Street Talk

Smartpay, hurting from RBA’s surcharge review, gets takeover proposals

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Updated Mar 16, 2025 – 3.45pm, first published at 3.30pm

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Smartpay Holdings, whose EFTPOS machines are used by more than 40,000 businesses, has received non-binding indicative offers from at least two parties, after its shares were smashed on the central bank’s decision to put debit-card surcharges under the microscope.

Smartpay has more than 40,000 EFTPOS machines. Justin McManus

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.