Betalföretaget Bambora säljs till Ingenico Group för 1,5 miljarder euro

Ingenico ramps up its transformation: acquisition of Bambora. H1 2017 Trading update.

Ingenico Group, (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING), global leader in seamless payment, today announced the acquisition of Bambora, a fast growing player in payment services, from Nordic Capital for a total consideration of €1.5 billion. The transaction will be fully financed through available cash and debt. The financial leverage will remain below 3x EBITDA leaving Ingenico flexibility for future M&A.

• Key milestone in the execution of Ingenico’s strategy
  • Expand its own acquiring capabilities on top of existing partnerships in order to enhance the full-service offer
  • Step up the approach of the fast growing end-to-end payment solutions market for SMBs in Europe
  • Extend the geographical exposure of the online and in-store segments
• Accretion on Ingenico’s economics from 2018 and beyond
  • Organic growth profile enhanced by 1 to 2% per year
  • c.5% EPS accretive impact in 2018 (before synergies and PPA)
  • €30 million of run-rate synergies to be realized over 3 years leading to an EPS accretive impact of c.13%

Headquartered in Stockholm, Bambora employs more than 700 people across Europe, North America and Australia. The group provides a one-stop shop offer to address both Enterprise and SMB markets. Bambora delivers in-store, mobile and online services through end-to-end payment solutions for over 110,000 merchants and enterprises globally. The backbone of its offers consists of a merchant acquiring platform and a customer centric approach relying on an in-depth expertise of full-service offering and value-added services such as fast digital onboarding or data analytics. Bambora, whose model generates more than 90% recurring revenue, reached a gross revenue of €202 million in 2016.

In the next two years, gross revenue and EBITDA are expected to grow over 20% and 30% respectively.

This acquisition represents a key milestone in the execution of Ingenico Group’s strategy towards payment services with a disruptive approach and:

• Enriches Ingenico’s customer centric offer with complementary technological skills
• Adds a dedicated direct-to-SMB sales’ channel to the Retail Business Unit
• Leverages Enterprise combined portfolios with end-to-end payment solutions, including online acquiring capabilities in Europe and specific advanced functionalities for cross-border companies globally
• Brings scalable assets with a complementary footprint and increases its online and in-store offer in the Nordics, North America and Australia through the addition of new Gateways

Expands our presence in Australia with POS managed services and full estate management offering.

“Anticipating the future evolutions of commerce, Ingenico Group has, in recent years, been pursuing a strategy of expanding its offering towards integrated payment services. The acquisition of Bambora represents a key milestone in our strategic plan providing a more integrated client offering and omnichannel solutions. Coupled with the investments made in our platforms and the development of new technological features, Bambora will enhance our customer centric approach and will reinforce our online and in-store positioning through a perfect complementarity. This transaction will be additive to our growth profile and will create value for our shareholders, customers and employees. In parallel, our half-year performance enables us to reiterate our 2017 objectives.” said Philippe Lazare, Chairman and CEO of Ingenico Group.

“With our one stop shop payment services, our cross border acquiring capabilities and our customers’ digital approach, Bambora fits perfectly with Ingenico’s strategic initiatives to address market evolutions and focus on merchants’ needs. The combination of our scalable end-to-end solutions with Ingenico’s assets will create great value to our customers by helping them to drive performance. I am very excited about pursuing our development alongside Ingenico and being fully involved within the integration process to offer a world class experience to our customers.” said Johan Tjärnberg, CEO of Bambora.

“Bambora is an excellent example of entrepreneurial business innovation, and yet another great Swedish unicorn leveraging strong local tech capabilities to create a global digital leader. Bambora is the result of a strong vision based on deep insight into the market, followed by fast and innovative execution by the management team that I would like to thank for their dedication and exceptional work. With Ingenico Group as new owners, Bambora will be able to further leverage its technology platform and strong team within Ingenico’s footprint for even faster growth and expansion.” says Fredrik Näslund, partner, NC Advisory AB, advisor to the Nordic Capital funds.

Bambora’s top management will reinvest a meaningful part of their proceeds in Ingenico shares and will be fully involved in the development of Bambora within Ingenico.

The closing is expected to occur by the end 2017, subject to approval from the relevant regulatory and antitrust authorities, and after the consultation of the employee representative authorities.

About Ingenico Group

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 – ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world’s largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world’s best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise.