SIX Group, the Swiss stock exchange operator, has hired a U.S. bank to look into options for its payment services unit, according to a media report. The options may include a sale of the lucrative business.
SIX Group asked J.P. Morgan to evaluate options for a divestment of the Payment Services unit, according to a report by «Reuters», which was based on people familiar with the matter.
The payment services division is worth about 2 billion Swiss francs, according to estimates. The options are the sale of the entire business or an initial public offering, whereby SIX would retain a minority stake. SIX and J.P. Morgan didn’t comment.
Strategic Decision
SIX Payment Services is the biggest unit of the group. Last year it had sales of 885 million francs and pretax profit of 92 million francs.
SIX decided in March to exit the cards business in neighboring Austria. It sold the unit to Easybank, saying issuing payment cards to consumers wasn’t part of its business strategy.
