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

Paris La Défense — 01 / 04 / 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 3rd largest acquirer with a c. 20% share of transaction volumes processed in Australia[1].

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Financial Corporate

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.

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

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