Payment firm SafeCharge revenue, profit jump in first half

TEL AVIV, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Online payment service provider SafeCharge International Group posted sharply higher first-half profit and revenue, boosted by new customers and new products.

The London-listed company, which is majority-owned by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, reported on Wednesday adjusted profit of $16.1 million in the first six months of the year, up from $10.1 million a year earlier. Revenue surged 44 percent to $49.5 million.

The company, which is registered in Guernsey with research and development centres in Israel, Bulgaria and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , will pay an interim dividend of 4 cents a share compared with 2.88 cents a year earlier.

SafeCharge said it had over 100 new customer wins in the its core processing business. Several significant new customers have committed to go live on SafeCharge's platform in the second half of the year, it said.

The company launched this year Visa (Xetra: A0NC7B - news) acquiring services to complement MasterCard services launched in 2014.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen)