The operations divested to Mastercard include clearing and instant payment services and e-billing solutions in Denmark and Norway
Nets sells account-to-account services to Mastercard. (Credit: Adam Radosavljevic from Pixabay.)
The Nets Group has completed the sale of its account-to-account based services, including clearing, instant payment services, and e-billing solutions, to Mastercard for a total of €2.85bn.
The sale follows the conclusion of the remedy taker approval process stipulated by the European Commission in August 2020, said the company.
The operations divested to Mastercard constitute most of the Corporate Services division, which comprises clearing and instant payment services and e-billing solutions, including Betalingsservice in Denmark and AvtaleGiro/eFaktura in Norway.
Nets Group CEO Bo Nilsson 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 & eSecurity Services, and to increase our exposure to high-growth regions and faster-growing business segments, such as eCommerce.”
The Denmark-based payment services provider intends to use the proceeds from the transaction to primarily deliver and support the group’s balance sheet.
The company has sold its account-to-account business in August 2019, which facilitated the firm to increase focus and investment in the remaining two business units of Merchant Services and Issuer & eSecurity Services.
With the transaction, Nets increased its exposure to high-growth regions and faster-growing business segments, as part of its longer-term business repositioning.
Nets has closed seven major transactions since 2018, to support the continuing shift towards digital payments and advance its growth in the DACH, Poland and Nordics region.
Nilsson added: “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.”