U.K. mobile money specialist Monitise is expanding its capabilities in Europe and the Middle East with the acquisition of the Turkish mobile payments technology provider Pozitron Yazilim.

Pozitron provides mobile banking and payment systems to 30 customers across the banking, telecoms, retail and pharmaceutical industries. Customers include Turkish Airlines; eBay; ING; TEB, which is part of BNP Paribas; GlaxoSmithKline; and Hepsiburada.com, Turkey's equivalent to Amazon.

Pozitron's Turkish financial services partners include Türkiye ?? Bankas?, the largest bank in Turkey; Yap? Kredi, the fourth-largest private bank in Turkey; and BKM, the country's national payments switch.

Monitise said Pozitron is a European gateway to the Middle East, working with Riyad-based ANB, one of the largest 15 banks in the Middle East, and QIB, the largest Islamic bank in Qatar.

"When we began putting mobile at the heart of our commercial focus nine years ago, we had a vision for how innovative design and ease-of-use could change how people manage their money on the move," Fatih ??becer, Pozitron's chief executive, said in a news release.

"The acquisition of Pozitron reinforces our position as a global technology enabler at the heart of the mobile money ecosystem," Monitise Group Chief Executive Alastair Lukies said.

Monitise has acquired Pozitron by issuing new shares of Monitise to Pozitron's owners. The deal values the Turkish company at £24 million ($39 million), based on Monitise's closing share price of 66.5 pence on Jan. 31. A further earn-out of £36 million ($59 million) is payable over three years, Monitise said.

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