Strategic alliance between Nets and Przelewy24, with GESSEL advising

GESSEL is proud to have contributed legal expertise to what is one of the more important recent transactions in the payments processing sector: establishment of a strategic alliance between Nets, leading supplier of payment services in the Nordic countries and in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the operator of Przelewy24, market leader in Poland. The resulting entity, P24 DotCard, will be one of Poland’s largest suppliers of payment services, comprising the Przelewy24, Dotpay and eCard platform; a 51% stake in P24 DotCard is held by Nets, and the remainder – by the current shareholders of the Przelewy24 operator. The project has received clearance from the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection as well as from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

GESSEL’s role included comprehensive advice on the transaction, including its antitrust, regulatory and tax aspects for the operator of Przelewy24.

The GESSEL team, led by Marcin Macieszczak, managing partner and by Małgorzata Badowska, partner, included Michał Bochowicz, managing associate (exercising day-to-day supervision), Bernadeta Kasztelan-Świetlik, partner (advising on antitrust issues), Leszek Koziorowski, partner (regulatory issues), and Janusz Fiszer, partner and Inarda Bielińska, of counsel (tax) as well as Tomasz Drągowski, attorney; Michał Osowski, trainee attorney; Karolina Krzal, advocate; Michał Szutenbach, advocate; Weronika Zdeb, advocate; Bartłomiej Pitera, trainee attorney; Katarzyna Matyszewska, trainee attorney; and Barbara Tomczyk, trainee advocate.

Przelewy24.pl is the operator serves over 85,000 merchants, including some of the major e-commerce platforms in Poland and in the world. Przelewy24 generates revenues in excess of EUR 20 million and employs 100 persons.

Nets is a Copenhagen-based company active for more than 50 years, during which it has become one of the largest players in the European payments market. It provides services to banks, merchants and large businesses; Nets employs 2,500 staff. Nets is owned by the private equity fund Hellman & Friedman, which acquired it in a USD 5.3 billion transaction in 2018.