Q1 2026 revenue in line with expectations
North Star 2030 transformation on track
Focus on European payments finalised
Q1 2026 revenue in line with expectations on a fully pruned basis1
- €831M External revenue (-0.5% y/y organic growth)
- Merchant Services: back to growth (+1.6% y/y organic growth)
- Financial Services: impacted by planned contract terminations (-7.4% y/y organic decline)
- €924M Group revenue on a published basis2 down -1.5% y/y organically
Portfolio reshaping program completed
- Divestment of Worldline's stake in Australian ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions and of New Zealand activity
- Cumulative Net cash proceeds expected to total €590-640M
Successful €500M capital raise in March 2026
- Success of the c. €108M reserved capital increase
- Success of the c. €392M rights issue, marked by take-up rate of approximately 121%
- Long term stable shareholders with 4 leading European institutions (BNPP, Bpifrance Participations, Crédit Agricole S.A. and Credit Mutuel) holding c.37% of share capital
Outlook for 2026 on a fully pruned basis1
- North Star 2030 meeting milestones as planned in Q1
- Confirmed outlook of low single organic revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA (€630-650M) and free cash flow at €(80)M-€(70)M
Paris, La Défense, April 28 2026 - Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a European leader in payment services, today announces its revenue for the first quarter of 2026.
Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, CEO of Worldline, said: "Q1 confirms that Worldline is moving in the right direction. Our results are in line with expectations, with Merchant Services growing for the first quarter since Q4 2024. We have now reprofiled our portfolio and strengthened our balance sheet, allowing us to focus on execution.
North Star 2030 is progressing as planned, and while the geopolitical context calls for caution, we confirm our 2026 outlook and remain committed to restoring sustainable growth and free cash flow generation."
On a fully pruned basis, Q1 2026 revenue reached € 831 million, down 0.5% vs Q1 2025. Published Q1 2026 revenue reached € 924 million, (-1.5%) vs Q1 2025.
By division, on a fully pruned basis:
Merchant Services
In Q1 2026, Merchant Services' revenue reached € 652 million- up 1.6% vs Q1 2025, accelerated by non recurring items. Worldline's Merchant activities have shown volume momentum in Q1, driven by both in-store and online channels with 3.5% growth in acquiring Merchant Sales Value growth.
The performance by go-to market was the following:
- SMB: Churn stabilized across all geographies, with accelerating momentum in the Nordics and Germany, and continued underlying growth in Greece, Central Europe and Italy while Switzerland and Benelux are still in turnaround. Growth in acquiring revenue is offset by a decrease in acceptance linked to the accelerated migration from Ogone to GoPay, as well as by the year-on-year evolution of the merchant base impacting terminal revenue;
- Enterprise: Return to growth driven by Mobility and Self-Service, supported by Worldline's embedded position within industry-specific ecosystems, as illustrated by extended partnerships with RATP and ongoing EV-charging deployments with Alpitronic. MSV and transaction volumes, both online and in-store, increased at a mid-single-digit rate, while residual churn in Retail partly offsets the overall performance. In parallel, One Commerce went live in the UK and Poland during the quarter and is generating traction in Germany. The Group also extended its long-term strategic partnership with a tier 1 retailer, covering AXIS in-store, GoPay online and tokenisation, confirming its role as a core infrastructure partner in complex omnichannel environments;
- Global Commerce: Revenue declined in line with expectations driven by anticipated churn, notably in eRetail as well as voluntary credit derisking, with continued growth in the Travel & Hospitality verticals thanks to new wins and the ramp-up of existing business. A key highlight in Q1 was the signing of Ecoflow to deliver a unified local acquiring infrastructure across regions, ensuring seamless regional compliance and industry-leading authorization rates.
Financial Services
Q1 2026 revenue reached €179 million, (7.4%) vs Q1 2025,Q1'26 performance continues to be impacted by previously lost and decommissioned contracts.
Beyond reported performance, steady commercial momentum should progressively generate additional build revenue from H2 2026 onwards, taking into account long sales and implementation cycles.
