Worldline: Will Crédit Agricole come to the rescue of its partner Worldline?

(BFM Bourse) – According to Bloomberg, the French bank is considering taking a stake in the payments group to provide it with a factor of stability. The two companies have not commented on this information.

Crédit Agricole SA, the listed structure of the Crédit Agricole group, at the bedside of Worldline? According to information reported by the Bloomberg agency, the green bank is studying an equity investment in the payments company, which is its ally.

Last April, the two companies announced negotiations to create a joint venture offering payment services to merchants in France. This 50/50 joint company (in reality 50 plus one share for Worldline) must be operational in 2025. Analysts then judged this alliance promising, one of them considering that Worldline had struck “a big blow”.

But the payment group has since suffered a descent into stock market hell, with its shares plunging by almost 59% in one session last month. Worldline then published disappointing growth, slashed its 2023 objectives and set aside those for the medium term. A heavy disappointment which further cooled a market which had already shown disenchantment with the payments sector in recent years. Worldline shares have fallen 67% since the start of the year and 80% over three years.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and gain insight into the Trading Portfolio

An attentive bank

To try to provide a factor of support to its partner and to stem this market distrust, Crédit Agricole SA would therefore be ready to enter the capital, according to Bloomberg.

“Deliberations are underway and there is no certainty as to the form that the transaction could take,” underlines the agency, based on sources close to the matter. “It is possible that other French financial institutions will seek to play a role in Worldline’s future, some of these people said,” she adds.

Contacted by BFM Bourse, a Worldline spokesperson did not wish to comment on this information. Representatives of Crédit Agricole SA did not comment to Bloomberg.

Les Echos had already reported in mid-November that the bank was attentive to Worldline’s difficulties. Especially since Crédit Agricole SA had previously established, before Worldline, a partnership with the German Wirecard, a former fallen star of the payments sector, which disappeared after the revelation of serious accounting irregularities.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Worldline gained more than 10% at the end of the morning following the publication of the Bloomberg information. At the start of the afternoon, around 2:10 p.m., the stock gained another 6%.

“This press information is logically positive, especially since there may have been market questions about this partnership, with investors wondering if Crédit Agricole had not been burned by the difficulties of Worldline,” explains an analyst. .

Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse