Monte dei Paschi bank reached a binding agreement with Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane spa (Icbpi), a leading player in the management of national and international payment services, for the sale of its merchant acquiring business to Icbpi on the basis of an enterprise value of  520 million euros (see here the press release),after the merchant acquiring processed a total transaction volume of 17 billion euro, of which 60% in points-of-sale run by large retailers and the remaining 40% with SMEs or Small Businesses.
For Icbpi, which is controlled by funds managed by private equity operators Advent International, Bain Capital and Clessidra sgr, this is the third deal since the funds entered Icbpi’s capital in 2015 (see here a previous post by BeBeez), after the acquisition of Bassilichi, a business process outsourcing leader and a major partner for banks, corporates and public entities in Italy (see here a previous post by BeBeez); and the acquisition of Setefi, a payment services company previously owned by Intesa Sanpaolo (see here a previous post by BeBeez).  Moreover last September Icbpi was said to be studying the dossier relating to Deutsche Bank’s credit card issuing and payment services management in Italy (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The transaction, in line with the guidelines of the 2016-2019 Business Plan which was presented to the market on 25 October 2016, also provides for Mps and Icbpi, through its subsidiary CartaSì spa, to enter into a ten-year partnership for the development and placement through Mps Group’s distribution network of products and payment services for current and prospective Mps Group customers.
Closing of the transaction is conditional upon the fulfilment of certain standard conditions precedent for transactions of this kind, including the fulfilment of mandatory union legal and contractual procedures and obtaining authorisations from the Bank of Italy and antitrust authorities.
BonelliErede law firm supported Icbpi while Mps was supported by Lazard and Kpmg as for financial issues and by Gatti Pavesi Bianchi as for legal issues.
Icbpi reached 679.9 million euros in revenues in 2015 and 200,2 million euros in ebitda (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
