Worldline : joins the TOP 5 list of the most sustainable companies within its sector in Europe following an extra-financial assessment by Vigeo Eiris

Bezons, April 11, 2019 - Worldline [Euronext: WLN], the European market leader in payment and transaction services, announces that it has recently joined the restricted TOP 5 of the most sustainable companies of the Software services & IT sector in Europe assessed by the rating agency Vigeo Eiris.

At a global level, the rating places Worldline at 6th position within its industry, from a total of 215 assessed companies. For its second evaluation, Worldline achieved an 8-point improvement compared to 2017, based on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria calculated over 6 domains - Environment, Human Resources, Human Rights, Community Involvement, Business Behavior and Corporate Governance.

This new recognition from Vigeo Eiris highlights the maturity of Worldline's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, which is strongly supported by its TRUST 2020 ambition, and its exemplary practices which consistently address the majority of the most material sustainability challenges of the industry. Worldline has improved its overall performance in this year's ratings, achieving particularly strong scores on key domains including Human Rights, Human Resources, Community involvement and Environment, which all ranked above sector-average.

For example, the 60/100 score achieved by Worldline in the Environment pillar clearly highlights the company's efforts to strengthen its actions in the fight against climate change and to accelerate its transformation to become a low-carbon company. As part of its environmental strategy, Worldline has made a special commitment to:

• reduce its carbon intensity by 2% per year
• double the quota of renewable energies in its energy consumption
• extend the ISO 14001 certification to all its data centers and sites with more than 500 employees
• reach carbon neutrality for all company activities by 2020.

In relation to the Social pillar, Worldline has demonstrated an advanced performance with a score of a 62/100. This reflects the actions successfully undertaken by Worldline as part of its responsible employer strategy. Indeed, Worldline is firmly convinced that its staff is its best asset to reach its current and future business goals, as demonstrated by the advanced 92/100 score for the career management and promotion of employability. Consequently, the company has implemented a wide range of learning & development, internal mobility and career opportunities and programs to ensure its employees' longer term development, motivation and employability. Furthermore, Worldline has achieved a score of 72/100 for the Human Rights domain for its strong and long-term commitments in favor of the freedom of association and expression, the right to privacy and for the non-discrimination.

The improved Vigeo Eiris assessment also enables Worldline to have a better focus on areas of improvement and to adapt and progress its CSR roadmap and priorities. These areas of improvement are focused on the responsible management of reorganizations (score of 27/100), responsible lobbying (score of 12/100), the management of the environmental impact of personnel transportation, respect and management of working hours, improving health and safety conditions and corporate governance. Positive and practical actions have already been implemented within Worldline, particularly within the areas of employees' awareness on work/life balance and the implementation of a global health and safety policy.

Gilles Grapinet, CEO of Worldline, states: «We are proud and very happy having obtained this new recognition of our extra-financial performance by Vigeo Eiris. Joining the TOP 5 of the 45 most sustainable companies within our industry is a superb recognition of the depth our effort towards an evolution of our business model in an increasingly sustainable and socially responsible perspective. We find it an additional motivation and encouragement to remain in the years to come a key player in CSR, capable of successfully meeting the major challenges of a sustainable development of our development models in cashless payments and top notch technology. »

Vigeo Eiris is an independent international provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and services for investors and public & private organisations. We undertake risk assessments and evaluate the level of integration of sustainability factors within the strategy and operations of organisations.

Vigeo Eiris offers a wide range of services:

• For investors: decision-making support covering all sustainable and ethical investment approaches (including ratings, databases, sector analyses, portfolio analyses, structured products, indices and more)
• For companies & organisations: supporting the integration of ESG criteria into business functions and strategic operations (including sustainable bonds, corporate ratings, CSR evaluations and more).

Vigeo Eiris methodology and rating services adhere to the highest quality standards.

With a team of more than 240 experts of 28 different nationalities, Vigeo Eiris is present in Paris, London, Boston, Brussels, Casablanca, Hong Kong, Milan, Montreal, New York, Rabat, Santiago and Stockholm.

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry. With innovation at the core of its DNA, Worldline's core offerings include pan-European and domestic Commercial Acquiring for physical or online businesses, secured payment transaction processing for banks and financial institutions, as well as transactional services in e-Ticketing and for local and central public agencies. Thanks to a presence in 30+ countries, Worldline is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies, delivering cutting-edge digital services. Worldline's activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Financial Services including equensWorldline and Mobility & e-Transactional Services. Worldline employs circa 11,000 people worldwide, with estimated pro forma revenue of circa 2.3 billion euros on a yearly basis. Worldline is an Atos company. worldline.com