Worldpay pledges to stay British after £9 billion US takeover

FTSE 100 payments giant Worldpay on Wednesday finally inked its takeover by US peer Vantiv, offering a string of assurances to keep the company British, but stopping short of a public jobs pledge.

Cincinnati-based Vantiv made its £9.3 billion move for the payments processor last month and yesterday the pair received an extension to their talks, with the deal revealed today.

It will create a combined group worth £22.2 billion, dubbed a “powerful combination” by Vantiv president Charles Drucker.

Worldpay’s board secured concessions for investors, including making London its international headquarters, chairman Sir Mike Rake lead director and boss Philip Jansen the group’s co-chief executive.

The duo stopped short of publicly reassuring Worldpay’s 4500 staff, based at offices including in the City, Harrogate and Gateshead.

The future of the employees was reportedly being discussed as the pair sought extra time to thrash out the deal this week.

However, jobs fears may be quelled as the bulk of the $200 million (£154 million) savings from combining the firms will be through cutting back spending on tech and administration and there is no overlap in where the two companies’ staff are located.

The City had forecast $164 million of cost savings.

Worldpay today posted a 60% rise in first-half profits to £93 million.