big is Behpardakht?
Behpardakht Mellat was founded in 2006 by Mellat Bank as it’s electronic payment arm. This company was always one of the market leaders in debit card payments and later in online purchases as well. Out of the 12 PSPs in Iran, Behpardakht is responsible for 25% of all transactions happening according to Tasnim News. Behpardakht currently has 900k POS terminals installed in stores, and over 1000 Internet payment gateways installed and operating. The CEO of Behpardakht announced in the past year that the revenue generated from the company was around $900 million. “This company still hasn’t used its full capacity, and has focused on providing services to the [Mellat] bank. However after the IPO the company will start to provide multiple payment services and will also provide services to other banks as stated in our development plans,” said the company’s CEO.
Behpardakht mellat is still the market leader (25% market share) following with SEP (Saman Electronic Payments) subsidiary of Saman Bank which holds 14.5% market share, and Asan Pardakht with 14% market share
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