Italy's Nexi buys Intesa's Croatian retailer payment business for $189 million

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian payments group Nexi agreed with Intesa Sanpaolo to acquire the retailer payment business of the lender's Croatian arm, confirming what sources had previously told Reuters.

In a statement on Friday, Nexi said that it would pay 180 million euros ($189.27 million) to purchase PBZ Card's merchant acquiring business in the Croatian market, with the closing expected by the end of the year.

Nexi, one of Europe's leading payments company, has been steadily expanding its operations serving merchants and, earlier this month, agreed to buy the shop payments business of BPER Banca and Banco Di Sardegna in a deal worth up to 384 million euro.

($1 = 0.9510 euros)

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia)