Mastercard is seeking to offload the real-time payments unit it acquired from Denmark’s Nets Group, reported the Financial Times (FT), citing sources.
The sale, if materialised, would unwind the credit card giant’s largest ever takeover deal, noted the news publication.
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Mastercard has hired investment bankers to manage the sale, which could draw interest from private equity groups, the unnamed sources said.
However, the company is likely to fetch a lower price than the $3.2bn it originally paid for the business.
In 2019, Mastercard acquired a majority stake in Nets’ corporate services businesses, including its clearing, instant payment services and e-billing solutions.
At the time, the company said the deal would help it evolve into a “multi-rail” payments group serving merchants, banks and governments.
“Half of payments happen directly from one bank account to another, and for our bank partners, we want to be a one-stop shop for all payments,” Michael Miebach, currently Mastercard’s CEO, told the FT in 2019.
As per the latest FT report, the unit has since dragged Mastercard’s overall growth.
The business unit, which facilitates real-time payments between accounts in Europe, generates about $370m in annual revenues and around $100m in EBITDA.
Meanwhile, Mastercard has been recently expanding in other areas.
Earlier this month, it agreed to buy stablecoin infrastructure group BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8bn.
The payments major said the acquisition would enable “end-to-end support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions”.
BVNK’s platform supports payments across major blockchain networks in more than 130 countries.
Additionally, SoFi Technologies recently announced it is working to make its SoFiUSD stablecoin available as a settlement option across Mastercard’s global payments network.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Mastercard reported a net income of $4.06bn, up around 22% year-over-year, while net revenue rose 17.6% to $8.81bn.
