By Elena Vardon
(Reuters) -French payment company Worldline’s quarterly revenue slightly beat expectations on Tuesday, driven by volume growth and market share gains in its merchant services business.
The group, which operates digital payment and transactional solutions, posted revenue of 1.16 billion euros ($1.14 billion) in the third quarter, up 10% organically, and ahead of the 1.14 billion euros forecast on average by analysts polled by the company.
Payments processing firms had seen a surge in business as more people switched to digital transactions during the coronavirus crisis, but analysts had anticipated that the impact of rising inflation and energy costs on discretionary and e-commerce spending this year could weigh on the sector’s revenues.
Worldline, whose clients range from merchants to government agencies, is seeing consumption holding up across all its sectors despite the tense economic context, said Grapinet in a call with journalists, adding European consumers continue to travel and spend.
“Thanks to this strong execution and a still solid level of transaction volumes, we confirm our 2022 annual guidance,” Chief Executive Officer Gilles Grapinet said in a statement.
The French group also announced on Tuesday it bought 55% of Polish start-up SoftPos.eu, which turns Android devices into secure payment terminals.
This follows its acquisition of a 40% stake in Online Payment Platform (OPP), a Dutch payment solution focused on e-commerce marketplaces, which it announced in September and is set to close by the end of the year.
Grapinet said the company will continue to invest in innovation as it considers diversifying its acquisition targets to address new market segments.
($1 = 1.0121 euros)
(Reporting by Elena Vardon and Juliette Portala; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Kim Coghill)
