Worldline in Talks to Sell TSS Terminals Business to Apollo

Worldline, a French multinational payment and transactional services company, announced on Monday that it has entered exclusive talks to sell its TSS terminals business to Apollo Funds, a U.S. financial firm, in a deal that is worth around 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion).

Worldline disclosed that the sale of TSS to Apollo would assist in cutting its debt and simplifying its corporate structure.

The deal would constitute 1.7 billion euros upfront consideration as well as preferred shares that could reach up to 0.9 billion euros in value depending on how TSS performs in future.

Worldline stated that it entered into exclusive talks with Apollo, following a competitive selection process. Apollo Funds was picked because of the overall quality of its offer, its strategic vision and industrial focus, its commitment to support the current TSS management and its sensitivity towards the French social context. Furthermore, Apollo has a robust track-record in corporate carve-outs and value creation, with successful transformation of previously acquired businesses in France.

Gilles Grapinet, the CEO of Worldline, talked about the development: “This contemplated transaction, while being fundamentally triggered by the best interest of TSS, will also simplify our group structure, further increase our focus on our core activities and massively deleverage our balance sheet allowing the acceleration of our next strategic developments towards establishing Worldline as a truly global Paytech leader.”

Meanwhile, Michele Raba, a partner at Apollo Fund, commented about the deal: “TSS is the leading hardware player in the payments infrastructure ecosystem with a strong Ingenico brand and leading market shares across all regions of operations. We are excited about partnering with TSS’s management team to continue growing TSS in hardware, software and services areas where there is already strong momentum. We look forward to supporting TSS in its next phase of business transformation and becoming the ecosystem enabler in the new world of payments acceptance globally. Worldline will remain a key customer for TSS and an important partner in this strategic journey.”

Expanding Payment Methods to Meet Global Merchants’ Needs

Founded in 1974, Worldline rose to become the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and positioned fourth worldwide with more than 20,000 employees in over 50 countries.

In 2020, the French payments firm generated a pro-forma revenue of 4.8 billion euros.

Early this month, Worldline announced the expansion of its in-store and e-commerce payments for global merchants through the integration of Alipay+. The company is working to develop a full-scale multi-country integration with Alipay+.

The rollout, which is expected to begin in 2022, will enable merchants to make mobile and other digital payment methods. The product will support a wide range of digital payment methods, including e-wallets and bank apps. The expanded payment solution will work with Worldline’s terminal and applications, the company said.