The European Union is going to approve the Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS) $35 billion dollar bid for payments outfit Worldpay with unconditional antitrust approval, according to a report by Reuters.
The purchase came to light in March and it’s the biggest merger in recent history in the rapidly expanding payments space, where there has been a wave of tie-ups as of late. FIS is an American company that creates banking and asset manager software as well as outsourcing financial services.
Worldpay is the 2010 spin-off of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is a huge participant in card payments. Digital payments are on the rise worldwide, with revenue expected to reach $3 trillion a year by 2023.
The European Commission is expected to officially decide on the deal by July 5, and did not comment to Reuters. Both FIS and Worldpay saw gains on the news, 2.5 and 3.9 percent, respectively.
“Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry,” stated Gary Norcross, chairman, president and chief executive officer of FIS, in the press release announcing the deal. “Upon closing later this year, our two powerhouse organizations will combine forces to offer a customer-driven combination of scale, global presence and the industry’s broadest range of global financial solutions. As a combined organization, we will bring the most modern solutions targeted at the highest growth markets. The long-term value we will create for clients and for shareholders will set the bar in our industry and will create a range of new career opportunities for our employees. I have never been more excited about the future of FIS.”
Under the terms of the deal, Worldpay shareholders will get 0.9287 FIS shares and $11.00 in cash for each share of Worldpay. FIS shareholders will own around 53 percent of the company while Worldpay shareholders will own about 47 percent. FIS is paying with a combination of stock and cash that values Worldpay about $43 billion, including the assumption of Worldpay, debt which FIS said it plans to refinance.
Worldpay processes more than 40 billion transactions each year and supports more than 300 payment types in more than 120 currencies.
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