Worldline S.A. is buying French rival Ingenico S.A. for $8.6 billion (7.8 billion euros) in a stock and cash deal that will create the world's fourth largest payments firm. 

Ingenico shareholders will get 11 Worldline shares and $177.40 (160.5) in cash for every seven Ingenico shares, representing a premium of 24% over the past month's weighted average closing price of Ingenico. 

The combined company will provide payment services to one million merchants and 1,200 financial institutions worldwide. The firm would have pro forma revenue of $5.85 billion (5.3 billion euros) 20,000 employees in a total of 50 countries. 

"I am proud to announce that today is a great day for Worldline and for Ingenico, and more widely for our payment industry: Together we create the European world class leader in digital payments," Gilles Grapinet, chairman and CEO of Worldline, said in a joint press release. 

"Over the past decade, through several transformational acquisitions and partnerships, we have repositioned Ingenico as a key player of the payment ecosystem," Nicolas Huss, Ingenico CEO, said in the release. "In that journey, 2019 has been a key step change with the execution of our new strategic plan via a more agile, efficient and customer-centric organization."

Grapinet will serve as CEO of the combined firm, while Ingenico chairman Bernard Bourigeaud will serve as chairman of the company.

The deal has the unanimous support of both companies' boards of directors as well as key shareholders, including Six Group and Atos for Worldline and Bpifrance for Ingenico. 


 

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