The Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI) has announced the signing of a binding contract to purchase 42.3% of SIA, a financial technology and infrastructure provider.
The state-backed fund made public its decision to pay approximately 204m ($277m) for the stake, adding to 77m spent in debt financing.
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Processing approximately 30bn payment and capital markets transactions annually, SIA manages almost 70m payment cards.
It also manages the Rete Nazionale Interbancaria (RNI), the Italian interbank network, as well EBA Clearing’s STEP2 platform for SEPA payments clearing, and supplies its real-time payments platform to 15 central banks across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Commenting on the news, Massimo Arrighetti, chief executive officer of SIA, said: "From today, SIA enters a new phase which, in taking forward what has been accomplished up to now, opens up fresh opportunities for growth at domestic and international level."
According to the deal, Italian infrastructures fund F2i and Orrizzonte SGR, a private equity fund, will also respectively purchase 10.3% and 6.7% of SIA, in partnership with FSI.
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By GlobalDataOverall, the consortium will acquire 59.3% of SIA from Italian banks Intesa San Paolo, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Unicredit and the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL).
"This new shareholding structure will place us at the forefront of the transformation taking place in the European payments industry, driven by SEPA and growing competition," added Arrighetti.
As a result of the acquisition, MPS and BNL will exit SIA’s capital, while Banca Intesa and Unicredit are set to stay on as shareholders, retaining an 8% total interest.
SIA’s total equity transaction value totals 765m, almost 8 times the company’s expected normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in 2013.
Looking to SIA’s development plan for the future, Arrighetti said: "On the domestic front, we will continue in our commitment to developing electronic money and realizing the Digital Agenda with our infrastructure and our capabilities."
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