Worldline To Buy SIX Payment Services For EUR2.3bn

European payments and transactional services provider Worldline has signed an agreement to acquire SIX Payment Services (SPS) in a deal valued at around €2.3bn.

SPS, the payment services division of SIX, provides commercial acquiring and financial processing services to the customers.

As per terms of the deal, SIX will secure 27% stake in Worldline. The total consideration consists of 49.1 million of new Worldline shares and CHF338m cash (€283m).

The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.

SIX board of directors chairman Romeo Lacher said: "In an environment that has recently excelled above all through consolidation, we are actively shaping this development so that going forward we can continue to be the central provider of payment services in the financial market infrastructure sector for our customers in the future.”

SPS generates €100 million revenue from financial processing services, while the merchant service segment is the main contributor with 81% of the total turnover.

SPS provides services to more than 180 banks and financial institutions, with more focusing on the Swiss banking sector.

Under the deal, the current management and more than 1,300 employees of SIX Payment Services will join Worldline.

The employees are serving in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Poland, as well as other locations in Europe.

Worldline CEO Gilles Grapinet said: “Together, we will beneficiate from reinforced industrial scale, synergies and complementarities that will boost our development, our profitability and that will benefit to our customers, shareholders while opening new professional development opportunities for our current and future employees.

“Through this merger, our Company with its intact financial firepower and its unrivalled size in our continent, will be best positioned to continue its strategic endeavor to build in the heart of Europe a new global leader of the payment industry.’’

With around 9,400 employees across the globe, Worldline also provides payments and transactional services to its customers.

Image: SIX location in Hard Turm Park, Zurich. Photo: courtesy of SIX.