Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the creation of new world-class leader in payment services, Worldline to acquire Ingenico. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Also, I must advise that this call is being recorded today, Monday, the 3rd of February, 2020. Without any further delay, I would now like to hand over the call to your first speaker today, Gilles Grapinet. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, good morning again, everyone. Many thanks to be with us for this very important moment for both Worldline and Ingenico. Gilles Grapinet speaking. We are here with Bernard Bourigeaud, Chairman of the Board of Ingenico, Nicolas Huss, CEO of Ingenico. On my side, Marc-Henri Desportes, and Eric Heurtaux, and Michel-Alain Proch on the Ingenico side. I am very proud to announce that today is a great day for Worldline and for Ingenico, and more widely, I believe, for our European payment industry. Together, we create the European world-class leader in digital payments.
Through the friendly acquisition of Ingenico by Worldline, we will jointly create the number 4 global provider of digital payment services with 2019 pro forma revenues of approximately EUR 5.3 billion, a combined OMDA of EUR 1.2 billion, and a combined free cash flow of circa EUR 600 million. This is a unique combination in our European payment ecosystem, and more globally, we believe, which creates a new global powerhouse, in particular in merchant services, with, for this business, EUR 2.5 billion of combined revenues, a very complementary geographical footprint, a global reach and extensive online payment and omnichannel payment capabilities, a leadership in POS and payment acceptance, and thanks to the Worldline Financial Services division, an unmatched coverage of the payment value chain for the combined group, from issuing to merchant acquiring.
As part of this overall transaction, we are also very pleased to PAYONE in Germany, to create for the Worldline and the combined entity, a new strategic partnership with one of the largest European banking group, DSV-Gruppe, and with the German Sparkassen. The existing PAYONE joint venture, consolidated and part of Ingenico, would be reinforced by the Worldline businesses in merchant services in Austria and Germany, and this will strengthen the existing co-leading market position of this entity in the German market. With this transaction, Worldline would become, more than ever, the platform of choice for further consolidation in Europe and beyond, with the financial and strategic flexibility required to continue value-creative multi acquisitions. This combination will also generate very significant synergies of about EUR 250 million that will benefit both Worldline and Ingenico shareholders.
The fast implementation of the synergies, combined with our natural operational gearing, will allow us to strengthen our double-digit OMDA growth profile. The combination with Ingenico will also create a double-digit EPS accretion from day one. Our discussion with Ingenico over the past weeks have fully confirmed our shared strategic vision of the future of European and global payments, as well as a fantastic cultural fit between both organizations. Applying our Worldline proven integration methodology to those two premier companies with unique payment talent pools, will make the delivery of the synergies absolutely certain. Moving to the next slide, I want to really highlight that this transaction is completely friendly and has been unanimously recommended by both boards of directors, with the full support of their reference shareholders on both sides.
We will offer 1.57 Worldline shares and EUR 22.9 in cash for each Ingenico share, which implies a value per Ingenico share of EUR 123.1 at Friday close, and represents 81% in shares and 90% in cash. Ingenico shareholders will also have the possibility to elect a cash or share option, subject to a reduction mechanisms towards the relative share cash parameters I just described. At the completion of the transaction, Ingenico shareholders will own 35% in the combined group. This offer represents a premium of 24% versus last one month's volume weighted average pricing.
As part of the revised governance of the combined group, adapted to welcome six new directors coming from the former Ingenico BOD, it has been agreed that Bernard Bourigeaud, who is currently the chairman of Ingenico, would become non-executive chairman of Worldline after the closing of the transaction. Our tender offer will be subject to a fully diluted acceptance threshold of 60% to the approval of our shareholders and other customary closing conditions. As for all our acquisitions, we expect the fast closing in Q3 2020. Moving forward in the presentation, I will not spend much time on these pages, as most of you know us very well, and they've been following Worldline over the years since the IPO. We are aware, and you are most probably also, on our call, during which we commented our very strong set of 2019 estimates...
I can only stress how much this acquisition fits within the strategy that we have executed since our IPO, and will be a new transformative and strategic step for our group. It is my pleasure now to give the floor to Nicolas Huss, CEO of Ingenico, to present and update you on his remarkable group and, of course, his view on this fantastic combination. Nicolas, over to you.
Thank you, Gilles, for the intro. So what I will do is quickly cover the actual Ingenico group before moving to the transaction. And as you know, Ingenico has a strong historical footprint and is a recognized name in both the world of acceptance and payments. And over the years, Ingenico experienced a real success story, but is also a concrete and positive example of a company who has succeeded in transforming itself to anticipate the changes of the industry. So if I start with the top of the slide, this current global reach that Ingenico has built throughout the year is pretty impressive. We have more than 8,000 employees worldwide, from Argentina to China, with a commercial presence in more than 170 countries.
We partner with more than 550,000 merchants, for whom we process more than EUR 400 billion in transaction value, both online and in store. On the B&A side, we service and partner more than 1,000 banks and acquirers, and as such, we have a 30 million-plus POS terminals installed base worldwide. Our global reach is an important pillar that supports our growth and constant transformation. Having built the footprint that we have today, we will be able to leverage it to scale further, in combination with expanding capabilities and coverage of the payment value chain, as Gilles explained. Our DNA is to put customer centricity at the heart of our priorities, and we are present wherever our clients operate, whether it be local R&D to customize solution for specific market requirements or extensive repair and maintenance networks to respond whenever needed.
We are uniquely present all over the world to serve our partners. If you look at the bottom part of the slide now, Ingenico has a balanced activity, relying on our two engines, our two core business units, retail and B&A, almost at 50/50. In retail, we have the capacity to deal with all types and size of markets, from the SMBs to the global retailers and the global pure online players, whilst covering a large scope of businesses from the acquiring activities to an omnichannel solution. Retail also has a solid balance activity divided between enterprise, at 28%, global online, 26%, SMB, 17%, and PAYONE, 29%, which is our joint venture with the German savings bank. In B&A, we have a strong global reach, allowing us to propose our solutions in all parts of the world in a very balanced way.
EMEA with 33%, APAC with 32%, Latin America, 20%, and finally, North America, 16%. So the group is now positioned as a key player of the payment ecosystems which we enable. If I move to the following slide, what is important here to have in mind is that along the years of building our global capabilities, growing our client base, and integrating our assets, we have achieved a solid track record. It is a pretty important message to highlight, since it means that we were able to translate our growth into value for all our stakeholders, clients, partners, employees, and shareholders. So if we look back at our performance over the past 10 years, that you will find at the top of the slide, Ingenico multiplied its revenue, EBITDA, and cash flow by 5 times, both organically and through successful acquisitions.
