Net1 Announces Share Repurchase Authorization
November 06 2008 - 3:45PM
PR Newswire (US)
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NET 1
UEPS Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: UEPS; JSE Limited: NT1) ("Net1" or
"the Company") announced today that its Board of Directors has
authorized the repurchase of up to $50 million of the Company's
common stock at any time and from time to time through December 31,
2009. The share repurchase authorization will be used at
management's discretion, subject to limitations imposed by SEC Rule
10b-18 and other legal requirements and subject to price and other
internal limitations established by the Board. Repurchases will be
funded from the Company's available cash. Share repurchases may be
made through open market purchases, privately negotiated
transactions, or both. There can be no assurance that the Company
will purchase any shares or any particular number of shares. The
authorization may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time
for any reason, including market conditions, the cost of
repurchasing shares, liquidity and other factors that management
deems appropriate. As of November 6, 2008 Net1 had a total of
approximately 58,399,595 shares of common stock issued and
outstanding. About Net1 (http://www.net1ueps.com/) Net1 provides
its universal electronic payment system, or UEPS, as an alternative
payment system for the unbanked and under-banked populations of
developing economies. The Company believes that it is the first
company worldwide to implement a system that can enable the
estimated four billion people who generally have limited or no
access to a bank account to enter affordably into electronic
transactions with each other, government agencies, employers,
merchants and other financial service providers. To accomplish
this, the Company has developed and deployed the UEPS. This system
uses secure smart cards that operate in real-time but offline,
unlike traditional payment systems offered by major banking
institutions that require immediate access through a communications
network to a centralized computer. This offline capability means
that users of Net1's system can enter into transactions at any time
with other cardholders in even the most remote areas so long as a
portable offline smart card reader is available. In addition to
payments and purchases, Net1's system can be used for banking,
health care management, international money transfers, voting and
identification. The Company also focuses on the development and
provision of secure transaction technology, solutions and services.
The Company's core competencies around secure online transaction
processing, cryptography and integrated circuit card (chip/smart
card) technologies are principally applied to electronic commerce
transactions in the telecommunications, banking, retail, petroleum
and utilities market sectors. These technologies form the
cornerstones of the "trusted transactions" environment of Prism, a
South African based subsidiary of the Company, and provide the
Company with the building blocks for developing secure end-to-end
payment solutions. Net1 recently acquired 80.1% of BGS Smartcard
System AG ("BGS"), an Austrian company, whose core business
consists of developing and integrating smart card-based offline and
online financial transaction systems. Since 1993, BGS has
implemented tailor-made smart card-based payment solutions,
focusing on emerging economies and in cooperation with banks,
enterprises and government authorities. BGS is headquartered in
Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries in India and Russia, and a
branch office in the Ukraine. Distributors are located in Asia,
Central and South America, the Commonwealth of Independent States
and the Middle East. This announcement contains forward-looking
statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties.
A discussion of various factors that could cause the Company's
actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to
differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking
statements are included in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no
obligation to revise any of these statements to reflect future
circumstances or the occurrence of unanticipated events.
DATASOURCE: NET 1 UEPS Technologies Inc. CONTACT: William Espley,
Net1 Investor Relations of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc.,
+1-604-484-8750 or Toll Free, +1-866-412-NET1 (6381) Web site:
http://www.net1ueps.com/
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