American private equity firm makes $5.3bn offer for Nets
Hellman & Friedman makes a move
In response to media speculation, Nordic payments processor Nets has confirmed that it has received a DKK 33.1 billion ($5.3 billion) takeover offer.
Evergood 5, a newly formed firm controlled by funds managed and advised by American private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, has made a recommended voluntary takeover offer to acquire Nets – offering DKK 165 ($26.4) for each share in cash, valuing the entire issued capital of the company at $5.3 billion.
The board of directors of Nets recommends that shareholders accept the offer, when made. Shareholders representing in total 46% of the share capital of Nets have agreed to accept the offer, including AB Toscana (Luxembourg) Investment, in respect of its 39.9% shareholding in Nets, as well as members of the board of directors and executive committee of Nets.
Stefan Götz, MD of Hellman & Friedman, says: “Our flexible and long-term capital, growth focus and sector expertise are assets that we believe will help Nets remain competitive in this increasingly challenging and consolidating environment.”
Upon completion of the offer, Evergood 5 intends to delist Nets from Nasdaq Copenhagen. It will aim to further develop Nets as a private company. This offer from Evergood 5 is almost a year to the day that Nets successfully IPO-ed on Nasdaq Copenhagen Exchange to the tune of DKK 30 billion ($4.5 billion).
The deal is subject to authorisation by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, MHS Corporate Finance and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are acting as joint financial advisors to the offeror.
Nets gets
Earlier this month, a couple of handy deals for Nets were reported on.
Bankart and Nets will provide the Slovenian banking sector with a new payments central infrastructure to handle both SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) non-urgent and SCT instant credit transfers.
Nets also entered into a three-year partnership with Vipps, a mobile payment application provider in Norway, to deliver instant P2P payments to customers of all Norwegian banks partnered with Vipps.
