Italian payments group Nexi’s stronger revenue beats expectations

(Reuters) -Italian payments group Nexi on Friday reported third-quarter revenue of 911.1 million euros ($982.17 million) beating a company-compiled consensus of 908 million euros.

Group revenue grew 5.1% from a year earlier.

The merchant segment, which is Nexi’s biggest source of revenue accounting for around 57% of total revenue, grew 6.6% to 534.4 million euros driven by an expanding customer base that fuelled higher transaction volumes from small and medium enterprises.

Nexi’s core profit in the third quarter rose 6.2% compared to the previous year to 522.9 million euors, in line with a company-provided consensus of 523 million euros.

Its core profit margin was 57%.

The company added that it completed in September a 500 million euro share buyback programme launched in May, which originally was expected to last 18 months, but was sped up in July.

It confirmed its guidance, which includes a mid-single digit growth in revenue and a mid-to-high-single digit growth in core profit compared to last year.

($1 = 0.9276 euros)

(Reporting by Alberto Chiumento in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi and Kim Coghill)