Payments company Worldline announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring SIX Payment Services, a unit of Swiss stock market operator SIX Group, for €2.3 billion. The amount will mostly be paid out in shares, with €0.2 billion in cash, and the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. According to the terms of the agreement, SIX will become a 27% shareholder of Worldline, with IT corporation Atos retaining its 51% majority. The combined group will grow by around 1,600 SIX Payment Services employees, and is expected to see a rise in revenue by around 30%, the statement said.
"Together, we will beneficiate from reinforced industrial scale, numerous synergies and complementarities that will boost our development, our profitability and that will at the same time, enlarge significantly our offerings to our customers, strongly benefit to our shareholders while opening new professional development opportunities for our all our employees. Through this merger, our Company with its intact financial firepower and its unrivaled size in our continent, will be better positioned than ever to continue its strategic endeavor to build, in the heart of Europe, a new global leader of the payment industry," said Gilles Grapinet, Worldline CEO.
Following the announcement, Worldline's shares soared 5.53% at 11:30 am CET.