Hogan Lovells assisted BNP Paribas/BNL in the sale of Axepta Italy to Worldline

Hogan Lovells assisted BNP Paribas/BNL in the sale of Axepta Italy to Worldline

Press releases | 02 July 2021

Milan, 2 July 2021 – International law firm Hogan Lovells has advised BNP Paribas/BNL in the sale of 80% of Axepta Italy to Worldline, a global leader in the payments industry. The transaction is subject to it obtaining the necessary approvals by the competent supervisory and competition authorities. Axepta Italy is the merchant acquiring entity of BNL banking group in Italy and one on the main players in the Italian market.

As part of the transaction, Worldline will enter into a long-term commercial partnership with BNL allowing it to leverage its strong banking network as a key commercial channel in order to distribute Worldline’s and Axepta Italy best-in-class payment product and services.

The Hogan Lovells team advising BNP Paribas was led by Milan corporate partner Francesco Stella with support from: Francesco De Michele (corporate associate), Pierluigi Feliciani (corporate senior associate), Paola La Gumina (counsel SOAR), Elisabetta Zeppieri (senior associate FIG), Claudia Colomba (senior associate FIG), Maria Luce Piattelli (counsel IP), Vittorio Moresco (partner employment), Fabrizio Grillo (senior associate employment), Serena Pietrosanti (counsel Tax), Sabrina Borocci (partner EU and Competition) and Aurora Muselli (senior associate EU and Competition).

The team worked closely with BNP Paribas's in-house M&A legal team led by Louis-Philippe Vasconcelos and in particular with Sophie Andribet (Senior Legal Counsel M&A).