Payments giant Worldline to buy rival Ingenico in $8.6 billion deal as fintech competition heats up
Two European giants in the payments space are set to combine to create the industry's fourth-largest player.

France's Worldline said it would buy domestic rival Ingenico in a deal consisting of 81% stock and 19% cash. The transaction gives Ingenico an implied equity value of 7.8 billion euros ($8.6 billion), Worldline said in a statement, representing a roughly 17% premium on Ingenico's closing price on Friday.

The combined company would create the fourth biggest payments firm in the world, Worldline said, with projected 2019 net revenues of 5.3 billion euros and operating margins of 1.2 billion euros. Worldline expects the deal to create cost savings of 250 million euros over the next four years.

Under a primary tender offer, Ingenico shareholders are to receive 11 shares of Worldline and 160.5 euros in cash in exchange for seven Ingenico shares. There would also be a secondary offer that gives Ingenico investors 56 Worldline shares for 29 Ingenico shares, translating into an offer price of 123.10 per Ingenico share based on Friday's market close.

Worldline CEO Gilles Grapinet will lead the combined company as CEO while Ingenico Chairman Bernard Bourigeaud is expected to be appointed non-executive chairman.

Grapinet said the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, would help create a "world-class leader" in Europe's digital payments sector, calling it a "landmark transaction for the industrial consolidation of European payments."