Paytech heavyweights Nets and Concardis to merge
Nets and Concardis to merge
Paytech firms Nets and Concardis Payment Group will merge, but retain their own brands.
The transaction is a merger structured as a share exchange, which will see Concardis shareholders contribute their shares in return for Nets shares.
The merger will create a business with approximately €500 million of EBITDA and €1.3 billion of net revenue.
Bo Nilsson, CEO of Nets, will lead the combined group as CEO. His counterpart at Concardis, Robert Hoffmann, will continue as Concardis CEO, reporting directly to Nilsson.
The headquarters of the group will be located in Ballerup, Denmark. As mentioned above, Nets and Concardis will retain their respective brands.
“Over the last couple of years, both companies have been actively driving consolidation in their home countries through strategic acquisitions, especially within the high-growth area of merchant services,” the two firms explain.
Denmark-based Nets and Germany-based have broad portfolios of payments services including offline, online, mobile, recurring payments and real-time services.
“We want to shape the ongoing consolidation in the European payments industry and further drive our pan-European expansion,” explains Nilsson.
“Germany offers attractive growth potential due to market size, consumer spending and the fact that around 75% of all payment transactions are still cash-based.
“This merger with Concardis Group enables us to increase our exposure to the German-speaking part of Europe which, in addition to being a high-growth area, is an ideal springboard for the rest of Europe.”
The newly formed group is backed by PE firms Hellman & Friedman, Advent International, and Bain Capital.
The merger is subject to approval by the respective authorities. Closing is expected to be in Q4 2018.
