Why Intesa Sanpaolo and Enel are betting on Mooney (formerly Sisal Pay)
Sale of Mooney, the former Sisal Pay, a payment company born from a spin-off of Sisal and the transfer of assets from Intesa Sanpaolo. Facts, names, numbers and rumors. Here's Mooney's costs, revenues and loss
The sale of Mooney, the former Sisal Pay active in digital payments, with the Enel-Intesa Sanpaolo tandem is in its final stages.
This was reported by the Radiocor agency ( Sole 24 Ore group).
According to the rumors gathered by the Sole 24 Ore , the main shareholder of Mooney, that is the international private equity CVC, is in the final negotiations for the sale of the company. The interlocutors are the Enel group and Intesa Sanpaolo, who have studied a complex operation to become equal partners of Mooney.
Mooney, a payment company born from a spin-off of Sisal and the transfer of assets from Intesa Sanpaolo, provides payment services through a network of 50,000 betting shops throughout Italy. At the moment the company is controlled by Cvc Capital Partners while Intesa owns 30% of the business through Banca 5 .
The first green light will be the one that the boards of Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo will have to give next week, in order to become equal partners. For the Milanese bank, the date marked in red is 21 December, when the board will examine the dossier. Enel's board of directors should also be held on the same days. Cvc Capital should completely exit the team, thus monetizing its investment.
For Equita, the transaction for the energy group led by Starace "would make industrial sense considering its Enel-x business".
All the details.
ENEL AND INTESA SANPAOLO CONQUER MOONEY
At the final rush the sale of Mooney.
The transaction plan would envisage the sale of Mooney to Enel with the current majority fund (CV at 70%) expected to be fully out. Enel and Intesa should therefore each rise to 50% control.
THE VALUE OF THE OPERATION
The operation should be worth around 1.5 billion, according to Il Sole 24 Ore .
WHAT IS MOONEY
CVC formed Mooney through the spin-off of the gaming and payment operations from the Italian betting company Sisal Group, a company it bought in 2016 from the investment companies Permira, Apax and Clessidra.
The birth of the group dates back to December 2019 when the parent company Sisal Group SpA and Banca 5 SpA (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), through the contributions of their respective business branches, formed the first Italian reality of Proximity Banking & Payments
As of December 31, 2020, the group has 582 employees, two hundred more than the similar figure at the end of 2019. Leading Mooney is the CEO Emilio Petrone. In 2008 Petrone joined the Sisal Group as CEO. After having founded and developed SisalPay, in December 2019 Petrone laid the foundations of Mooney, the first Italian reality of Proximity Banking & Payments.
THE SALE OR LISTING PROJECT
At the beginning of 2021, the company's shareholders mandated advisors Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Intesa Sanpaolo-Banca Imi to review a sale or listing. As Reuters recalled, core earnings fell by 15.8% last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the termination of a contract with Postepay.
And Mooney has also attracted interest from a number of US private equity funds including Searchlight Capital.
THE ENEL-INTESA SANPAOLO TANDEM
“In the end, Enel emerged, which shuffled the cards and put the most convincing offer on the plate, especially in light of the industrial project being set up with Intesa Sanpaolo. A project that plans to create synergies with the Mooney network, the first Italian proximity banking & payments reality, with a widespread presence in the area thanks to over 45 thousand businesses located in large cities, but also in small municipalities "commented the Confindustria newspaper .
THE INTEREST OF THE BANK GUIDED BY MESSINA
As Reuters reported a month ago, Intesa Sanpaolo views Mooney as a strategic asset as it helps steer its subsidiaries towards higher margin services such as wealth management and insurance, while continuing to provide basic payment services to its retail clients. .
AND THAT OF THE UTILITY HAD BY STARACE
“An alliance would therefore be made between Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo, aimed for both groups at developing fintech activities” underlines Il Sole 24 Ore . “The group led by Francesco Starace is in fact stepping on the accelerator to enhance the fintech activities of Enel X Pay, a payment platform that has become a new player in the sector. The acquisition of Mooney will allow us to grow in an industry that is becoming very competitive.
THE COMMENT OF EQUITA
For Equita, the transaction for Enel “would make industrial sense considering its Enel-x business and the customer base on which to scale Mooney's business”. The size of the operation (750 million) is in line with the indications of the industrial plan, finally note the analysts.
THE ACCOUNTS OF MOONEY
The Mooney Spa group closed the 2020 financial statements in negative with a loss of 30.7 million euros (up from 5 million in 2019).
However, revenues grew: 311 million euros against the 13 million recorded the previous year. Operating costs totaled approximately 299 million euros.
Mooney recorded an Ebitda of € 59.5 million in 2020 from € 70.7 million in 2019. a company recorded a net financial debt of € 833.2 million, which includes the bond of € 530 million maturing in 2026 listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange and issued in December 2019 by the then SisalPay Group, on the occasion of the acquisition of the business branches of Sisal Group and Banca 5.
In reference to the first six months of 2021, Mooney recorded revenues of 173.4 million euros (up 16% from 149.3 million in the first half of 2020) and an adjusted EBITDA of 46 million (up 28% from 36 million).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-intesa-sanpaolo-e-enel-puntano-su-mooney/ on Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:25:59 +0000.