Worldpay Set To Float On London Stock Exchange
British payments firm turned down a reported £6.6bn takeover offer from rival earlier this week
Worldpay, one of Britain’s biggest online payment firms to float on the London Stock Exchange after it rejected a major takeover offer.
The company, which enables online payments for 400,000 merchants in 126 currencies across 146 countries and is the UK’s leading payments processor with around 44 percent of the market, will move into the FTSE 100 when the IPO is complete.
The move comes days after the company, which was sold by RBS for £2bn back in 2010, rejected a takeover bid by French rival Ingenico Group that would have created a company worth around £11bn.
Momentum
Philip Jansen, chief executive of the company, said that the IPO was, “an exciting and logical next step” as Worldpay looks to continue its upwards momentum.
“It will enable us to access new capital for growth, augment our global proposition and further enhance our ability to serve customers across the world,” he declared.
“We have invested over £1bn in our technology, people and capabilities including over £400m in a state of the art global payments acquiring engine as well as in the recruitment of approximately 2,500 highly skilled colleagues.
“We are extremely proud of what has been achieved through the dedication and talent of Worldpay’s approximately 4,500 colleagues and are optimistic for the future of the company.”
Worldpay processes approximately 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions worldwide on a typical day (equivalent to 11.5 billion per year). The company is one of a number of growing success stories in the online payments industry as more and more consumers look to ditch cash for quicker and easier transactions.
A recent study by analyst firm Juniper Research has predicted that that the number of annual purchases made via mobiles, tablets, desktops and other connected devices should reach 125 billion annually by 2018 – 60 percent more than the total number of transactions in 2015.
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