Worldline to acquire Ingenico

Worldline and Ingenico Group have announced that they have agreed upon a business combination where Worldline would launch a tender offer for all Ingenico shares, consisting of an 81% share and 19% cash transaction.

The tender offer will also target all Ingenico OCEANEs.

The combination would create a new global payment services player. The transaction would boost  the business profile and positions of Worldline as follows:

• creation of a payments provider serving more than 1 million merchants, 1,200 banks and financial institutions;
• a good combination of online and in-store merchant services creating a one-stop-shop position for SMEs as well as global merchants;
• extended geographical footprint providing a commercial advantage to offer cross-border payment transactions acquiring;
• reach in Continental Europe, with a new leadership position in Germany, a strong position in the Nordics and access to France-based banks and merchants;
• expanded global geographical coverage with access to the US market, reinforcement of Worldline’s exposure to merchants in Latin America and Asia-Pacific and expansion in low card penetrated countries.

As part of this transaction, the combined group would reinforce its controlling position in Payone, the joint-venture between Ingenico and the German savings bank group DSV (Deutscher Sparkassenverlag), through the contribution of Worldline’s Merchant Services activities in Germany and Austria to the joint-venture.

The companies said the takeover deal gave Ingenico an implied equity value of EUR 7.8 billion and would be immediately accretive to earnings per share, with around EUR 250 million expected in savings by 2024.