Fintrax Group

The deal

The teams

The story

Fintrax Group (now known as Planet) - is a leading global provider of VAT refund and dynamic currency conversion (DCC) services. VAT refund allows non-EU tourists to reclaim any VAT which they have incurred on purchases in Europe. DCC allows non-EU tourists to acquire goods and services in their local currency while travelling.

We were attracted to Fintrax Group as it is the technology leader in the VAT refund market and is very well positioned to benefit from continued growth in tourism, especially from emerging economies. We also believed that there was an excellent opportunity to invest to improve the efficiency of operations and to roll out into new geographic markets.

Exponent acquired Fintrax Group in 2012 from the entrepreneur who had founded the business in the 1980s. We acquired the business with John Moore as buy-in Chairperson. Formerly a Dell executive, John has worked closely with Exponent for a number of years and also Chairs our investee companies Gorkana Group and Group GTI. Patrick Waldron joined the business as buy-in CEO in November 2012.

The business was acquired by Eurazeo in December 2015 for €585m.