Washington

VISA Inc, the world's largest payments network, agreed to acquire Visa Europe Ltd in a deal valued at as much as 21.2 billion euros (S$32.8 billion) to unify the brand globally after eight years as separate companies.

The transaction includes 16.5 billion euros upfront and as much as 4.7 billion euros more after the fourth anniversary of the deal's completion, the firms said on Monday in a statement. The purchase ends years of speculation among analysts about whether the companies, which split in 2007 ahead of the US firm's initial public offering, would reunite.