- Italian payments company Nexi SpA announced it is buying Nets A/S for $9.2 billion. These are the details.
Italian payments company Nexi SpA announced it is buying Nets A/S for $9.2 billion. This deal — which is all-share — creates the largest payments company by volume in Europe.
The value of the deal is 7.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion) and it includes 1.8 billions of euros of debt. Nets shareholders are going to receive 406.6 million new Nexi shares, which initially results in 39% of the combined entity.
The deal was finalized just a month after Nexi acquired another competitor. And the companies are expecting there to be about 170 million euros of synergy every year.
Just a few days after Nexi CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo announced a deal to buy Italy-based SIA SpA for 4.6 billion euros, he had announced talks with Nets.
Hellman & Friedman, Advent International, and Bain Capital are going to remain shareholders in the new company. And Nets investors will be subject to a lock up period of six to 24 months.
This deal is going to quadruple Nexi’s footprint in Europe, which gives the company access to markets in 25 countries. And the joint company will generate about 2.9 billion euros of revenue on a pro-forma basis in 2020.
KEY QUOTES:
“The transaction, which follows the announced MoU for the merger with SIA, creates the European PayTech leader with unique scale and capabilities to best serve and support all our customers across Europe, from citizens to merchants, from partner banks to corporates, from public administration to other institutions. Nexi will transform into a European leader with access to a fourfold larger addressable market, still largely unpenetrated and growing double digit. The New Group, with reach in over 25 countries, will act as digitalization engine in Europe, driving the transition to digital and cashless.
“Nexi people, together with our reference shareholders, are at the same time truly inspired by the vision of the New Group and deeply committed to this new powerful step in our value creation journey. We are excited to join forces also with the highly talented people of Nets, who are driving such an effective transformation of their company. This combination of passionate and highly competent professionals in the New Group has the true potential to fuel innovation in the payment industry across Europe for years to come.”
— Paolo Bertoluzzo, CEO of Nexi
“This transaction marks an important milestone in Nets’ journey to become a European payments champion, from our beginning as a domestic player in Denmark and Norway to our evolution into a pan-European payments pure-play operator. Through constant innovation, and driven by the tremendous efforts of colleagues, Nets has re-shaped the Nordic and broader European payments landscape, in creating ever more valuable solutions for our customers and stakeholders. We are incredibly excited to join forces with Nexi, with whom we will continue to shape the industry and capture significant growth opportunities across the sector through our presence in structurally attractive payment markets such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as in the fast growing Polish market. Denmark and the Nordics remain a key focus for the group, drawing on the expertise Nets has built in serving one of the most digitally advanced regions in Europe. Today’s announcement is a true testament to the capability and dedication of everyone at Nets.”
— Bo Nilsson, CEO of Nets
