Ken Villum Klausen/Lunar.
News Digital Banking Savings And Investment
Danish challenger bank Lunar to acquire Norway's Instabank in €136m deal
Instabank directors have “unanimously” recommended the offer of 3.75NOK a share, which is a 56.3 per cent premium on Instabank's closing share price on 25 March 25
Danish challenger bank Lunar is acquiring the Norwegian digital bank Instabank in a €136m deal.
Instabank directors have “unanimously” recommended the offer of 3.75NOK a share, which is a 56.3 per cent premium on Instabank's closing share price on March 25.
The purchase will boost Lunar’s presence in Norway, as well as opening the door to the Finnish market, as Lunar looks to have a wide-ranging presence across Scandanavia.
Lunar currently has a footprint in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and earlier this month Lunar CEO Ken Villum Klausen told AltFi it wanted to land its brand in the Finnish market.
Founded in 2016, Instabank has more than 60,000 customers in Norway, Finland and Germany with both secured and unsecured loans and savings.
In 2021, Lunar acquired Swedish lending platform Lendify and Danish-based payments platform Paylike.
Earlier this month, the Danish challenger banks announced a new €70m Series D-2 funding, launched B2B payments for its business customers and revealed details of a new crypto trading platform.
Founded in Denmark in 2015, Lunar, which is backed by Tencent, has more than 450,000 consumer and business customers throughout the Nordics.
Robert Berg, co-founder and CEO of Instabank, said: “We are excited over the opportunity to become part of Lunar and together challenge, innovate and build an even stronger Nordic entity.
“We are convinced that the joint companies will benefit our customers, employees and stakeholders."
Cathrin Nylander, chair of the Instabank Board of Directors, comments: "The Board of Directors is of the opinion that the Lunar offer reflects the strong financial performance, continued growth and solid position of Instabank, and represents an attractive valuation for the shareholders.
“We believe that a combination of Instabank and Lunar will be a strong Nordic fintech attractively positioned to compete with the Nordic banking leaders."
Villum Klausen said: “We are excited for the opportunity to join forces with Instabank and together challenge, innovate and build a stronger Nordic entity that will benefit our customers.”
It is expected that the deal will be finalised in the second quarter of this year, following regulatory approval.
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