Worldline presents its 2018 results and its ambitions for 2019 - 2021

Worldline presents its 2018 results and its ambitions for 2019 - 2021

Worldline 2018 results[1] : All objectives reached

• Revenue: €1,720 million, up +6.2% organically
• OMDA: €391 million, 22.7% of revenue, up +100bp compared with 2017
• Free cash flow: € 207 million, +18%

 

New 2019 – 2021 3-year ambition

• Organic revenue growth: +7% and +8% CAGR vs 2018
• Profitability: OMDA percentage improvement between +400bp and +500bp in 2021, compared with 2018 pro forma
• Free cash flow: € 370 million to € 410 million in 2021,
• representing between +75% and +95% increase compared with 2018
• Maintain priority on European payment consolidation

 

Related links

• Download the presentation
• Download the Press Release as PDF

 

Gilles Grapinet, Worldline CEO said: 
“Today, Worldline reports very solid 2018 results, with all full-year objectives met. I am very proud of our teams, who were able to deliver this performance while actively preparing the integration of SIX Payment Services, which enabled us to launch our new integrated company on December 1st.

Today, leveraging the full benefits from its undisputed European leadership in payment services, Worldline presents its new 3-year plan. For the 2019-2021 period, Worldline intends to accelerate further its profitable growth trajectory extracting fully the benefits of its improved competitive positioning after having doubled in size and geographic reach over the last four years. Our plan will keep an intense commercial focus on large outsourcing deals and new bank alliances, a strong attention to grow online and omni-channel payments and an swift execution of the SIX Payment Services synergy plans.

Based on its recognized track record, Worldline intends to reinforce its position as a premium brand for customers, employees and key talents and is more than ever the long-term payment partner to European banks and merchants. Thanks to its strategic flexibility and proven ability to shape tailor-made M&A transactions, the Group will maintain an absolute priority and focus, in parallel with the SIX Payment Services integration, on the next wave of European payment consolidation opportunities.”

 

 

Worldline 2018 results[1]: All objectives reached

2018 key figures

The 2018 results of the Group include the performance of SIX Payment Services from December 1^st 2018. Taking this change of scope into consideration, revenue and operating margin before depreciation and amortization (OMDA) for 2018 are compared with 2017 revenue and OMDA at constant scope and exchange rates, which are presented in the appendix.

Performance for 2018, on a like-for-like basis compared with 2017 for revenue and OMDA, was as follows:

 

		FY 2018 key figures
In € million		FY 2018 (1)	FY 2017*	% Growth
Revenue*		1,720.2	1,619.3	+6.2%
Operating Margin before Depreciation and Amortization*		391.1	351.8	+11.2%
% of revenue		22.7%	21.7%	+100 bp
Free cash flow		207.5	176.0	+17.9%

 

 * At constant scope and December 2018 YTD average exchange rates and restated from IFRS 15

(1): 2018 results are unaudited and qualified as estimates under R. AMF 2004-04 

 

At constant scope and exchange rates, Worldline revenue stood at € 1,720.2 million representing an organic growth of +6.2% compared with 2017. Revenue growth accelerated as planned during the year, with +6.7% in H2 2018 (+7.0% in the fourth quarter of the year).

The Group’s OMDA improved by +100bp, reaching € 391.1 million or 22.7% of sales, in the upper end of the objective bracket set for the year of between 22% and 23%.

Free cash flow in 2018 was € 207.5 million and increased by +17.9% compared with 2017.

Performance per Global Business Lines

		Revenue				OMDA			OMDA %
In € million		FY 2018 (1)	FY 2017*	% Growth		FY 2018 (1)	FY 2017*		FY 2018 (1)	FY 2017*
Merchant Services		624.3	600.3	+4.0%		132.3	124.9		21.2%	20.8%	+0.4 pt
Financial Services		777.0	722.3	+7.6%		237.1	209.9		30.5%	29.1%	+1.5 pt
Mobility & e-Transactional Services		319.0	296.7	+7.5%		38.8	39.7		12.2%	13.4%	-1.2 pt
Corporate Costs						-17.1	-22.6		-1.0%	-1.4%	+0.4 pt
Worldline		1,720.2	1,619.3	+6.2%		391.1	351.8		22.7%	21.7%	+1.0 pt

* At constant scope and December 2018 YTD average exchange rates and restated from IFRS 15

(1): 2018 results are unaudited and qualified as estimates under R. AMF 2004-04 

Merchant Services

Merchant Services, which represented 36% of Worldline’s revenue, grew by +4.0% organically or €+24.0 million and reached € 624.3 million.

