Worldline to acquire Cardlink, the leading Network Services
Provider in Greece
Worldline to acquire
Cardlink,the leading
Network Services Provider in Greece
- Acquisition of
92.5% of Cardlink, the
leading Network Services
Provider (NSP) in
Greece, partnering with
the CEO keeping 7.5%
ownership
- Strategic
opportunity to expand Worldline’s
Merchant Services business
in the promising Greek market with
a unique access to
the leading local payment
acceptance network
- Up to 243,000
merchants served and 500 million
transactions managed per year
- €
155 million enterprise
value representing a
c.11x EV/2020
OMDA multiple
Bezons, May
28, 2021
– Worldline [Euronext: WLN],
a global
leader in the payments industry, today
announced the signing of
a bidding agreement for
the acquisition of 92.5% of the share capital of Cardlink, the
leading Network Services Provider in
Greece.
Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s Chairman
and CEO, said: “The acquisition of Cardlink is a
significant development in our Group consolidation strategy in
Europe, extending our merchant services activities towards the
South of Europe. Thanks to this transaction, we indeed benefit from
a leading network services provider position in the fast-growing
Greek market, driven by the ongoing adoption of electronic
payments. This transaction offers attractive development
opportunities for Worldline in the coming years and a strong
footprint to further expand Cardlink presence in Greece.
We are extremely happy to welcome soon circa 110
new Worldline’s colleagues, managers, and payment experts, led by
George Drimiotis, Cardlink CEO who will remain shareholder of
Cardlink alongside Worldline and will be in charge, within our
Group, of pursuing the fast development of our business in Greece
with the full support of our Merchant Services organization.
As the European leader in payments, we keep
executing our strategic roadmap with a focus on value-creative
consolidation opportunities to enhance Worldline scale, reach and
direct presence in a growing number of countries .”
George
Drimiotis,
Cardlink’s CEO, said: “This is a
very important day for our company. We are very excited to become
part of the Worldline Group. This development will strengthen our
positioning in the Greek market as the leading player in the
evolution of the payments business and give us access to products
and services that will enhance our offering and deliver more value
to our merchant and bank customers.“
Greece: an attractive payment market
With a cash penetration that remains high and a
card transaction rate per capita more than twice below European
countries average, the Greek market shows attractive growth
opportunities with a growing addressable market driven by the shift
from cash to card and electronic payment adoption. These favorable
dynamics will continue thanks to strong underlying trends such as a
positive macroeconomic environment (GDP growth, drop in
unemployment, and regulations encouraging electronic payment),
PSD2, open banking development (Banks connection to large
ecosystems through APIs), and evolution of payment product offering
(integrated POS, e-invoicing or advanced analytics).
Furthermore, the online and e-commerce
development offers a strong growth potential with increased
internet access for citizens over the past five years, rapidly
transforming consumer behavior towards digital economy and online
shopping becoming a standard in consumer habits, further boosted by
Covid-19 related lockdowns.
As an additional very compelling characteristic,
it is reminded that tourism is one of the most important sectors of
the Greek economy and a key pillar of its economic growth. With
more than 34 million tourists in 2019, Greece has established
itself as one of the most visited countries in Europe and in the
world for years. This represents a very attractive feature of the
Greek payment market offering numerous additional growth
opportunities in a post-Covid context by leveraging the very rich
Worldline portfolio of travel and hospitality solutions.
Acquisition of Cardlink, the leading Network
Services Provider
Founded in 2004, Cardlink is the leading Greek
Network Services Provider (NSP) with an above 240,000 POS fleet
(46% of POS transactions), managing c. 500 million of transactions
a year (53% MSV market share). The company also provides more than
10,000 online merchants with strong value-added services through
the Cardlink check-out offering.
Cardlink is a well-recognized and regarded
payment acceptance leader in Greece with:
- The largest multi-acquiring POS
platform acceptance network;
- A long-term relationship with major
systemic banks in Greece among which Alpha Bank and Eurobank,
and;
- A strong and experienced management
team.
Strategic rationale
In this rapidly changing industry, driven by the
customers’ adoption of numerous and innovative payment methods,
Cardlink is the ideal cornerstone to leverage Worldline payment
offering and value-added services capabilities in order to provide
the best customer proposition and user experience across all
segments in Greece.
