The Nets Group, a specialist payment provider in Europe, has confirmed the completion of the sale of its account-to-account based services to Mastercard for €2.85 billion, including clearing, instant payment services, and e-billing solutions..
It comes after the successful conclusion of the remedy taker approval process stipulated by the European Commission in August 2020.
Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets, said: “I am pleased to announce that we have completed this strategic sale to Mastercard, and under Mastercard’s ownership, I have no doubt that the account-to-account platform will continue to thrive as demand for digital payments continues.
“This transaction has allowed us to refocus our business model on Merchant Services and Issuer and eSecurity Services, and to increase our exposure to high-growth regions and faster-growing business segments, such as eCommerce. In the last 12 months, the demand for digital payments has accelerated amongst consumers, merchants and banks across our pan-European footprint. With substantial potential for further penetration of digital payments in all our geographies, we are extremely well-positioned for growth in general, and in e-commerce in particular, as we continue our joint growth ambitions with Nexi to become the European PayTech leader.”
The operations sold to Mastercard represented the majority of Nets’ Corporate Services division, comprising the clearing and instant payment services and e-billing solutions, including Betalingsservice in Denmark and AvtaleGiro/eFaktura in Norway. The proceeds from the transaction will be predominantly used to deliver and support Nets Group’s balance sheet.
