Worldline Set to Buy Banco Desio’s Merchant-Acquiring Activities

The French multinational payment firm Worldline announced on Monday (Nov. 7) that it will purchase Banco Desio’s merchant-acquiring activities for 100 million euros ($100.3 million).

The deal is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2023.

Worldline said that once the acquisition is complete, it intends to establish a commercial partnership that will distribute Worldline’s products and services to Banco Desio’s clients in Italy.

Worldline has cemented its presence in the European payments market for both point-of-sale and online transactions through recent acquisitions. These include its takeover of the French merchant services technology company Ingenico, a 40% stake in the Dutch company Online Payment Platform, and a 55% stake in the Polish FinTech SoftPos.

Read on: Worldline Acquires SoftPos to Tap Into Contactless Payment Demand

Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s CEO, said the deal was part of the firm’s ambition to expand more into Southern Europe.

“This operation is fully in line with our strategy to further expand our Merchant Services activities towards the South of Europe and in particular in Italy, a highly attractive and strategic market for Worldline, where we intend to continue leveraging our footprint built last year through the acquisition of Axepta Italy early 2022 and the set up of the Worldline MS Italy joint venture,” Grapinet said in the press release.

Banco Desio Group operates more than 230 branches that Worldline will be able to leverage once it takes charge of the merchant-acquiring business.

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