Worldline, (Euronext: WLN) a European payments and transactional services firm announced on Monday it has acquired French fintech Ingenico for €7.8 billion. The companies reported that their Boards of Directors have unanimously approved a business combination agreement pursuant to which Worldline would launch a tender offer for all Ingenico shares, consisting of an 81% share and 19% cash transaction, as of last closing prices, as well as outstanding OCEANEs.
Ingenico claims to be a global leader in the fintech market, with more than three decades of experience. The company noted its “footprint” gives scale to projects and talents.
“Innovation is part of our DNA and our diverse community of experts keep anticipating the evolution of commerce worldwide.”
Wordline also reported that the transaction would combine companies to create what it claims to be the world’s number four player in payment services with 20,000 employees in approximately 50 countries. Upon closing, the new combined group would offer best-in-class payment services to nearly 1 million merchants and 1,200 financial institutions. Speaking about the acquisition, Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s Chairman and CEO, stated:
“I am proud to announce that today is a great day for Worldline and for Ingenico, and more widely for our Payment industry: Together we create the European World-Class leader in digital payments. We deeply respect Ingenico and its team for the deep business repositioning of their company realized over the last years into one of the largest European Payment Service Providers with outstanding global positions in Online Payments and Merchant Acquiring. We have been impressed by the strong improvement in performance realized over the last 18 months under the leadership of Nicolas Huss, as well as by the in-depth transformation initiated at the same time of their global leading payment terminal business, resulting in increased efficiency, more autonomy and a new strategic roadmap.”
Nicolas Huss, Ingenico’s CEO, added:
“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. I fully believe this is an alliance that will set the new Group on a path of accelerated growth, with long term benefits for clients, talents and shareholders.”