Clairfield advises Nets Group on the acquisition of Polskie ePłatności (PeP)

Nets Group is a market leader in the European payments industry. The Group offers card payment, invoice handling, credit transfer transactions and merchant services.

The Polish ePłatności company specializes in processing non-cash payments and providing innovative services for business, providing support for payment transactions made with payment cards and other services using POS terminals.

The wide range of services offered by Polish ePayments includes, settlement of card transactions, cashback, DCC – payment in the currency of the card, prepaid mobile phone top-ups, and support for advanced loyalty programs.

With the acquisition of PeP, Nets further strengthens its position in Poland – one of the most attractive geographies in Europe given the low card penetration and double-digit growth in card usage, driven by conversion from cash to card payments. This development is further supported by state initiatives promoting in-store electronic payment solutions.

Clairfield International, together with UBS, acted as financial advisors to Nets Group. This transaction is the fifth fintech/e-payments deal closed by Clairfield in Poland.

This is Nets’ third successful transaction in Poland advised by Clairfield over the last two years. Clairfield’s industry expertise was instrumental in assessing the target’s business plan and finding possible synergies. The understanding of sector dynamics and the local M&A market also contributed to the determination of the seller’s priorities and identification of genuine competitors in the process.

“This acquisition follows our recent acquisition of Dotpay/eCard and the strategic alliance with Przelewy24, who both are particularly strong within e-commerce. With PeP being strong in the SME segment on card acceptance and point-of-sales terminals, this deal has a convincing strategic fit, completing our offering to merchants in Poland.” — Bo Nilsson, CEO of Nets Group