As you can see, we increased our revenue from a little bit more than EUR 500 million in 2007 to EUR 3.3 billion, almost EUR 3.4 billion in 2019, with a growing share of recurrent revenue, which, by the way, is still something that we're focusing on for 2020. Our EBITDA grown at a 16% CAGR since 2007, going from EUR 100 million to more than EUR 600 million last year. Similar performance was, of course, achieved on the cash flow generation. In the last decade, it remained stable with a strong conversion rate. In a nutshell, we demonstrated that the shift towards a recurring model is now a reality.
If I look at the bottom of the slide now, since 2007, Ingenico has operated a massive shift from a POS-centric company toward a service-centric one. This was a necessary step to guarantee our success, gain new contracts, and enable us to provide our clients with the best solutions and adapted offers to ensure their own successes. Our payments activities have never stopped growing since the beginning. From EUR 600 million, which was less than 20% of our activities, to almost EUR 2 billion of our gross revenues, 57% of last year revenues. And what is also very important to us is that by doing so, we also created a crucial shift from one-off to more recurring revenues....
Yet, despite the commercial and financial success over the years, we see and acknowledge that the market is changing rapidly, and it's pretty obvious for us that to accelerate our growth and maintain our key role in the market, we need not only to react to those changes, but be a proactive and market-shaping force. This is what I'll try to cover in slide 12. So, looking at this slide, the payments industry has been booming over the past decades. Those drivers have widened the competitive landscape, attracting new players, but also opening new opportunities for us. We therefore closely monitor the market moves and have built our transformation plan based on the evolution and projected outlook we foresee.
We have a clear picture of where we would like our two business units to stand within the next two or three years, relying on both BU strength and complementarities. When it comes to B&A, we want that business unit to be the trusted technology partner in the new world of acceptance. And as mentioned before, with the current asset that we have, as well as the merchant and partner portfolio of network, if I may, we believe that we can first capitalize on our global reach and the local know-how. This is an essential prerequisite to maintain our worldwide leadership and scale that we have. From the commercial redesign perspective, the new Ingenico B&A operating model, developed by Mathieu Destot, has a performance-driven sales organization, supported by a regional shared service center for solution delivery and client support. Again, everything is built around customer centricity.
In 2019, we decided to rebalance our B&A footprint in terms of governance between France and Asia, and this decision acknowledged the fact that Asia is currently the geographical location of most of our emerging B&A competitors and the center of most of the POS innovation. This brings me to our last point regarding B&A, which is the innovation on Android capacity. Moving on par with the technology evolution, we fully realize the importance of increasing our existing Android capacity and the ability to innovate. It's a great opportunity for us to capitalize on our Chinese asset, Landi, the leading manufacturer of Android acceptance devices in China, and also our newly created Android competence center that was set up last year in Vietnam to develop 2,500 Android payment apps for our partners. In retail, we also are convinced that we're shaping the most customer-focused payment experience.
Our journey towards objective is marked by four main building blocks. First, the strategic accelerators are our latest acquisition, Paymark, in New Zealand, and of course, the recent PAYONE joint venture with the German savings banks in Germany. We have no doubt that these are two strategically important assets for Ingenico. We have also launched six dedicated growth initiatives, which are identified growth opportunities across the target verticals in the retail business line, with a focused acceleration on high growth geographies. Our business optimization program concentrates on optimizing our client portfolio and transforming the sales leadership model. And finally, the technology transformation aspires to align our technology and operation to deliver these goals. If I now quickly focus on Fit for Growth, it is addressing not only the cost structure, but also the business competitiveness of both B&A and Retail.
The main objectives are to improve our group operating leverage and drive efficiency to better serve the two business units. So if, I'll try to wrap up on that. Now that we've been quite deep into Ingenico's transformation journey, I believe that it's good to take a few minutes to go through the strategic rationale of this alliance, with Worldline, and I hope that this will convince you that it's the perfect moment for us to combine our strengths in such a fast-moving but also such an exciting payment landscape.
Many thanks, Nicolas, for having walked us through the incredible transformation journey that Ingenico has been driving. And as a matter of fact, as you just said, it is not by chance that this combination happens now. Timing is everything in life in general and in particular in business, we all know that. And for two leading companies like ours to come together and announce such a transformative operation, of course, the timings had to be perfect for both, and it is absolutely the right moment for both Worldline and Ingenico to do such a move. I will let maybe Nicolas briefly recapping why this timing is perfect for Ingenico to come with Worldline and to shape this new global champion of digital payments. And I will just share some elements on the timing on the Worldline side.
Okay. So, there are a few points that were taken into consideration by the board on this unanimous decision. First of all, we're convinced that this deal is very well balanced from all stakeholders' perspective, shareholders of course, but we will be much stronger together from a client's perspective. There is a common culture of partnership, definitely on the bank and acquirers, but also what struck us, a culture of JV partnering, which we believe is right from our German partners at DSV, which are very important to us. But also, what we've seen in the past is that Worldline has been able to grow with a protection of the employees and also providing more opportunities for them.
Of course, my conviction is that there is a premium to consolidation, and specifically to European consolidation, and others will have to play catch up after us, which is something very important. And finally, of course, we're all focused on delivering our results in 2020, but also making sure that we have the best integration possible.
Many thanks, Nicolas. And I would like to say that what Nicolas just recapped a couple of minutes ago, on the right, part of the slide 14, this incredible transformation of the business model, the business position of Ingenico, to become today for more than half of its revenues, a merchant services provider with recurring revenue model, has been a key element. As much as the remarkable 2019 turnaround that has been executed under his leadership and his management team in a record time, with so many decisive transformational initiatives, both for the short, medium, and long term in all business lines. And of course, the very solid 2019 performance has been also a decisive element in our coming together.
To that, I would like to add that on the Worldline side, from a timing standpoint, it was also the right time for many reasons. First, our integration of SIX Payment Services, as we said earlier, is perfectly executed and even ahead of plan. Second, five years after our IPO, our track record in terms of growth acceleration through eight different M&A transactions, including two large ones, like Equens and, SIX Payment Services, the perfect delivery of the integration program and all the synergy plans, even sometime, as you know, beating them very often. And the considerable value creation for all our shareholders, with a market capitalization that has been multiplied by six and the stock price multiplied by four in five years' time, has given us the right to pursue executing our strategic vision, even with more ambition.