Growth in Merchant Payment Services was primarily driven by Commercial Acquiring. The strong acceleration of Commercial Acquiring was nonetheless partly offset by the temporary slowdown of Payment Terminal Services.

Merchant Services’ OMDA reached € 132.3 million at the end of December or 21.2% of revenue, increasing organically by €+7.5 million (+40 basis points compared with 2017), reflecting the top line performance and the contributive effect of MRL Posnet and former Digital River World Payments integration.

 

Financial Services

Accounting for 45% of total revenue, Financial Services revenue reached € 777.0 million, improving organically by €+54.7 million or +7.6% compared to 2017. All four business divisions contributed to that growth with solid transaction volumes, software license sales and high level of project activities.

Financial Services reached an OMDA of € 237.1 million (30.5% of revenue) representing an organic increase of +150 basis points or €+27.2 million, compared to 2017. This performance was driven by savings in the cost base resulting from the implementation of the synergy plan that started with the integration of equensWorldline and by good business trends in all four business lines.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services

Representing 19% of total revenue, Mobility & e-Transactional Services revenue reached € 319.0 million, increasing by +7.5% organically or €+22.2 million compared to last year. This growth could be achieved thanks primarily to Trusted Digitization and e-Consumer & Mobility.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services OMDA reached € 38.7 million or 12.1% of revenue, decreasing by €-0.9 million or -120 basis points. During the first semester, the OMDA of the Global Business Line was indeed impacted by the investment phase linked to numerous recently won contracts. To cope with the challenges of fast resource ramp-up, a strong productivity improvement plan has been launched mid-year and as a result OMDA percentage improved sequentially by +380 basis points in H2 compared with H1 2018.

 

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow in 2018 was € 207.5 million and increased by +17.9% compared with 2017. This performance was achieved while absorbing most of SIX Payment Services transaction costs and equensWorldline second year of synergy implementation costs.

 

New 2019 – 2021 3-year plan

2021 targets

The Group ambitions to deliver:

• Organic revenue growth: +7% and +8% CAGR vs 2018
• Profitability: OMDA percentage improvement between +400bp and +500bp in 2021, compared with 2018 pro forma of c.21%[2]
• Free cash flow: € 370 million to € 410 million in 2021, representing between +75% and +95% increase compared with 2018

 

To reach its 2021 Ambition the Group will focus on the following levers:

• Leverage Worldline’s size, unique European reach and product excellence in Merchant Services
• Fully deliver the scale benefits of the established European processing market leader
• Bringing payment, high scale processing and regulation expertise to new adjacent markets

 

Merchant Services 3-year plan

Leverage Worldline’s size, unique European reach and product excellence

in Merchant Services

 

Following the acquisition of SIX Payment Services in November 2018, Worldline is now the largest non-bank acquirer in Continental Europe with a market share of circa 10% and a number 3 position for online payment acceptance in Europe. Based on its numerous market leading positions, particularly in Switzerland, Austria and in the Benelux but also in India, the Group’s Merchant services division intends to fully grab the benefits of this enhanced scale and positioning for both physical and online payment services.

 

Leveraging a unique mix of solutions and assets, such as it very solid cross-border acquiring solution, its state-of-the-art omni-channel platform “One Commerce Hub”, or its innovative range of new payment terminals, Worldline anticipates Merchant Services to be the growth engine of the Group with an organic growth rate of high single digit expected over the 2019-2021 period.

 

Over the next three years, Merchant Services OMDA is expected to strongly improve from a low-twenties OMDA percentage in 2018 pro forma to a high-twenties rate in 2021, thanks to the delivery of massive synergies with SIX Payment Services[3] (2), the contribution of the efficiency program TEAM², larger scale and a higher proportion of online payments.

