PayPal has struck a deal to offload up to €40 billion of its buy now, pay later loans in Europe to private equity firm KKR.
KKR will acquire substantially all the French, German, Italian, Spanish and UK BNPL loan portfolio held on PayPal's balance sheet as well as future loan originations. PayPal will remain responsible for all customer-facing activities.
The deal is set to close in the second quarter and will initially generate approximately $1.8 billion of proceeds for PayPal, to be used for increased capital return to shareholders and general corporate purposes.
PayPal’s shares rose nearly three per cent in morning trading.
Gabrielle Rabinovitch, acting CFO, PayPal, says: "Our collaboration with KKR will allow us to accelerate our PayPal Pay Later originations alongside market demand in Europe while preserving free cash flow for other strategic initiatives.