SELECTCORE TO LAUNCH IRIDIUM MASTERCARD IN UNITED STATES
2011-05-05 08:02 ET - News Release
Mr. Keith McKenzie reports
Selectcore Ltd. has received approval for its Iridium brand from theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. Mirroring its proven businessmodel in Canada, Selectcore now plans to launch Iridium MasterCard inthe United States with an initial rollout by the third quarter throughthe company's top-2,000 existing retail locations.
Unlike Green Dot and NetSpend, which successfullyfocus on large corporate retail distribution, Selectcore is uniquelypositioned to capitalize on the untapped independent retail channel byleveraging its proprietary point-of-sale technology and considerableexperience.
According to NACS (the National Association of Convenience Stores),there are over 146,000 convenience stores across the United States, ofwhich 62.7 per cent are dominated by single owner/operators. This, inmanagement's opinion, represents a significant opportunity for thecompany to continue growing its U.S. retail network.
A great deal of Selectcore's success to date has been a result of itsretail partners' ability to connect with consumers of the same ethnicbackground and language. "Our typical locations are located in areaswhere the highest concentration of underbanked consumers shop,"explained Keith McKenzie, chief executive officer of Selectcore. "Thisprovides Selectcore with direct access to a captive audience."
Iridium will be the first of its kind prepaid card that is issued inboth Canada and the United States. Iridium MasterCard is accepted atmillions of locations worldwide from retail stores to on-line, mail andphone orders. Card features include on-line account access, textmessage and e-mail alerts, bill pay, money transfers, ABM cash accessand more. No credit check or bank account is required and cards can bereloaded over and over again with up to a $5,000 balance.
According to a recent article on the Forbes website and the most recentFDIC national survey, 25 per cent of households in the United Statesare unbanked or underbanked, representing over 60 million adults. In2010, value-loads on open-loop prepaid cards alone totalled$165-billion and is expected to grow to $400-billion by 2013.
"Iridium provides unbanked consumers with financial empowerment in asociety that is quickly shifting to electronic forms of payment,"commented Ryan Deslippe, president of Selectcore. "Expansion into theU.S. is a natural progression for us, especially with our alreadyestablished retail network."
We seek Safe Harbor.
Financial highlights
Record revenues for the year ending Dec. 31, 2010, totalled $103.2-million,an increase of $19.2-million or 23 per cent compared with $84-millionfor the year ending Dec. 31, 2009. Sales have continued to increaseyear over year due to new business expansion and the growing demand forthe company's proprietary technology platforms. Current Market cap of $44 Million CDN.
SelectCore Ltd. is a distributor and provider of prepaidtelecommunications products and services to developed and under-servicedmarket segments across Canada. The Company is in the business ofproviding prepaid telecom and transaction-based point of sale activation(POSA) solutions utilizing its own network infrastructure andPrepaidONE technology. SelectCore sells prepaid products and services toCanada’s credit and unbanked consumer market through thousands ofretail convenience and grocery store locations nation-wide.
Green Dot
Earningsfell a penny short of expectations at
.39 per share, but the companydid boost the full-year outlook: Green Dot now expects revenue between $490 million and $505 million, with a Market cap of 1.6 Billion USD.
GreenDot Corporation (Green Dot) is a prepaid financial services companyproviding money management solutions to United States consumers. TheCompany is a provider of general purpose reloadable prepaid debit cards(GPR cards) in the United States and its Green Dot Network is theprepaid reload network in the United States. It sells its cards andoffers its reload services at approximately 50,000 retail stores, whichprovide consumers access to its products and services. Its technologyplatform, Green PlaNET, enables real-time transactions in a secureenvironment.
NetSpend
The company expects to earn between 43-48 cents on revenue of $323-$333 million for the full-year 2011.
Net income was $7.8 million or 8 cents a share, compared with $4.6 million or 5 cents last year.
Revenue grew 16 percent to $80.8 million.The number of active cardswith direct deposit rose 36 percent to 834,000 at the end of thequarter, compared with 611,000 a year ago.
Shares of the company closed at $10.71 Thursday on Nasdaq. Market cap of 951 Million USD
NetSpend Holdings, Inc. (NetSpend) is a provider of general-purposereloadable prepaid debit cards (GPR) cards and related alternativefinancial services to underbanked consumers in the United States. TheCompany provides financial products and services adapted to meet itsconsumers financial services needs and preferences. In addition, itsproducts and services provide its retail distributors to improve theircustomer relationships and generate incremental, ongoing revenuestreams. The products the Company markets and processes are the productsof MetaBank, Inter National Bank, SunTrust Bank and U.S. Bank, orcollectively its issuing banks. The Company provides a feature suite ofproducts and services to its cardholders, including direct deposit,MetaBank's iAdvance line of credit, overdraft protection through itsissuing banks, complimentary insurance coverage and a variety of billpayment options.