Europe needs to have a world-class leader in digital payments, and we believe that Worldline, with its strong credibility in the market, can be this way. Third element regarding the timing, is that you know that since last year, Worldline has gained, fantastically renewed strategic flexibility, becoming an independent company with a much larger float, thanks to the deconsolidation from the Atos group, and also thanks to the buyback in September of the EquensWorldline minority shareholders. These were key elements to allow the timing of the transformative transaction that we announced today. Last, of course, the timing was also, as you heard, the right one for Ingenico, and the timing being perfect for us, it is also the right time, we believe, in the European payment industry.
Since last year, you heard me sharing with you my belief that we were entering in 2019 into what I call the wave two of the consolidation. This has actually started in Europe, and this wave two would allow us in Europe, like we saw in the US, in the US in H1 2019, the combination of the pure players between themselves. This is exactly what we announced today. Over the last 5 years, Worldline has positioned itself perfectly and timely to be in the perfect position with the right scale, the right team, the needed credibility to capture this moment and announce this remarkably powerful combination with Ingenico.
Moving forward, I would like just also to share with you that the combination of Worldline and Ingenico will absolutely create a leading European payment services powerhouse, with the scale and reach to compete with any global payment service provider. As you can see on the slide 15, we have laid out some key KPIs for you, showing the impressive scale of our combined businesses. Number one in merchant service provider, number one as a European payment processor, number three in Europe for internet and cross-channel payments, and circa 5.5 billion of acquired transactions for a purchase volume of circa EUR 300 billion. This is definitely the scale at which this payment business needs to be run this day, and more importantly, this is also the scale that you will see growing in the years to come, as I will say later on.
Of course, the consolidation of the... by scaling these two large leading European players, is bringing many, many benefits that will be later on commented by Marc-Henri in particular. But as you can see on the slide 15, we were already the largest European PSP, but the combination with Ingenico will allow us to significantly widen the gap compared to our closest competitors, for the benefit of banking communities and large retail organizations across Europe, and most probably also in the world. And as importantly, a European player will start to have the real scale to play in the global league. On the right of this slide, you can see that indeed, we would enter together in the top 5 players of the global payment services industry, with a very solid number 4 position.
We will be the only European payment company which matches the scale of the largest U.S. competitors. With this, I give the floor to Marc-Henri Desportes, Worldline Deputy CEO.
Thank you very much, Gilles. So as mentioned in your introduction, as a combination of Worldline and Ingenico creates an extraordinary global powerhouse in merchant services.
... thanks to the multiple complementarities between organizations across both customer segments and market verticals, with, as mentioned before, a size of circa EUR 2.5 billion in revenue for merchant services. The combined entity will also have leading position both in e-commerce and omnichannel payment, covering market payments segments with solution all along the value chain. Our acquiring capacities would have the largest scale in Europe, helping merchants to meet their needs and further strengthening our merchant services organization. We view this combined positioning as very positive for banks, both as partners and customers, and we will support the development of all payment means, both local and global schemes, and we are clearly very supportive of the implementation of European initiatives for the payments industry.
Logically, this mix of excellence in offering geographic reach and multi-channel coverage, and also the sales platform, will generate significant revenue synergies opportunities, upgrading further the strong growth focus of both companies. Ingenico had had a significant success in developing its online business in the previous years, growing gateway position, building notably a best-in-class global collecting platforms, and a true omnichannel platform. This has enabled them to achieve great acceptance volume for our big retailers, and as well, develop attractive multi-country commerce mass market positions. In parallel, we have developed our own online business with a focus on white label solution, omnichannel, and cross-border e-acquiring, combined with advanced digital services and customization capabilities.
Combining these footprints and capabilities, the fast-growing online market will represent 2.5 billion transactions processed annually with circa 450,000 e-commerce merchants, and will generate circa 30% of our merchant services revenue for the combined group. Compared to what it was for Worldline before, it's +50%. No doubt this is a major highlight of this transaction and a major growth accelerator for the new group. Coming to, complementary geographical, footprint, from the geographic perspective, we will have an exceptional reach in continental Europe, notably with leading position in the growing German market, through our reinforced partnership with the German savings banks. The acquisition of Ingenico will also bring us to a new platform in the Nordics, where we'll become a very strong player.
Finally, in France, our home market, the combination will significantly increase our access to the largest merchants and expand our bank relationships. But this combination also goes beyond Europe to the world, and through Ingenico, we are getting an access to the U.S. market, as well as reinforced exposure to merchants in fast-growing regions such as Latin America and Asia Pacific. Now, coming to the POS business. As you know, Ingenico is a global leader in the point of sale market, with more than well above 10 million units shipped annually and an install base well above 30 million units. We are very supportive of the ongoing deep transformation program initiated by the new B&A management team, led by Mathieu Destot, and by their recent achievements through the B&A Revival Plan, which is now clearly delivering.
We are also supportive of the launch of the new long-term transformation into a cloud-based POS solution platform announced this morning, the PPaaS solution. We fully support this initiative, and we will launch, after closing of the transaction, a review of strategic alternatives available to B&A in order to accelerate its deep transformation and secure its long-term development for the business in the best interest of its customer, employees, and shareholders. So, a review of strategic alternative without any taboo. Coming to the combination of the two company, it is a combination of two unique payment channel, talent pools, and Worldline and Ingenico together is a incredibly, incredibly powerful combination. As you know, e-payments require deep technology and business expertise. It is a people business, and both companies have this people attention very deep in their DNA.
Putting together circa 20,000 experts, all working all across the globe, is a fantastic chance. Both teams also are used to transformation initiative, have a long track record in that respect. Both teams are used to handling real-time, multi-billion systems, and we believe there is a very strong cultural fit. As demonstrated in our previous integration, we are convinced that the growth of the combined entity will allow an efficient redeployment and provide new career opportunities to everyone. Now coming to a last word about our integration and track record in Worldline. We believe that we have demonstrated in the past this track record with the recent successes of EquensWorldline, of SIX Payment Services. But maybe for those who don't know us so well, we have a methodology based on several simple principle to reach a deep and fast integration.
purpose on governance to monitor the integration, applying our methodology in a coordinated fashion. The establishment of clear objective for everyone in the integration process, the creation of mixed team backed by experienced integration partners, a strong manager, accountability on the integration success at each and every level, and of course, benefits of the job principle, and a very strong combination of management team each time we do an integration. Finally, as you know, we have always delivered on our previous acquisition in terms of synergies with proof points like the 10% of our achievement on the Equens synergies, and you saw the excellent start versus plan of SPS and with merchant services increasing 500 basis points in one year. We have designed a clear ambition for the combination with Ingenico, and we are certain of our capacity to deliver again.
