Following the recent agreement that Vantiv would initiate a merger with the UK payment leader Worldpay, the deal has now been finalised at £9.3bn.
Vantiv is the dominant force within the initiative, with its existing shareholders set to own 57% of the new, major entity, with Worldpay’s shareholders commanding 43%.
News of this move will reverberate throughout the payments sector as other major players in the space are rumoured to be poised to make similar moves.
The Vantiv CEO will take the helm of the combined organisation, while the Worldpay CEO, Philip E. Jansen will assume the position of co-chief executive, welding the two companies together at the core.
Together the two will amount to a large and formidable force that is well established throughout both the United Kingdom and the United States, while the joint base for the new group will be located in Ohio. A headquarter will also be situated in London, England.
Initially the process of the two companies merging began in rumour, as Worldpay announced that it had been approached by JPMorgan and Vantiv; this had a significant effect on the Worldpay share price, boosting it by 28%.
The Danish payments firm Nets A/S also announced that it had been approached, without disclosing the identity of the organisations looking to strike a deal, however the likes of Visa and Mastercard were rumoured to be involved.
READ MORE: Skype dials in PayPal for iOS and Android in-chat payments
This activity could be the beginning of major changes within the payments industry, with new technologies having a disruptive impact, industry leaders may seek to gain dominance through mergers and acquisitions.
Worldpay was an ideal target for Vantiv, as it holds a dominant position in the United Kingdom, dealing with 40% of all of the transactions, while operating with in excess of 5,000 staff headquartered in London. Worldpay entered the London Stock Exchange in 2015, and it became the largest public offering since the Royal Mail.
