Fintech giant Worldpay changes hands again after $43bn US swoop

Pay system: Worldpay accounts for 42% of all UK payments and processes 400 per second

Worldpay

18 March 2019

Global payments giant Worldpay changed hands for the fourth time in a decade on Monday after a US rival swooped with a $43 billion (£32.5 billion) takeover.

The company, which employs around 4000 people, will come together with US-listed Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) in a cash-and-shares deal that underscores the rapid consolidation in the industry.

Worldpay forms the backbone of Britain’s payments system, accounting for 42% of all UK payments, and processing 400 transactions per second.

Customers include TopShop, Direct Line, Clarks and World Duty Free airport shops, as well as 24,000 restaurants and more than 9000 pubs.

Pass the parcel

2002: RBS buys NatWest and a payments system rebranded to RBS Worldpay

2010: RBS sells Worldpay unit to Advent and Bain Capital for £2bn

2015: Worldpay floated on FTSE 100 for £4.3bn

2017: US payment giant Vantiv swoops with £9bn takeover

2019: Worldpay/FiS merge creating $43bn giant

Worldpay shareholders get around $112 per share, comprising $11 in cash and the rest in FIS shares, equivalent to a 14% premium to Friday’s prices.

Worldpay, listed in New York, saw its secondary listing of shares in London rise 9.3% today.

FIS chief executive Gary Norcross, one of the best-paid software chief executives in the world, will lead the combined group.

He said: “Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry... I have never been more excited about the future of FIS.”

The current iteration of Worldpay is itself the result of a recent merger, when US payments giant Vantiv bought the company for £9 billion in 2017.

Royal Bank of Scotland owned the group before private equity ownership and a spell on the FTSE 100, when it was chaired by Sir Mike Rake and led by current BT chief Philip Jansen.

Under the terms of the takeover, FIS shareholders will control 53% of the company, with Worldpay investors owning the rest.

The combined group, which will be called FIS, will have sales of $12.3 billion and the firm expects nearly $1 billion of cost savings.

A number of payment firms have merged in recent times, including Fiserv buying First Data for $22 billion. And last week another, called Network, announced plans to float in London, led by former Worldpay chief Ron Kalifa.

Worldpay’s head office is in the heart of the City, near the Bank of England.

The company, which was founded in the late Eighties, came under RBS’s ownership before the financial crisis when it bought Worldpay owner NatWest.

However, following the financial crisis, RBS sold the company to buyout firms Advent and Bain as a condition of a state bailout.

Fintech giant Worldpay changes hands again after $43bn US swoop

Read More