With that in mind, I hand over to Eric Heurtaux, who will walk you through the transaction financial, and he will have the opportunity to zoom on the synergy numbers
Thank you, Marc-Henri, and, moving on, the slide 24, on the key transaction terms. As mentioned by Gilles in the intro, we are offering Ingenico shareholder a mix and match mechanism, which means that they will be able to select either the mixed offer terms that Gilles has already outlined in his introduction, an exchange offer or a cash offer. The selection will, however, be subject to adjustments to ensure that the shares tendered in aggregate receives the cash share proportion of the mixed offer. As you can see, the three alternatives have been defined to have the same counter value as of Friday close. The offer is cum dividend, which means that the consideration offered to Ingenico shareholder would be reduced by an amount equal to a potential dividend to be paid by Ingenico prior to closing.
The OCEANE holders will have the ability to receive either EUR 179 in cash per Ingenico OCEANE or 4 Worldline shares and EUR 998 in cash for 7 OCEANE tendered, equivalent to an offer price of EUR 179 per OCEANE as of January 31, 2020. Now moving to slide 25, the acquisition of Ingenico would accelerate our growth profile in payment services, mainly in our merchant services division, further enhanced by revenue synergies. In addition to the revenue synergies, our shareholders will also benefit from significant cost synergies, which will strengthen our double-digit OMDA growth. I won't spend too much time on the EPS accretion. It simply reflects the significant value creation of a deal with double-digit accretion from year one.
Through this transaction, we are also preserving our balance sheet and financial flexibility with an expected triple B stable outlook rating and a fast deleveraging that will take our leverage down to circa 1.5 times by end 2021. I will now develop each of these points in more detail. Let's have a look at the financial profile of a combined entity. Post-run rate synergies, we would have had combined 2019 net revenue of approximately EUR 5.4 billion, a combined OMDA of approximately EUR 1.4 billion, and a free cash flow of EUR 0.7 billion. Simply put, we would be more than doubling our current footprint. The integration of Ingenico will not materially change our exposure to merchant services, which will be complemented by Ingenico business.
On the other hand, the share of financial services and Mobility e-Transactional Services revenue would decrease to 17% and 7% respectively in the overall group. The POS and acceptance business would represent 25% of our combined revenue. We have identified EUR 250 million of run rate synergies, of which EUR 220 million of OMDA synergies and EUR 30 million of CapEx and rent and lease savings. 85% of our OMDA synergies are in merchant services, which represent 8% of the combined addressable cost base, fully in line with our recent acquisition. As you can see, circa 84% of the synergies come from cost optimization, and circa 16% comes from revenue for the exceptional complementarity of our business.
We expect to achieve circa 30% of run rate synergies as early as 2021, and more than 50% in 2022, with a full run rate achieved in 2024. We have also identified other areas of potential savings, which could not have been fully quantified yet. In line with our precedent benchmark, we have estimated implementation costs at EUR 250 million, equivalent to the run rate synergies. A final word on our capital structure. We are committed to maintaining a robust balance sheet and expect that post-transaction, we will keep a BBB stable rating with S&P. We also reiterate our medium-term financial policy of a leverage between 1.5 and 2.5 times net debt to OMDA, and confirm our dividend policy on the back of this transaction.
12 months post-closing, I expect our leverage to be around 1.5 times, thanks to our rapid deleveraging, which will enable us to keep financial flexibility for future M&A opportunities. With this, I hand it over to Gilles for the conclusion.
Many thanks, Eric. This transaction, as you can see, has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Worldline and Ingenico.
... and has received the full support of the respective core shareholders and strategic partners of both companies. I would like to thank, of course, on our side, our reference shareholder, SIX, and Atos for their support. SIX, which holds 27% of our, circa 27% of our share capital, since the contribution of SIX Payment Services, has confirmed the strategic nature of its investment in Worldline and reiterated its commitment to our group. And SIX has undertaken to vote its shares in favor of the transaction at the EGM. It has also indicated its willingness to take a lock-up after completion of the transaction, subject to its governance approval. Of course, that will be until end of H1 2021.
Once the transaction will be positively completed, SIX will be entitled to appoint a third representative at the board of Worldline, provided its voting rights in the combined entity is greater than 15%, which based on their existing voting right, represent circa 23% shares capital today. Atos, our historical reference shareholder, has also committed to vote the shares it will own at the time of the EGM in favor of the transaction. Bpifrance, which owns 5.3% of Ingenico, is also very supportive of the transaction and has undertaken to tender its shares to the offer.
In a separate press release, Bpifrance has communicated its strong support, and it intends to increase its shareholding in the combined group to a level allowing it to maintain a representation of the Worldline board of directors following closing, and close to the one it holds currently within Ingenico. Last, we are very happy to have received a strong support to this transaction from DSV-Gruppe, the minority shareholders in the PAYONE JV, which embodies the new strategic partnership through them with their mother banking group, the German Savings Banks. With the combination between Worldline and Ingenico, we are taking a new large step in our ongoing Worldline consolidation journey based on the same guiding principles: positioning Worldline as the payment industry consolidator, building a European champion in the payment ecosystem, and implementing at all time a bank-friendly strategy.
In order to conclude our presentation, I wanted to focus on these key messages for you to take away. The combination of Worldline and Ingenico creates a new world-class leader in payment services. Both businesses are exceptionally complementary, both from a business and geography perspective. This will enable us to generate very significant synergies of around EUR 250 million run rate, which are backed by our very solid and impeccable integration track record. This transaction will strengthen our financial profile with an acceleration in our payment services growth profile, an acceleration of our OMDA growth, and an excellent free cash flow generation, supporting our first-rate balance sheet. This is a friendly combination, which has been recommended by both boards of directors and all reference shareholders and strategic partners of both parties. Finally, this combined company is uniquely positioned to further participate in our payment industry's ongoing consolidation.
As you will have understood, on my last slide, from our presentation and from what Nicolas and the team here and myself shared, we are deeply convinced by the compelling nature of this transaction, both for Worldline and Ingenico shareholders. As a closing statement, let me reiterate why. For Worldline shareholders, it is the logical next step of the strategy that we've implemented since our IPO, which is to act as the leading consolidator of the European payment industry. For our shareholders, this combination will generate very significant value, thanks to our robust and secure EUR 250 million run rate synergy program, which is backed by our unparalleled integration expertise. Our shareholders will also benefit from an immediate and strong EPS accretion.
For the Ingenico shareholders, they are getting the benefit of a 24% premium on the one month volume weighted average share prices, with an upfront cash payment and often access to the transaction synergy pool through their projected 35% participation in the combined entity. In addition to the synergies, Ingenico shareholders will also benefit from their exposure to a more diversified payment services platform, thanks to our full coverage of the industry value chain. Finally, both colleges of shareholders will be able to reap the benefit of the unique positioning of the combined entity to continue consolidating the payment industry and generate value. The enhanced capital market visibility and liquidity will also be an important and structural long-term positive factor. I hope that I have conveyed with the team here our enthusiasm for this next step in our journey.
