Worldline SA announced that the company has agreed to buy rival Ingenico Group SA in a $8.6 billion deal. The two European giants coming together in the payments space are set to create the industry’s fourth-largest player.
Worldline said in a statement that it would buy domestic rival Ingenico in a deal consisting of 81% stock and 19% cash. The transaction will give Ingenico an implied equity value of 7.8 billion euros ($8.6 billion). The combined company would create the fourth biggest payments firm in the world, Worldline said, with projected 2019 net revenues of 5.3 billion euros and operating margins of 1.2 billion euros. Worldline expects the deal to create cost savings of 250 million euros over the next four years.
Worldline CEO Gilles Grapinet will lead the joint company as CEO while Ingenico Chairman Bernard Bourigeaud is expected to be appointed non-executive chairman. Grapinet said the deal would help create a “world-class leader” in Europe’s digital payments sector, calling it a “landmark transaction for the industrial consolidation of European payments.”
Ingenico’s Bourigeaud said the takeover “offers a unique opportunity to create the undisputed European champion in payments on par with the largest international players.”
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