United Kingdom payment processor WorldPay is to press ahead with a flotation on the London Stock Exchange, snubbing a potential £6.6 billion takeover offer from French outfit Ingenico.
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“Worldpay has been transformed into a global leader in payments since it became an independent company in 2010”.
The global payments company processes roughly 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions a day, across 326 payment methods in 126 currencies across 146 countries, serving individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses.
The announcement, which pushed Ingenico’s shares up over 11% at the open of Paris trading to €111.50 ($127.33), comes after a protracted round of bidding, in which the French company reportedly beat both German payment peer Wirecard AG and a private equity consortium of Blackstone Group LP and Hellman & Friedman LLC.
The company was spun out of Royal Bank of Scotland in 2009 as part of European Union conditions on the bank’s state bailout and bought by private equity groups Bain Capital and Advent worldwide .
“It will enable us to access new capital for growth, augment our global proposition and further enhance our ability to serve customers across the world”, he declared. It has over 400,000 customers globally.
“We are extremely proud of what has been achieved through the dedication and talent of Worldpay’s approximately 4,500 colleagues and are optimistic for the future of the company”.
In 2014, Worldpay’s net revenue was £863.4 million and underlying Ebitda was £374.7 million.
Adding to Mr Jansen’s sentiments, Sir Michael Rake, Chairman of Worldpay, said: “Worldpay is led by an experienced management team with a clear understanding of the market and its trajectory and has demonstrated an impressive track record of sustained growth …”
It intends to raise about £890m from the offer to help reduce debt, recruit more staff and fund expansion in what is set to be the biggest initial public offering in London this year.
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It plans to pay 20-30 percent of its profits after tax in dividends to shareholders, starting with an interim dividend for 2016.
