Cleary Gottlieb represented Worldline in the €600 million offering of bonds convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares of the issuer (known by the French acronym OCEANE.)
Worldline will use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes and/or the pre-financing of the contemplated acquisition of Ingenico Group S.A. by way of a tender offer announced on February 3, 2020, and that was open on July 30, 2020 after its approval by the AMF. Cleary is also rep resenting Worldline in the acquisition.
The bonds will bear no interests and mature on July 30, 2025. The underlying shares and the bonds are respectively listed on the regulated market of Euronext Paris and on Euronext Access of Euronext Paris.
The transaction consisted of an international private placement only, to qualified investors in France and outside France (excluding the United States, Australia, Canada, and Japan).
The offering launched and priced on July 23, 2020, and closed on July 30, 2020.
The offering was led by Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan Securities plc, and Natixis, as joint global coordinators. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Société Générale, and UniCredit Bank AG acted as bookrunners.
Worldline is the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry. With innovation at the core of its DNA, Worldline’s core offerings include pan-European and domestic commercial acquiring for physical or online businesses, secured payment transaction processing for banks and financial institutions, and transactional services in e-Ticketing and for local and central public agencies. Thanks to a presence in 30+ countries, it is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, public transport operators, government agencies, and industrial companies, delivering cutting-edge digital services. Worldline’s activities are organized around three axes: merchant services; financial services, including equensWorldline; and mobility & e-transactional services. Worldline employs circa 12,000 people worldwide, with 2019 revenue of €2.4 billion.