Moneybookers, the UK online payments provider, has been put up for sale after its owner Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investor, suffered its first loss for the first half of its financial year.
JPMorgan has been hired to manage the sale process. The business has been given the price tag of €400m (£359m) after early discussions with potential buyers.
Investcorp purchased Moneybookers for €105m in March 2007 when the British business earned just €3.5m. For the year to December 31, Moneybookers' turnover was €34m and its earnings amounted to €18.7m.
Gatcombe Park Ventures also has a holding in Moneybookers.
Moneybookers was founded in London in 2001 and is one of the fastest growing internet-based businesses in Europe. It has signed up 10,000 users a day - showing strong levels of growth despite the recession. From November, Moneybookers has had 6m user accounts.
The payments provider is regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority, and is used by Skype, Unicef and Wikipedia to process payments and donations.
Investcorp was established in 1982, and is one of few private sector Arabian institutions to have an international presence.