This concludes our presentation today, and now I open the floor to your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. And if you wish to cancel your request, please press the hash key. Once again, star one if you wish to ask a question. Our first question is from the line of Josh Levin. Thank you. Please ask your question.
Thank you and good morning. You mentioned that you would look into strategic options for the terminals business upon deal close. What are some of the strategic options you could envision, and how committed are you to keeping the terminals business?
Hello, Josh, many thanks for your question, which I will take personally. And, as Marc-Henri said it very clearly, let's be very clear, upon closing, we will initiate a strategic review of the alternatives for B&A. And to be even clearer, there is absolutely no taboo. There is no preconceived idea. We will do what is in the best interest of the business, all the stakeholders, the customers, the shareholders, and the employee. It is, of course, too soon to comment on any potential avenues, but there is absolutely no taboo in the strategic review.
Oh, thank you, and one more question, if I might. You know, you mentioned it was the perfect time for Worldline to buy it, but I guess a year ago, you probably could have bought Ingenico for half the price today. Did you explore looking at Ingenico a year ago? Was that, was that possible, or it just wasn't on the radar then?
Ah, Josh, timing, you're right. As I mentioned, timing is everything, you know? Yes, indeed, probably a year ago, if you look just at the stock price, it could have been a bargain. But I'm not sure that the board of Ingenico first would have believed that, they would have been ready to sell. When you look at the fantastic work they were doing and the very strong conviction they were having, that they could, so Nicolas, us, very dynamic management and a very efficient, turnaround of many activities could actually, immediately brought the company back onto the right track. And to be frank, ourselves, we were of course, monitoring the evolution of Ingenico. And one of the key elements of our decision was precisely to see the progresses executed quarter after quarter on the Ingenico improvement plan.
Second, of course, let's look at the facts, Josh. You know our story. 6-9 months ago, we were, ourselves, Worldline, just in the middle of the deconsolidation from Atos, which had just been announced in H1. Things had not really taken place at that moment in time, so there were still many moving parts in the Worldline shareholding structure. We were not having brought back the minority shareholders of Worldline, and our maneuverability would have been potentially hampered if we did not first close this very important transaction piece. Maybe the most important, we were just starting the SIX integration, the SIX payment services integration. We wanted, as always, in anything we do in this company, to demonstrate that the SPS integration was not only fully on track, but even ahead of plan, before undertaking such a new transformative move.
So, you know, when I say timing was everything, it was really the case. I believe on the Worldline side, 6, 7 months ago, clearly was not the timing for us. I believe we would not have met neither the appetite of the board of directors of Ingenico, regarding what they were doing, what their conviction was on their ability to bring back the company on the very solid track where they are today. And for us, too, we would have- we would not have taken the risk of integrating Ingenico if we did not see the impeccable catch-up that has been done by the new management team. So all that ultimately bring us where we are today, and I repeat it, this is the right time.
Thank you.
Maybe, Gilles, if you know-
Yeah, Nicolas.
In one sentence, I mean, you've covered it perfectly. There is one point that wasn't there a year ago, which is the accelerated consolidation of the top players, which from our perspective, of course, has been an important point that we took into consideration in the decision.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of James Goodman. Thank you. Please ask your question.
Yeah, morning, gentlemen. Thank you for the detailed pre-prepared remarks, certainly a transformative deal. I guess, you'll get a few questions on this, but I wanted to come back to that comment around the terminals business, because to me, it introduces a little bit of uncertainty here into exactly how the business will look. Can we be a bit clearer around plan A? Is that to fully integrate right across the Ingenico business, including with your own terminals business as well? Because, of course, I'm just wondering to what extent the synergies that you've spoken to this morning are all dependent upon, I guess, a plan A for keeping B&A in very much the current format that it's in.
And then the other question I had, I just don't have it clear in my mind at this stage, is just around the sort of antitrust closure aspects of this deal. Is there anything that you're really thinking will be a major hurdle there? And could there be some implications just on your own terminals business, given the strength of Ingenico's position globally? Thank you.
So Marc-Henri will take your question. Maybe you can start by the second one.
Yeah.
And then come back to the first one.
Oh, yeah, on antitrust in general, so the core of the transaction is around merchant services. And when we look at this market, which is now more and more a European market, it's clearly recognized by all players. Our market share in merchant services, we assess combined, it could be circa high level estimation, but circa 15%, 15. So it's a solid market share, of course, but it is still very reasonable from an antitrust standpoint. And when you look at it from a geographic complementarity, as you could see, the complementarity is good.
There is limited overlap, so our assessment is that the antitrust impact is indeed very, very limited on this transaction. When it comes to payment terminals, you know, our size in this domain is extremely so small. We ship, I would say, average 150,000 terminals per year. With very different distribution channels compared to Ingenico. So, you know, the order of magnitude, they are nothing in comparison. So it's really not the topic. And indeed, when you mention plan A, the plan A overall for this business is the focus on the retail synergies. The retail synergies, the retail or merchant services synergies, they are 85% of the synergy pot.
That's where we'll concentrate all our attention and all the value creation. There are a bit of synergies in the terminal or POS side. And of course, we will work at delivering them. But these synergies, in no shape or form, are a limiting factor in the strategic review and in our ability to move and to find the best possible solution at a later point in time, and the best possible solution, which is also consistent with the ability to cross-sell, to partner, to develop further the business. So, what we have in mind is to look at it without any taboo or without any limitation.
And so one of, by the way, the key elements that we also took into consideration is the great work done by Ingenico last year to set up the B&A business as a separate legal entity, which is, of course, opening a fantastic flexibility for the thinking around the strategic avenues. And for us, as you understood from Marc-Henri, the bulk of the story is fundamentally the 85% synergies we're gonna, of course, going to extract with the Ingenico teams on the retail piece to really make this fantastic merchant services machine that we have both identified during our joint work over the last weeks.
Yeah, I see that. That's much clearer. Thank you.
Our next question is from the line of Adam Wood, thank you. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking the question. I've got two, if I could, please. Maybe just first of all, could we talk a little bit about the technology challenges of the merger and what the plans are here? So maybe first of all, you could just update us on where you are with the integration of the SIX platform, what the plans are there going forward. And then more importantly, on the Ingenico side, again, with the M&A that Ingenico had done, they were running multiple technology platforms. Could you talk here about what the plans are for integration and roughly, you know, how long you think that will take?
