Chinese circling Irish currency firm Fintrax

China UnionPay, a state-owned payments processing- firm based in Shanghai, has emerged as a potential buyer for Galway-founded financial services firm Fintrax.

Fintrax was founded in Ballinahown, Co Galway, in the early 1980s. It provides via subsidiary firms Vat- refund services for tourists buying goods overseas and currency conversion technology to allow for credit card purchases to be made in the buyer’s home currency when abroad.

It was sold to British private equity firm Exponent for around €170m three years ago.

In August, speculation emerged that Exponent was looking to sell Fintrax and had appointed investment banker Jefferies to oversee a sale.

It has now been reported in the UK that China UnionPay has entered the race to land the Irish-founded firm.

However, US private equity house Hellman & Friedman and its European peer, Bridgepoint Capital, which specifically targets mid-market businesses valued at up to €1bn, are also thought to be in the running.

Bridgepoint already owns foreign exchange services provider Moneycorp. It is estimated that Fintrax could fetch around €500m at sale, with its services in hot demand.

Earlier this year, the British government accused airport retailers in Britain of effectively misleading customers by failing to pass on refunds and upping their profits in the process.

A number of well-known retailers with airport concessions had been allegedly asking customers for their boarding cards and implying they would benefit from Vat savings, but ultimately failed to pass such savings on to buyers, claiming they were unable to adopt a dual- pricing structure.