Mercury UK Holdco, the majority shareholder of Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI), has acquired Setefi Processing and Intesa Sanpaolo Card (ISP Card), together known as ISP Processing, from Intesa Sanpaolo for an equity value of EUR1,035 million.
Mercury UK Holdco is owned by a consortium of funds managed by Advent International, Bain Capital Private Equity and Clessidra.
Setefi Processing, based in Milan, is the Italian payment processing platform of Intesa Sanpaolo, one of Europe’s leading banking groups and Italy’s number one commercial bank.
ISP Card is the payment processing platform of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Central and Eastern European business and operates in nine countries including Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania. Together, these platforms support a comprehensive portfolio of products including a broad range of payment card types for Intesa Sanpaolo’s end customers.
Luca Bassi, managing director, Bain Capital Private Equity, says: “We remain excited about this transaction and the growth of the payments industry in which we have deep Italian and global expertise. We have consistently partnered with leading banks to maximise the potential of their payments assets and look forward to doing so with Intesa Sanpaolo.”
Francesco Casiraghi, director, Advent International, adds: “We are delighted to have completed our acquisition of ISP Processing. We look forward to partnering with Intesa Sanpaolo and the management team to drive long-term growth in the business through investing further in technological innovation and broadening the company’s service offering for its customers. With our financial support and strong track record in payments processing, we believe that ISP Processing is now well placed to pursue and achieve its ambitious growth strategy.”
Simone Cucchetti, managing director of Clessidra, says: “We believe this will be a mutually successful transaction and look forward to partnering with Italy’s leading bank. This is further evidence of our track record in building innovative partnerships with banks in the payment industry.”