And then secondly, coming back to this theme of managing the challenge, talking about it being a bank-friendly merger, could you talk about a little bit about what the plans are to drive direct merchant acquiring business versus being happy to sit and process for banks, and how you think that evolves, and what the pros and cons are of those two approaches? Thank you.
Yeah, many thanks for these two questions, which are actually absolutely excellent, and which are touching both on two very strong key points of the Worldline knowhow and story. Of course, on the first one, on the platform, you know that through our financial processing expertise, this is really a core knowhow of the company to actually integrate merge platform. I will let Marc-Henri drive you here, and maybe, Nicolas, I don't know if you want to make some comments on your status today. In any case, plans will be merged, as we most know. And I will take the second one later on. Yeah. So, when it comes to technology challenges, indeed, it is part of the story of Worldline to onboard the different platforms and then to merge and convert them.
For the one following us in the IPO, we had engaged the WIPE program for the conversions of the existing fragmented release set of platform inside Worldline. Then we merged further with Equens, and now with SIX Payment Services. So all this is indeed progressing extremely well. We are already largely converged. On the SIX Payment Services work, the target platform is set, and the migration of the merchants is well on track. And so it gives a clear momentum and a clear visibility to the teams, and this is now organized.
We also adapted the integration and transformation work, so it can really become, you know, a running basis, a running transformation programs inside the Worldline organization. As I said, it's on track. It's even ahead of the plan when it comes to SPS. Looking at the situation of Ingenico, it's a work we did together. Obviously, we had a review of all existing platforms, of their strengths, of their capabilities. And you know, for the platform, it's like for the people, we have no taboo, and we go best fit for the job.
So when we see the quality of the online collecting platforms of Ingenico, we know there are a lot of things that can be leveraged. We also know that most of them have been upgraded to the latest technology. A lot of work has been done on the Global Collect platforms. But not only, they are excellent and fantastic digital selling platforms supporting the Bambora business. So we have a clear view about for each and specific domain what we are going to reuse. Clearly, for the core, the bulk of the processing, it is around our processing factory calling back office and the front end.
But when it comes to the online, there is a lot of things that could be leveraged on the Ingenico side, still using some modules on both elements. On the digital self, we also know that we are going to be able to reuse a lot of things in Ingenico. So we have these technology teams. We know how to do it, and we are going to do it.
Many thanks, Marc-Henri. Just in two years' time, three years' time, let's imagine the power of having these 1+ million merchants that will be operated virtually in a single harmonized platform with various APIs inside to actually connect these to the various layers of the services we can render.
This is, that will be the magic of the operational leverage we are going to create, and you know that,
... thanks to our IT DNA and very strong financial processing capabilities, Worldline is really fit for this job. We've demonstrated it. Maybe you want to add a few-
Yeah, of course, it was one also of the elements that we took into consideration. Personally, I've known Worldline for quite some time.
Yes.
I did the time, and we exchanged this morning, as usual, on the fact that you once called me to announce the Worldline IPO. And what struck me over the years is the incredible know-how and expertise that you guys have in terms of integration from a technology perspective, but not only from a technology perspective. And if we go back to this technology item, what I strongly believe is that what we did in 2019 is also facilitating the platform integration. If you remember, to try to summarize it, we did two things. The first one is, we adopted a modular approach, transversalizing all of the Ingenico platforms versus what was done before, around some ring-fence technological platforms. And the second thing that we've also started to implement is a data center rationalization.
All of this, of course, will pave the way for the integration.
Thanks, Nicolas. On your second point, which is a very good point, because with the size of this merchant services business, of course, we know we're gonna attract the attention of many banks across the world, we believe. Actually, you know, the merchant acquiring activities across the world are fundamentally set different ways, country by country. You have countries which are bank-led, where the distribution is still bank-led, and in which it is absolutely the right thing to do, to partner with banks, to do have a very strong alliance with banks that want to actually beef up their own capabilities, keep their existing customers, be in a position to be able to follow the need of their customers internationally, because most of the banks are still primarily domestic players.
And then, of course, a group like Worldline plus Ingenico is literally close to being unbeatable, particularly if you have to serve merchants across the pan-European landscape. So I'm absolutely convinced that for many banks, this type of strategic partnerships will be a superb success. And by the way, you could see that with Nicolas and Bernard when we had to introduce our project to the German Sparkassen and their representative. They were literally enthusiastic about the expansion of this partnership, very quickly seeing the benefit for their own merchant customers to get the benefit of the two combined group.
I can also tell you that it is currently quite a hot trend, if I look at the pipeline of this type of deals in Worldline, to have alliances across the world with large banking groups, which are recognizing that the merchant acquiring business, as Nicolas mentioned, has dramatically changed over the last five years. You cannot be only having a bank channel as a distribution. You can only rely on a plain vanilla service too simple, and you need definitely to be backed by powerful muscles, powerful technology solutions, and international reach. I'm sure that going forward with this combination, you will see us regularly announcing these type of alliances in the coming years.
We have already in the pipe today, and I believe that the very strong power of the announcement we are actually doing today, will certainly initiate some streams for medium- to long-term new strategic alliances between the extended Worldline and the banking community. This is, really, what I call bank friendly. You know, we have been building this business by accompanying banks in this journey from captive payment services business to the status of pure player. This is a fintech industry. We are setting up one of the largest fintech in Europe with Worldline plus Ingenico, and definitely, banks recognize that times have changed and they need to partner with such company.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Next question is from the line of Hannes Leitner. Thank you. Please ask your question.
Yes, thank you. Congrats to the deal. Could you talk a little bit about the headcount overlap, especially in France? That's the first question. The second is, was there a competitive bid in the process? And, any background information would be helpful. And then the third, it is on the acceptance rate. Is it really just 60% you need to reach, or would this move you over the transaction, and there would be a push out also? Can you talk us through the question?
Hello, Hannes. Many thanks for your question, and many thanks for your appreciation of the deal. We're also happy, as you can see. I will ask Marc-Henri to give you some light regarding the people overlap. But you know us, you've been following us, you know that, we've been growing the company and, pretty much, recruiting new staff, as a matter of fact, over the last years. So we are very comfortable on our ability to deliver the synergies, without having a really, significant overlap. On the third one, I believe I will ask Eric to get there. And on the second one, as far as I know, I will let probably Nicolas answer into your question regarding competitive bid. I know only what I know.
Well, which is also the case for us. Go ahead.
