Santander spins out Getnet Brazil with plans to form “merchant acquiring franchise”

Santander has announced it will spin out its Getnet Brazil business with plans to create “a global merchant acquiring franchise” under the Getnet brand as part of its global paytech arm PagoNxt.

Getnet has more than 1.2 million merchant partners

Santander says it hopes to capitalise on Getnet Brazil’s popularity as a payments platform in the e-commerce space across Brazil, with plans to further expand the franchise across Latin America and Europe, as well as the UK and US.

PagoNxt is a global payments fintech that offers SMEs and corporates international payments, supply chain and trade finance solutions.

The move comes after the firm announced plans to shutter its international money transfer app PagoFX in September, in order to “focus on high growth segments such as merchant and trade services”.

The Getnet franchise already has more than 1.2 million merchant partners in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Europe, where it was launched based on the recently acquired Wirecard infrastructure.

Santander acquired Wirecard’s core European business for €100 million in November last year after the German payments fintech became insolvent in June.

Getnet Brazil is expected to begin trading on Sao Paulo’s B3 stock exchange on 18 October and on New York’s NASDAQ on 22 October.

The bank claims the spin off will allow the franchise to benefit from greater efficiencies, diversification of revenue streams and integration with other Santander products and services.

PagoNxt CEO Javier San Felix says Getnet has gained significant market share in Brazil over the last five years.

“By bringing Getnet Brazil together with our global payments businesses, we can leverage the group’s scale, further improving the services we offer to customers and creating value for shareholders.”