Croatia: Schoenherr advises NEXI on signing agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo regarding merchant acquiring business in Croatia

Schoenherr assisted NEXI with the due diligence, extensive business operational structuring and preparation and review of transactional documentation.

"We are proud to have supported NEXI in this cross-border transaction which required extensive regulatory expertise" said partner Vladimír Čížek. "Our transaction team was able to build on its extensive merchant acquiring business expertise."

Founded in 1939, NEXI is a payment services provider offering merchant acquiring, card issuing and digital banking services across Europe. NEXI's services cover the entire payment chain, excluding the card scheme. It offers its acquiring and issuing services in partnerships with banks, providing point-of-sale terminals, processing or issuing services on their behalf, or directly to merchants.

ISP is the leading banking group in Italy in all business areas (retail, corporate and wealth management). The Group offers its services to 13.5m customers through a network of over 3,700 branches well distributed throughout the country with market shares no lower than 12 % in most Italian regions.

The Schoenherr team advising on the transaction was led by Vladimír Čížek (partner), Ivan Einwalter (local partner) and Christoph Haid (partner), and it also consisted of Ana Mihaljević (attorney at law), Dina Vlahov Buhin (attorney at law) and Alan Vučkovečki (associate).

The lead counsel to NEXI was Legance.

PwC Legal / KPMG Legal acted as legal counsels to ISP.