Exclusive-Worldline attracts early stage interest from private equity firms, sources say

By Amy-Jo Crowley and Mathieu Rosemain

LONDON (Reuters) -French payments group Worldline has attracted early stage takeover interest from private equity firms, as it grapples with a falling share price, profit warnings and leadership change, five people with knowledge of the matter said.

Bain Capital is among private equity firms that have been in the initial stages of evaluating a possible bid for Worldline, two of the people said.

The firm has spoken with advisers to consider different permutations of how a bid could be formulated for Worldline, shares of which have been trading near a record low, one of the people said. The conversations have taken place over recent weeks, a second person said.

Bain Capital, which previously declined to comment, on Tuesday said it is “not looking at Worldline or involved in the reported takeover deliberations”.

Shares in Worldline, which had a market capitalisation of 1.88 billion euros ($1.98 billion) at Friday’s close, rose as much as 21% on Monday after the Reuters report before falling as much as 8% on Tuesday.

Worldline said it did not comment on market rumours.

Bain has experience in the payments sector, holding a 10% stake in and a board seat at Italy’s Nexi alongside peer Advent International. If Bain were to bid for Worldline it would have to consider what to do with its stake in Nexi, the first person said. Citi analysts wrote in a note that Bain’s Nexi stake and board presence “could result in a conflict of interest”.

Deliberations are at an early stage and a formal offer is not certain, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

Discussions about a potential deal come during a challenging period for Worldline. Its shares have fallen by 92% since July, 2021 when investor enthusiasm for payments companies peaked, after recording three profit warnings within a year.

The company has since pursued cost-cutting measures including selling its Mobility and e-Transactional Services (MTS) business and laying off 8% of its workforce, Reuters reported.

Any bid could pose challenges. Worldline shareholders may not want to sell out at a historically low price, some of the people said. Any bidder may need to win over state-owned investment bank Bpifrance, which is a top 10 shareholder in Worldline with a 5% stake, they added.

Credit Agricole also has a 7% stake in Worldline and a partnership targeting merchants, which it may want to maintain, a fifth person familiar with the situation said. Bpifrance and Credit Agricole declined to comment.

The payments sector has seen an increase in dealmaking.

Private equity firm GTCR struck a deal last year to buy Worldpay, the Fidelity National Information Services Inc. unit handling card payments for businesses across the world.

Brookfield has also been in talks to buy Barclays’ payments business, according to reports. The Canadian group also led a consortium to acquire Middle Eastern payments group Network International for $2.8 billion in 2023.

Worldline was spun out of French technology group Atos in 2014, and has grown through acquisitions including merchant acquirer Ingenico in 2020 for 7.8 billion euros. It has been competing against Nexi and other payments companies for assets.

($1 = 0.9518 euros)

(Reporting by Amy-Jo Crowley in London and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris. Additional reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan and Florence Loeve in Paris. Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Susan Fenton, Kirsten Donovan)