Orange Money reaches 4 million customers and launches in Jordan and Mauritius - Modern Ghana Orange Money reaches 4 million customers and launches in Jordan and Mauritius - Modern Ghana

Monday, June 18, 2012

Orange Money reaches 4 million customers and launches in Jordan and Mauritius - Modern Ghana

Orange Money reaches 4 million customers and launches in Jordan and Mauritius - Modern Ghana

PARIS, France, June 18, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Orange Money (http://www.orange.com) has reached the threshold of 4 million customers in Africa and the Middle East and celebrates its commercial launch in Jordan and Mauritius. These two additional countries mean that the service is now available in 10 countries across the region.

Logo Orange: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/orange-logo.jpg

Orange Money, the Group's mobile payment service, was first launched in Cte d'Ivoire in December 2008. It has since been made available in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Over the past few weeks, the service has also been launched in Jordan and Mauritius, in line with Orange's goal to launch the service in all 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the Group operates.

In only eighteen months, Orange Money has quadrupled its customer base, which now covers 14% of all Orange customers in these 10 countries. In Madagascar, over a third of all customers have opened an Orange Money account, while in Cte d'Ivoire daily transactions now exceed one billion CFA francs per day. This exponential growth attests to the strong consumer appetite for this innovative, simple and practical mobile payment service in countries where the population has limited access to bank accounts but is widely equipped with mobile phones.

Access to Orange Money is very easy: mobile phone customers may open an Orange Money account for free whether or not they have a bank account. It allows customers to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security. The three key services include:

? money transfers, where users can send money using their phone to any Orange Money customer in the country;

? financial services, including solutions facilitating savings and insurance (according to the country);

? payments, giving users an easier way to pay their bills, as well as providing a simple way to buy mobile phone credit.

These two last categories of service are growing quickly. Thanks to partnerships with local service providers, Orange Money customers can pay some of their bills with their mobile phone. This is enables customers to benefit from the comfort and flexibility of a remote payment system and in many cases allows them to avoid a long and difficult journey. For example, Orange Money customers can already pay their electricity bills in Senegal or their water bills in Jordan.

In addition to payment, Orange Money also provides customers who do not have a bank account with a way to save money. In Madagascar, for example, customers can now sign-up to a life insurance scheme.

Commenting on the development of Orange Money, Marc Rennard, Orange's Executive Director for AMEA operations, stated that: Orange Money plays an important role in driving growth in our activities in emerging markets, allowing us to contribute to the economic and social development of these countries, while improving our customers' loyalty.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Orange.

Discover the presentation of Orange Money: www.orange-innovation.tv/en/webtv/info_interviews/world-pulse/africa_middle_east/orange_money_4_millions_users_already

About Orange

France Telecom-Orange (http://www.orange.com) is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with 171,000 employees worldwide, including 105,000 employees in France, and sales of 10.9 billion euros in the first three months of 2012. Present in 33 countries, the Group had a customer base of 225 million customers at 31 March 2012, including 181 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group's single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. At 31 March 2012, the Group had 166 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): http://www.orange.com, http://www.orange-business.com, http://www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

Press contacts: +33 1 44 44 93 93

Tom Wright, tom.wright@orange.com

Mylne Blin, mylene.blin@orange.com



More money means more pain for fans - FOXSports.com

LONDON, England

If money is the root of all evil, then somebody forgot to tell supporters of Manchester City and Chelsea - both of whom get to spend the summer floating in a happy daze.

Before the arrival of their sugar daddies, backed by petrodollars from Abu Dhabi and Russia respectively, City were light years away from winning the Premier League title and Chelsea were hardly earmarked as contenders for the Champions League. Now, they are trophy-holders and serious contenders for next season.

Cash is not always king in football but it sure helps. For all the teams without billionaire benefactors, the mission to keep up with the spiraling salaries and trumped-up transfer fees is a challenge that is as overwhelming as it is risky. Some 60 per cent of Premier League clubs reported a loss when the last financial accounts were released.

Competing with the likes of City and Chelsea in the money league is an impossible task, so the rest have to be resourceful, and hope that the new regulations designed to try to encourage clubs to run themselves as a sustainable business (a pan-European initiative called Financial Fair Play) actually begin to shackle the spending power of the super rich. Not everyone, it must be said, is holding their breath on that one even if it is a nice idea.

And now there is suddenly even more money sloshing around for every Premier League club to get their hands on. A new, record-breaking television deal, worth a record $4.7 billion over three years — up a whopping 71 per cent on the previous arrangement — will soon be boosting the coffers everywhere. This is just a deal for domestic television rights, so when internet and overseas deals are factored in, the Premier League’s broadcasting worth is estimated at closer to a stunning $8 billion.

Each club is guaranteed at least $22 million more each year than they previously received. To put that into perspective, that means the last-placed finisher in 2013 will probably get more than Manchester City earned for finishing top of the Premier League pile last season. That sum, incidentally, totaled $95 million.

The Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Scudamore, believes the deal is very significant in comparison to major overseas clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and so on.

"It allows people to plan and gives us a degree of financial security. I don't underestimate that,” he said. “The idea you can plan with some certainty your revenues for the next four years is a big thing."

