MasterCard to buy most of payments company Nets for $3.19 billion

The acquisition comprises the clearing and instant payment services, and e-billing solutions of Nets’ Corporate Services business. 

MasterCard said the addition of Nets technology and teams will strengthen its existing account-to-account (A2A) capabilities and that the company’s real-time payment assets will provide unrivaled capabilities across three principal areas of infrastructure, applications for end-user solutions and value-added services.

Nets’ infrastructure complements MasterCard’s existing technologies and will help cater to a more expansive customer base, leveraging its sophisticated, highly scalable, flexible and easy-to-deploy assets, the company stated.

Applications for end-user solutions like bill payment and open banking solutions and also be delivered with greater speed and scale besides providing value-added services like data analytics and fraud protection.

“The global opportunity for real-time payments is accelerating,” said Michael Miebach, chief product and 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.”

MasterCard has, in recent years, developed and acquired fresh capabilities to address the sizable B2B, P2M and P2P opportunities. 

“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 will provide more depth and scale to MasterCard’s `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 UK, the 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.

The financial technology sector is consolidating fast, with global payments set to reach $3 trillion a year in revenue by 2023 as more people switch from cash to digital payments for online and high street sales, consulting firm McKinsey predicted.

The deal will be dilutive for up to 24 months after the deal’s closing, which is expected in the first half of 2020, MasterCard said.