Banco Santander, a major Spanish bank, on Friday announced its plan to buy a majority stake in Fintech company Mercury TFS for 30 million euros ($33.54 million).
This came as a part of Santander's digital strategy to accelerate growth by buying up corporate stakes and thus strengthening its international trade offer and consolidate its position as the bank of choice for SMEs and corporates with international operations.
Santander will acquire 50.1 percent of the fintech company, and one-third of the total investment will be paid for newly-issued shares.
The announcement also detailed that Mercury TFS' chief executive officer and head of technology will continue to head up the company, and will continue to be partners.
A promising company in the fintech arena
The Madrid-headquartered fintech company develops trade financing software for its clients and has a presence in Spain, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. The Spanish bank is also a customer of the fintech company for years.
Following this deal, Mercury TFS will also enable the bank to digitalize internal process management, allowing greater control and operational efficiency.
The funds from the acquisition will be utilized by the company to enable new services and boost growth in customer numbers and markets.
"The investment accelerates our plans to build a service platform for SMEs and international companies to better serve our customers worldwide," Javier San Félix, the head of Santander's global Payments services, said, commenting on the major deal.
"We are also helping to globalize Mercury TFS, a software company with huge potential and a team with enormous talent, by reinforcing their technical and commercial teams and complementing their already broad product range."
In November, Santander also inked another major deal, buying Ebury, a UK-based payments platform, for £350 million (around $453 million). Then also, the Spanish bank bought 50.1 percent of Ebury's shares, putting it in control of the company.
