EML Payments' turnaround builds on a Visa Pismo tie-up and a $90 million pipeline target

Having resolved a string of legacy regulatory and legal issues, EML Payments is rebuilding around a single global technology platform and a rapidly expanding sales pipeline, testing whether new management can turn a long history of setbacks into a genuine growth re-rate.

30 Jun 2026 · 5 min read

EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML) has spent the past year working to convince fund managers that a genuinely difficult regulatory and operational history is now behind it. Forager Funds captured the skepticism the company still faces bluntly in September 2025, acknowledging EML has "a littered history of things going wrong over time," but remaining a buyer on the view a new management team can hold the cost base flat while adding tens of millions of dollars to the revenue line, which the fund believes would produce a dramatically more profitable business than the market currently gives it credit for.

It's a new management team in there. They have said they can hold the cost base flat with where it is at the moment, while they add tens of millions of dollars to the revenue line. I think if you can do that, you're going to see a dramatically more profitable business than you're seeing today.

Forager Funds, Article, September 2025

A single global platform via Visa's Pismo

The technological centrepiece of the turnaround is a partnership with Pismo, a Visa subsidiary, announced in mid-2025. Endeavor Asset Management described this as allowing EML to consolidate multiple processing platforms into a single system covering Australia, North America, the UK and Europe, calling it the first step in the company's EML 2.0 direction. Tamim Funds Management added that the related Arlo platform consolidation is expected to reduce technology costs by $12 million while enabling multi-product, multi-currency offerings across regions, alongside signing 27 new clients as part of a revitalised leadership and sales capability.

Legacy issues cleared, pipeline targets set

DMX Asset Management summarised the scale of the clean-up completed by mid-2025, noting EML has resolved many legacy issues including divesting non-core and troubled divisions and settling liabilities and a class action, refocusing the company on growth and profitability. The fund highlighted a specific growth target: expanding the sales pipeline from $66 million at 30 June 2025 to approximately $90 million by 31 December 2025, with growth expected to disproportionately fall to the bottom line given the company's existing operating infrastructure. DMX flagged a stretch target of 13 cents in EPS by 2028 that, if achieved, would make the current share price look very cheap, and noted assets of EML's nature tend to attract private equity and strategic suitor interest.

Achieving its 13c EPS target by 2028 would make its current share price very cheap. Aside from the potential for material growth and further market re-rate, assets of EML's nature are tending to be prime targets of private equity and strategic suitors who could extract greater value than may be possible as an independent company.

DMX Asset Management, Monthly Report, August 2025

Patience required as the front-end sales engine rebuilds

Not every manager expects the re-rate to arrive quickly. QVG Capital observed in September 2025 that EML slipped as investors remembered turnarounds are rarely quick, though the pre-paid cards provider does enjoy sticky customers and reasonably predictable revenues, qualities that, as fellow turnaround Bravura demonstrated, give new management the most precious commodity: time. The fund noted that breathing space is being spent rebuilding the front-end sales engine, a previously neglected part of the business, though it acknowledged EML has struggled to compete for investor attention against gold, AI and defence stocks in the near term. Tamim Funds Management identified the upcoming AGM and February results updates on pipeline conversion as the next key catalysts, with a positive update potentially driving a significant re-rate toward its $2.00-plus valuation, representing more than 100% upside from prevailing levels.

What managers are watching next

With total revenue at $221 million and EBITDA of $58 million already at the top of guidance according to Tamim Funds Management, the catalysts fund managers are tracking most closely are whether the sales pipeline actually reaches its $90 million target by December, how quickly the Pismo and Arlo platform consolidation translates into the promised cost savings, and whether the combination of organic growth and operating leverage delivers the material profitability improvement several holders believe the market has not yet priced in.