Worldpay and US rival Vantiv in £22bn merger
WORLDPAY has formally agreed to merge with US rival Vantiv in a deal valuing Britain’s biggest payments processing group at £9.3billion including debt.
The FTSE 100 company had signalled its support for a tie-up last month but talks have twice been extended as details were thrashed out.
Worldpay has secured an extra seat on the combined board and its investors will hold 43 per cent of the company, up from an initial 41 per cent.
London will be the “international headquarters” of the £22.2billion business, which will be called Worldpay, and Vantiv will seek a secondary listing of its shares on the London Stock Exchange.
Its primary listing will be in New York and its corporate HQ will be in Ohio.
Vantiv is targeting $200million (£154million) annual savings by the end of the third year after the deal completes, with about 63 per cent being achieved in the US.
But there are no job guarantees for Worldpay’s 5,000 employees.
The combined group will process about $1.5trillion in payments and 40 billion transactions through more than 300 payment methods in 146 countries and 126 currencies, generating revenue of over $3.2billion. Worldpay chief executive Philip Jansen, pictured, will be co-CEO with Vantiv’s Charles Drucker. He said yesterday: “This is a merger of two world-class payment companies, which will create a global omni-commerce leader, with substantial opportunities to capitalise on the rapid evolution of payments. The growth of ecommerce and the way consumers expect to transact is increasing complexity for businesses. Our unique combination of scale, innovation, technology and global presence will mean that we can offer more solutions.”
The cash and stock offer values its shares at 397p, up 63.4 per cent from its 240p float price in October 2015.
Private equity owners Bain Capital and Advent International had bought it for about £2billion from RBS in 2010.