Goldman Sachs Group agreed to buy GreenSky for about $2.24 billion, adding to its Marcus consumer banking platform a company that offers payment plans to customers with home-improvement projects or health care needs.
The New York-based bank will pay 0.03 shares of its common stock for each share of Atlanta-based GreenSky, which works out to about $12.11 a share, according to a news release Wednesday. The firm works with more than 10,000 merchants to offer payment options to their customers. That’s 56% higher than its $7.77 closing price Tuesday.
Banks use GreenSky’s technology to provide loans to super-prime and prime consumers, according to the release. It services a $9 billion loan portfolio and about 4 million customers have financed more than $30 billion of purchases using its technology since GreenSky was founded by David Zalik in 2006.
Consumers, especially younger people, have flocked in recent years to buy-now, pay-later programs offered by companies including Afterpay and Affirm Holdings Goldman is already working with Apple on a buy-now, pay-later program, people with knowledge of the matter said in July.
“We have been clear in our aspiration for Marcus to become the consumer-banking platform of the future, and the acquisition of GreenSky advances this goal,” Goldman Chief Executive David Solomon said in a news release. “GreenSky and its talented team have built an impressive, cloud-native platform that will allow Marcus to reach a new and active set of merchants and customers.”
The boards of Goldman and GreenSky have already approved the acquisition. The deal, subject to approval by GreenSky stockholders, is slated to close in the fourth quarter of this year or first quarter of 2022.
This story has been updated.
