Payment solutions provider Wex Inc. has finalized the purchase of virtual travel payments providers eNett and Optal at a price far lower than it agreed to in January, and has settled a U.K. court case brought by former eNett majority owner Travelport, according to Wex.
Wex has agreed to pay $577.5 million in cash to purchase eNett and Optal, much lower than the agreed-upon January purchase price of $1.7 billion, from Travelport and Optal—the latter a minority investor in eNett; Wex agreed to acquire both.
Wex in May backed out of the original deal, citing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Travelport and other parties sued Wex in U.K. court to hold the parties to the original deal. That case was on going, but the court in October sided with Wex on a preliminary issue, ruling eNett and Optal should be considered part of the broader business-to-business payments industry and not a separate travel-specific sector.
The case now has been settled, according to Wex, and former eNett managing director and CEO Anthony Hynes will join Wex as president of its new travel division and report to CEO Melissa Smith.