Nexi S.p.A. (“Nexi” and, together with its subsidiaries, “Nexi Group”) announces that Nets CEE d.o.o. (“Nets CEE”), a company under Croatian law, part of Nexi Group and a subsidiary of Concardis Holding GmbH, reached an agreement with Privredna banka Zagreb d.d. (“PBZ Bank”) and PBZ Card d.o.o. (“PBZ Card”) – a company under Croatian law, indirectly controlled by Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. (“ISP” and, together with its subsidiaries “ISP Group”) through PBZ Bank – to purchase PBZ Card’s merchant acquiring business in the Croatian market.
PBZ Card’s merchant acquiring business is the market leader in Croatia, with about 13,000 merchants which, in the 12 months from March 2021 to March 2022, generated a total transaction volume of around €5 billion. The consideration for the transaction is equal to €180m, with an implied 2022E EV/EBITDA multiple of about 10.5x.
The agreement provides for a long-term partnership among Nets CEE, PBZ Card e PBZ Bank for the marketing and distribution of Nexi products in the Croatian market. This transaction is substantially in line with the broader multi-year partnership between Nexi Group and ISP Group in the Italian merchant acquiring space, which has started through the acquisition of the Italian merchant acquiring business owned by ISP on June 30th 2020.
As a result of this transaction, Nexi strengthens its relationship with its long-term partner ISP and consolidates its position as the European PayTech leader in merchant services through an increase in the operational scale of merchant acquiring activities.
The completion of the transaction, expected by the end of 2022, is subject to conditions precedent typical for this type of deal and the reference market, including Nets CEE obtaining a license to operate as a payment institution in Croatia and the approvals from the Croatian and Serbian antitrust authorities.
Nexi was supported by KPMG Corporate Finance as financial advisor, by Legance – Avvocati Associati and Schoenherr for the legal aspects, and by KPMG Transaction Services for financial and fiscal due diligence.