The performance by segment was the following:
- Issuing: Revenue decline primarily driven by contract terminations. Continued progress in issuing capabilities, with ongoing enhancements in digital, in-app, and value-added features to support future growth;
- Acquiring: Slight revenue growth supported by new business development and higher underlying transaction volumes, particularly in Germany, France, and Belgium. Continued strengthening of resilience, backup, and offline capabilities;
- Account & Instant Payments: Lower revenues reflecting legacy contract terminations, partly mitigated by continued growth in Instant Payments and CSM volumes. Ongoing product developments across SWIFT Bureau services, RTP, and liquidity management;
- Digital Services & Fraud: Revenue growth driven by ACS, wallet solutions, and trusted authentication, with strong volumes in France and Belgium. Continued innovation through next-generation digital identity solutions leveraging FIDO standards and enhanced Wero value-added services for deeper bank integration.
In Q1, Worldline recorded several wins and renewals. Most notably, the Group extended its partnership with a large tier one bank and will continue to drive critical payment services for this bank, overseeing card issuing and personalization activities, and a comprehensive suite of payment solutions. This encompasses SEPA Credit Transfers, Instant Payments, and full-spectrum support services ensuring seamless operations across the entire payment value chain. Worldline also extended some contracts with La Banque Postale covering several digital services such as 3D-Secure and trusted authentication.
Continued innovations in Q1 2026
- Worldline has reinforced its positioning on the evolving European payments landscape. Wero is now available to merchants on Worldline platforms in Germany and Belgium, while the company has committed to support Austrian banks on the deployment of the scheme through PSA;
- Worldline is now one of the only players to support all alternative payment methods and banking wallets in Europe, with the newly announced addition of Bizum and Wero, complementing its existing support for Twint- Blik, and others;
- Beyond alternative payment methods, Worldline is engaged in piloting Digital Euro and has been selected by Circle to offer their settlement solution to European customers.
Further progress in North Star 2030 transformation plan
Announced at the Group's Capital Markets Day in Paris on November 6, 2025, the North Star 2030 transformation plan aims to deliver €210m of additional recurring adjusted EBITDA in 2030 on a recurring annual basis. It has been successfully operationalized and is in execution mode with key milestones achieved as expected:
- Wopa last customer has successfully migrated to Global collect and the platform is to be fully decommissioned in Q2 2026, for a full year impact of €7M; 68% of Ogone transactions have been migrated to Gopay as per plan, while Italian portfolio has piloted its migration to the target acquiring platform;
- As part of simplification stream, two licences have been returned, one legal entity has been dismantled;
- Finally, all our second lines of defense have been integrated into a new risk and compliance function, supporting the continued industrialisation of control frameworks across the Group.
Divestment of Pacific activities marks the end of the portfolio reshaping
Worldline has announced today the sale of its 51% stake in Worldline Australia Pty Ltd (trading as ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions) to its JV partner ANZ, for an enterprise value of c.€107M (on a 100% basis). The closing of the contemplated transaction is expected in H2 2026.
After the transaction, Worldline will continue to provide technology and software services to ANZ in order to ensure operational continuity for a transitional period.
Worldline also announced on April 14, 2026 it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Cuscal for the proposed sale of its New Zealand payment activities, for an estimated enterprise value of c.€17M. This will ensure Worldline will not need to invest in a next generation core payment platform.
For reference, for 2026, the revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and FCF impacts of this Pacific perimeter on the Group are respectively anticipated at c.€225M, c. €30M and c. €(30M).
These two contemplated transactions conclude the execution of Worldline's commitment to sharpen the Group's focus on payment activities in Europe.
The combined net cash proceeds from all the announced divestments (MeTS, Worldline North America, Cetrel, PaymentIQ, Worldline India, Worldline New Zealand and ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions Australia) are estimated at €590-640 and should be received in 2026, strengthening the Group's financial profile, enhancing strategic flexibility and supporting the redeployment of capital towards core activities. €225M has already been received following the closing of North America and Payment IQ.
Capital raise successfully executed
On March 30, 2026, Worldline announced the success of its c. €392 million share capital increase with preferential subscription rights, marked by a subscription rate of approximately 121%. This transaction was part of the c.€500 million capital increase announced at the November 2025 Capital Markets Day, together with the reserved capital increase of c.€108 million which was completed early March.
Worldline's capital and financial structure has thus been strengthened, supporting its North Star 2030 ambition for a return to growth and strong cash flow generation.
Reverse stock split announced
At the Extraordinary General Meeting of January 8, 2026, shareholders approved the 10th resolution to carry out a reverse 40-1 stock split.
