Worldline acquires 92,5% of the leading network services provider in Greece for € 130 million

Strategic opportunity to expand Worldline’s Merchant Services business in the promising Greek market with a unique access to the leading local payment acceptance network. Up to 243,000 merchants served and 500 million transactions managed per year. € 155 million enterprise value representing a c.11x EV/2020 OMDA multiple.

Worldline, a global leader in the payments industry, today announced the signing of a bidding agreement for the acquisition of 92.5% of the share capital of Cardlink, the leading Network Services Provider in Greece.

Founded in 2004, Cardlink has a fleet of over 240,000 POS (46% of POS transactions), the largest multi-acquiring POS platform acceptance network in Greece, managing c. 500 million of transactions a year (53% MSV market share). The company also provides more than 10,000 online merchants with strong value-added services through the Cardlink check-out offering.

With a cash penetration that remains high and a card transaction rate per capita more than twice below European countries average, the Greek market shows attractive growth opportunities with a growing addressable market driven by the shift from cash to card and electronic payment adoption.

As an additional very compelling characteristic, it is reminded that tourism is one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy and a key pillar of its economic growth. With more than 34 million tourists in 2019, Greece has established itself as one of the most visited countries in Europe and in the world for years.

„This represents a very attractive feature of the Greek payment market offering numerous additional growth opportunities in a post-Covid context by leveraging the very rich Worldline portfolio of travel and hospitality solutions,” the company says.

The leading position of Cardlink coupled with Worldline’s global scale, best-in-class technologies, and payment expertise „will allow the entity to grow revenue at a double-digit rate in the coming years”, the company added.

This accelerated growth rate will be delivered through POS acceptance deployment (white labels and Android offering), platform and processing leverage with main Greek banks, value-added services offering enlargement (analytics, loyalty, wallets), and one-stop-shop offering implementation (payment aggregator go-to-market).

Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s Chairman and CEO, said: “The acquisition of Cardlink is a significant development in our Group consolidation strategy in Europe, extending our merchant services activities towards the South of Europe. Thanks to this transaction, we indeed benefit from a leading network services provider position in the fast-growing Greek market, driven by the ongoing adoption of electronic payments. This transaction offers attractive development opportunities for Worldline in the coming years and a strong footprint to further expand Cardlink presence in Greece.

As the European leader in payments, we keep executing our strategic roadmap with a focus on value-creative consolidation opportunities to enhance Worldline scale, reach and direct presence in a growing number of countries .”

Impacts of the transaction on Worldline

The key financial impacts of the newly acquired entity on Worldline are the following:

. Additional annual revenue of c. € 40 million at closing with expected double-digit organic growth CAGR over the next 4 years;

. OMDA margin of c. 35% expected at closing with upside potential driven by revenue growth and operating leverage;

. Estimated cash-out of c. € 130 million at closing (for 92.5% ownership), preserving Worldline’s financial flexibility and based on an c.11x EV/2020 OMDA multiple;

. Investment of the CEO that will keep a 7.5% ownership in Cardlink;

. Customary minority buy-back mechanism through a call option exercisable by Worldline (5 years after closing), and;

Closing expected in H2 2021, subjected to satisfaction of customary condition precedent.