Mastercard has entered into an agreement to acquire the majority of the corporate services businesses of European PayTech firm Nets for €2.85 billion.

The acquisition comprises the clearing and instant payment services, as well as e-billing solutions of Nets’ corporate services division. The addition of Nets’ technology and teams should strengthen Mastercard’s existing account-to-account capabilities.

“The global opportunity for real-time payments is accelerating,” said Michael Miebach, chief product and innovation officer at Mastercard. “This deal strengthens our unique position as the one-stop partner for any bank, merchant or government’s payment needs.”

The deal is aimed at scaling-up the Mastercard Send and Transfast technologies that deliver cross-border payments to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cards. It complements the technical assets and partners recently added to Mastercard’s bill payment capabilities through the acquisition of Transactis.

The acquisition is also another 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 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.

Bo Nilsson, group chief executive of Nets, said that 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.”

The transaction, which is anticipated to close in the first half of 2020, is subject to regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions.

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