Nets – owner of Polskie ePłatności – concluded a binding merger agreement with Nexi – the Italian payment leader. After the merger, the company will be one of the leaders in its market and one of the largest entities in the industry.
“Being the number one element on the European market is a big deal”, said Jarosław Mikos, president of the management board of Polskie ePłatności. Mikos told us how it will affect the Polish company and what opportunities it creates for it.
The merger of Nets and Nexi is one of the biggest events on the European payments market. The latter company is listed on Borsa Italiana – the Italian stock exchange. As a result, the merged entity will also be listed there. According to estimates, after the merger, the group is to generate approximately EUR 2.9 billion in revenues and EUR 1.5 billion in EBITDA. Of which 6 percent. comes from Central and Eastern Europe, and approx. 3 percent. from Poland – including brands such as Przelewy24, Polskie ePłatności, dotpay and eCard.
The merger will take place in an all-stock format, under which Nets shareholders will acquire 407 million new Nexi shares, which will give them 39 percent. shares in the Italian company. The value of the group after the merger was valued at approx. EUR 7.8 billion, but according to the Nexi share price from November 2020 – then the company’s shares cost EUR 14.71, and now it is already EUR 17.48. The companies estimate that the cost synergies after the merger will amount to approx. EUR 170 million.
In this way, the largest company in this industry in Europe in terms of the number of serviced entrepreneurs and EBITDA will be created – says Jarosław Mikos, president of Polskie ePłatności, a Polish company belonging to Nets, which will become part of the new group.
As Mikos emphasizes, when PeP joined the Nets in October 2020, nothing was known about the merger. – In such processes, the best principle works: you drive more quietly, you will drive further. Nexi is a public company listed on the stock exchange in Italy, so discussions were held behind the scenes. It was a positive surprise for us when it became known a few weeks after our transaction that Nexi would in fact take over Nets. We are proud to be in the largest payment company in Europe – says Mikos.
According to Jarosław Mikos, the merger of both companies and the emergence of the European market leader is “a derivative of deep consolidation processes in the global market”. – We have been carrying out such consolidation on the Polish market, many companies are carrying it out on a global level. When consolidating two similar businesses, a very strong operating leverage is created, and there is a huge creation of value. There is no need to duplicate teams or build them from scratch. For us, it is also associated with a number of benefits, for example in terms of product research and development or business strength – points out the president of PeP.
Mikos does not expect, however, that the fact that PeP will become part of a group listed on the stock exchange in another country will have a significant impact on the company’s operations in Poland. – It’s neutral for a business like ours, although of course we have to be more sensitive to price-setting information – he emphasizes