Key Nexi shareholders back CEO Bertoluzzo for another mandate

MILAN (Reuters) -Key shareholders in Nexi, Europe's biggest payments group by volume of transactions processed, have signed a governance pact that includes keeping CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo in charge, the company said on Friday.

Nexi is set to name a new board of directors in the spring and there had been recurring speculation in financial circles in recent months that it could be headed for a change at the helm.

The payments sector has seen valuations plunge from post-pandemic highs, and faces rising competition as technology evolves rapidly bringing in new players.

Operating in a sector deemed of strategic relevance for the country, Nexi has the Italian state - through investment agency CDP Equity - as a leading shareholder with a 14.5% stake.

The governance pact ties together CDP Equity and Nexi's private equity owners. They represent in aggregate 55% of the company's capital and name 11 out of 13 board members.

CDP Equity names five members, including the chairperson. San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which owns 21.2% of Nexi, names three directors.

Mercury, a vehicle owned by funds Bain, Advent and Clessidra which has reduced its Nexi stake over the years and now owns 9.9%, gets to name two members together with shareholder AB Europe.

Nexi listed in Milan in April 2019 at 9 euros a share, which it managed to more than double over the next two years as the COVID-19 pandemic supercharged digital payments.

The share price has declined sharply from a July 2021 peak of 19 euros. On Friday, Nexi shares were broadly flat at 5.4 euros at 1237 GMT.

The depressed valuation makes it hard for Nexi's fund owners to liquidate their investment.

The industry's woes have prompted investment banks in recent years to study a potential merger of Nexi with its main European rival, France's Worldline.

However, bankers say any deal would first need an agreement between Italy and France, which both are shareholders and have special powers to block deals in key sectors.

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti and Tomasz Janowski)