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Mastercard (MA), Warply to Drive Digital Transformation in MENA

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) teamed up with Warply, a fintech that boasts a fast-growing presence across the Middle East and North Africa (“MENA”) region. The partners inked a memorandum of understanding. Warply joined Mastercard Start Path, the tech giant’s successful global fintech enablement program, in 2019 and has received widespread success since.

Mastercard and Warply will follow a collaborative approach to devise cutting-edge solutions customized to meet the diverse needs of government entities, large merchants, banks and consumers of the MENA region. The tie-up will unveil some lucrative card-related offers and extend hassle-free redemption experiences over point-of-sale and ePOS systems.

Therefore, the ulterior motive of the collaboration remains to infuse greater digitization within diverse sectors of the following MENA countries, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the UAE and Pakistan. Mastercard and Warply share a motive to drive digital transformation in the region, which makes the latest partnership a time-opportune one. Also, an in-depth understanding of the special demands and opportunities of the MENA market makes Warply a suitable partner for the tech giant to construct a powerful digital ecosystem in the region.

Additionally, tie-ups similar to the latest one provide MA with a significant advantage in establishing a solid footprint in the MENA region. It can tap into new markets, increase its market share and foster a deeper connection with consumers. Via such partnerships, it is strategically positioning itself to harness the promising growth prospects of the region, which witnesses a booming digital economy spurred by increased Internet penetration and higher usage of smartphones,

Another MENA country in which Mastercard puts an intensified focus on establishing a more inclusive and digitally-enabled economic landscape is Egypt. It continues to undertake a spree of partnerships with the country’s financial service providers. Recent collaborations with two Egyptian banks, Societe Arabe Internationale De Banque (“saib”) and Industrial Development Bank (“IDB”), bear testament to MA’s active participation in the broader digital transformation journey of Egypt.  

Mastercard promises to extend a helping hand to saib in unveiling tokenized payments, facilitating secure, rapid and seamless transactions across diverse devices. The collaborative efforts extend to the introduction of micro-credit programs tailored for small businesses, augmenting payment touchpoints. Meanwhile, the MA-IDB partnership assures to present the bank’s customers with an extensive and innovative portfolio spanning credit, debit and commercial card propositions.

Shares of Mastercard have gained 19.2% in the past year compared with the industry’s 16.2% growth. MA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

 

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the Business Services space are Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR - Free Report) , Instructure Holdings, Inc. (INST - Free Report) and Shift4 Payments, Inc. (FOUR - Free Report) . Palantir Technologies sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Instructure and Shift4 Payments carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The bottom line of Palantir Technologies outpaced estimates in three of the last four quarters and matched the mark once, the average surprise being 18.75%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PLTR’s 2023 earnings is pegged at 25 cents per share, which indicates an increase of more than four-fold from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues suggests growth of 16.5% from the year-ago reported number. The consensus mark for PLTR’s 2023 earnings has moved 8.7% north in the past 30 days.

Instructure earnings surpassed estimates in two of the last four quarters, matched the mark once and missed the same on the remaining one occasion, the average surprise being 1.87%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for INST’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 10.4% from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues suggests growth of 11.4% from the prior-year reading. The consensus mark for INST’s 2023 earnings has moved 7.6% north in the past 30 days.

The bottom line of Shift4 Payments outpaced estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 25.03%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FOUR’s 2023 earnings is pegged at $2.92 per share, which has more than doubled from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues suggests growth of 30.8% from the year-ago actual. The consensus mark for FOUR’s 2023 earnings has moved 4.7% north in the past 30 days.

Shares of Palantir Technologies, Instructure and Shift4 Payments have gained 173.5%, 5.2% and 48.8%, respectively, in the past year. 

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