And in fact, there is an interesting comparison with Spain’s La Liga, in which the heavyweighs from Barcelona and Madrid negotiate their own television rights individually. They can pull in around $200 million per season, but the smallest clubs earn a fraction – in the region of $20 million. The Premier League have a system where the deal is struck collectively. All boats are raised in England under this new deal – and suddenly, a leap to the Premier League means so much more to the teams in the Championship, a rung below.

It is questionable how great all this will turn out to be for fans, however. Somebody has to pay for these mega-deals, and part of the cost will presumably be passed on to the consumers in the form of price hikes for subscription channels that deliver football coverage. Live games have been the preserve of the pay-per-view channels in England for 20 years now. In that time, the cost of attending a match inside the stadium has ballooned, too.

But the increase is fabulous news, obviously, for clubs, players and the wheeler-dealer agents who squeeze every drop of earnings out that they can. It is likely that the $300,000 a week salary that Carlos Tevez takes home will soon be dwarfed. And with some big stars — Emmanuel Adebayor, Luka Modric and Robin van Persie come to mind — seeking improved deals, there are fewer reasons for clubs to stretch their payrolls.

As yet , there has not been an obvious knock-on effect in terms of the Premier League’s transfer activity. Only Chelsea have been notably lavish in advance of the European Championship, with the Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard arriving and Porto’s Hulk very strongly linked with a big money move. A greater indication of whether this gives clubs more clout in the market will come when the Euros finish.

Bruce Buck, Chelsea’s chairman, predicted Abramovich is eager to up the ante to help his team to build on the Champions League win. “We’ve seen him, year after year, invest and put his hand in his pocket and spend big money. He may go to another level now,” said Buck.

Chelsea, which starts next season's Premier League campaign at Wigan, are desperate for a stronger challenge in the league. City will kick off its title defense at home to Southampton but are eager to make more of a go of it in the Champions League.

Manchester United are intent on bouncing back, but have a tough start to the season against Everton - the team that wrecked United's title dream. Arsenal, who host Sunderland on the opening day, have to try to stay in the top four. Liverpool, who face Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City, in three of their first four fixtures, are under pressure to improve.

Now there is even more money to make the football world go round.
 



SquareTwo Financial Canada Named One Of The Fastest-Growing Companies In Canada - Yahoo Finance

DENVER, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SquareTwo Financial, a leader in the $100 billion asset recovery and management industry, today announced that the company's Canadian subsidiary SquareTwo Financial Canada has been ranked 31st in the annual PROFIT 200 ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies by PROFIT Magazine.

Ranking Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies by five-year revenue growth, the PROFIT 200 profiles the country's most successful growth companies. Published in the Summer issue of PROFIT and online at PROFITguide.com, the PROFIT 200 is Canada's largest annual celebration of entrepreneurial achievement.

SquareTwo Financial Canada is based in Toronto and provides asset recovery and management services that help Canadian banks and credit card companies liquidate distressed assets. Over the past five years, SquareTwo Financial Canada has increased revenue more than 1200% and increased servicing levels in Canada by 46%.

"We have a talented and hardworking team in our SquareTwo Financial Canada office and I am pleased to see their efforts pay off by being named one of Canada's fastest-growing companies," said Paul A. Larkins, president and CEO of SquareTwo Financial. "SquareTwo Financial Canada is an important part of the overall SquareTwo Financial organization, and this team is helping a lot of Canadian companies turn their distressed assets back to black on their balance sheets."

"The PROFIT 200 companies are an inspiration to Canadian entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs," says Ian Portsmouth, Editor-in-Chief of PROFIT Magazine. "PROFIT is proud to celebrate the success of these businesspeople, who, despite a challenging economy, have achieved outstanding success in a wide variety of fields."

"The PROFIT 200 is a well-known and highly regarded ranking of Canadian companies and we're honored to be included on this year's list with some of the country's most-respected entrepreneurs and organizations," said Christopher Walker, president and CEO of SquareTwo Financial Canada. "We look forward to continued growth – both in revenue and employment – in the coming months and years."

About SquareTwo Financial Canada:

SquareTwo Financial Canada is located in Toronto, Ontario and is a subsidiary of SquareTwo Financial. SquareTwo Financial is a leader in the $100 billion asset recovery and management industry. Through its award-winning technology and unique Partner Network, SquareTwo Financial creates a more effective way for companies and consumers to resolve their debt commitments. Fortune 500 companies in the health care, banking and credit card industries trust SquareTwo Financial to manage their debt portfolios. The company's national network of legal partners is dedicated to treating consumers fairly and ethically. SquareTwo Financial is based in Denver, Colo. Visit www.squaretwofinancial.com for more information.

SquareTwo Financial Website: www.squaretwofinancial.com

About PROFIT Magazine:

PROFIT: Your Guide to Business Success is Canada's preeminent publication dedicated to the management issues and opportunities facing small and mid-sized businesses. For 30 years, Canadian entrepreneurs and senior managers across a vast array of economic sectors have remained loyal to PROFIT because it's a timely and reliable source of actionable information that helps them achieve business success and get the recognition they deserve for generating positive economic and social change. Visit PROFIT online at PROFITguide.com.

CONTACTS:
Rick Roth
Chief Marketing Officer
SquareTwo Financial
303.713.2231
rroth@squaretwofinancial.com  

Cori Keeton Pope
Keeton Public Relations
303-282-4981
cori@keetonpr.com


No comments: