Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
CVC is weighing a €9bn deal to take Nexi private after a share price collapse at the Milan-listed payments group, a move that would stoke political sensitivities over control of Italy’s financial infrastructure.
The private equity group is considering a fresh bid, according to people familiar with the matter, having twice before explored a takeover of Nexi, whose shares have fallen about 65 per cent over the past four years.
Nexi, whose largest shareholder is buyout group Hellman & Friedman, has been hit by pressure on Europe’s payments groups to cut fees, as well as renegotiations of key contracts and competition from fintech rivals.
CVC would not make an offer for Nexi — which would be valued at €9bn including €6bn in debt — unless the Italian government was supportive, said one person familiar with the firm’s deliberations. “The issue is entirely political at this point,” they added.
Another person close to the matter said it was very early in CVC’s deliberations and the firm might not proceed with a formal bid.
Hellman & Friedman, which became Nexi’s main shareholder when the group merged with payments rival Nets in 2020, is not in talks with CVC or bankers over a potential deal “but would respond to a bid should one emerge”, according to a person close to H&F.
Italy’s “golden power” rules, which cover strategically important assets including banking infrastructure, give Rome the ability to block any foreign bid for Nexi.
The deal under consideration would carve out Nexi’s digital banking solutions segment — seen as a nationally strategic asset — and transfer it to an Italian state-backed investor such as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), according to the people.
Splitting off the digital banking division, the smallest of the group’s three segments, is aimed at dissuading Rome from using its veto powers, the people said.
But CDP, the Italian state fund and Nexi’s second-largest shareholder, does not appear to be supportive of a delisting of the payments group, the people said.
CVC explored a takeover of Nexi in 2023, following an earlier attempt in 2015 when it was outbid by a consortium of Bain Capital, Advent International and Clessidra.
Last year Nexi rejected a €1bn offer from US private equity group TPG to buy its digital banking division.
Nexi’s other two divisions include “merchant solutions”, which provides payment services for physical and online sellers, and accounted for almost 60 per cent of the group’s €3.6bn revenues in 2025. Its “issuing solutions” arm partners with financial institutions to issue payment cards.
Under CVC’s plan, Nexi would be reshaped into a fully fledged software company, the people said. However, some are sceptical CVC’s vision will persuade Italian officials that their concerns have been addressed.
Italian officials told the FT the priority was to restructure Nexi, after its rapid expansion — including deals in 2020 to acquire Italian payments providers Sia and Nets – triggered a share price drop and investors soured on what was once a cash-generative business model.
CVC explored a bid for Telecom Italia last year, according to people familiar with the matter. The state-controlled postal service Poste Italiane built a stake in the telecoms group before launching a €10.8bn offer for the whole company in March.
Last month Nexi’s chief executive Paolo Bertoluzzo stepped down after a decade and was replaced by chief financial officer Bernardo Mingrone as part of what the company said was Nexi’s “new phase of development”.
CVC, CDP, H&F and Nexi declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Ivan Levingston
