Visa Inc. (V) is making a big bet on Argentina's payments infrastructure. The company announced Thursday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Prisma and Newpay from Advent International, a global private equity investor with serious payments sector credentials.
Both companies operate as subsidiaries of Group Prisma, one of the heavyweights in Argentina's payments ecosystem. But here's where it gets interesting: Visa isn't buying the whole operation.
A Strategic Split
Advent spent its ownership period doing what private equity does best—restructuring. The firm broke Group Prisma into three independent platforms: Prisma, Newpay, and Payway. Under the deal's terms, Visa walks away with Prisma and Newpay, while Advent keeps Payway, the merchant acquiring business.
It's a clean split that gives Visa the infrastructure plays while letting Advent continue building out merchant solutions.
What Visa Is Getting
Prisma operates as Argentina's critical issuer processing platform, handling north of six billion transactions annually for the country's largest banks. That's not a side business—that's core financial infrastructure.
Newpay brings its own strategic value, providing the backbone for real-time account-to-account payments and interoperable QR payments. The platform also manages the Banelco ATM network and PagoMisCuentas, an electronic bill payment service that's become essential to daily commerce in Argentina.
