Santander to acquire Mexican payments group

Spanish banking giant Santander has announced the planned acquisition of merchant payments company Elavon Mexico.

Under the terms of the deal announced on Monday (24 February), Santander Group will acquire the entire share capital of Elavon Mexico for around $86 million. Once the deal completes, the company will be owned 49% by Santander Mexico and 51% by Santander Merchant Platform Solutions.

The deal is in keeping with the growth strategy outlined by the bank at the company’s annual investor day in 2019, where it earmarked Global Payments as an area where it was seeking to enhance its global presence. Santander already owns a subsidiary called Getnet, which offers card machines and merchant services that serve companies in Brazil.

“The acquisition of Elavon México is an important step in the creation of a global merchant services business, which will provide added value to our customers,” Javier San Félix, head of Santander Global Payments Services, explained.

“It will also enable us to unlock value in our Getnet merchant acquiring business and gradually extend our strengths to all our markets and customers through a single platform, open to third-party services,” Mr San Félix explained. “Mexico is the first of our markets to connect to the new platform, with the rest to follow in the near future.”

Elavon México already runs Banco Santander’s merchant acquiring business in Mexico through a deal which has existed for a decade. Through this partnership, the companies have established 16% of the Brazillian market share.

Héctor Grisi Checa, executive chairman of Banco Santander Mexico, said he saw “excellent opportunities” for the continued development of the business.

He said this would “improve the value proposition” for customers and enable the company to take advantage of “economies of scale as other Santander markets connect to the platform.”