Macfarlanes has advised Visa Inc. on its acquisition of Visa Europe Limited, in a transaction with up-front consideration of approximately €16.5 billion and the potential for an additional earn-out of up to €4.7 billion (including interest) following the fourth anniversary of closing, for a total value of up to €21.2 billion.

The transaction, which is subject to competition approvals and customary closing conditions, creates a single global Visa business. Visa Europe, an association owned and operated by over 3,000 European financial institutions, is the payments leader in Europe, with annual payment volumes of over $1.5 trillion and over 18 billion transactions processed each year.

The Macfarlanes team, working alongside Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, was led by M&A partners Graham Gibb and Nicholas Barclay.