Worldline is better than I expected and sign a big contract with Commerzbank

© Reuters. Worldline is better than I expected and sign a big contract with Commerzbank

PARIS (Reuters) – Worldline has done better than expected in the first half, and announced the signing of a major contract with the Commerzbank (DE:CBKG), two ads greeted Monday morning by the investors.

The specialist of the means of payments, a subsidiary of Atos (PA:ATOS), has reported an organic growth of 5.8% in the first half-year to 819 million euros and a margin of the gross surplus from operations (EBO) of 21.9% of sales, up 120 basis points, “placing the company in a good position to achieve its annual objective of a rate of SOR between 22% and 23%”.

The group, which has confirmed all of its financial targets for 2018, has also announced that it has signed a contract with Commerzbank, pursuant to which its subsidiary equensWorldline will have in ten years for the processing of all SEPA payments, instant payments, payments, multi-currency and domestic payments to the German bank.

EquensWorldline will process approximately four billion transactions additional each year for the account of Commerzbank.

The value of this contract is around 200 million euros, said the chief financial officer of Worldline, Eric Heurtaux, during a conference call with analysts.

These announcements have been welcomed by the market, the title Worldline progressing of 4.01% at 10: 15 am to 53,15€, signing the largest increase of the index SBF 120, which assigns to 0.44% at the same time.

“The figures are higher than expectations” – in excess of, in particular the consensus of 21.6% for the margin, underline the analysts, Brian Garnier, to the purchase on the value.

“The company has a strong balance sheet to be able to stay active in european consolidation in the means of payment”, added the analysts, to the purchase on the value.

“Any additional operation, could provide a new growth potential to the multiple of enterprise value over ebitda, EV/EBITDA) on a 12-month”, note they.

Worldline has acquired, in may, switzerland Six Payment for 2.3 billion euros and confirmed its willingness to be the “consolidator” of the industry.

(Pascale Denis, edited by Jean-Michel Belot) OLFRBUS Reuters France Online Report Business News 20180723T084030+0000