First half 2015 results

H1 results well in line with full year objectives

• Revenue: € 595 million, up +4.1%
• OMDA: € 109 million, 18.3% of revenue and up +56 bp
• Free cash flow: € 64 million, +11.8%;
• Net income: € 49 million, +6.8%

All 2015 objectives confirmed

 

Gilles Grapinet, CEO at Worldline said: “Worldline reports today results for the first half 2015 fully in line with its full year ambition for revenue, margin and free cash flow. I was particularly pleased to see the successful market development of our latest payment innovations, notably in trusted authentication, retailers’ payment wallet and mobile technologies in general. In parallel, our transformation program TEAM is on track to deliver the targeted operational improvements. One year after the IPO, we can concretely measure all the benefits of being a listed company in terms of brand visibility, talent attraction, commercial development and credibility in the execution of our European consolidation strategy.”

 

2015 first half key figures

For the analysis of the Group’s performance, revenue and operating margin before depreciation and amortization (OMDA) for the first semester of 2015 are compared with H1 2014 revenue and OMDA at constant scope and exchange rates. Worldline’s first-half performance, on a like-for-like basis compared with last year, was as follows:

IN € MILLION	H1 2015	H1 2014	VAR.
Revenue*	595.0	571.4	+4.1%
Operating Margin before Depreciation and Amortization	108.7	101.2	+7.4%
% of revenue	18.3%	17.7%	+0.56pt
Net income Group share	48.7	45.6	+6.8%
Free cash flow	64.2	57.4	+11.8%
Net cash / (net debt)	264.5	-102.6

* H1 2014 at June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

First half 2015 revenue amounted to € 595.0 million, up +4.1% organically. The Group improved its OMDA by +56 basis points to € 108.7 million or 18.3% of revenue, fully in line with the circa +50 basis points improvement target set for the full year. Net income Group share stood at € 48.7 million, +6.8% compared with the same period last year. First half 2015 free cash flow was € 64.2 million, representing a +11.8% increase compared to H1 2014. Net cash totaled € 264.5 million.

 

Performance per Global Business Line

	REVENUE	OMDA	OMDA %
IN € MILLION	H1 2015	H1 2014*	% GROWTH	H1 2015	H1 2014*	H1 2015	H1 2014*
Merchant Services & Terminals	193.5	184.9	+4.6%	33.9	37.6	17.5%	20.3%
Financial Processing & Software Licensing	200.5	197.2	+1.7%	48.7	46.9	24.3%	23.8%
Mobility & e-Transactional Services	201.0	189.3	+6.2%	35.4	24.1	17.6%	12.7%
Corporate costs				-9.3	-7.3	-1.6%	-1.3%
Worldline	595.0	571.4	+4.1%	108.7	101.2	18.3%	17.7%

* At June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

Merchant Services & Terminals

	MERCHANT SERVICES AND TERMINALS
IN € MILLION	H1 2015	H1 2014*	CHANGE
Revenue	193.5	184.9	+4.6%
OMDA	33.9	37.6
OMDA %	17.5%	20.3%	-2.8pt

* At June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

Merchant Services & Terminals revenue stood at € 193.5 million, growing by +4.6% vs H1 2014 on a like-for-like basis. This growth was primarily driven by the confirmed dynamics of the Payment Terminal business and the sustained growth in Commercial Acquiring, thanks notably to volume increase and favorable price mix. These good trends more than compensated less project activity in Online Services compared with the first-half 2014, while Private Label Cards & Loyalty Services’ activity was roughly stable.

OMDA reached € 33.9 million or 17.5% of sales. As part of the strategy to grow in international markets and in added value services, a significant investment was made as planned in 2015 in Commercial Acquiring, particularly in product range and in sales & marketing, temporarily reducing the OMDA of the service line and delivering already acceleration of growth in H1.

 

Financial Processing & Software Licensing

	FINANCIAL PROCESSING & SOFTWARE LICENSING
IN € MILLION	H1 2015	H1 2014*	CHANGE
Revenue	200.5	197.2	+1.7%
OMDA	48.7	46.9
OMDA %	24.3%	23.8%	+0.5pt

* At June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

Revenue for Financial Processing & Software Licensing was € 200.5 million, up +1.7% organically. The main growth driver was Online Banking Services, notably due to higher transaction volumes and new contracts signed in France. Payment Software Licensing activities grew, driven by revenue from new product implementations in Germany and in France. As anticipated, Issuing Processing was quasi-stable, despite volume increases in France and India, due to the fact that several sizable projects were delivered in first-half 2014. While the activity improved compared with the same period in 2014, revenue for Acquiring Processing remained negatively impacted during the first quarter by the effect of the re-insourcing of one significant contract in France (this effect ended in March allowing a return to a positive growth from April 2015).

Financial Processing & Software Licensing OMDA reached € 48.7 million or 24.3% of revenue (+50 basis points compared with H1 2014), thanks to a favorable revenue mix, the implementation of the TEAM program and efficiency gains realized on the IT infrastructure management.

Mobility & e-Transactional Services

	MOBILITY & E-TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES
IN € MILLION	H1 2015	H1 2014*	CHANGE
Revenue	201.0	189.3	+6.2%
OMDA	35.4	24.1
OMDA %	17.6%	12.7%	+4.9pt

* At June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

Revenue in Mobility & e-Transactional Services was € 201.0 million, up +6.2% compared with H1 2014. All three divisions contributed to the overall growth of the Global Business Line. e-Consumer & Mobility grew strongly thanks to positive trends in Connected Living activities in continental Europe. e-Ticketing activities maintained their strong momentum thanks to business volume increase and project work in Latin America. Services to the UK transport industry also benefitted from more project work and rail ticketing volume increase. e-Government collection was positively orientated thanks to new contracts signed in the Benelux as well as increases in both volume and price in Latin America.

