Ingenico Group SA, the French payments-processing firm, agreed to buy Swedish rival Bambora from Nordic Capital for 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion), adding online payments technology for shops.
The acquisition of Stockholm-based Bambora, which employs 700 people across Europe, North America and Australia, should boost Ingenico’s revenue growth by 1 to 2 percentage points annually while also increasing earnings-per-share by about 5 percent in 2018, the Paris-based company said Thursday.
The transaction will “create value for our shareholders, customers and employees,” Ingenico Chief Executive Officer Philippe Lazare said in the statement, adding the cash-and-debt deal would leave Ingenico with “flexibility for future M&A.”
Consolidation is accelerating in the rapidly growing payments sector as consumers increasingly switch to online purchases and electronic payments. Vantiv Inc. of the U.S. agreed this month to buy Worldpay Group Plc for 7.7 billion pounds ($9.9 billion) and Permira and Nordic Capital are among buyout firms considering bids for Nets A/S, the Danish payment-services provider that has attracted takeover interest, people with knowledge of the matter said last week.
Ingenico is using acquisitions to build scale and disrupt a payment services industry that is shaking up financial and retail sectors.
Bambora’s top management will reinvest a “meaningful part of their proceeds” in Ingenico shares and will be “fully involved” in developing Bambora activities within Ingenico, the companies said. Bambora provides online payments for 110,000 shops and companies and had 202 million euros of revenue in 2016.
Ingenico’s sales in the first half rose 8 percent to 1.22 billion euros, it said, confirming its full-year targets.
