Payment processor Worldline is to buy an 80% stake in Eurobank Merchant Acquiring, one of the main acquirers in Greece with a 20% market share.
Eurobank Merchant Acquiring manages 219 million transactions acquired per year representing a payment volume of €7 billion from a 190,000 POS network and a portfolio of 123,000 merchants.
The €256 million deal comes six month after the vendor sealed the acquisition of 92.5% of the share capital of Cardlink, a Network Services Provider for both Eurobank and Alpha Bank. Eurobank will add additional revenue of €35 million at closing with expected double-digit organic growth over the next four years
Gilles Grapinet, CEO of Worldline, says: "The combination of both companies will create a meaningful, comprehensive and leading position in the fast-growing Greek market that is driven by a steady ongoing adoption of electronic payments. This transaction offers attractive development opportunities for Worldline in the coming years, building on our direct access to an existing merchants portfolio with a full suite of end-to-end payment solutions.
Worldline is a relative latecomer to the Greek market noting Euronet (Piraeus), EVO Payments (National Bank) and Nexi (Alphabank) have all engaged in acquisitions of books in Greece that are larger than Eurobank's.