Merchant payments system provider SmartPay yesterday paid the final payment of $3 million for the purchase of ProvencoCadmus assets from the receiver.

The purchase included all the payments business intellectual property and manufacturing, its customer bases and the New Zealand and Australian payments businesses.

Provenco, one New Zealand's largest providers of Eftpos-related products and software, merged with Cadmus in 2007, and went into receivership in August due to unsustainable debt, lack of investment capital and a weaker than expected trading performance in its retail automation business.

The funding of the final payment came from a previously announced private placement, which raised $1.655m, and debt from a range of individuals and investment groups.

The debt holders who provided funds for the first payment also agreed to roll over their facility for a further term.

The company has also issued 34.2m options to both the debt and equity holders to acquire SmartPay shares at 5c per share, exercisable within the next 12 months.

SmartPay shares were trading at 4.5c a share this afternoon.

The company said it expected its half-year profit announcement next week to show evidence that the SmartPay strategy is working and value is being delivered.