Blackstone is exploring a sale of Japan-based payment services provider SP.LINKS, formerly known as Sony Payment Services, in a deal that could value the company at about 100 billion yen (US$626 million), according to people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank Group’s telecom unit and a private equity fund have advanced to the second round of the sale process, the people said.

SP.LINKS runs an online payment gateway and processor for ecommerce merchants, supporting card, convenience-store, QR, carrier-billing, and e-money payments.

It handles 3 million transactions a day from 30,000 merchants, according to an Amazon Web Services case study.

Blackstone bought an 80% stake in the business from Sony Group in January 2024 for about 40 billion yen (US$250 million).

Sony Bank, a unit of Sony Financial Group, retained a 20% stake, implying an enterprise value of 50 billion yen (US$313 million) at the time.

The final acquisition price may vary depending on whether Sony Bank agrees to sell its stake as part of the deal.

SoftBank already owns SB Payment Service, one of SP.LINKS’ main competitors.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg