MUMBAI
:
French payments company Worldline has hired investment bank BNP Paribas to explore a potential sale of its India business, two people aware of the matter said.
Discussions are at a preliminary stage, and the deal size could be above $200 million, one of the two people said on the condition of anonymity.
“The sale is expected to happen through an auction process among a wide buyer pool, including strategic players in the payments space in India,” the person added.
The exit plan comes at a time Worldline is restructuring its global portfolio to restore investor confidence and revive growth and profitability amid macroeconomic headwinds.
Worldline declined to comment, while queries emailed to BNP Paribas remained unanswered.
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In India, Worldline operates as a business-to-business payments solutions firm serving banks and large merchants. The company has offices across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Chennai and other cities.
According to the second person, Indian payments companies such as Razorpay and PayU could gain scale from an acquisition of the business.
The turnaround plan
Worldline’s new chief executive Pierre-Antoine Vacheron said at an earnings call last month that the company would exit non-performing geographies and segments to revive growth, without sharing details.
“We need to be more selective given the investment required to address innovation and compliance requirements. This will mean exiting from segments or geographies inherited from past acquisitions and considered as non-core,” he said.
Founded in 1970, Worldline is a publicly listed solutions provider for payments companies operating across the globe, including Europe, India, Japan, and the US. It launched the turnaround plan in February, focussing on tightening cost controls, pruning its portfolio, and emphasising free cash flow improvements.
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Worldline has also appointed banking advisors to sell its Mobility and e-Transactional Services (MTS) business, Reuters reported in November. In December, Reuters reported that the company is attracting early-stage takeover interest from private equity firms, including Bain Capital. However, Bain later denied evaluating Worldline.
The company’s erstwhile CEO, Gilles Grapinet, stepped down in September 2024, as it issued its third profit warning within a year. Vacheron was later appointed as CEO, effective 1 March.
In the March quarter of 2025, Worldline’s revenue stood at €1,068 million, down 2.3% year-on-year. It reported muted growth for 2024, with €4,632 million in revenue, up 0.5% in organic terms year-on-year, and a net loss of €297 million. It follows the calendar year as the financial year.
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