IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 10, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Sage Global Solutions, Inc. (Pink Sheets:SGGL) (Frankfurt Stock Exchange:WKN A0J265) (Frankfurt:Q9A) announced today that it will acquire PrimeStar Marketing Inc. as part of a strategic move to restructure the company's business plan. Under the new plan, the company will divest itself of some of its mortgage and insurance service operations to focus on providing essential money services to the insurance carriers, third party administrators, self-insured benefit trusts, and consumers with limited access to banking services. PrimeStar's innovative services will enable insurance carriers and other businesses to achieve effective business process improvements. For individual consumers, PrimeStar's products and services can deliver immediate cost and time savings.
Joey Sanchez, CEO of PrimeStar Marketing Inc., will replace Henry Davidson as president of Sage Global Solutions, Inc. Henry Davidson and Andrew Kondo will also resign their positions as officers and directors of Sage Global Solutions. Mr. Davidson and Mr. Kondo will continue to assist Sage Global Solutions, on an ongoing basis, as it develops its business models.
For businesses, PrimeStar offers solutions that reduce or eliminate the costs and hassles of issuing checks to employees, members, insureds, or service providers both domestically and internationally. Mailing, processing time, lost checks, fraud, and problems cashing checks are a thing of the past with PrimeStar. PrimeStar is able to develop innovative solutions for a company's "money process" problems. Conversion of paper processes to a purely digital solution enables PrimeStar to deliver cost savings, improve customer service, and increase the organization's perceived value to the customer.
For consumers, PrimeStar, through its PrimeStar Financial Centers, will offer a low cost version of a full service bank branch, with an innovative, multi-faceted money services product to segments of the population that the current financial system fails to reach. PrimeStar Financial Centers are money service centers that will integrate high-demand products currently being offered on an independent basis by multiple providers. Through the use of available technology, the centers will deliver to the consumer services with recognized value and convenience such as check cashing, money remittance, money orders, online account management, online bill payment, and ATM access.
Illustrating the immediate demand for such a product, check cashing services charge a premium fee of up to 3.5% to cash a payroll check and more for other types of checks. Despite these high fees, these services are heavily utilized by the low-wage immigrant market. Joey Sanchez, CEO of PrimeStar Marketing Inc., said, "Our PrimeStar Financial Center addresses the needs of the 40 million, unbanked and underbanked marketplace. We will deliver to this market segment a convenient, service driven, value-based, provider of essential financial services within their local community."
PrimeStar's solution begins with a single fee debit card that allows a cardholder to have an individual, FDIC insured, bank account. With this account, PrimeStar cardholders may access free check cashing, free ATM withdrawal, low cost online bill payments, free international money transfer, and use the debit card for purchases anywhere Visa/MasterCard is accepted. "Initial motivation for using PrimeStar is purely price based as fees for the PrimeStar Debit Card are but a fraction of the cost incurred when buying the services individually," said Sanchez. "For a PrimeStar customer earning only $1,000 a month, check cashing and one money transfer would likely be twice the cost of the one-month fee as a PrimeStar cardholder."
Joey Sanchez, incoming president of Sage Global Solutions, has over 25 years experience as an entrepreneur developing his own business enterprises and advising/consulting clients on strategic direction and financial performance, business management, and mergers/acquisitions. Mr. Sanchez has been instrumental over the past three years in the development of the PrimeStar Debit Card and the relationships with banks, processors, and MasterCard needed to make the program fully operational.
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Statements in this press release about the company's future and expectations other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements." These statements are made on the basis of management's current views and assumptions. As a result, there can be no assurance that management's expectations will necessarily come to pass. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as management "believes," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements in this release that describe the Company's business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Management cautions that the ability to attract clients and generate business may be affected by a decline in the Company's financial ratings, the competitive environment, the Company's ability to raise sufficient capital to meet the collateral requirements associated with its current business and to fund the Company's continuing operations and changes in market conditions.