Italian fintec firm Società Interbancaria per l’Automazione (SIA) is merging its operations with card payments processor Società per i Servizi Bancari (SSB) in an all share deal.
The boards of both of the bank-owned companies have approved the proposed merger deal, which will see five new SSB shares swapped for two shares in SIA.
The new firm will consist of a parent company and subsidiaries Kedrios, Perago, RA Computer, SiNSYS and TSP.
Banca Intesa will hold the largest stake in the merged company - 16.6% - followed by Sanpaolo-IMI (12.4%), Unicredit (10.9%), Capitalia (6.4%), MPS (5.2%), Credem (4.4%), BNL Group (4.2%), Telecom Italia (4.1), Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara (four per cent) and Banca Sella (3.9%).
In a statement the companies say revenues of the merged group are expected to rise from the EUR380 million forecast for the end of 2006 to the over EUR400 million in 2008, with EBIT equal to 13% of overall turnover.
Around 40% of revenue is expected to be generated the cards sector, with 30% in the payments and 30% in the capital markets sector.
The merger is expected to be completed by January 1 2007.