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Hi sorry not seen any news why no share price??
Sounds as though Visa aren't quite there - interesting
...
What's going on here?
I'm holding hoping Visa are forced to increase their miserable offer. It's hard to interpret all the RNS"s. Looks like M&G have taken the money but not sure what Miton are up to
Any guidance from seasoned investors would be appreciated
…..are urgently requiring shareholders to take up a miserly 37p a share offer. Well I'm not and I don't think many shareholders will after this morning's announcement :-
UPDATE 4 – U.S. fintech to buy Worldpay as electronic payments business booms
18-03-2019 12:45
Wave of mergers fuelled by shift away from cash
Deal values Worldpay at about $43 bln including debt
Worldpay shareholders to get $112.12 per share
Cash-and-stock deal offers premium of about 14 pct
(Adds quotes from source close to deal, adds analyst comment)
By Justin George Varghese, Rachel Armstrong and Pamela Barbaglia
March 18 (Reuters) – U.S. fintech Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS) has agreed to buy payment processor Worldpay for about $35 billion, the biggest deal to date in the fast-growing electronic payments industry.
The deal is part of a wave of consolidation in the financial technology sector as firms seek to bulk up on payment systems that are increasingly used for online and high street sales.
"Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry," said FIS Chief Executive Officer Gary Norcross, who will lead the combined group that will be a global powerhouse in providing the infrastructure for banking and payment systems.
Global payments are set to reach $3 trillion a year in revenue by 2023, according to consulting firm McKinsey, as more people switch from cash to digital payments.
"This was an opportunistic move by FIS and was primarily triggered by the need to stay ahead of competitors," said a source close to the deal.
The industry's growth has kept deals for payment systems rolling even as merger moves in other sectors have stalled on concerns about trade tensions and a global slowdown.
U.S.-based Fiserv Inc bought payment processor First Data Corp in January for $22 billion, while Italy's Nexi plans to list in what could be one of Europe's biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) this year. ...
The FIS deal, valuing Worldpay at about $43 billion when debt is included, comes a little more than a year after U.S. firm Vantiv paid $10.63 billion for the payments firm, which was set up in Britain and spun off from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010.
"Vantiv had yet to realise all the synergies from the Worldpay merger but FIS's offer was too good to be refused," the source close to the deal said.
FIS and Worldpay combined will have annual revenue of about $12 billion and adjusted core earnings of about $5 billion.
"By acquiring Worldpay, FIS should accelerate its revenue growth, significantly expand its position in the merchant acquiring space and generate many synergies," said Michael Schaefer, portfolio manager at Union Investment, a Worldpay shareholder.
I'm tempted to pick up a few of these in the morning for a nice little punt, 37p at least seems to be underwitten by Visa and digital payment systems are now looking like the next bull market sector since the hey days of the dot com boom.
Tightly held within a few institutions and banks needing to engage in these new platforms, the withdrawal of Mastercard on Friday may just be a temporary setback.
Interesting !
Trades @ 49.5p this morning .
Quite a few chunky trades - 4M+ - coming in towards the close and they appear to be buys.
Isn't the closing date 12th March?
I wouldn't expect Mastercard to leave it until the very last moment, so I guess that means something by Friday 8th.
Action appears to be imminent and the big boys appear to be betting on a higher offer.
Fingers crossed.
Maybe they were waiting for todays results .
Lots of 8.3 RNS's with II's taking positions must be something about to happen ahead of the March 8th deadline
Big rise this morning 6% to 49p maybe next bid on way 50p?
Not much chat lol
Sunday Times today -
"TransferWise is poised to sell a stake that would value the digital payments processor at more than £3bn. Founded in London in 2011 by two Estonian entrepreneurs, TransferWise has appointed Goldman Sachs to sell about $200m (£153m) in new shares on behalf of existing investors."
2018 revenue $151M, net profit $8M, transfers $4Bn per month.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/transferwise-worth-3bn-7zxpn6bql
( D ) for 44p shows as a sell this site .
The Times from 9th February
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/earthport-bids-head-for-stratosphere-pfczlwj8c
Hopefully this is the important bit - and a way to go yet.
