Cedacri, the company active in outsourcing IT services for banks, controlled by a group of small and medium-sized Italian credit institutions and the FSI Mid-Market Growth Equity Fund, won the auction to acquire the entire capital of Oasi spa, the subsidiary of Nexi (formerly ICBPI) active in the development of solutions for banking compliance. Oasi has been valued 151 million euros or about 10x the ebitda of 2017, which had been 15 million euro, but the final evaluation will have to take into account any adjustments resulting also from the company’s net financial position (see the press release here).
Cedacri then won Cerved‘s bid, with which he had been running head to head for a few months. The evaluation of Oasi turned out to be a little lower than market expectations, which initially indicated a range of 130-150 million euros and then one of 160-170 millions (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The closing of the deal is expected by next February. Cedacri will finance the operation using a pool loan organized by a consortium of 14 financial institutions, shareholders and non-shareholders. Alfredo Pallini, ceo of Oasi, will remain managing the company even after the acquisition.
Cedacri was supported by Equita as financial advisor and by the Mazzoni Regoli firm as legal advisor. Nexi was supported by UBS and Mediobanca as financial advisors and by the Dentons firm as legal advisor.
The deal for the Nexi group, controlled by the private equity funds Advent International, Bain Capital and Clessidra sgr, is part of the ongoing corporate reorganization plan. Last February 2018 Nexi announced that the group would be divided into two: on the one hand, within the parent company Nexi spa, the services of securities services that require a bank license (custodian bank) and, on the other, in Mercury Payment Services (formerly Setefi Payment Services), payment activities and group subsidiaries focused on payments. The transaction, in addition to enhancing the two Nexi businesses that have different characteristics, should accelerate the process of listing the payment division on the Stock Exchange, scheduled for 2019-2020 (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
