Worldline announces the closing of its major strategic commercial acquiring alliance with ANZ Bank in Australia

Worldline announces the closing of its major strategic commercial acquiring alliance with ANZ Bank in Australia

Paris La Défense, April 1^st, 2022 – Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a global leader in the payments industry, today announces the completion of the acquisition of a controlling stake in the commercial acquiring business of ANZ and the creation of a 51%-49% joint-venture controlled by Worldline to operate and develop commercial acquiring services in Australia with ANZ Bank, one of the largest banks in Asia-Pacific and Australia’s 3^rd largest acquirer with a c. 20% share of transaction volumes processed in Australia¹.

Australia is a highly attractive and strategic market for Worldline with favorable dynamics, a sizable and growing addressable market and a high level of readiness and receptiveness towards cashless payment methods. Furthermore, with a cash penetration still high, the Australian market offers an attractive growth opportunity driven by the shift from cash to card.

Similar to Europe in terms of market structure, payment standards and technology, the Australian payment market is large and dynamic. It has a high level adoption of electronic payments and is ranked #4 globally for payment terminals per capita, with consumer use of contactless cards and digital wallets amongst the highest in the world.

The new joint-venture is a unique opportunity for Worldline to significantly expand its merchant acquiring business outside of Europe, with direct access to an existing and high quality merchants’ portfolio, and at the same time to generate significant synergies due to enhanced scale by leveraging the Group’s payment technologies.

The combination of ANZ’s strong market position and Worldline’s global scale, best-in-class technologies and payment expertise will allow the alliance to grow revenue at a double-digit rate in the coming years. This accelerated growth rate will be delivered through cross and up-sell opportunities based on innovative solutions such as digital onboarding, Alternative Payment Methods (APM), fraud detection, online and omnichannel capabilities, while leveraging the existing merchant portfolio.

With annual revenue of c. € 180 million with expected double-digit organic growth CAGR over the next 5 years and an OMDA margin of c. 20% expected at closing, a robust integration and platform development program will be implemented at closing with the objective to reach € 25 million additional OMDA by 2025. The synergy plan is mainly based on the re-use approach of Worldline’s proven payment modules with the implementation of a targeted platform bringing innovative European market standard payment applications in Australia.

Forthcoming events

• April 27, 2022                Q1 2022 revenue
• June 9, 2022                Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting
• July 27, 2022                H1 2022 results
• October 25, 2022        Q3 2022 revenue

Contacts

Investor Relations

Laurent Marie
+33 7 84 50 18 90
laurent.marie@worldline.com

Benoit d’Amécourt
+33 6 75 51 41 47
benoit.damecourt@worldline.com

Communication

Sandrine van der Ghinst
+32 499 585 380
sandrine.vanderghinst@worldline.com

Hélène Carlander
+33 7 72 25 96 04
helene.carlander@worldline.com

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is a global leader in the payments industry and the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and acquirers. Powered by 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and innovative solutions fostering their growth. Services offered by Worldline include instore and online commercial acquiring, highly secure payment transaction processing and numerous digital services. In 2021 Worldline generated a proforma revenue close to 4 billion euros. worldline.com

Worldline’s corporate purpose (“raison d’être”) is to design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. Worldline makes them environmentally friendly, widely accessible, and supports social transformation.

Disclaimer

This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors’ behaviours. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Worldline’s beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Worldline’s plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2020 Universal Registration Document filed with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on April 13, 2021 under the filling number: D.21-0303 and its Amendment filed on July 29, 2021 under the filling number: D. 21-0303-A01.

Worldline does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.

This document is disseminated for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they have been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or the securities laws of any U.S. state, or are exempt from registration. The securities that may be offered in any transaction have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or the securities laws of any U.S. state and Worldline does not intend to make a public offering of any such securities in the United States.

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1 Credit, Debit and Chargecard turnover, ANZ internal and RBA data

Attachment

• Worldline complete its major strategic commercial acquiring alliance with ANZ Bank