Italian bank BPER has entered exclusive negotiations with local payments processor Nexi for the sale of its merchant payments business.
BPER says it has received a non-binding offer for the business from Nexi as part of a competitive bidding process. The bank says it has granted Nexi - a player with which the bank already has commercial agreements in place - a 60-day period of exclusive negotiations to conclude a deal.
According to analysts, the acquisition could fetch a price of €350 million and add €35 million in profits to Nexi's bottom line.
Nexi has bought the merchant acquiring business of a number of its banking partners in recent years, under terms which have kept existing commercial contracts in place to ensure future income stability.
Last year Nexi entered the Greek market by buying a 51% stake in Alpha Bank's merchant acquiring business and in 2019 struck a €1 billion deal with Intesa SanPaolo.