In what has been tipped the largest UK-based IPO since 2011, payment solutions provider Worldpay has announced an £890m flotation, with the aim of clearing its debts and readying itself to release its next wave of specialist technology.
By the time it is complete, the IPO could lead the firm to be valued at around £6bn.
Worldpay has become one of the foremost companies in the field of payment technology since it launched to compete with the 1989-founded Streamline, which specialised in facilitating point-of-sale transactions throughout retail premises. Worldpay, by contrast, was an early-market entrant in the field of online payments.
In 2002, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) purchased Streamline and Worldpay at the same time, initially operating them as separate brands. Over the next eight years, RBS acquired a host of other players in the payments sector, such as Lynx, Trustmarque International, Bitbit and Cardsave.
Those platforms were brought under the Worldpay/Streamline umbrella and, in 2010, the combination of firms splintered off entirely under the single, Worldpay brand.
Worldpay now manages and coordinates total annual payments of £11.5bn for some of the UK’s biggest retail brands, including M&S and Tesco, with airlines and restaurant chains also using its services. Around 400,000 clients around the world are signed up to its various phone, electronic and online solutions.
The company chose to undertake the IPO as a means of fending off a looming acquisition from French rival Ingenico. According to Reuters, the flotation is backed by an impressive tag-team of financial institutions: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the charge, with assistance from Barclays, Credit Suisse and UBS.
Worldpay chief executive Philip Jansen said that the firm “has been transformed into a global leader in payments” since it broke away from RBS.
He added: “The IPO is an exciting and logical next step as we seek to continue this momentum. It will enable us to access new capital for growth, augment our global proposition and further enhance our ability to serve customers across the world.”
Just days before the flotation was announced, Worldpay confirmed that it had signed up to a joint venture with enterprise software specialists Zuora, with the aim of developing enhanced payment facilities for subscription-based services.
The venture is looking to garner interest from subscription-based operators in the arenas of music, movies, e-commerce, news, videogames, sports, social media and TV, with streaming-video provider OZ the first client to sign up.
Zuora’s northern Europe regional director, John Phillips, said: “Collaborating with Worldpay means we can offer our global customers, and their customers, more flexibility and scalability when it comes to subscribing to new goods and services.
“By providing more choice than ever before, companies are able to tailor subscription offerings to attract a wider range of consumers, on more attractive and profitable terms.”