GMO-PG Buys Stake In Macro Kiosk

Macro Kiosk Bhd has secured a direct strategic investment from GMO Internet Group’s unit, GMO Payment Gateway Inc (GMO-PG), a US$1.9 billion (RM7.79 billion) market capitalisation conglomerate.

GMO-PG is acquiring a substantial stake in Macro Kiosk from Goh Chee Ken, Goh Chee Heng and Goh Chee Seng, who are the founders and management of Macro Kiosk for an undisclosed sum of money.

GMO-PG is also committed to furthering cash investments into the firm and supporting the Goh brothers to steer Macro Kiosk towards dominating mobile payments and enterprise mobility solutions.

“Today marks a key corporate milestone for Macro Kiosk as we move a step closer towards strengthening our foothold in the global mobility solutions marketplace.

“Having GMO-PG as a strategic stakeholder puts us at a higher level playing field, extending beyond our leadership in the South-East Asia region, and we see that there will be substantial synergies and business leverage arising from this investment.

“It will significantly accelerate the speed in which we adopt new technologies and innovate solutions to meet the dynamic needs of our diverse clientele from 18 industries,” according to a statement.

GMO-PG is the largest payment service provider that offers comprehensive payments and financial-related services to e-commerce merchants, banks and leading companies in Japan and across South-East Asia.

Macro Kiosk is currently present in 12 countries across Asia namely Aust ral ia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and United Arab Emirates.

Employing more than 250 employees, the company serves more than 2,000 clients, reaching out to 37 countries within 18 industry verticals, ranging from financial services, aviation to hospitality and leisure, offering complete secure and scalable enterprise mobility solutions in key engagement areas such as interactive, notification, authentication and security.

The company’s mobile payment services enable leading content providers to monetise their digital contents across South-East Asia via a single direct connection to Macro Kiosk’s mobile payment platform, making them the single largest mobile payment service enabler in this business field.

Commenting on its strategic investment into Macro Kiosk, Ryu Muramatsu, GMO-PG MD said: “We are very excited with this investment and we fully support the Goh brothers.”

“The Goh brothers will continue their leadership to lead the team here at Macro Kiosk, making our entry into Macro Kiosk as a ready pool of opportunities within the enterprise mobility and mobile payment services industry in South-East Asian markets.”

Muramatsu added the South-East Asia region would be an exciting new market frontier for GMO-PG while they augment their strong foothold in the Japan region.

Japan-based GMO-PG has been looking to expand its current provision of e-commerce and payment services to local banks and leading companies in the South-East Asia.

GMO-PG currently has five local companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand.