NCR To Buy Bradesco-Owned Assets For Boosting Base In Brazil

NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) recently announced that it has signed an agreement to buy the minority interest in NCR Manaus, owned by Banco Bradesco (NYSE:BBD) , in a bid to widen its service portfolio to financial customers in Brazil. The transaction amount was kept under wraps.

Per the agreement, NCR will continue to work with Bradesco for providing ATM solutions. This buyout complements the company’s efforts to fortify its footprint in Brazil.

Efforts in Brazil

NCR has been serving the Brazil market for 83 long years. NCR Manaus is the company’s Brazilian manufacturing and engineering unit, which was opened in 2009, to increase local employment and better serve customers in Brazil.

Earlier in 2011, NCR announced a new growth program for its retail industry, introducing technology and expansion of channel partnerships for Brazil.

NCR’s acquisitions of POS Integrated Solutions Do Brasil Comercio E Servicos De Informatica S.A., RDS South America Comercio E Servicos De Informatica S.A., Wyse Sistemas de Informatica Ltda., Transoft, Inc. and uGenius Technology, Inc. in 2012 also strengthened its product and service offerings across the financial services, hospitality and retail verticals.

Tad Phelps, vice president, hospitality sales for the Americas, NCR Hospitality, had said: “Brazil is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world and its rapidly expanding middle class is driving tremendous growth for hospitality businesses.”

Most recently, the company announced that it will acquire OKI Brasil’s IT services arm along with a few other software assets for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, NCR aims to expand its business in Brazil including the extended support options for banks, retailers and restaurants. The buyout of OKI’s key assets is expected to boost NCR’s business across all its three segments, namely Banking, Retail and Hospitality.

Acquisitions: A Key Catalyst

NCR has supplemented its business growth through a strong inorganic growth story. In the past two decades, NCR has acquired more than 20 companies, which in turn, enabled it in enhancing its capabilities across different areas.

Even though the company has a highly leveraged balance sheet, we note that its strategic acquisitions have always been beneficial to its business.

The acquisition of part of Bradesco’s assets is the fourth buyout made by NCR this year. In February, the company bought Colorado’s leading provider of Hospitality POS Technology, BEC, in a bid to revive its sluggish hospitality business. Again in a similar effort to cement its hospitality business, NCR acquired the restaurant technology company, Texas P.O.S. Inc., this May.

Among the most notable acquisitions of 2018 are the transactions of StopLift, which helped NCR accelerate growth in self-checkout and store transformation solutions, and JetPay Corporation, which is assisting NCR to offset recent headwinds in its Retail segment by raking in significant revenues.

Further, the buyout of CimpleBox in 2016 enriched its capabilities to provide a simplified SaaS-based back-office software to restaurant operators and retailers.

Moreover, the acquisition of Digital Insight in 2013, reinforced NCR’s online and mobile banking solutions offerings while the takeover of Alaric Systems solidified its online transaction security software and fraud prevention solutions portfolio.

With the integration of Radiant Systems in 2011, NCR became a key provider of retail and hospitality Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals.

The combination of NCR’s acquisitions with its efforts to firm up footing in the Brazilian industries will enable it to ramp up distribution, add to its portfolio strength, open new market segments and deliver solutions that allow businesses to better manage sales transactions and drive productivity.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

NCR currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Two better-ranked stocks in the broader Computer and Technology sector are Infineon Technologies (OTC:IFNNY) and Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth rate for Infineon and Cirrus is forecast at 3.40% and 15%, respectively.

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