 

Financial services 3-year plan

Fully deliver the scale benefits of the established European processing market leader

 

The 3-year plan of Financial Services intends to fully leverage its undisputed European leadership position, which was further enhanced by the acquisition of the processing activities of SIX Payment Services as well as its unique portfolio of offerings, covering all types of payment processing as well as digital banking and solutions for secured online transactions.

 

On this basis, beyond the benefit from structural transaction volume increase, the Group’s growth in Financial Services is expected to be supported by numerous levers such as:

• Cross selling and up selling on the recently integrated new customer bases;
• Driving proactive sales campaigns to push its highly innovative products and services;
• Delivering a high level of recurring or regulatory driven projects activity, notably in in online and mobile payments, PSD2 compliant secured access to account platforms and instant payment technologies.

 

In addition Worldline intends to maintain a strong commercial focus on new large payment outsourcing contracts with banks, which is proving to be a sustained trend in the market driven by cost optimization policies, necessity for better time to market and reallocation of IT and business priorities within banking communities.

Therefore, and following several quarters of strong revenue growth in the past two years, Worldline now anticipates that Financial Service revenue should grow above +5% over the 2019 – 2021 period versus the low single digit assumption that was retained for the previous 3-year plan.

On top of the strong synergies expected from the Merger with SIX Payment Services[4] and the profitability enhancement coming from TEAM², Financial Services’ OMDA should also benefit from a higher operating leverage and from the phase 2 of the synergy plan of equensWorldline, which targets another 15 million euro run rate OMDA improvement by 2021. Altogether, the Group is targeting Financial Services’ OMDA to improve from the high twenties pro forma to the low thirties in 2021.

 

Mobility& e-Transactional Services 3-year plan

Bringing payment, high scale processing and regulation expertise

to new adjacent markets

 

Expected growth in Mobility & e-Transactional Services relies on a solid pipeline of opportunities, notably for open payment technologies in public transport, track & trace solutions and consumer engagement platforms. The Group intends to strongly promote these promising assets to its large banking and merchant customer base. It also intends to benefit from its larger geographical footprint, notably in the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) region and Central & Eastern Europe. Together with growing volumes on existing platforms, these trends will sustain Mobility & e-Transactional Services growth rate, expected within group average over the period 2019-2021.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services OMDA percentage is expected to improve gradually towards 15% to 17% through a stronger focus on large scale platforms, optimization of delivery models and more transactions on existing platforms.

 

Strategic priority for the European Payment Industry consolidation

Benefitting from its European intimacy and its particularly solid financial profile, the Group intends to keep participating with an absolute priority focus on the consolidation of the European payment market, as it has already done in Merchant Services with the recent transformative acquisitions of SIX Payment Services and in Financial Processing through the creation of equensWorldline.

As demonstrated over the last 4 years, Worldline has a unique capability to shape tailor-made transactions, which are fitting the particular situations or expectations of the European banks and banking communities when they contemplate their strategic options for the future of their payment assets and activities. This know-how is reinforced by the strategic flexibility of Worldline and its proven track record of value creation for the banks both as customers and shareholders, while taking into consideration their specific regulatory environment or governance constraints.

Given the numerous opportunities for further European payment industry consolidation, notably in some of the largest European economies; Worldline confirms its absolute priority and focus devoted on its M&A strategy over in the next 3 years.

 

2019 Objectives

 

Fully in line with 2021 ambition, the 2019 objectives are as follows:

 

Revenue

The Group expects to achieve an organic growth of its revenue, at constant scope and exchange rates, of between 6% to 8%.

OMDA

The Group targets an OMDA margin between 23% and 24%[5].

 

Free cash flow

The Group has the ambition to generate a free cash flow of between € 275 million and € 290 million including synergy implementation costs.

Presentation and webcast

The presentation will be posted today at 14:30 CET on our website, at worldline.com, in the Investors section.

The presentation of the “Worldline 3-year Plan” by Gilles Grapinet, Chief Executive Officer, Marc-Henri Desportes, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Eric Heurtaux, Chief Financial Officer, which will be held as part of Atos Investor Day, will be live webcasted today on the respective Atos and Worldline website at 3pm CET.

You can join the webcast of the presentations on atos.net and Worldline.com, in the Investors section.

