Third quarter 2018 revenue

Bezons — 22 / 10 / 2021

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, today announced its revenue for the third quarter of 2018.

La Défense
  • A very solid Q3
  • Revenue: € 411 million
  • Up +6.3% organically
  • Update on SIX Payment Services acquisition:
  • Combined General Meeting of Shareholders convened for November 30, 2018
  • “Day-1 Readiness” pre-integration program well on track
  • All 2018 objectives confirmed

 

Gilles Grapinet, Worldline CEO said: “Worldline reports today a very solid third quarter. Organic revenue growth reached +6.3%, perfectly in line with the target set for the full year, benefitting from the dynamism of our sales activity and the market success of our key innovative offerings.

Regarding the strategic acquisition of SIX Payment Services, I am particularly happy to announce that our Board of Directors decided to convene a Combined General Meeting of Shareholders to approve the proposed merger on November 30, 2018, which is approximately one month ahead of the calendar that was initially contemplated thanks to the exemplary cooperation between the two companies, notably for the necessary regulatory approvals.

While a strong priority is currently given to the successful completion of this acquisition and the intense preparation of the integration, Worldline keeps monitoring as usual all potential value creative acquisition opportunities in the medium term in Europe.”

For the analysis of the Group’s performance, revenue for the third quarter of 2018 (and for the first nine months of 2018) is compared with revenue for the third quarter of 2017 (and the first nine months of 2017) at constant scope and exchange rates and restated for IFRS 15. Performance for the third quarter and for the first nine months of 2018, on a like-for-like basis compared with last year, was as follows:

2018 third quarter and first nine months revenue

  Revenue Q3
     
In € million Q3 2018Q3 2017*% Organic Growth
Merchant Services 142.4136.0+4.70%
Financial Services 188.5175.5+7.40%
Mobility & e-Transactional Services 79.875.0+6.50%
Worldline 410.7386.5+6.30%
     
* At constant scope and Sept 2018 YTD average exchange rates, restated for IFRS 15  
  Revenue September YTD
     
In € million Sep YTD 2018Sep YTD 2017*% Organic Growth
Merchant Services  429.8411.3+4.50%
Financial Services 560.2521.9+7.30%
Mobility & e-Transactional Services 239.4227.3+5.30%
Worldline 1 ,229.301 ,160.50+5.90%
     
* At constant scope and Sept 2018 YTD average exchange rates, restated for IFRS 15  

During the third quarter of 2018, Worldline’s revenue reached € 410.7 million, increasing by +6.3% organically compared with the third quarter of 2017, perfectly in line with the objectives set for the full year.

Over the first nine months of 2018, Worldline’s revenue was € 1,229.3 million, up +5.9% organically.

Merchant Services

Merchant Services revenue stood at € 142.4 million during the third quarter of 2018, growing organically by €+6.4 million or +4.7% at constant scope and exchange rates.

  • Growth in Merchant Payment Services was fuelled by Commercial Acquiring, which benefitted from a positive product mix. In India, business trends were strong with increasing volumes. Also, transaction numbers grew fast in the Netherlands, in Germany and in the Czech Republic. This good performance of Commercial Acquiring was nonetheless partly offset by the temporary slowdown, as anticipated, of Payment Terminal Services, however less pronounced than in Q2 thanks to the successful commercial development of the new unattended payment terminal VALINA.
  • Merchant Digital Services slightly grew, thanks to a higher Digital Retail activity in the United Kingdom.

Merchant Services revenue growth was +4.5% organically over the first nine months of 2018, reaching € 429.8 million.

Financial Services

Q3 2018 revenue for Financial Services reached € 188.5 million, up +7.4% organically (€+13.0 million).

  • Revenue in Issuing Processing grew, driven by an increased volume of card transactions as well as a strong increase in authentication services;
  • Accounts Payments was also particularly dynamic during the period, benefitting from good SEPA payment transaction volumes, strong transaction growth on the Dutch iDeal scheme (+39%), as well as from robust project and non-recurring activities for Instant Payments and SWIFT payments; 
  • Acquiring Processing revenue grew, thanks to more authorization volume and projects; and
  • Digital Banking was roughly stable during the quarter, with the start of the delivery of new digital banking wins in France and contracts related to Access to Account (PSD2).

Over the first nine months of 2018, revenue for Financial Services was € 560.2 million, up +7.3% organically.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services

Revenue in Mobility & e-Transactional Services was € 79.8 million, increasing by +6.5% or €+4.9 million.

  • Trusted Digitization grew high single digit, benefitting from:
    • A good activity in France with various government agencies;
    • Deployment of Worldline Track & Trace solutions in the context of the implementation of the EU Tobacco Product Directive to secure the proper tax payments in the various member states; and
    • Favorable business trends in particular in healthcare transactional services;
  • Strong sales were recorded in e-Consumer & Mobilitythanks notably to implementations of Worldline digital omni-channel consumer engagement platform “Contact” for large French banks; and
  • Revenue growth ine-Ticketing was positive thanks to the ramp up of Worldline Tap2Use contracts in France and good business trends in Latin America, still partly offset by lower project revenue in the United Kingdom.

