Nexi shares surge following the EU vote on the digital euro

  (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - A brilliant trading session for Nexi and for the European digital payments sector. In Milan, the Italian paytech stock posted the best performance of the final trading session of the week. Its European competitors also performed well, including Worldline in Paris and Adyen on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Contributing to the positive sentiment is the vote held the previous day in the European Parliament, which approved its position on the digital euro, giving the green light to institutional negotiations.

The project aims to create a new form of electronic money issued by the ECB – usable both online and offline – and brings the issue of European autonomy in payment infrastructure back to the fore, which is currently heavily dependent on major international operators, particularly American ones. In this regard, last night the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, confirmed the progress made in an interview with Euronews last night, explaining that “by December 2026, we will have a series of proposals for the design and appearance of the new digital banknotes”.

It should be noted, however, that the impact of the digital euro on individual operators will depend on the system’s final architecture. From this perspective, Nexi is not only one of the companies awarded several of the ECB’s contracts relating to the development of the digital euro, but aims to be the hub of the continental payments infrastructure. And for CDP, which has strengthened its stake and may increase it to as much as 29.9 per cent, this is strategic for financial sovereignty within the EU.

Furthermore, on Nexi, Intermonte commented this morning on the preview of the second-quarter results and the half-year results, due on 29 July. The investment firm maintains a cautious stance, noting that “revenues remain weak, but guidance for the 2026 financial year is credible thanks to cost control”. Estimates point to second-quarter revenue of €912 million, up 0.7 per cent year-on-year, and half-year revenue of €1.7 billion, up 0.8 per cent.

“The key message is that Nexi is likely to show little visible organic growth once again, but good EBITDA resilience thanks to cost control and the new management’s focus on internal efficiency,” summarises the Intermonte team, whilst seeing little scope for upward revisions in the short term: “Any positive surprises seem more likely to come on the cost side,” they note, “in line with the new CEO’s focus on execution, simplification and operational discipline.”