Paytrail, Nets Group’s subsidiary and Finnish online payment provider, has signed an agreement to acquire its competitor Checkout Finland from OP Financial Group.

The acquisition supports Nets’ European e-commerce ambitions and further strengthens its presence in Finland.

Checkout Finland, part of OP Financial Group, is a rapidly growing player in the Finnish payment landscape, serving both e-commerce and physical stores with a wide array of payment options, together with mobile payment solutions. Checkout Finland reportedly has around 8,000 ecommerce merchants.

The completion of the transaction is subject to approval from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA), and the transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2021.

In recent years, the payment industry has seen accelerating consolidation across Europe, with Nets being an active player through several high-profile mergers and acquisitions. Nets had recently announced a merger with Italian PayTech leader Nexi as well as the acquisition of Polish payment provider Polskie ePłatności (PeP).

“The way we shop and transact online is somewhat different in Finland. Not least because of the enduring popularity of direct bank transfers.

 

Understanding and developing our offerings as the experts in Finnish ecommerce has always been our passion, and we are happy to join forces with Checkout Finland, to serve Finnish customers even better with our very strong capabilities and insights into Finnish digital payments.”

said Markus Laurio, CEO of Paytrail.

“While we are seeing a move towards larger players in the industry, together with the rising number of smaller fintech players, local know-how is also a key success factor.

 

As we see ecommerce as one of the biggest growth areas within payments, we are very pleased to further strengthen our ability to innovate and offer the best in online payments in Finland with Checkout Finland.”

said Robert Hoffmann, CEO of Merchant Services at Nets Group.

Nets established a 10-year partnership with OP Financial Group in 2017 in relation to merchant acquiring and is now taking Finnish ecommerce know-how to the next level with the acquisition of Checkout Finland.

Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik