A group of Perth-based entrepreneurs is seeking to build a new, niche deposit-taking entity on the foundations of pre-paid card firm EMerchants.Australasia Consolidated will take control of EMerchants via a back-door listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. Australasia will issue 75 million shares (which were worth 20 cents when last traded) to the vendors and will also pay A$2.5 million in cash, valuing EMerchants at A$17.5 million. A further A$11.5 million in shares is payable in 2013, if 2012 sales reach A$7 million.The vendor is Globetrotter Group, a West Australian-based travel management firm that itself bought EMerchants. This was only in late 2009, when it bought a controlling stake for A$1.5 million.Founded in Brisbane, in the early 2000s, by Tony Ferguson, who remains chief information officer, EMerchants is one of a handful of firms specialising in marketing mainly closed loop pre-paid debit cards.John Battley, the founder of Globetrotter and also now chief operating officer of EMerchants, will remain. He will also join the board of Australasia Consolidated. Tony Ferguson will also remain.One non-executive director joining the board is John Toms, the former chief executive of Australian Settlements, the payments' processor for most building societies.Mark Barnaba, a consulting partner of former Payments System Board member John Poynton, will also join the board.Bob Browning, the former CEO of Alinta, is the managing director and driving force behind Australasia Consolidated, which plans to divest its minerals assets and pursue a new business direction in financial services.Australasia Consolidated plans to seek a restricted authority from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority known as a purchased payment facility - the style of licence held by PayPal.The company may have wider ambitions, however, with Australasia Consolidated planning to organise itself as a non-operating holding company and flagging its interest in acquiring similar businesses.The financial performance of EMerchants has been tenuous to date. EMerchants recorded revenue of $860,000 and a pre-tax loss of A$1.4 million in the year to June 2009. These financial statements disclosed an excess of liabilities over assets and earned a qualified report from the auditor, BDO.EMerchants is yet to lodge accounts for the 2010 financial year with ASIC, and Australasia Consolidated omitted to cite any financial data for EMerchants in documents lodged with the ASX yesterday.While the planned takeover was announced only yesterday, Australasia Consolidated has held a charge over the assets of EMerchants, as a financier, since early April.One piece of data Australasia Consolidated did cite is a market-share claim of 28 per cent in pre-paid cards, in Australia, for EMerchants, with Euromonitor as the source.Retail Decisions, which provides pre-paid gift cards to Myer, Woolworths and many other retailers, claims a market share of at least 80 per cent in gift cards, and this segment dominates pre-paid cards.Salary cards, which are popular with some mining services' and building employers, are another niche product.Relying on the Euromonitor research, Australasia Consolidated said in a presentation yesterday that growth in pre-paid cards in Australia has lagged Britain and the United States, "indicating significant potential for rapid