Nexi and Alpha Bank today confirmed that they have joined forces to transform merchant solutions in Greece and pave the way for a new era of digital payments in the country. The two Groups announced the creation of a new company, Nexi Payments Greece, which will provide innovative merchant solutions and payment acceptance products and services to the Greek market.

The announcement was made during a Press Conference earlier today in the presence of Minister of State Akis Skertsos, and Her Excellency the Ambassador of Italy, Patrizia Falcinelli. The launch of the new company was hosted by the CEO of Nexi Group Paolo Bertoluzzo, the Alpha Bank Group CEO Vassilios Psaltis and the Nexi Payments Greece CEO Dionysis Grigoratos. 

Enhancing the digitalization of businesses in Greece

The integrated solutions offered by the joint venture between Nexi and Alpha Bank, will allow merchants, citizens and public sector organizations to benefit from innovative and state-of-the-art services that will encourage the uptake of digital payment services in Greece.

Digital payments acceptance will be drastically upgraded to become faster, easier and more secure for merchants and businesses, through the provision of ready-to-use tools that will allow them to develop and manage their customers’ payments more easily. At the same time, end consumers will enjoy a new, simplified and cashless shopping experience.

Promoting a cashless payments culture

Nexi Payments Greece aspires to bring Greece a step closer to digital transformation and a cashless payments culture, by boosting payments digitalization, simplifying transactions and empowering merchants and consumers for a new era of payments.

At the Press Event, Akis Skertsos, Minister of State, said: "Today, we welcome the partnership of two 'national champions', two leading groups in their sectors and countries, which aims to contribute to the digital transformation of the Greek economy. The digital transformation of the State and the economy is a national priority, with the main objective of making Greek society fairer and the Greek democracy stronger. By adopting digital technologies, transactions of citizens and businesses become easier, thus increasing their trust to the State and Institutions. At the same time, digitization enhances the reforms in our tax administration to reduce tax evasion (e.g. universal connection of modern cash registers with the State, to reduce the gap in VAT collection), creating a virtuous circle, where increased tax revenues lead to further reduction of tax rates and thus enhancing our country's investment prospects.

The steps taken in recent years towards digitization are complemented by the efforts of the private sector, such as in the cases of Alpha Bank and Nexi, which is another important foreign investor to give a vote of confidence in the Greek economy".

Paolo Bertoluzzo, CEO of Nexi Group said: “Today we are proud to announce the launch of a strategic partnership with Alpha Bank in Greece, resulting in the joint creation of Nexi Payments Greece, which will allow us to accelerate the process of modernization and digitalization of payments in the country. Together we will be providing citizens, merchants and public administration with an offer of innovative and technologically advanced solutions and services with the aim of making digital payments a daily experience that benefits the whole system. The partnership is a further demonstration of our commitment to Greece, where we already have more than a thousand people and where we have recently created in Athens a centre of excellence for the development of the issuing technology platform that will serve the entire Nexi Group. Over the next 5 years, we will be investing more than €100 million in Greece and we plan to hire 100 talented people to work on the new generation of open platforms. This partnership with Alpha Bank, in line with our selective investment strategy in markets with high-growth potential such as Greece, for Nexi Group represents a further step in our path of creating value in a highly competitive and rapidly consolidating market”.

Vassilios Psaltis, Alpha Bank Group CEO stated: "Alpha Bank's partnership with Nexi in the area of payments should be viewed in the context of our strategy to form alliances with global partners so as to provide top quality solutions to our Customers. We are excited with the level of engagement with our partners, and we are confident that our endeavor will transform the experience of digital payments in Greece, where our customers are rapidly embracing cashless payments”.

Dionysis Grigoratos, CEO of Nexi Payments Greece commented: “Today marks an important milestone, as both Alpha Bank and Nexi are entering into a new era of cooperation and strategic partnership. We are confident that through Nexi Payments Greece, we will be able to accelerate the transition into a cashless society. Today is also an important day because we announce the commencement of our actions that will turn our vision to reality. In the next days, in selected Alpha Bank stores initially and across the country soon after, two new innovative market solutions are being made available to merchants: the Nexi SoftPOS, for small and larger merchants, allowing them to turn their smartphone into a POS terminal that accepts all contactless payment methods, and the Smart POS Terminals, for larger merchants, enabling them to better manage their accounts, through new functionalities. In our first day, we are already providing solutions that are game-changers, and we are confident of the role we have to play in the revolution of the digital payments space in Greece”.

Nexi Payments Greece: an overview of the transaction and the new company

The closing of the transaction between Nexi and Alpha Bank that marked the initiation of Nexi Payments Greece was completed on June 30, 2022. Alpha Bank has carved out its merchant acquiring business unit, by way of a spin-off, to a new entity that received a payment institution license.

Nexi holds a 51% stake in the new entity, while, through the execution of a long-term marketing and distribution agreement by the parties, Alpha Bank remains committed to the payments sector and will be the exclusive distributor for products and services in the Greek market through its widespread Branch Network across Greece.

Nexi will consolidate the new company, which is expected to contribute over 196,000 POS terminals and Euro 12 billion in volumes. Nexi Payments Greece is expected to generate approximately Euro 94 million of revenues in 2022, on a pro-forma basis and pre-synergies. Nexi will finance the Transaction entirely through existing cash resources.

Following the finalization of this milestone transaction, Alpha Bank concludes its capital strengthening actions announced in its “Project Tomorrow” business plan, which will fully offset the impact from the NPE transactions that will mature in Q2, thus facilitating the achievement of its strategic target of reaching a single-digit NPE ratio in the first half of 2022.

With the completion of the Transaction, which is consistent with its strategic vision, Nexi establishes a market-leading position in the fast-growing Greek payments market, further expanding its merchant acquiring operations, while increasing revenue diversification across highly attractive and underpenetrated European countries. The new company will also be well-positioned to capture further organic and inorganic growth opportunities in the country.