The company, which runs electronic payments for credit card operator CartaSi, said earlier it had received the go-ahead to split in two -- one company to manage payments and the other to concentrate on traditional depository and settlement bank business.

After the split the two companies will maintain the same shareholders - funds Bain Capital, Advent International and Clessidra - which bought Nexi at the end of 2015, when it was known as ICBPI.

"The most likely outcome for their investment in Nexi will be an IPO given the expected size of the asset," Nexi CFO Bernardo Mingrone said in an interview with Reuters, seeing it as a "natural path", but he did not rule out other options.

Mingrone added that the three shareholders are "long term but not forever investors," explaining that they were not in a hurry to sell their stakes in Nexi but they would likely do so in the coming years.

Nexi also announced on Monday it would issue new bonds worth 2.6 billion euros (2.3 billion pounds) to fully repay its debt.

The new issue will be split in a 5-year floating rate tranche and a five-and-half-year fixed rate tranche, for a total of 2.2 billion euros, and a 6-year privately placed tranche worth 400 million euros.

Proceeds will be used to repay 2.3 billion euros of outstanding bonds, whose average cost is around 8 percent, the CFO said.

"(The 8 percent) is too high, our aim is to halve the cost of debt after the refinancing operation," Mingrone said.

(Reporting by Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and; Francesca Landini; Editing by Alison Williams and Louise Heavens)

By Giulio Piovaccari