Mastercard Advances Its Leadership Position as a Multi-Rail Payments Company with the Acquisition of Nets’ Account-to-Account Payment Business

• Advances Mastercard’s strategy to capitalize on the vast and fast-growing global Real-Time Payments opportunity
• Helps meet application, service and payment needs of governments, consumers, and businesses across card and account-to-account payments
• Further strengthens Mastercard’s existing capabilities with its proven Real-Time and Bill Pay technology and talent

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the majority of the Corporate Services businesses of Nets, a leading European PayTech company, for €2.85 billion (approximately US $3.19 billion).

The acquisition comprises the clearing and instant payment services, and e-billing solutions of Nets’ Corporate Services business. The addition of Nets’ technology and teams strengthens Mastercard’s existing account-to-account (A2A) capabilities. Post-acquisition, the company’s best-in-class real-time payment assets will provide unrivaled capabilities across three principal areas:

• Infrastructure – complements Mastercard’s existing technologies, catering to a more expansive customer base, leveraging its sophisticated, highly scalable, flexible and easy-to-deploy assets

• Applications for end-user solutions – such as bill payment and open banking solutions, now delivered with greater speed and scale

• Value-added services – like data analytics and fraud protection

"The global opportunity for real-time payments is accelerating," said Michael Miebach, chief product & innovation officer, Mastercard. "This deal strengthens our unique position as the one-stop partner for any bank, merchant or government’s payment needs. The combination with existing Mastercard assets such as Vocalink, Transfast and Transactis delivers real-time payment capabilities, innovation and expertise that are truly differentiated."

In recent years, Mastercard has developed and acquired a formidable set of capabilities to address the sizable B2B, P2M and P2P opportunities. When combined with the existing card rails, Mastercard provides its customers a unique and powerful offering, to support business, government and consumer payment needs across a variety of payment flows. Economies benefit through an increased velocity of money, while banks can offer businesses and consumers new, safe, simple and secure apps and services.

"We are a multi-rail company – this deal further demonstrates the strength of our strategy, staying ahead of the changing landscape, delivering essential choice to banks, businesses and consumers," added Miebach.

The acquisition of the majority of Nets’ Corporate Services business provides even more depth and scale to the Mastercard Send and Transfast technologies that deliver cross-border payments to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cards. Mastercard’s A2A capabilities and expertise now extend into continental Europe to match its capabilities in the U.K, Americas, Asia, Middle East and Africa. The deal also complements the unique technical assets and partners recently added to Mastercard’s bill payment capabilities through the acquisition of Transactis.

Real-time payments provide a smarter and faster alternative to traditional ACH, cash and checks. They help banks improve the efficiency of their operations, providing a better user experience and customer service, while helping to reduce the cost of exception handling. The acquisition of the Nets services is another purposeful step in Mastercard’s strategy, building on the recent partnership with P27 to deliver real-time and batch payments to Nordic markets.

Nets’ Corporate Services business operates both managed services and software license models in several European markets. It also has an established and highly successful bill pay service in Norway and Denmark, building on its regional innovation heritage, and a new Open Banking solution for banks, fintechs and third-party processors. The acquisition by Mastercard will support and strengthen the business and bring an increased focus on innovation to customers in the Nordic region.

"Over the past five years, Nets has built a strong account-to-account payments platform with a global growth opportunity. However, to fully unlock its international growth potential beyond Nets’ existing geographical footprint requires the capabilities and resources of an established global leader," said Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets. "With its resources and global reach, Mastercard is uniquely positioned to unlock the potential of Nets’ account-to-account business," added Nilsson.

The transaction, which is anticipated to close in the first half of 2020, is subject to regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. Mastercard expects the transaction to be dilutive for up to 24 months after the deal closes, primarily related to purchase accounting and integration related costs.

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About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.


About the Nets Group

At Nets, we see easier payment solutions as the foundation for growth and progress – both in commerce and society. The Nets Group, which employs 3,500 people, helps hundreds of financial institutions, and hundreds of thousands of businesses and merchants in Europe make tomorrow a little easier for their customers while delivering unrivalled security and stability. Powering a tomorrow that's easier than today. This is what drives us.


Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "believe," "expect," "could," "may," "would," "will," "trend" and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to Mastercard’s future prospects, developments and business strategies, as well as Mastercard’s acquisition and operation of this portion of Nets’ corporate services business. We caution you to not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date they are made. Except for the company’s ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, the company does not intend to update or otherwise revise the forward-looking information to reflect actual results of operations, changes in financial condition, changes in estimates, expectations or assumptions, changes in general economic or industry conditions or other circumstances arising and/or existing since the preparation of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events.

Many factors and uncertainties relating to the proposed transaction, our operations and our business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, influence whether any forward-looking statements can or will be achieved. Any one of these factors could cause our actual results or the impact of the acquisition to differ materially from those expressed or implied in writing in any forward-looking statements made by Mastercard or on its behalf. Such factors related to the completion and impact of the acquisition include, but are not limited to, whether all necessary conditions will be met, and whether the transaction will close on agreed terms and in a timely manner.

For additional information on other factors related to Mastercard’s overall business that could cause Mastercard’s actual results to differ materially from expected results, please see the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and any subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K.


Contacts:

Investor Relations: Gina Accordino, investor.relations@mastercard.com, 914-249-4565
Mastercard Communications: Will O’Connor, will.oconnor@mastercard.com, 914-325-4025
Nets Communications: Søren Winge, swing@nets.eu, +45 29 48 26 46