The French payments group Worldline is considering job cuts affecting up to 8% of its 18,000 employees worldwide, or more than 1,400 positions, it announced Wednesday in a press release.
The company did not wish to specify to AFP how many of its 4,000 employees in France would be affected by these cuts, but indicated that it wanted to prioritize social dialogue and had initiated social processes with staff representatives.
Worldline wants to allow voluntary departures where possible according to local regulations.
The move is part of a broader plan announced in October, called Power24, which aims to accelerate the group’s transformation in response to macroeconomic changes in the digital payments sector, according to the company.
This plan is expected to cost up to 250 million euros, but could generate savings of around 200 million euros from 2025, she said.
The simplification of the organization that the reduction in headcount will allow is aimed in particular, according to Worldline, at reducing the complexity of its activities, so that managers increase their scope of supervision and the teams are more autonomous.
At the end of January, Crdit Agricole announced its entry as a long-term minority shareholder in the capital of Worldline, which had been struggling on the stock market for several months. The bank had taken 7% of the shares.
Often considered a technology company by investors, Worldline took advantage of the street in this sector in 2020 to see its stock market valuation double in around ten months.
But since then, the rise in interest rates, lower cash generation, some spectacular breakdowns and difficulties in Germany – an essential market for the company – have caused the price of this former subsidiary of Atos, independent since 2019, to plunge.
Last October, Worldline shares lost nearly 60% in one day after a downward revision of its annual targets. The company was taken out of the CAC 40 at the beginning of December, when rumors were already swirling of the arrival of Crdit Agricole to the rescue.
The payments specialist experienced its first strike in France in 12 years in 2022. This social mobilization lasted four months before employees obtained a salary increase of around 100 euros per month for the 75% worst-off employees in the country.