Hellman & Friedman to acquire Nets in DKK 33.1bn deal

Nicole Tovstiga
25 September 2017

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Hellman & Friedman is planning to delist payments service Nets from Nasdaq Copenhagen.

The offer would be priced at DKK 165 per share, with the entire issued capital of the company valued at DKK 33.1bn.

Nets was listed in September 2016, and Hellman & Friedman plans to develop it as a private company.

In September 2016, Advent International and Bain Capital Private Equity listed Nets in one of the largest Nordic private-equity-backed IPOs since 2010, according to unquote" data. The buyout consortium listed the company just two years after the two GPs acquired Nets from a group of Danish and Norwegian banks for DKK 17bn.

Shareholders representing an aggregate 46% of the share capital of Nets have agreed to accept the offer, including Toscana Holding, the Advent and Bain consortium, which owns a 39.9% shareholding in the company, as well as members of the board of directors and executive committee of Nets.

In a statement, Hellman & Friedman said that changing consumer behaviour, new technologies and accelerated consolidation with competitors were driving changes in the payment service industry. Taking Nets private would better position the company to react to changes, it said.

The acquisition will be financed by a combination of committed equity provided by Hellman & Friedman, and debt financing provided by a group of international and local banks.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Nets is a provider of payment and digital identity services.

The company's history goes back to 1968, when a group of Danish banks founded PBS as a payment systems company. Nets in its current form was founded in 2009 through the merger of PBS and Norway's Nordito.

Nets generated DKK 3.8bn of revenue in H1 2017 with an EBITDA of DKK 1.3bn. It employs a staff of 2,400.