OMDA for Mobility & e-Transactional Services reached € 35.4 million or 17.6% of revenue, +490 basis points vs. H1 2014. This margin improvement was driven by a number of factors: a higher margin revenue mix in e-Ticketingcombined with the recovery on specific projects in the UK, a good dynamism of the Latin America business, positive volume and price effects in e-Government Collection, strong performance of e-Consumer & Mobility and the benefit of cost optimization actions both at central and local levels.

 

H1 Commercial activity

 

In Merchant Services & Terminals, Worldline secured significant strategic long term renewals in electronic payment acceptance, notably with Société Générale and one of the largest travel e-commerce site in France. The Global Business Line also won an important contract with a rail franchise to provide the next generation of ticket vending machines, and contracted with a new logo, Sodexo, in India for a closed loop meal and gift card program.

In Financial Processing & Software Licensing, major long-term processing contracts were renewed in particular with Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in Germany and with large banks in Belgium and in France. Commercial highlights also include the confirmed interest in Worldline’s trusted Authentication solution, the first international sale of the Group’s Fraud Management services in Asia (Bank of India), an end-to-end online loan management service for Agence France Locale and the positive momentum of our Payment Software Licensing business, with contracts signed with China Construction Bank in China and with a Thai bank.

In Mobility & e-Transactional Services, new clients were signed-up in secured taxation solution in the Baltics and secured digital processing platform in healthcare for a French public organization. Worldline successfully retained all contracts that came up for renewal in e-Government Collection and e-Ticketing and signed a significant Connected Vehicle contract with a new customer.

Full backlog totaled €1.8 billion, stable at 1.5 years of revenue.

 

Operating Income and Net Income

Depreciation and amortization was € 30.6 million. Non recurring costs amounted to € 9.6 million and consisted mainly of some reorganization expenses, the reorganization of sales network in Belgium, costs linked to the design of the TEAM transformation program and purchase price allocation amortization.

As a result, operating income for the first half of the year was € 68.4 million.

Financial result was a charge of € 0.7 million and the tax charge represented €19.0 million (effective tax rate of 28.2%).

As the result of the items above, net income was € 48.7 million, increasing by +6.8% vs H1 2014.

 

Free Cash Flow

Worldline free cash flow totaled € 64.2 million in line with the objective for the full year of between € 120 million and € 125 million and up +11.8% compared with H1 2014.

2015 Objectives

The Group confirms all the full-year 2015 objectives as stated in the February 18, 2015 press release:

Revenue
The Group expects to achieve organic growth of its revenue, at constant scope and exchange rates, of between 4% and 5%.

OMDA
The Group has the objective to increase the OMDA margin by approximately 50 basis points compared to 2014, in line with its 2017 objective.

Free cash flow

The Group has the ambition to generate free cash flow of between € 120 million and € 125 million.

Appendices

 

Statutory to constant scope and exchange rates reconciliation

 

Reconciliation between the first half 2014 statutory revenue and OMDA and 2014 revenue and OMDA at constant scope and foreign exchange rates, is presented below:

	SCOPE AND FX EFFECTS
IN € MILLION	H1 2014 STATUTORY	EXCHANGE RATES EFFECT	H1 2014*
Revenue	556.4	15.0	571.4
OMDA	99.1	2.1	101.2
OMDA%	17.8%		17.7%

* At June 2015 constant scope and average exchange rates

 

Exchange rate effects reflect mostly the depreciation of the Euro versus the British Pound and Asian currencies. Please note that there was no change in scope compared with the same period last year.

The 2014 revenue and OMDA figures presented in this press release are based on the constant foreign exchange rates data.

 

Conference call

Worldline’s CEO Gilles Grapinet, along with General Manager Marc-Henri Desportes, and Chief Financial Officer Bruno Vaffier will comment on the Group results for the first half of 2015, on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 6:15pm (CET- Paris)

The conference will be webcasted.

You can also join the conference by telephone:

Dial-in:
United Kingdom:                    +44 20 3427 1906
United States of America:       +1 646 254 3360
France:                                 +33 1 76 77 22 21
Germany:                             +49 89 2030 31217

Confirmation Code: 8333921


After the conference, a replay of the webcast will be available.

Forthcoming event

October 21, 2015    Third quarter 2015 revenue

Contact

Investor Relations  
David Pierre-Kahn    
+33 (0)6 28 51 45 96
david.pierre-kahn@worldline.com

Press
Valentine Cordelle    
+33 (0)1 58 47 90 70
Valentine.Cordelle@havasww.com

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 40 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 & Terminals, Mobility & e-Transactional Services, Financial Processing Services & Software Licensing. Worldline employs more than 7,300 people worldwide and generated 1.15 billion euros revenues in 2014. Worldline is an Atos company. worldline.com

 

Disclaimers

This document contains further forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future. 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 2014 Registration Document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on April 27, 2015 under the registration number: R.15-021.

Global Business Lines include Merchant Services & Terminals (in Belgium, France, Germany, India, Luxembourg, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom), Financial Processing & Software Licensing (in Belgium, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and The Netherlands), and Mobility & e-Transactional Services (in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom).

Revenue and OMDA organic growth are presented at constant scope and exchange rates. 2015 objectives have been considered with exchange rates as of December 31, 2014.

This press release 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.