Exclusive: Italian payments firm Nexi leads race for $10 bln Nets takeover – sources

The deal would transform Nexi, which has a market value of 8.4 billion euros ($9.93 billion), into a European payment powerhouse, allowing it to build a footprint in key regions such as the Nordics and Central and Eastern Europe.

U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which took control of Nets in 2017 and subsequently delisted it from the Copenhagen stock exchange, is working with Credit Suisse CSGN.S on the sale and wants to clinch a deal by the end of the year, two of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is confidential.

Nexi, Nets, Hellman & Friedman and Global Payments declined to comment.

Hellman & Friedman, led by boss Patrick Healy, started marketing the business during the summer, approaching U.S. firms Fiserv FISV.O and Global Payments as well as Nexi, among others, the sources said.

But earlier this week Global Payments decided to abandon the Nets deal. Around the same time, the company pulled the plug on a plan to sell its $2 billion Netspend prepaid debit card unit, as it no longer needed the proceeds to support its balance sheet, two of the sources said.

Exclusive: Italian payments firm Nexi leads race for $10 bln Nets takeover – sources