Worldline Says It’s Working out a Deal to Sell Its Ingenico Unit to Asset Manager Apollo

Two years after it acquired the big point-of-sale technology company Ingenico S.A., the French processing giant Worldline S.A. has launched negotiations to sell the business to the asset-management firm Apollo Global Management Inc.

The terms worked out so far, based on a binding offer from New York-based Apollo, call for the management firm to pay cash and stock valued at approximately 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for Worldline’s Terminals, Solutions, and Services division, according to Paris-based Worldline’s announcement early Monday. TSS is the entity that houses the Ingenico business.

The price includes an upfront payment of 1.7 billion euros ($1.93 billion) in cash, with a further payment coming in the form of preferred shares whose value will depend on the future performance of TSS, Worldline said. The shares’ value could reach as high as 900 million euros (slightly more than $1 billion), the parties said.

The transaction follows Worldline’s $8.6-billion acquisition of Ingenico, which develops hardware and software for both point-of-sale and e-commerce transactions. That deal took place in 2020. Worldline’s board of directors made the decision in October last year to begin the process of divesting TSS. Information was not immediately available concerning the large difference in valuation between the 2020 transaction and the one announced Monday.

After that board decision, “and after conducting a rigorous process over several months, we have signed an agreement with the candidate we believe is the best fit to ensure the takeover of the [TSS] business, in the best interest of its customers and employees,” said Gilles Grapinet, Ingenico’s chief executive, in a statement. “This announcement is a major milestone in the execution of Worldline’s strategy after the acquisition of Ingenico and numerous new acquisitions in 2021 in Greece, Italy, and Sweden.” The deal will also allow Worldline to pay down accumulated debt, he added.

Worldline is expected to report its fiscal 2021 results on Tuesday.