Swedbank acquires Entercard for $273 Million

Nordic-Baltic financial group Swedbank has reached an agreement to fully acquire Entercard Group AB from Barclays Principal Investments Ltd, a subsidiary of the London-based Barclays, for $273 million.

Once the deal, which is subject to approval by the relevant authorities, is completed by end of this year, Entercard will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Stockholm-based Swedbank.

Entercard is one of the leading credit market companies in the Nordics, offering card products and consumer loans with partnerships in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Swedbank and Barclays have co-owned Entercard since 2005. Entercard currently has approximately 450 employees and 1.5 million customers, and will continue to operate under its own brand. At the end of March, Entercard had total assets of $3.79 billion, primarily in card and loan receivables.

Barclays said that Swedbank will buy the shareholding at book value, equal to half of the net assets of Entercard, which is said to be around $270 million, based on estimates from the end of March, payable in cash.

As part of divestments from non-core businesses, Barclays has agreed to sell most of its British payments business to Brookfield Asset Management in April this year.

Barclays expects the sale to release around $1.215 billion of risk-weighted assets, which would increase Barclays’ CET1 ratio by 4 basis points on completion.

To Strengthen Customer Offering

Swedbank’s Deputy CEO Tomas Hedberg said that they were forming the largest card business in the Nordics and Baltics and through this acquisition, Swedbank continues to invest in and develop its business. This creates even greater opportunities to strengthen their customer offering, he said.

Entercard CEO Jan Haglund said that his company has been on a strong growth journey. Becoming a full part of Swedbank, the leading financial group in Sweden and the Baltics, creates new business opportunities to further strengthen our operations, he said.

The purchase price is based on the amount corresponding to 50% of Entercard’s equity at the time of acquisition. In the first quarter of 2025, the company’s total equity amounted to approximately $550 million.

The acquisition is expected to negatively impact Swedbank’s Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio by approximately 30 basis points upon completion of the transaction, and is a natural consequence of Swedbank’s 15/27 business plan.