The leading position of Cardlink coupled with
Worldline’s global scale, best-in-class technologies, and payment
expertise will allow the entity to grow revenue at a double-digit
rate in the coming years. This accelerated growth rate will be
delivered through POS acceptance deployment (white labels and
Android offering), platform and processing leverage with main Greek
banks, value-added services offering enlargement (analytics,
loyalty, wallets), and one-stop-shop offering implementation
(payment aggregator go-to-market).
This acquisition represents a privileged
opportunity for Worldline to strongly expand its Merchant Services
activities in this attractive European market. Worldline intends to
further develop the longstanding partnerships of Cardlink with key
local acquiring banks which are benefitting from its leading POS
acceptance capabilities, its direct access to an existing and
high-quality merchants’ portfolio, while generating significant
growth opportunities fueled by increasing card penetration and
online capabilities.
Furthermore, a robust integration and
development program will be implemented at closing to further
improve profitability rate through operating leverage and costs
efficiency.
Impacts of the transaction on Worldline
The key financial impacts of the newly acquired
entity on Worldline are the following:
- Additional annual revenue of c. €
40 million at closing with expected double-digit organic growth
CAGR over the next 4 years;
- OMDA margin of c. 35% expected at
closing with upside potential driven by revenue growth and
operating leverage;
- Estimated cash-out of c. € 130
million at closing (for 92.5% ownership), preserving Worldline’s
financial flexibility and based on an c.11x EV/2020 OMDA
multiple;
- Investment of the CEO that will
keep a 7.5% ownership in Cardlink;
- Customary minority buy-back
mechanism through a call option exercisable by Worldline (5 years
after closing), and;
- Closing expected in H2 2021,
subjected to satisfaction of customary condition precedent.
Forthcoming events
- July 27,
2021 H1
2021 results
- October 19,
2021 Q3 2021
revenue
Contacts
Investor Relations
Laurent Marie+33 7 84 50 18
90laurent.marie@ingenico.com
Benoit d’Amécourt+33 6 75 51 41
47benoit.damecourt@worldline.com
Communication
Sandrine van der Ghinst+32 499 585
380sandrine.vanderghinst@worldline.com
Hélène Carlander+33 7 72 25 96
04helene.carlander@worldline.com
About Worldline
Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader
in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player
worldwide. With its global reach and its commitment to innovation,
Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks
and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators,
government agencies and industrial companies in all sectors.
Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries,
Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and secure
solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business
growth wherever they are. Services offered by Worldline in the
areas of Merchant Services; Terminals, Solutions & Services;
Financial Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services
include domestic and cross-border commercial acquiring, both
in-store and online, highly-secure payment transaction processing,
a broad portfolio of payment terminals as well as e-ticketing and
digital services in the industrial environment. In 2020 Worldline
generated a proforma revenue of 4.8 billion euros.
worldline.com
Worldline’s corporate sense of purpose (“raison
d’être”) is to design and operate leading digital payment and
transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and
reinforce trust and security in our societies. We make them
environmentally friendly, widely accessible and support social
transformation.
Disclaimer
This document contains forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including
references, concerning the Group's expected growth and
profitability in the future which may significantly impact the
expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements.
These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the
control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market
conditions or competitors’ behaviors. Any forward-looking
statements made in this document are statements about Worldline’s
beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such.
Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to
Worldline’s plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events,
future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information
that is not historical information. Actual events or results may
differ from those described in this document due to a number of
risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2020
Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorité des marchés
financiers (AMF) on April 13, 2021 under the filling number:
D.21-0303.
Worldline does not undertake, and specifically
disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any
of the information above except as otherwise required by law.
This document is disseminated for information
purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a
solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities in the United
States or any other jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered or
sold in the United States unless they have been registered under
the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities
Act”) or the securities laws of any U.S. state, or are exempt from
registration. The securities that may be offered in any transaction
have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities
Act or the securities laws of any U.S. state and Worldline does not
intend to make a public offering of any such securities in the
United States.
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