Payment services provider Worldline today announced its 2023 annual results.
Worldline’s revenue for fiscal year 2023 was €4,610 million, representing organic revenue growth of 6.0%, according to revised guidance given on October 25, 2023.
Merchant Services (revenue €3,325 million, organic growth +8.9%) showed a contrast between a good first half and the second half. This was in particular due to the slowdown in the economy and consumption in Europe, which worsened further in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, and the impact of the announced termination of online merchants which represented an approximately €30 million impact in the second half of 2023.
Financial Services performance (€944m revenue, organic decline 1.3%) reflected low conversion of pipeline opportunities, partially offset by good resilience of issuance activities.
Mobility & e-Transactional Services (revenue €342 million, organic growth +0.1%) achieved solid performance due to the good underlying growth of e-Ticketing.
Adjusted Group EBITDA amounted to €1,110m in 2023, flat in absolute terms compared to 2022 and representing 24.1% of revenues, in line with the revised year target.
The Group’s share of net income from continuing operations was -817 million euros, mainly affected by the impairment of goodwill of 1,147 million euros realized mainly in Merchant Services, based on conservative assumptions reflecting the change in the valuation paradigm in the payments industry . On a normalized basis (excluding unusual and rare items, the Group’s share, net of tax) reached €521m, flat in absolute terms over 2022.
Normalized basic and diluted EPS were both €1.85 in 2023. As of December 31, 2023, there were no potential dilutive instruments in contrast to 2022, when the potential dilutive instruments were stock options and convertible bonds.
The Group’s net borrowing amounted to €1,811 million at the end of 2023, down by around €400 million compared to 2022. It represents a Group leverage ratio of 1.6 times to adjusted EBITDA.
