PayUp Holding, through the newly formed PayUp Iberia, acquired from First Data Iberica, subsidiary of the American technological First Data International, the mobile top-up business (mobile phones pre-paid top-up) hold in the Iberian Peninsula, in a total of 24.500 point of sales, of which 23.500 in Spain and 1.000 in Portugal.

The company led by Luís Janeiro, which launched in Portugal, in 2001, PayShop, a company specialized in electronic transactions, sold, subsequently, to CTT-Correios de Portugal (Portuguese post offices), enters now the Portuguese market.

PayUp will invest more than €18 million up to 2011, in the development of the Iberian network and introduction of new services in the improvement of the recently acquired network. This network, which allows electronic pre-paid mobile top up, is spread throughout Spain, and PayUp Management intends also to develop it in Portugal. This network already has signed contracts with all mobile operators in Portugal and Spain. According to the company, “the operation of the assets transfer between FDI and PayUp will be performed in a progressive way, during the next five months”.

In this first stage, the only service available is pre-paid mobile top up. In a near future, the company intends to launch other convenience services like utilities’ bill payments and other financial services.

This acquisition is a big step to PayUp’s goal to become the Iberian leader of airtime distribution (pre-paid segment). On the other hand, PayUp Iberia intends to reach, in its first year, an EBITDA of two million Euros, in a market which is estimated to worth over five billion euro per year.