Santander to pay €100m for Wirecard’s core European business
Santander is set to acquire Wirecard’s core European business for €100 million, the Financial Times reports.
It marks the final deal in what has been an ongoing fire sale of the disgraced German payments fintech, which slipped into insolvency in June.
The deal means the bank can expand its payments solution across Europe, says Santander’s CEO, Ana Botín
Wirecard administrator Michael Jaffé announced the news alongside the bank on Monday.
Whilst neither party have confirmed the €100 million price tag, FT sources suggests the deal sits around this value. FinTech Futures sources close to the matter have since also confirmed that this figure is correct.
Bloomberg sources say this figure is the minimum price tag insolvency lawyer Jaffé placed on Wirecard’s European business.
Lycamobile, the British mobile virtual network operator present in 22 other European countries, was also one of the final bidders.
What does Santander get?
Wirecard’s European electronic payments platform and its remaining credit card issuing business will transfer to Santander.
The deal means the bank can expand its payments solution across Europe, and increase product development capacity, says Santander’s chief executive, Ana Botín.
The Spanish lender will also house some 500 of Wirecard’s Europe-based employees. They will work under Santander’s payments technology company Getnet. The bank will keep Wirecard’s Munich-based sites too.
In August, Wirecard AG terminated 730 of its employees, along with remaining board members. It left some 570 employees in Europe.
But the deal “does not include Wirecard companies”. Nor does it see Santander “assume any legal liability relating to Wirecard AG and Wirecard Bank or its past actions,” the bank says in a statement.
Wirecard Bank will wind down following the completion of Wirecard’s final sale. Expected to close by year-end, the deal is still subject to regulatory approval.
Wirecard’s fire sale timeline
Since its collapse, Wirecard has seen its subsidiaries either bought off, liquidated, or put through administration pending a sale.
US-based holding company, Syncapay, bought Wirecard’s North America business last month.
Whilst the value of this sale is unknown, FT sources say Wirecard put the market value of its North American business at €824 million. It had hoped to receive around half of that sum in a fire sale.
Paynetics, a Bulgarian end-to-end payment service provider, acquired the corporate pay-out card portfolio of Wirecard UK and Ireland earlier this month. Three years ago, Wirecard bought these customers from Citi for an undisclosed sum.
Change Financial, a US fintech listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), is in the midst of raising capital to acquire Wirecard’s Australia and New Zealand business.
The payments and card issuing firm has signed a binding agreement to acquire all the assets of the business for AUD 7.8 million ($5.7 million).
Wirecard’s UK subsidiary – Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS) – sold to PayrNet, a subsidiary of London-based Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider Railsbank.
PagSeguro Internet – a wholly-owned and fully-controlled subsidiary of PagSeguro Digital – signed a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Wirecard Brazil SA.
Read next: US holding firm Syncapay buys Wirecard’s North America business
