Nordic financial challenger Lunar has made a cash offer of €132m to acquire all shares of Norwegian digital bank Instabank.
The Board of Directors of Instabank ASA announces an agreement with Lunar Group A/S where Lunar Bank, a subsidiary of Lunar Group, will put forward a voluntary cash offer to acquire 100% of the shares of Instabank ASA.
Lunar and Instabank have entered into a transaction agreement regarding the acquisition, and the Instabank Board of Directors has unanimously decided to recommend the Offer. Shareholders representing 72.7% of the outstanding share capital of Instabank have undertaken to accept the Offer for their shares in the company, including all of the top 10 shareholders, as well as all members of management and the Board of Directors.
Lunar is one of Europe’s fastest growing fintech companies and challenger banks. Founded in Denmark in 2015, Lunar today serves more than 450,000 consumers and businesses throughout the Nordics and empowers them to bank, pay and invest in a new way.
Similarly to Instabank, Lunar is a digital-first financial services challenger
that aims to serve customers in an easy, affordable and transparent way. This common background, the respective companies’ geographical exposure and as well as the products of Lunar and Instabank complement each other very well. By joining Lunar, the Instabank team will receive full support to continue and accelerate its impressive journey so far.
Robert Berg, Co-Founder and CEO of Instabank, comments: “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. We are impressed with the Lunar team, products and customer solutions and their great achievements in both the tech and banking sector. Teamed together we will lead the transformation of the Nordic banking markets, both for private and business customers, and offer banking services in a new and better way – the Lunar way.”
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„
Ken Villum Klausen, Founder and CEO of Lunar, comments: “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. We are impressed with the Instabank team and together we can lead the change the Nordic banking markets need.”
Background and strategic rationale:
Both Instabank and Lunar are digital-first financial services challengers aiming to serve customers in an easy, affordable and transparent way. This common background and the combined geographical exposure, coupled with a highly complementary product suite will create:
• A strong challenger with a pan-Nordic scale, combining Instabank’s position in Norway and Finland with Lunar’s position in Denmark and Sweden
• A high-quality provider of financial services with a leading offering within
banking, credit, services and features, an exceptional starting point to realise the inherent growth potential of both Instabank and Lunar as one, and a unique platform to leveraging cross-sales, up-sales and further business expansion
• A leading challenger in the Nordics, one of the world’s most profitable
banking markets, with the potential to differentiate and create customer value, through leveraging a state-of-the-art digital customer experience
• A combined provider of financial services with the potential to capitalise on the EUR 2 trillion European market for financial services and embedded finance
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The move to acquire Instabank comes just weeks after Lunar raised €70 million in fresh capital, a top up to the Nordic challenger’s €210 million Series D in July last year. The cash injection coincided with the launch of B2B payments for its business customers and plans to develop a new crypto trading platform.
Lunar currently counts almost 500,000 customers and €1.3 billion in deposits across Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Founded in 2016, Instabank today serves more than 60,000 customers in Norway, Finland and Germany with both secured and unsecured loans and savings.
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