Over the first nine months of 2018, revenue for Mobility & e-Transactional Services was € 239.4 million, +5.3% compared with the similar period last year.

Third quarter 2018 commercial activity and key achievements

Merchant Services

In online payment, commercial developments with Digital River World Payments acquired end of 2017 are materializing fast, in particular in the travel industry. New contracts were signed with FASTBOOKING, a centralized hotel booking engine for 4,500 hotels in 90 countries, and with HotelsPro, a hotel booking engine with offices in 40 countries. Notably, Worldline will provide for these clients an end-to-end online payment solution with maximum payment methods and like for like settlement currencies, enabling a reduction of chargebacks and transaction costs.

Business in India remains strong and as of September 30, 2018, Worldline India manages close to 1.4 million payment acceptance points. An important contract was renewed with Axis Bank for a period of four years.

Last, significant orders have been received for the newly launched VALINA unattended payment terminal, in particular in the United Kingdom with SV365 Technologies.

Financial Services

Commercial activity in Financial Services has been dynamic, particular with the confirmation of the market appetite for strong authentication solutions, with 4 new clients in France, Germany and Luxemburg having chosen Worldline Trusted Authentication services.

Bank’s demand for PSD2 compliant access to account platforms is increasing. To date, Worldline Digital Banking Platform has been sold to 16 European banks.

Regarding Instant Payments, Banco BPM has selected Worldline’s CRISTAL software for the implementation of its Instant Payments platform and equensWorldline will process the Instant Payments back-office transactions of the Dutch bank KNAB. In total, 18 contracts related to Instant Payments have been signed, including 8 new contracts during Q3 2018.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services

Regarding eConsumer & Mobility, Worldline omni-channel consumer engagement “Contact” platform continues to sell remarkably well, notably winning new contracts in Great Britain with an insurance company and in France with a new major bank to provide a multi-channel solution with artificial intelligence, semantic analysis, biometry and legal archiving.

In e-Ticketing, Worldline will provide its Mobile point-of-sale system “@Station” to a large UK rail franchise. @Station will be used by station staff on and around the concourse to sell tickets and to resolve faster customer queries, improving customer satisfaction. Also, following the very fast start of the service with the tramway lines, Keolis Dijon Mobilités has agreed with Worldline on the extension of Tap2Use, Worldline Open Payment solution for public transport network, for the metropolis main bus lines.

Lastly, in Trusted Digitization, the Worldline Track & Trace solution has reinforced its position in the rollout of European Tobacco Product Directive by signing new contracts.

2018 e-Payments challenge

In September, Worldline organized its 2018 e-Payments Challenge, associating for the first time an international selection of 15 Fintechs and 7 of Worldline most prominent clients, in order to co-invent solutions to meet concrete business needs. All innovative solutions developed combine Fintech expertise and Worldline’s portfolio of innovative offerings through open APIs.

Seven Fintechs were distinguished for their solutions and there were two ultimate Grand Prix winners: CopSonic for its ultra-sound based payment solution and iBilly for a payment technology based on facial recognition.

For more information, please refer to the ad-hoc press release available on worldline.com.

Backlog & weighted pipeline of commercial opportunities

Backlog remained high at € 2.6 billion.

The weighted pipeline of commercial opportunities remains healthy, with notably a +70% year-on-year increase in value.

Update on SIX Payment Services strategic acquisition
Day 1 Readiness program well on track

The Board of Directors of Worldline today convened an Combined General Meeting of Shareholders in order for the shareholders to be proposed to approve on November 30, 2018 the merger with SIX Payment Services.

Regarding pre-integration activities between Worldline and SIX Payment Services, 22 integration preparation streams have been launched using Worldline’s integration know-how and methods, tightly monitored to ensure without any delay « Day 1 Readiness » at closing.

2018 Objectives fully confirmed

Worldline confirms all the objectives for 2018 as stated in the February 20, 2018 press release.

Revenue: The Group expects to achieve an organic growth of its revenue, at constant scope and exchange rates, of between 5% and 7%.

OMDA (Operating Margin before Depreciation and Amortization): The Group targets an OMDA margin between 22% and 23%.

Free cash flow: The Group has the ambition to generate a free cash flow of between € 200 million and € 210 million.

As a reminder, these 2018 objectives do not include any impact from SIX Payment Services. This impact will be communicated at a later stage.

Appendix:

Reconciliation of Q3 2017 statutory revenue to Q3 2017 revenue at constant scope and exchange rates

For the analysis of the Group’s performance, revenue for Q3 2018 is compared with Q3 2017 revenue at constant scope and foreign exchange rates and restated from IFRS 15 impacts.

