If an IPO does indeed materialize, it would come two years after the Nordic firm was taken private from a number of Nordic banks, with a $2.5 billion bid. And, last year, the payments firm bought Nordea Merchant Acquiring for about $256 million.
Among the holders: Bain Capital, Advent International and pension fund ATP. They are reportedly working with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to explore a move to an IPO, and in terms of valuation, the range could be $3.5 billion to $4 billion, said Bloomberg, quoting the sources.
The firm would be the latest in a series of payments processing outfits that would be leaving private markets, or even outright sales, for public ones. Among notable transactions: Vista Equity Partners sold Transfirst for $2.4 billion to Total Systems. Separately, Worldpay went public late last year.
For Nets, a public debut would come with some growth, at least as some admittedly outdated figures show. The firm had 6 percent growth in revenues in 2014 year over year, and as Bloomberg said, the firm processes 1 billion transactions on an annual basis.
In the Nordic region, as Bloomberg reported, companies have raised $8 billion in IPOs going back through 2015, with headlines revolving around private equity entities bringing issuers to market, such as Dometic Group AB and Europris ASA, a discount retailer.
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