JP Morgan signs deal for stake in fintech Viva Wallet for over $800 million

ATHENS (Reuters) – JP Morgan has signed a deal to buy a 48.5% stake in Athens-based payments fintech Viva Wallet for more than $800 million, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the deal was expected to be announced early next week.

Both JP Morgan and Viva Wallet declined to comment.

JP Morgan announced in January that it had agreed to acquire a stake in Viva Wallet.

The stake is to be acquired from Viva Wallet’s minority shareholders, including the Latsis family office, which holds about 13% of the firm, British fund Hedosophia with about 24% and Deca Investments with about 10%.

Cloud-based Viva Wallet, which operates in 23 countries across Europe, provides card acceptance services through its POS application, add-on Google play devices and advanced payment systems in online stores.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; additional reporting by Jose Joseph and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Nick Macfie)