No, so, well, actually, sorry, coming to headcount overlap, of course, I will answer the question, but it's not precisely the way we look at it. Just to give you an order of magnitude, Worldline, we hired 7,000 people over the last 4 years. So of course, it's a company which is breathing, with people joining, people leaving, but we onboard a lot of people to develop and grow the payment business. And so, that's the way we intend to continue growing, developing, and then, of course, allowing a lot of possibilities of redeployment. This being said, if you want an order of magnitude, Worldline in France, it is circa 3,000 people, and Ingenico in France, it is circa 1,000 people.
So over the 20, circa 20,000 people across the globe, it is a part, but certainly not a topic of concern. We know how to handle this thing in a positive and appropriate way. On the third question, maybe Eric?
On your third question, we have said the acceptance rate at 60% on a fully diluted basis. However, we reserve a possibility to waive this threshold as the case may be.
Any sense, Nicolas?
Well, no further comment.
Okay.
Chinese walls.
Okay, very good. So-
Just one-
We can set you on the second one.
Okay, no worries, no worries. Just one on the antitrust follow-up to a previous question. Do you have any specific countries you need to seek antitrust approval? I understand the rationale behind the European picture, but just, if you look at the U.S. maybe, and the terminal businesses, Ingenico is there, also number one or number two - number two behind Verifone. Thank you for the insight.
Well, we are going to go through this process. Indeed, there are various authorities around the globe. Clearly, in the U.S., it is not a point of focus. I don't know if anyone has ever seen a Worldline terminal on the U.S. continent. Myself, I have not. So, I don't think it is a core of the question. For sure, the core will be on the European continent, and that's where we are going to handle the situation with the European authorities.
At some country.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Johannes Keller. Thank you. Please ask your question.
Yeah, thanks, for taking my questions. I mean, I think your strategy so far, Gilles, was really to kind of become a European-focused, consolidator of the European payment services industry. I mean, Ingenico helps here, but this deal also brings a lot of other stuff. So could you just explain to us a little bit how that deal changes your strategy? Is, Worldline becoming more of a global player? Is the next step after Ingenico maybe more a global deal, or will the strategy from here really continue to be on, on consolidating the European, payment services industry? And then also, as a second question, in terms of the terminals, operation, just following up on that, can you give us maybe a bit more detail what exactly you're doing when you say optimize terminals operations as, as part of your synergies?
Just to better understand kind of how that would potentially impact the strategic options you have for the POS business. And then as a last question, just on growth rates, I know you're not guiding for anything here for the combined business, but maybe you could give us a bit of a sense, kind of how you see the organic growth profile of the combined entity, both including and excluding the POS business. Thank you.
Oh, many thanks, Johannes. And, I will take the first one. Of course, I think, Marc-Henri, we will give you some colors on how we're gonna also extract synergies between our terminal business and, of course, a very big one of Ingenico. But there are, of course, interesting things we can do here. And, Eric will take the third one, I believe. So on the first one, clearly, you are raising a very good point. And my answer would be two ways. As I've said many times to you guys, following our story, I share with you that. And it is also true to a certain extent with what Ingenico did.
Over the last years, what we saw in Europe through the wave one of consolidation, was fundamentally banking communities in the mid-sized countries in Europe, like Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, the Nordic countries, the only exception being really Germany here, as a very large country, divesting several businesses to pure players. What remains in Europe is still quite attractive, as a matter of fact. We have the largest European economies with the largest electronic payment volumes, which are still in certain big countries, in bank-owned entities. So, here, you still have France, you have Sweden, you have, the entire Iberian countries, both Portugal and Spain, which fundamentally stayed apart, and of course, an Italian situation that you know, extremely well.
Europe has still some way to go given this situation, and we will certainly not be focused for Europe for further consolidation. That being said, you're right. One of the things which is absolutely great here, that Ingenico brings to Worldline, is just the global reach that they've been creating. They have a presence in 170 countries. They have 1,000 relationships with banks through the payment terminal sale they do every year. This is a unique asset. Look, that we are a financial processor, selling processing services ourselves to 300 banks. So of course, as long as the strategic review has not come to its conclusion, we will be extremely focused to leverage this fantastic network, and even beyond.
I'm sure that we will keep strategic relationship, whatever the opportunities are, after the strategic review, to bring Worldline into new territory, and certainly M&A will be part of that. I think the size of the company, its visibility, would allow us now to pursue much bigger opportunities in different continents.
... but let's not forget Europe. It is not entirely done in Europe.
But I say a word on a bit more color on synergies for terminal. So on the overall quantum, you have seen the number, 15%. When it comes to what can be done, let's not make rocket science, let's talk simple things. They ship over 10, maybe 14 million terminal units per year. We ship 140,000, so when it comes to buying components, we are both fabulous company, of course. And sourcing as the most efficient way, these pieces and devices, there is an obvious benefit for the smaller Worldline. I can add two things maybe on this. Going more and more strategic. Second one is, look, terminals, I think Ingenico has 1,000 certifications.
It's hundreds of software version to adapt to the various needs in the world. So, you get that in this software development and certification process, there is a lot to do. But lastly, from a more strategic point of view, you have the presentation, I guess, on the call of Ingenico, of Nicolas and Mathieu, explaining that they are going to double the recurring revenues of terminals, which means engaging in more strategic deals with banks and acquirers, providing the solution as a service. We have a go-to-market team. We have a sales team, which is used to architect complex servicing deals to big banks, big acquirers, and we process for them. And I think this know-how, this sales force, can help and boost and accelerate this momentum of selling more comprehensive, recurring, as-a-service deals.
And this, again, without questioning the strategic alternative, because you can do that in a very integrated way. You can do that also in a more flexible, autonomous way. It is about commercial alliance. It is about pooling forces.
Maybe on the last question regarding the impact on the growth rate. It's obviously too early to give any guidance. I will try to give you a little bit of qualitative color so that you can try to make your own math, and then probably at some point, we'll be in a position to communicate further on this. But for now, what I can say is that definitely the focus of this transaction for us is, as you understood, more on the retail part, which is the one that is most energetic. The business is very complementary. There is a few overlap in terms of geographies.
There is an excellent complementarity also in term of portfolio with, Ingenico being very strong in online. You know, online is growing very fast, faster than the rest of the merchant services business. So looking at the retail part, if I were to update my plan, it would probably be toward an acceleration, huh? As we were already accelerating on a standalone basis, we can probably continue the trend. Now, looking at the other components, the B&A, the POS part, I think this one, we probably need to look at it in more detail. I'm not so much worried of a strong impact. Probably it will grow less than the retail part.
But what we will look at is the volatility, knowing that, you know, with a much larger company, the volatility will impact much less the growth rate overall for the company. So to us, any outcome of a strategic review, we believe we can find still a good growth pattern for the combined group.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Charlie Brennan. Thank you. Please ask your question.
