Stockholm/ Sweden and Gauting/ Germany, 18 December 2013. The payment providers Klarna AB (“Klarna”) from Sweden and SOFORT AG (“SOFORT”) from Germany today announced that they will join forces. Klarna is acquiring SOFORT from the majority shareholder Reimann Investors. Both companies will continue to offer their products side by side and operate on stand-alone basis. Corporate Finance Partners – now part of ACXIT Capital Partners – acted as the financial adviser to SOFORT AG and its majority shareholder Reimann Investors.
Klarna and SOFORT combined will have a 10 percent share of the USD 100 billion e-commerce market in which they operate. Klarna is a leading online payment provider in the Nordic countries, and SOFORT is a leading player in Germany and Austria. Together they will offer their solutions in 14 European countries. The combined group will have 25 million users and partnerships with more than 50 percent of all German online merchants. In total, the group will work together with 43,000 online merchants.The transaction is subject to approval by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.
“We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work together with the exceptional team at SOFORT. Together we have an incredible opportunity to provide the most trusted payment solution to our merchants and make it simpler and safer for consumers to shop online.”
– Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna
“SOFORT and Klarna supplement each other in our service offerings as well as in our growth ambitions. Together we are providing online merchants the opportunity to offer both popular payment methods out of one hand in Germany and to develop further product innovations. We also look forward to continuing to foster our position as an independent, banking-friendly payment solution.”
– Dr. Gerrit Seidel, CEO of SOFORT
“We are very pleased with this combination, as Klarna and SOFORT together will become a leading European player with a footprint in 14 European countries. Both companies complement each other to the benefit of both merchants and consumers. We believe this newly established group has such an enormous potential to emerge as a leading European provider of online payments that it was a logical step for us to re-invest in this group.”
– Dr. Michael Riemenschneider, representative of the previous majority shareholder Reimann Investors and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SOFORT AG
Corporate Finance Partners advised the majority shareholder throughout the deal.
“We are extremely pleased with the outstanding work and M&A dealmaking capabilities of Corporate Finance Partners”
– Dr. Michael Riemenschneider of Reimann Investors
SOFORT AG, located in Gauting near Munich/ Germany, offers innovative products for a secure payment of merchandise and digital goods on the Internet, with the payment system SOFORT Banking (in German speaking countries called “SOFORT Überweisung”), SOFORT Überweisung Paycode and the online verification system SOFORT Ident. With its product SOFORT Banking (SOFORT Überweisung) – an online banking based e-Banking service initiating a direct credit transfer – the company is the market leader amongst the direct credit transfer solutions in Germany. Over 25,000 e-commerce shops process more than 2.5 million transactions with SOFORT Banking (SOFORT Überweisung) per month. Apart from Germany, the service can also be used in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Poland. (www.sofort.com)
Klarna, AB, headquartered in Stockholm/ Sweden, offers safe and easy-to-use payment solutions to e-stores in Europe and was founded in 2005 with the ambition to make e-commerce safer and simpler. At the core of Klarna’s services is the concept of after delivery payment, which lets buyers receive ordered goods before any payment is due. At the same time, Klarna assumes the credit and fraud risk for e-stores so that sellers can rest assured that they will always receive their money. Klarna’s vision is to enable trust and to offer a frictionless buying experience to buyers and sellers across the world. Today, Klarna’s payment solutions are integrated by more than 18,000 online shops in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. (www.klarna.com)
About ACXIT
ACXIT Capital Partners is a leading independent corporate finance and investment advisory firm for mid-market clients and entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. Since 1998, ACXIT offers its clients comprehensive corporate finance advisory services including M&A and capital markets advisory as well as restructuring, equity/debt and strategic advisory. As an independent, privately owned firm we maintain offices and representations in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Zurich, Hong Kong and New York, as well as strong alliances in France, China and India. (www.acxit.com)
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