Italy’s state investor CDP Equity said on Monday it plans to raise its stake in Europe’s biggest payments group Nexi to as much as 29.9%, shoring it up against takeover interest and volatile shareholder pressure.
The move advances CDP Equity’s efforts to anchor Nexi’s shareholder base as it faces a depressed share price, a recent CEO departure following a poorly received new strategy, and pressure from investment funds looking to take it private.
Nexi has repeatedly drawn private equity interest over the years, including earlier this month from CVC Capital Partners.
CDP Equity, which currently owns 19.14% of Nexi, ruled out launching a full takeover bid, which under Italian rules becomes mandatory when crossing the 30% threshold. At current prices, the investment is worth around €400 million.
CDP Equity will enter derivative contracts covering 8% of Nexi’s capital once it secures the necessary authorisations. It could buy more Nexi shares directly, it added.
Shares of Nexi, which processes €1.8 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) worth of digital transactions across 25 countries, have plunged from post-pandemic highs. That drop came as investors reassessed prospects for a sector where brisk technological shifts threaten the role of incumbents such as Nexi or France’s Worldline and their banking partners.
Nexi grew rapidly through acquisitions after its 2019 listing, but its prospects have long been weighed down by core shareholders — private equity funds with an inevitable need to exit their core stakes.
Original fund shareholders Bain and Advent exited in full this year. U.S. fund Hellman & Friedman, which invested in Nexi later and at higher prices, remains and faces losses in exiting.
CDP Equity is set to replace H&F, which owns 22% of Nexi, as the single biggest investor.
The state investor said its move would make Nexi’s shareholder base more stable.
“CDP Equity believes in a strong industrial and innovative evolution for Nexi,” it said, adding Nexi could play a leading role supporting Europe’s development of digital money.
CEO Fabio Barchiesi drove the move as part of a wider strategy to place CDP Equity, a key investor in Italy’s electricity and gas grid companies, at the heart of Italian infrastructure networks, a person familiar with the matter said.