Great. Thanks for taking the question. It's just a quick one on how we should be interpreting the synergies, actually. On an organic basis, both Worldline and Ingenico were targeting their own, forward-looking synergies. Should we simply take consensus for both standalone companies, add them together, and add your EUR 250 million of synergies? Or do your EUR 250 million of synergies double count some of the, cost savings that were embedded into both organic plans? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Charlie. That's, indeed, an important question, and thank you for raising this point. We made the effort to really distinguish between what was on top and what was already embedded into the standalone plan. So definitely, the synergies should be on top of the two standalone trajectories and the profitability improvement that both companies were already forecasting. So you can comfortably add the EUR 250 million.
By the way, that's been one of the pieces of the work done over the last weeks, and driven by Michel-Alain, Marc-Henri, Eric, and the teams, to make sure that there was no double count.
Absolutely.
Charles, it's Michel-Alain. I confirm.
Perfect. That's very clear. Thank you.
Our next question is from the line of Lee Dunlop. Thank you. Please ask your question.
I just have some process questions here. Just in regards to Ingenico, will you proceed with the dividend payment this year, or will you delay until the outcome of this transaction? And on Worldline, does, I understand there's a shareholder vote to approve the transaction. When do you expect this to happen, and what's the shareholder vote required? And maybe just finally, what was the lead up to the agreement of the transaction? Was it a long, extended-
... process or is it fairly recent? I'm just trying to ascertain, you know, to the extent other options were explored before the agreement was made. Thank you.
Thank you. I will take the third one.
Maybe I begin, Gilles, if you allow me-
Please, for sure, Michel-Alain.
On the dividend, obviously, the dividend of Ingenico is a decision of the board and the general assembly. The management will have a recommendation on this, but it's too early to say what will be the decision on this point.
Okay.
Okay?
Thanks, Michel-Alain. On our side, what I can say on the general meeting of the shareholders that should vote, it is a two-thirds majority that is required to move the transaction forward, and we expect to position the general meeting somewhere in Q2. And okay, sorry, did I miss one of your questions?
The lead up to the agreement, the number-
Ah, yeah, sorry. Sorry, no, I mean, it has been, I would say, a relatively fast process over the last weeks, without betraying anything. To be frank, we've been looking at each other for years. We were neighbors, we were very admirative on our side of the transformational journey done by Ingenico, done by Ingenico over the last 10 years. But it was a much different company some years back, less exposed to merchant services. We were a different company, much smaller. We had not the track record we had, so things was flying around. It has a certain type of natural go together at a point in time. But years back, we were two different companies, and it was not the time neither, and we had to also prove ourself.
And so ultimately, as I told you, this has been triggered by the 2019 events, both on the Worldline side with the deconsolidation from Atos, both on the Ingenico side, at least viewed from our perspective. The work done by Ingenico in 2019 with the new management team led by Nicolas has been a key element in our decision process to actually discuss with them, because it has, on both fronts, the Fit for Growth plan, the B&A revival, brought to us a very significant level of comfort that it would be the good move to be done at that point in time. So I don't want to be more explicit, but once we were in motion, it has been relatively fast.
Okay. Thank you very much.
No more questions on the phone line, please continue.
No more questions? Gents, in that case, as we mentioned, by the way, to your last question, on there are commitments of vote, as you saw from both Atos and SIX Group on our side, at the general meeting of shareholders, which will take place in Q2, so these transactions... And by the way, in the past, just also for you to know, all our transformative movement that we presented to our shareholders have been approved at circa 100%. Just because it is the strategy of this company to exactly do what we announced today, to extract the value and to pursue moving forward for what is an exceptional journey.
So if you let me maybe conclude this call, and really, I'm extremely grateful, as Nicolas and the teams here, that you took the time this morning, and I know that this will represent a lot of work for you. But I would like to share with you some key takeaways. The main reason to the deal, I think, is obvious to you all. It is a transformative transaction in the merchant services space. It is doubling the size of Worldline. It is bringing together extraordinary complementary assets, the phenomenal complementary geographic footprint, and an unbeatable company in the European landscape. Before potentially tomorrow, striking a few more deals in the remaining countries, where we can actually partner with large banks, that certainly we will engage in the coming quarters.
That will be quite interesting, I believe, in finding the way to a deal with such a champion in Europe. It is also, don't miss that point, guys, a step change in the online payment business of the combined entity of the Worldline Group. For the last 5 years, one of the things that were told, that was told to us since we acquired Worldline, is that this was a great business. We did the right things in transformation, but you felt we were too small in online. You heard from Marc-Henri that it is circa 30% of a EUR 2.5 billion business that will be in online, with double-digit growth perspective. This is really one of the key points. Do your math.
You will see that there is barely any equivalent online payment business of this magnitude existing today in Europe with such a global reach. Last point for me, before making a strategic, point, is the incredible work done by Ingenico on the B&A business over the last 18 months, that has made us totally comfortable to move this transaction forward. What I mean here is that there is now a brand-new equity story for this business unit that has been built under Nicolas' leadership. The B&A revival plan, which has demonstrated that it can improve the margin, stabilize the business, and expand the business model to Terminal as a Service, which is a very promising avenue first. There is a new strategic transformation to be managed, moving from hardware to cloud-based software POS solution.
It is an extraordinary transformation that has been initiated by some other players around Ingenico, and that is the future for this type of activity. It is also a piece of this new equity story. I must say, in front of Mathieu, if you allow me, Mathieu, that the management team that has been put in place in Ingenico to drive B&A is exceptional. It is clearly, in my view, a very significant asset of the strategic opportunity of B&A and the new equity story. And there is also the work done last year to make it a legally separated entity. All these ingredients are making, of course, necessary the strategic review, and the credibility of the strategic review is absolutely notable. This is the new business which has started to be launched over the last eighteen months.
Let me tell you that without all these fantastic progresses on the Ingenico side, I would not be speaking in front of you today. So last, the company that we are shaping together is just unique. Uniqueness has a value. There is nothing equivalent in Europe. I hardly believe there would be anything equivalent in Europe in the coming years. And of course, we still have plenty of potential avenues in the coming years, when the integration will be secured, to pursue making this company the European global payment services champion Europe was needing since we created the euro. Many thanks, guys. Look forward to interacting with you all in the coming days and weeks, and many thanks again for the work you're gonna do on this extraordinary transaction. I don't know if you want to add anything, Nicolas?
Very good conclusion. No need to add to that.
Many thanks, gents. Talk to you soon.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.