Edenred acquires Benefit Online, a Romanian employee engagement platform
Edenred, the global leader in payment solutions for the working world, has acquired Benefit Online, a pioneer in developing employee engagement platforms in Romania, thereby strengthening its leadership position in the Romanian employee benefits market. With this flexible benefits platform, Edenred is addressing the increasing demand from companies that want to improve their employees’ loyalty, motivation and purchasing power by offering them a wide range of benefits via simple and flexible digital solutions.
Edenred Romania, the leading player in the Romanian employee benefits market, is expanding its offering with the acquisition of Benefit Online. Created in 2013, Benefit Online was the first company to locally develop an employee engagement platform, and today has more than 100,000 active users. Companies use the digital platform to give their employees the possibility to make an individualized selection of the employee benefits that they would like to receive, notably in the areas of food, leisure and healthcare. As well as these flexible benefits programs customizable to their needs, users also enjoy promotional offers from a network of partner merchants via the same portal. Thanks to this solution, corporate clients across Romania can make their human resources policies more effective and boost their attractiveness in a highly competitive job market.
The transaction is part of the Group’s broader acquisitions strategy, which notably consists in seizing opportunities in the still largely untapped and rapidly expanding markets adjacent to its Employee Benefits business. To grow in the employee engagement platform market, the Group intends to capitalize on the agility and efficiency of its global technology platform, its unique expertise and its capacity to carry out targeted investments that create value. Edenred already operates solutions of this kind in France, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, and has strengthened its positions since the beginning of 2019 with the acquisition of Easy Welfare in Italy, and Merits & Benefits and Ekivita in Belgium.
“Building on our positioning in the Romanian market and our experience in developing employee engagement platforms, the acquisition of Benefit Online is a unique opportunity to expand our local offering with innovative, flexible solutions that are in line with businesses’ new needs and the high demand from their employees. We intend to market this range to our existing clients and continue expanding it in Romania, where the segment is still in its infancy,” said Arnaud Erulin, Edenred’s Chief Operating Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The transaction, which remains subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities, will be accretive to net profit, Group share from 2019.