As per the press release issued today, the process is due to start on May 14, 2026 and the delivery of the new nominal value shares are planned for June 17, 2026.
2026 Outlook
In a geopolitical context that has not had material effect in Q1, the Company confirms its outlook for 2026 on a fully pruned basis,
- Low single digit organic revenue growth: After a first quarter accelerated by some non-recurring elements at Merchant Services, the Company expects a softer Q2 y/y offset in H2 by an accelerated momentum;
- Adjusted EBITDA of €630M to €650M;
- Free cash flow of €(80)M to €(70)M, which includes investment in remediation measures of €30M-€40M, and investment in North Star initiatives of €40M-€50M.
Appendices
RECONCILIATION OF Q1 2025 STATUTORY REVENUE WITH Q1 2025 REVENUE AT CONSTANT SCOPE AND EXCHANGE RATES
For the analysis of the Group's performance, Q1 2025 revenue at constant scope and exchange rates as presented below per Global Business Lines:
Exchanges rates effects in Q1 were mainly linked to the depreciation of the India Rupee and Turkish Lira partly offset by the strength of the Swiss Franc and Swedish Krona, while scope effects are mainly related to the divestment of MeTS (fully deconsolidated in line with IFRS 5), and the divestments of Payment IQ and Worldline North America (finalized at the beginning of March 2026).
On a fully pruned basis, exchanges rates effects in Q1 were mainly linked to the depreciation of the Turkish Lira partly offset by the strength of the Swiss Franc and Swedish Krona. The scope effects include the full divestments of MeTS, Payment IQ, Worldline North America, Electronic Data Services (ex-Cetrel), Worldline India Merchant Services, Worldline New Zealand and Worldline Australia.
2025 REVENUE RECONCILIATION TABLES
FY 2025 revenue reconciliation tables are presented below.
Impact of the deconsolidation of MeTS on 2025 quarterly revenue by business line
2025 quarterly figures restated to reflect fully pruned scope
REVENUE TO NET NET REVENUE
Schemes & Partners fees = scheme fees + kickbacks PM03 + full buy-rate
UPCOMING EVENTS
- June 11, 2026: Annual General Meeting
- July 30, 2026: H1 2026 results
- October 27, 2026: Q3 2026 revenue
CONTACTS
Investor relations
Cesar Zeitouni
E cesar.zeitouni@worldline.com
Peter Farren
E peter.farren@worldline.com
Communication
Virginie Bonnet
E virginie.bonnet@worldline.com
Antoine Denry / Wandrille Clermontel
E teamworldline@taddeo.fr
ABOUT WORLDLINE
Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is Europe's leading operator of critical infrastructure and payment services. With a presence across the entire value chain, the group offers its customers unique expertise in processing and securing their payments, thereby promoting their growth. Worldline is leveraging its 2030 strategic plan and its technological innovation capabilities to build the European reference payment partner for merchants and financial institutions. With over 1.2 million customers, Worldline achieved €4bn revenue in 2025. worldline.com
Worldline's corporate purpose ("raison d'être") is to design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. Worldline makes them environmentally friendly, widely accessible, and supports social transformation.
DISCLAIMER
This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors' behaviours. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Worldline's beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Worldline's plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2025 Universal Registration Document filed with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on March 6, 2026, under the filling number: D.26-0071.
Revenue organic growth and Adjusted EBITDA improvement are presented at constant scope and exchange rate. Adjusted EBITDA is presented as defined in the 2025 Universal Registration Document. All amounts are presented in € million without decimal. This may in certain circumstances lead to non-material differences between the sum of the figures and the subtotals that appear in the tables. 2026 objectives are expressed at constant exchange rates according to Group's accounting standards. In anticipation of the finalisation of Worldline pruning program to take place during the course of 2026, the outlook for 2026 and 2030 is presented in post pruning scope excluding Mets, Worldline North America, Cetrel, PaymentIQ, MS India, Worldline New Zealand and Worldline Australia.
Worldline does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.
This document does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States of America, its territories and possessions, any State of the United States of America and the District of Columbia (the "United States"). Securities may not be offered, subscribed or sold in the United States absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements thereof. The securities of Worldline have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act. Worldline does not intend to register any portion of the offering of its securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of its securities in the United States.
