CMS wins award for stc pay’s stake sale to Western Union

International law firm CMS is pleased to announce that it has been awarded IFN Deal of the Year 2020 in the M&A, Equity and IPO category.

The award was in recognition of the firm’s role advising Saudi Digital Payments Company (stc pay) on the issuance of a 15% minority stake in its business valued at approximately US$200 million to Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money payments.

stc pay, a fully owned subsidiary of stc Group, is an integrated payment application that connects merchants to their customers through a secure electronic wallet. As the leading electronic wallet service in Saudi Arabia, stc pay is an established regional brand with over four million customers. Subject to receiving regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. The deal was led by Corporate partner Karim Fawaz and senior associate Ashleigh Bruce.

The IFN Deals of the Year Awards are the industry’s most prestigious accolades awarded only to the most significant Islamic finance deals of the year. While the awards play a crucial role in honouring the achievements of market practitioners in ground-breaking deals, they also serve as a gauge of industry growth and evolution through the lens of structuring innovation, demand-driven transactions and market efficiency. The 2020 awards in particular provided insight into how the industry reacted to a global pandemic.