French payment companies Worldline, Ingenico sign €7.8bn merger deal

Worldline acquisition of Ingenico : European payments company Worldline has signed a stock-cum-cash deal worth €7.8 billion to acquire rival French payment services firm Ingenico.

The two French payment companies plan to merge with an aim to capture the fourth place in the world for payment services. The merged payment services company will have about 20,000 employees in approximately 50 countries, while catering to nearly a million merchants and also 1,200 financial institutions.

Established in 1980, Ingenico is a payment terminal manufacturer which helps merchants in eliminating payment complexity and in make purchasing quick, effortless and secure for consumers, irrespective of the sales channel or payment method.

Headquartered in Paris, the French payments company has an estimated 37% share in the global payment terminal market and has installed 30 million terminals plus installed in various countries.

Ingenico is said to serve 550,000 plus merchants with its portfolio of payment solutions, which includes in-store and online payment processing and the management of 300 plus payment methods.

Ingenico has nearly 8,000 employees, operating across 170 countries.

Worldline acquisition of Ingenico. Photo courtesy of Vulphere / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0.

Commenting on Worldline acquisition of Ingenico, Gilles Grapinet – Worldline Chairman and CEO, said: “I am convinced that the combination of our respective remarkable talents pools, joint capabilities and state-of-the art offers will procure our combined Company an outstanding value proposition to pursue an exceptional growth benefitting to all our clients, banks and merchants alike and to all our business partners.

“This is a landmark transaction for the industrial consolidation of European payments, highly value creative for all our stakeholders and for the shareholders of both companies, and which ambitions to reinforce the role of Europe within the global digital payment ecosystem.”

Worldline, which was founded in 1973, focuses on providing merchant services, financial services, and also mobility and e-transactional services.

As per the merger deal, Ingenico shareholders will receive 11 shares of Worldline and €160.5 in cash in exchange for seven Ingenico shares as a primary offer. A secondary offer will see investors of Ingenico get 56 Worldline shares for 29 Ingenico shares, converting into an offer price of €123.10 per Ingenico share.

Once the transaction is closed, the original shareholders of Worldline will hold nearly 65% stake and the existing Ingenico’s shareholders will own the remaining 35% or so stake in the enlarged entity.

Nicolas Huss – Ingenico CEO, commenting on Worldline acquisition of Ingenico, said: “In a fast moving global payment market in which scale matters, the combination of Ingenico with Worldline is completely aligned with our strategic vision. Our companies’ complementarities will allow us to build a unique European leader with a worldwide reach, providing high value-added offerings to our customers and partners.

“The combined entity will benefit from increased access to new strategic opportunities, markets, expertise and solutions in an industry that is consolidating rapidly.”

Under the same deal, the parties have agreed that their combined entity will step up its controlling position in Payone, the joint venture between Ingenico and German savings bank group Deutscher Sparkassenverlag (DSV). This will be done by contributing Worldline’s Merchant Services operations in Germany and Austria to the joint-venture.

The closing of Worldline acquisition of Ingenico is expected to take place in Q3 2020, subject to preceding customary closing customary conditions such as regulatory, merger control clearances, Worldline shareholders’ approval, and others.