Nexi eyeing BPER Banca's merchant acquiring unit – Bloomberg

Nexi SpA is in exclusive negotiations to buy the merchant acquiring business of Italian lender BPER Banca SpA for some €350 million, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 21.

The Milan-based payments group started exclusive talks earlier in February for the unit, which specializes in electronic payments management, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. A deal could be signed by the end of March, according to the report.

"[We] see this potential deal [as] favorable to Nexi," said analysts at UBS Global Research in a Feb. 22 note. Assuming similar valuations to Nexi's previous acquisitions of Italian merchant books, acquiring the BPER Banca business could increase revenue by roughly €42 million, according to UBS.

Nexi, led by CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo, has been rapidly expanding through M&A in recent years. In October 2020, it agreed to merge with local rival SIA S.p.A. to create a combined group with a market value of more than €15 billion. It has also snapped up Denmark-based competitor Nets A/S in a €7.8 billion deal.