 

Appendices

Statutory to constant scope and exchange rates reconciliation

 

		Revenue
In € million		FY 2017	IFRS 15	Internal transfers	Scope effects	Exchange rates effects	FY 2017*
Merchant Services		535.5	-0.7	-1.8	+75.9	-8.6	600.3
Financial Services		708.3	-9.2		+23.9	-0.7	722.3
Mobility & e-Transactional Services		350.0	-31.7	+1.8	-0.0	-23.4	296.7
Worldline		1,593.9	-41.5	0.0	99.8	-32.8	1,619.3

* At constant scope and December 2018 YTD average exchange rates and restated from IFRS 15

 

		OMDA
In € million		FY 2017	IFRS 15	Internal transfers	Scope effects	Exchange rates effects	FY 2017*
Merchant Services		112.3		-0.3	+16.0	-3.1	124.9
Financial Services		202.1			+8.0	-0.3	209.9
Mobility & e-Transactional Services		43.6		+0.3	+0.0	-4.2	39.7
Corporate costs		-22.6					-22.6
Worldline		335.4	0	+0.0	+24.0	-7.6	351.8

 

* At constant scope and December 2018 YTD average exchange rates

• IFRS 15 accounting standard “Revenue from contracts with customers” is applicable from January 1, 2018 onwards and its impact on the FY 2017 revenue is –2.6%
•  Internal transfers correspond to transfer and refocus of some contracts between Merchant Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services
• Scope effects on revenue and OMDA correspond to:

o    In Merchant Services:

§  addition for SIX Payment Services (1 month), MRL Posnet and Digital River World Payments (10 months) and

§  deduction for Paysquare Belgium (3 months)

o    In Financial Services:

§  addition for SIX Payment Services (1 month), First Data Baltics (9 months) and Diamis (12 months)

§  and deduction for Chèques Services (6 months)

• Exchange rate effects correspond mainly to the depreciation of the Argentinian Peso and of Asian currencies.

 

Forthcoming event

February 20, 2019    2018 full year result

 

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’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 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.

The Group’s financial information relating to the financial year ended December 31, 2018 included in this document have been prepared using a process similar to that adopted for the preparation of the Group’s annual consolidated financial statements but are not yet audited. The Board of Directors of Worldline SA has examined at its January 29, 2019 meeting the Group’s financial information for the financial year ended December 31, 2018 and has approved their communication. The Group’s financial statements which will be approved by the Board of Directors, to be held on February 18, 2019, shall include any material events previously unknown by the Group and of which it becomes aware or which may occur after January 30, 2019. Therefore the financial information presented shall be, in accordance with the AMF recommendation n°2004-04, qualified as estimated financial results.

 

Revenue organic growth and Operating Margin before Depreciation and Amortization (OMDA) improvement are presented at constant scope and exchange rates, and restated for the impacts of IFRS 15. OMDA is presented as defined in the 2017 Registration Document. Starting January 1^st, 2018, dividends paid to non-controlling interests are not anymore a Free Cash Flow item but reported in line ‘Dividends paid’.

Global Business Lines include Merchant Services (in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech republic, France, Germany, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA), Financial Services (in Belgium, China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, 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).

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 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.

 

 

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry. With innovation at the core of its DNA, Worldline core offerings include Pan-European and domestic Commercial Acquiring for physical or online businesses, secured payment transaction processing for banks and financial institutions, as well as transactional services in e-Ticketing and for local and central public agencies.

Thanks to a presence in 30+ countries, Worldline is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies, delivering cutting-edge digital services.

Worldline activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Financial Services including equensWorldline and Mobility & e-Transactional Services. Worldline employs circa 11,000 people worldwide, with estimated pro forma revenue of circa 2.3 billion euros on a yearly basis. Worldline is an Atos company. worldline.com

 

[1] 2018 results are unaudited and qualified as estimates under R. AMF 2004-04 

[2] 2018 results are unaudited and qualified as estimates under R. AMF 2004-04 

[3] SIX Payment Services synergies: circa € 110 million OMDA run-rate by 2022, of which c.25% in 2019 and c.50% in 2020 (impact on Merchant Services and Financial Services altogether)

[4] SIX Payment Services synergies: circa € 110 million OMDA run-rate by 2022, of which c.25% in 2019 and c.50% in 2020 (impact on Merchant Services and Financial Services altogether)

[5] Excluding impacts from IFRS 16 adoption