Reconciliation between the Q3 2017 reported revenue and the Q3 2017 revenue at constant scope and foreign exchange rates and restated for IFRS 15 impacts are presented below (per Global Business Lines):

  Revenue
        
In € million Q3 2017IFRS 15Internal transfersScope effectsExchange rates effectsQ3 2017*
Merchant Services128.5-0.1-0.4+9.8-1.7136.0
Financial Services171.0-3.4 +7.7+0.3175.5
Mobility & e-Transactional Services86.2-8.0+0.4+0.0-3.675.0
Worldline 385.6-11.6-+17.5-5.1386.5
        
* At constant scope and Sept 2018 YTD average exchange rates, restated for IFRS 15 

IFRS 15 accounting standard “Revenue from contracts with customers” is applicable from January 1, 2018 onwards and its impact on the Q3 2017 revenue is –3.0%

Internal transfers correspond to transfer and refocus of some contracts between Merchant Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services

Scope effects correspond to:

  • In Merchant Services: addition of Q3 2017 revenue of MRL Posnet and Digital River World Payments;
  • In Financial Services: addition of Q3 2017 revenue of First data Baltics and Diamis.

Exchange rate effects correspond mainly to the depreciation of the Argentinian Peso and of the Indian Rupee versus the Euro.

The 2017 figures presented in this document are based on the constant scope and foreign exchange rates data and restated from IFRS 15 impacts.

Reconciliation of September 2017 year-to-date statutory revenue to 2017 year-to-date revenue at constant scope and exchange rates

  Revenue
        
In € million Sep YTD 2017IFRS 15Internal transfersScope effectsExchange rates effectsSep YTD 2017*
Merchant Services389.3-0.6-1.3+29.9-5.8411.3
Financial Services516.1-7.8 +14.3-0.7521.9
Mobility & e-Transactional Services258.3-20.8+1.3+0.0-11.6227.3
Worldline 1 ,163.7-29.2-+44.2-18.21, 160.5
        
* At constant scope and Sept 2018 YTD average exchange rates, restated for IFRS 15 

IFRS 15 accounting standard “Revenue from contracts with customers” is applicable from January 1, 2018 onwards and its impact on the September YTD 2017 revenue is –2.5%.

Internal transfers correspond to transfer and refocus of some contracts between Merchant Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services.

Scope effects correspond to:

  • In Merchant Services: addition of September YTD 2017 revenue of MRL Posnet and Digital River World Payments, deduction of Q1 2017 revenue from Paysquare Belgium;
  • In Financial Services: addition of September YTD 2017 revenue of First data Baltics and Diamis, and deduction of H1 2017 revenue from Cheque Service.

Exchange rate effects correspond mainly to the depreciation of the Argentinian Peso and of Asian currencies (mostly the Indian Rupee) versus the euro.

Conference call

Worldline’s CEO Gilles Grapinet, along with Deputy CEO Marc-Henri Desportes and Chief Financial Officer Eric Heurtaux, will comment on the Group revenue for the third quarter of 2018 on Monday, October 22, 2018 at 6:15pm (CET- Paris).

You can join the webcast of the conference:

  • at worldline.com, in the Investors section
  • by smartphones or tablets through the scan of :

Webcast direct link: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/qzbatu93

  • by telephone with the following dial-in:

United Kingdom: +44 (0)330 336 9105
United States of America: +1 929-477-0402
France: +33 (0)1 76 77 22 74
Germany: +49 (0)69 2222 25574
Code: 2947751

After the conference, a replay of the webcast will be available at worldline.com, in the Investors section.

Forthcoming events

November 30, 2018        Combined General Meeting of Shareholders

February 20, 2019        Full year 2018 results

April 24, 2019        First quarter 2019 revenue

May 23, 2019        Shareholder’s Annual General Meeting

 

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. Worldline delivers new-generation services, enabling its customers to offer smooth and innovative solutions to the end consumer. Key actor for B2B2C industries, with nearly 45 years of experience, Worldline supports and contributes to the success of all businesses and administrative services in a perpetually evolving market. Worldline offers a unique and flexible business model built around a global and growing portfolio, thus enabling end-to-end support. Worldline activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Mobility & e-Transactional Services and Financial Services including equensWorldline. Worldline employs more than 9,400 people worldwide, with estimated revenue of € 1.6 billion in 2017. Worldline is an Atos company. worldline.com

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 behaviors. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Worldline’ beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Worldline’ 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 2017 Registration Document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on March 21, 2018 under the filling number: D.18-0163, and its update filed with the AMF on August 1, 2018 under the registration number: D.18-0163-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.

Revenue organic growth and OMDA are presented at constant scope and exchange rates, and restated for the impacts of IFRS 15. 2018 objectives have been considered with exchange rates as of December 31, 2017.

Global Business Lines include Merchant Services (in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech republic, France, Germany, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA), Financial Services (in Belgium, China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.), and Mobility & e-Transactional Services (in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, China, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom).

This document does not contain or constitute an offer of Worldline’s shares for sale or an invitation or inducement to invest in Worldline’s shares in France, the United States of America or any other jurisdiction.

 

Related links

David Pierre-Kahn

Head of Investor Relations
Sandrine van der Ghinst

Sandrine van der Ghinst

Group Head of Communication