Nexi, the Italy-based payments group, announced that it has agreed to buy the shop payments business of BPER Banca and Banco Di Sardegna. The deal is said to be worth USD412 million, and is set to include a network of more than 110,000 retailers.
Nexi is one of Europe’s leading payments companies, and has been gradually expanding operations serving merchants through a string of similar acquisitions. The acquisitions include a record 1 Billion Euro deal to buy Italy’s leading bank Intesa Sanpaolo in 2019.
In accordance with the latest agreement, Nexi will purchase the Point of Sale (POS) and merchant payment operations of BPER and its subsidiary Banco di Sardegna.
The deal, which values the two businesses at 384 million Euros, includes a delayed component of 66 million Euros to be paid when agreed targets are met.
Already aligned by a commercial partnership, the two companies commenced negotiations on the deal in February, and pushed back a deadline to conclude talks twice.
Nexi gets ‘buy’ rating
Banca Akros analyst Luigi Tramontana said that the deal has gone through after several delays and that it was good news, while emphasising a ‘buy’ rating for Nexi.
In a statement, BPER mentioned that the business arm being sold had last year transacted 13 billion Euros via a network of almost 150,000 card machines.
The fifth largest bank in Italy said that the strategic partnership negotiated with Nexi as part of the sale would allow it to retain significant exposure to the business for the duration of the agreement.
The deal is expected to be concluded in the second half of 2022.
After the announcement, Nexi shares rose by 1.3 percent and BPER’s shares gained 2 percent, with both stocks outperforming a 0.2 percent rise in Italy’s blue chip index.
Rothschild advised Nexi on the deal. Deutsche Bank was BPER’s sole financial adviser on the deal, with Gianni & Origoni acting as legal adviser, and Deloitte supporting the financial due diligence activity.
