A&O advises Santander on its technological assets acquisition from Wirecard

Allen & Overy has advised Banco Santander on the acquisition of technological assets of the European merchant payment services and processing business from Wirecard

Banco Santander has announced that it has agreed with the insolvency administrator of several Wirecard entities, Dr. Michael Jaffé and Wirecard Bank AG to acquire several highly specialised technological assets from the merchant payments business of Wirecard in Europe to reinforce and accelerate its growth plans for the region, accelerating the expansion of its merchant payment business, Getnet

Around 500 employees currently managing the acquired assets, in highly qualified teams, will join Santander. They will remain in their locations and will become part of Santander’s global merchant services team under the umbrella of the Getnet global franchise.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions customary for these types of transactions.

With this acquisition, Santander will accelerate Getnet’s expansion in Europe, enhancing capabilities in e-commerce and multinational merchant servicing as well as other payment services.

An Allen & Overy cross-border team was co-led by German Corporate/M&A partners Dr Matthias Horn and Dr Hartmut Krause, and included Madrid office M&A partner Íñigo del Val (pictured left).

Santander’s Legal in-house team was led by the group´s VP in Legal Corporate/M&A Juan Charro (pictured right), Corporate Legal advisor Valle Álvarez and Anna Werner (General Counsel Getnet); in Germany, Timo Spitzer (head of Legal Germany) was involved.