Payments firm Worldline cuts annual forecast, shares dive

Shares in Worldline plunged on Wednesday, after the French payments specialist cut its full-year forecasts.

The firm said third-quarter revenues had risen 4.8% on an organic basis to €1.18bn, driven by merchant services, up 7.6%.

Financial services, however, fell 2.9%, while mobility and e-transactional services eased 0.2%.

Gilles Grapinet, chief executive, said: "After a solid start of the year, we now enter into a second semester where the macro-environment deteriorates, in particular in Germany.

"This evolution is reflected in our third-quarter performance, despite satisfactory commercial developments in merchant services."

The firm said it now expects to generate organic revenue growth of between 6% and 7% in 2023, down from a previous target of 8% to 10%, while the margin was likely to fall by around 150 basis points year-on-year.

Worldline added it would seek to cut costs, and is targeting €200m of annualised savings by 2025 and a "fast ramp-up" in 2024.

As at 1130 BST, the Paris-listed stock had sunk 58%.

Grapinet said: "In ten years, Worldline has created one of the largest payment companies in Europe.

"As we are reaching the completion of Ingenico integration, we are ready to enter into a new phase of our company journey, ready to unleash the power of our combined assets and to make Worldline more agile, to boost its growth potential."

Worldline acquired domestic rival Ingenico in 2020 in a transformational €7.8bn deal.