France’s Worldline has agreed to buy rival Ingenico in a deal valued at 7.8 billion euros $8.6 billion that will create the industry’s fourth-largest player in the digital payments business.
The combined company will have projected 2019 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, CNBC reported.
Worldline CEO Gilles Grapinet will lead the combined company as CEO. Ingenico chairman Bernard Bourigeaud is expected to be appointed non-executive chairman.
Grapinet said the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, 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.”
The deal comes as legacy payment processors face increased competition from a multitude of new financial technology rivals which are snatching merchants with their digital payment platforms.
Companies like America’s Stripe, India’s Paytm and Britain’s Checkout.com have managed to hit multi-billion dollar valuations thanks to the flood of venture capital gravitating toward the space.
U.S. fintech group Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) bought payment processor Worldpay for about $35 billion last year.
Fiserv bought First Data in a $22 billion deal and Global Payments merged with Total Systems Services to create a $40 billion payments powerhouse.
