The stock of Nexi stands out on the Ftse Mib, earning 5% at the opening of the session, only to then slow down a bit after 10, but always in the 16 euro per share area. The reason is easily explained: investors are really liking the prospect of the merger with the electronic payment company Sia (Bloomberg claims it) and also the plan announced by the Government to encourage the use of credit cards and discourage the use of cash . In particular, there is talk of a bonus of 300 euros a year for expenses of 3 euros without cash. The benefits would be extended to all types of expenditure and the only ones excluded, for obvious reasons, should be those online. According to Bank of Italy estimates, government measures could lead to a 10% increase in electronic transactions, with positive effects also on consumption.
According to an analyst, “the measures are positive for Nexi. After the results of the second quarter (with revenues down, but only by 6%, ed) it emerged that volumes on Italian cards for most spending categories have returned to pre-Covid growth levels". Furthermore, “it is possible that the pandemic has helped accelerate the adoption of alternative payments to cash. We recall that the organic growth estimated by the group, in a pre-Covid context, was 5-7%, which could be favored by new government initiatives". The other key element are the rumors concerning Sia: according to Bloomberg, Nexi is finalizing a new agreement on the id processing contract with Unicredit which, according to Equita, is Sia's main customer with a weight on turnover of more than 20%.
In 2016 Sia had acquired for 500 million euro the processing of approximately 13,5 million payment cards and the management of 206 POS terminals and 12 ATMs in Italy, Germany and Austria from Unicredit (the acquired company, P4Cards, had reported revenues of 2017 million and an operating margin of 135 million euros in 39), signing a 10-year outsourcing contract whose conditions, according to rumours, could be revised after 5 years therefore in 2021. "The possible signing of a new contract with a time extension would eliminate one of the obstacles to the merger with Nexi - they write from Equita - and the operation could therefore be finalized in the coming weeks".