"a bauble neither of the credit card goliaths can bear to lose to its rival."
"Up Earthport popped just after Christmas with the news it was recommending a £198 million bid from Visa at 30p-a-share — a stellar 250 per cent premium. A decent effort, too, from chairman Sunil Sabharwal and newish chief executive Amanda Mesler, not least when her main focus seems to be getting her picture in the paper. Or at least that’s what you’d think from the calls from her PR man.
Even better followed: Mastercard, trumping the bid with an agreed 33p-a-share offer on January 25. It even got one of Earthport’s clients to advise it: Bank of America Merrill Lynch. And now look: Visa, advised by Goldman Sachs, has upped the ante. An offer worth £247 million at 37p: a 397 per cent premium to the pre-bid price. The market expects another shot from Mastercard, too: the shares rose 14 per cent to 44p.
Perhaps the market has rather overlooked Earthport, whose clients reckon it saves them the cost and hassle of building their own networks. But, with Visa valued at $308 billion and Mastercard at $220 billion, maybe it’s got lucky: a bauble neither of the credit card goliaths can bear to lose to its rival. Whatever, at least investors will end up with a quality recommended bid."
Overall the various finance houses reporting on 8.3's appear to have increased their holdings over the last week.
Hank Uberoi has reduced by 25M over the last week.
He can afford to as he has 45M options at 24p so can only win from here, in addition to the 13M shares he still holds. So win-win for him.
The finance houses certainly see to think a higher offer is coming.
Thinking about how they've released the news so far, the next bidder may be waiting for Valentine's weekend to be over (expensive for many people, and payday for many people in ten days or so from now) with the thought that it will more easily make the next offer (perhaps on Monday...) a knockout blow. Would be interested to find out more about the people who plan and engineer bidding strategies for companies.
They're all at it - this is a land grab.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/china-tests-may-in-550m-move-for-uk-business-d0638rts6
Behind a paywall - but snippets -
"A Chinese financial services company that was blocked from buying a US money transfer business last year is acquiring World First, a British payments group, in a deal that tests the government’s stance towards foreign takeovers
Neither company disclosed the price that Ant Financial is paying, but it is thought to be about $700 million (£547 million).
“Alipay and World First’s capabilities and international footprints are highly complementary,” a spokesman from Ant Financial said. “The tie-up will add World First’s international online payments and virtual account products to Alipay’s broad range of technology solutions, enabling us to reach a greater number of customers, especially in the fast-growing area of cross border e-commerce."
What was that about company staff getting zero? ;)
"Issue of 10 million shares from Earthport plc to the trustee of the Earthport plc Employee Share Ownership Plan Trust No. 2 to satisfy the future exercise of share options awarded to employees of Earthport plc"
Well done all holders, delighted to see someone making money on the market, not holding any of this stock atm. Earthports partner, Ripples XRP they are after, crossborder instant 5sec settlement transactions for the fraction of a penny.
www.coinmarketcap.com
Bearing in mind many tens of millions of shares were traded on Friday there could be some interesting holding notices due tomorrow.
Could show which way this is going to develop over the next few weeks.
Visa increase their bid modestly so will MC reply with a sensible offer?
That's interesting, thanks for sharing Johnny. Up to 39 today! Absolutely bonkers. Maybe someone somewhere knows something...
it was a PI who is usually "in the know" - I am surprised Visa are playing the long game. Intriguing how this will end and exciting. Just like Christmas Day each weekday morning waiting for the RNS to be released, The anticipation!
@Johnnydurex , curious to know where you heard the rumour about WorldPay? Would've thought by now they would have come out with something if they were coming in, perhaps MasterCard curtailed their plans.
However on a happier note Mastercard Q418 and FY2018 results were out today.
Cross border volumes were up 17% Q418, and up 18% in FY2018.
This well beats yesterday's Visa results with what appears to be cross border up 11% in Q119, which continues the 10% Visa/18% Mastercard growth trend in cross border over 2018 as a whole.
No wonder Visa is after EPO