Wednesday, September 16th 2015 13:00
Sky News has learnt that Ingenico Group, which is listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris, has submitted an offer worth that sum in recent days.
The proposal could persuade Worldpay's owners to abort plans for a stock market listing that would catapult the company into the FTSE-100, with a decision expected to be made in the next week, according to a source close to the Ingenico bid.
The French company's offer also included a proposal for a substantial break fee which would be handed to Worldpay if the takeover was subsequently abandoned, the source added.
Insiders said on Wednesday that Ingenico had lined up BNP Paribas, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to work alongside HSBC, Natixis and Societe Generale on the financing of its offer.
The revised proposal underlines Ingenicos determination to merge with Worldpay and create a payments giant worth more than £11bn.
The French companys cash bid would require the approval of and substantial funding from its existing shareholders in the form of a rights issue, meaning that it would not be endorsed until towards the end of the year.
Worldpays shareholders, Advent International and Bain Capital, are discussing the revised Ingenico bid alongside the merits of an initial public offering, with other takeover interest now understood to be on the periphery of the British company's considerations.
If Advent and Bain opt for a public listing, Worldpay would be propelled straight into the FTSE-100 index.
The British payments group is performing strongly, with recently published unaudited results for the first half of this calendar year showing a 13% rise in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to £182.6m.
Philip Jansen, Worldpay's chief executive, said the results reflected its "ongoing focus on investing in technology and building our business, developing new and innovative products and meeting the evolving needs of our customers to help them prosper".
"Our continued investment in technology and customer service is complemented by a number of new and exciting products launched during 2015. Combined with Worldpays global reach and capability this creates significant opportunities to continue to grow our business," he said.
This month, Sir Mike Rake, the City grandee, took over as Worldpay's chairman from John Allan, the new chairman of Tesco.
The looming change of ownership - whether through a sale or flotation - comes roughly five years after Worldpay was sold by the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in a deal worth approximately £2bn.
The payments group has grown at a spectacular rate since then, with Mr Jansen, a former executive with the catering group Sodexo and MyTravel, the tour operator, spearheading the company's growth.
Specialising in the provision of secure payment services, its major corporate customers include Google and Sony.
Comparable listed companies such as Wirecard, which has also shown interest in acquiring Worldpay, and Brazils Cielo usually trade at valuations worth between 14 and 20 times their annual profits.
With Worldpay expected to record around £400m of pre-tax profit in 2015, a similar valuation range would attribute a price tag of between £5.6bn and £8bn to the company.
In the UK, Worldpay combines the former Streamline business with Cardsave, YESpay and Zinc, handling well over half of all card transactions.
The company sees further growth opportunities in the ongoing push to open up payment systems, with a new regulator recently assuming oversight of the industry in the UK.
Ingenico could not be reached for comment while Worldpay declined to comment.
http://www.jazzfm.com/news/business-news/...id-for-uk-rival-worldpay/
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