logo
Worldline turmoil hands Swiss bourse a $300 mn blow on strategic stake

Worldline turmoil hands Swiss bourse a $300 mn blow on strategic stake

Romeo Lacher was full of ideas when he sold the payment services division of Switzerland's stock exchange SIX Group AG to French firm Worldline SA in 2018.
The 2.75 billion Swiss franc ($3.5 billion) deal gave SIX a 27 per cent stake in Worldline and would provide SIX with an 'extreme' amount of firepower to participate in Europe's consolidating market infrastructure sector, Lacher, then chairman of SIX, said at the time. He later held the same position at Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group Ltd., before exiting earlier this year.
Worldline has denied the allegations and its chief executive officer has decried the media reports, calling them outdated and part of an orchestrated media campaign against the firm.
The bourse's current stake of roughly 10 per cent in Worldline was valued in its accounts at just under €400 million ($467 million) at the end of 2024. That was already at a premium to its €250 million market value, which has fallen further this year to around €110 million.
SIX is now reviewing potential actions for the shareholding, according to people familiar with the matter, including carrying out a test to determine if further impairment is required. The wait-and-see approach is not an option anymore, said one of the people, who all asked not to be identified discussing private information.
SIX already booked an impairment on its Worldline stake of around 860 million Swiss francs for the fourth quarter of 2023 linked to a cut to the company's outlook and the scrapping of its revenue target. The exchange also adjusted its 2024 net profit to account for another 168 million Swiss francs impairment on the stake.
SIX's largest shareholder is UBS Group AG, with a roughly 35 per cent stake. Representatives for UBS, Worldline and SIX declined to comment. Lacher didn't respond to a request for comment.
'Strategic' holding
Daniel Schmucki, SIX's chief financial officer and a former aviation industry executive, has sat on Worldline's board for the past five years, a period in which the exchange has repeatedly described its holding in Worldline as 'strategic.'
Worldline shares dropped 38 per cent on June 25 after media outlets published reports that the firm had ignored warnings from regulators and continued doing business with risky clients with high fraud rates, including pornographers and dating websites.
The repeated impairments put the bourse at a disadvantage to peers in an industry that has been using major acquisitions to grow and consolidate and is searching for new revenue streams coming from data and private markets.
It's a far cry from 2020, when SIX sold a chunk of its original 27 per cent stake in Worldline to finance the acquisition of the operator of Spain's stock exchange. But since then, SIX has turned down opportunities to reduce its remaining Worldline stake, the people said.
Worldline has hired an external firm to go through its portfolio of risky clients as the payments firm seeks to restore trust, Chairman Wilfried Verstraete told the newspaper Les Echos.
SIX is set to publish second-quarter earnings at the end of July.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

'India has grown very quickly for us; it's now among our top five global markets'
'India has grown very quickly for us; it's now among our top five global markets'

India Today

time8 hours ago

  • India Today

'India has grown very quickly for us; it's now among our top five global markets'

Frederique Constant continues to build on its vision of accessible luxury by refining its signature complications and reaffirming its commitment to traditional Swiss watchmaking with modern relevance. India Today spice caught up with Niels Eggerding, CEO of Frederique Constant, at Watches and Wonders 2025, for an insightful conversation about the new Perpetual Calendar and the brand's growing presence in India, technical evolutions, market strategy, and how the brand continues to excite both first-time buyers and seasoned collectors alike.

'India will grow faster than China; the overall luxury market there is shrinking'
'India will grow faster than China; the overall luxury market there is shrinking'

India Today

time9 hours ago

  • India Today

'India will grow faster than China; the overall luxury market there is shrinking'

H. Moser & Cie., the renowned independent Swiss watch manufacturer with a nearly 200-year-old history has just opened its first standalone boutique in Gurugram, India, which is also its sixth globally after Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Menlo Park and Seoul. The India boutique has been launched in partnership with Ethos Limited which has been the exclusive distributor of the brand since 2019. The boutique brings to the Indian watch collector not only the brand's iconic collections but more specifically the Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton Boutique Edition, limited to only 17 pieces worldwide.

German wind supply expected to jump early next week
German wind supply expected to jump early next week

Time of India

time14 hours ago

  • Time of India

German wind supply expected to jump early next week

German wind power output is expected to rise sharply on Monday to near triple Friday levels, while demand is seen dropping on a forecast decline in temperatures. The German and French Monday baseload power contracts , were both untraded by 0951 GMT, LSEG data showed. Baseload prices for Friday had closed at 98 euros/MWh and 64.25 euros/MWh respectively on Thursday. A strong wind ramp-up is expected early next week before easing, while solar output is expected to remain low but could improve by the end of the week, analysts at Engie EnergyScan said in their daily report. On the demand side, temperatures are expected to rise slightly by the middle of next week before cooling at the end of the week, they added. German wind power output was expected to rise by 10.4 GW to 15.6 GW on Monday, while French wind supply was seen up 3 GW at 5.7 GW, LSEG data showed. LSEG analysis showed that average wind supply in Germany is expected to peak on Tuesday next week at near 19 GW, before falling back slowly by several gigawatts per day until it reaches around 10 GW by Friday. German solar power supply was projected to tick up 380 megawatts (MW) to 5 GW, LSEG data showed. Power consumption in Germany is forecast to fall 1.9 GW to 50 GW on Monday, while demand in France is seen down 1.9 GW to 40.3 GW, the data showed. French nuclear availability fell two percentage points to 75 per cent of total capacity. The Penly 1 reactor went offline in the afternoon on Thursday and teams are carrying out maintenance in the non-nuclear part of the facility, operator EDF said. German year-ahead power rose 0.6 per cent to 85.30 euros ($100.09) per megawatt hour (MWh), while the French 2026 baseload contract ticked up 0.1 per cent to 61.90 euros/MWh. In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract inched up by 0.3 per cent to 71.07 euros a metric ton.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store