French payment systems operator Worldline has purchased local POS terminal manufacturer Ingenico for EUR 7.8 billion.

Bloomchain.ru reports that according to the companies’ joint press statement, the merger will produce a payment system operator that is going to be the largest in Europe and the 4th largest in the world.

Worldline is part of the French corporation Atos, which specializes in IT consulting, system integration, outsourcing of business processes, and server manufacturing.

The company works in three areas: merchant services, processing of digital transactions, and development of software for financial organizations. It has a staff of over 11,000 people.

In 2019, Worldline had revenue of EUR 2.382 billion.

Ingenico was founded in 1980. The main area of its activity is production of POS terminals and development of payment solutions based on the terminals.

The company manufactures over 9 million terminals annually. Most of its clients are banks, including Russian banks such as Sberbank and VTB.

In 2019, Ingenico had revenue of EUR 3.370 billion.

The two companies expect the merged enterprise to serve nearly 1 million sellers worldwide and generate revenue of around EUR 5.3 billion.

Worldline will hold 65% of shares in the merged company and have its head Gilles Grapinet as the Director General. Ingenico gets 35% of the shares.

The sides plan to close the deal in the third quarter of 2020, as they currently wait for the regulators’ approval.

“It is extremely important for Europe to have a payment company that is capable of competing with global leaders in high-tech industry,” said Gilles Grapinet.

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