Worldline Acquires Ingenico to Become “European World-Class Leader in Digital Payments”

Two European rivals are coming together to form one of the largest payment service platforms globally. Financial services company Worldline is set to acquire point-of-sale provider Ingenico in a deal that values Ingenico at $8.6 billion and elevates the combined brand to the fourth-largest payments firm in the world, according to a press release.

Slated to close in third quarter of 2020 with Worldline CEO Giles Grapinet leading the combined company as CEO and Ingenico Chairman Bernard Bourigeaud as non-executive chairman, this deal consists of 81% stock and 19% cash.

“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,” said Grapinet in the press release.

“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,” he continued.

Ingenico currently controls 37% of the global market, according to TechCrunch.

“The combination of Worldline and Ingenico offers a unique opportunity to create the undisputed European champion in payments on par with the largest international players. This transaction comes at the time of accelerating consolidation of the industry and I am convinced that the joined forces of both leaders will deeply transform the industry,” said Bourigeaud in the same release.

The consolidation referenced by Bourigeaud is a prominent theme in the fintech industry today. Some examples include First Data and Fiserv, Global Payments merger with TSYS and the FIS merger with Worldpay, just to name a few.