Worldline, a company engaged in the payment and transactional services industry, has closed the acquisition of Six Payment Services
Image: Six completes stake acquisition in Worldline. Photo: Courtesy of IndypendenZ at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
As part of the transaction, Six has sold its Six Payment Services to Worldline.
As a result of this transaction, which was announced in May this year, Six will take two seats in the Board of Worldline.
The offices of Six Payment Services are now the offices of Worldline, but will continue to operate as ‘Six Payment Services’ trade name until further notice.
The total consideration consists of 49.1 million newly issued Worldline shares (resulting in a 27% stake) and a cash consideration of €283m, subject to customary net debt/cash and working capital adjustments.
Six Payment Services and Worldline complement each other in terms of geography and product offering. The combined company is now expected to become one the largest payment providers across Europe.
The two companies expect to enjoy long-term processing partnership for Swiss debit and ATM transactions and an IT partnership and a joint-facility in west Zurich. The partnership could also result in the joint development and implementation of new technologies.
Last November, Six announced its plans to carve out its cards business with an aim to enter into a strategic partnership. The company stated that the payments industry across Europe was consolidating and players with broad product and geographic offering could gain a competitive edge.
When the deal was announced, 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.
Locher said: “This strategic partnership makes us Europe’s leading and largest provider in one go. In the future, in addition to the existing SIX Payment Services offerings, our customers will also benefit from Worldline’s innovative solutions along the entire value chain of cashless payment transactions.”