Analysts Lower Worldline Targets Amid Weaker Outlook and Strategic Business Moves

Key Takeaways

• Strategic restructuring, portfolio optimization, and compliance enhancements are set to improve operational efficiency, stabilize margins, and restore customer trust.
  
• Focus on innovative digital payment solutions and partnerships positions Worldline to capture growth from expanding cashless and e-commerce trends, especially in core European markets.
  
• Persistent weakness in core segments, structural margin pressures, and operational setbacks in a mature European market point to prolonged challenges for revenue growth and profitability.

Catalysts

Provides payments and transactional services for financial institutions, merchants, corporations, and government agencies in Northern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and internationally.

• Worldline's turnaround strategy, including restructuring the Merchant Services operating model, renewed management, cost-cutting measures (€270 million targeted by end of 2025), and portfolio pruning (notably MeTS divestment), is expected to drive improved operational focus, increased cash flow, and enhanced EBITDA margins as early as 2026.
  
• The launch of next-generation digital payment products (Wero in Germany, France, Belgium; refactored e-commerce platform rolled out with Credit Agricole; UK post-Brexit offering) coupled with investment reallocations from MeTS divestment supports Worldline's capacity to capture greater volumes from the ongoing shift to cashless payments and e-commerce growth (especially in underpenetrated European and emerging markets), positively impacting future revenue and top-line growth.
  
• Completion of external audits and reinforced compliance/risk frameworks is anticipated to rebuild and enhance customer confidence-critical for client retention and business development-at a time when regulatory scrutiny and focus on cybersecurity are rising across payments. This should lead to higher client loyalty, reduce churn, and potentially enable pricing power, supporting revenue stabilization and margin improvement.
  
• The group's pan-European, multi-local scale and deep integration with key banking partners (such as 10-year BFF contract in Italy, Visa partnership renewals, and strong roles in digital banking/payment infrastructure projects) positions Worldline to benefit from the increasing digitization of payment systems, the emergence of real-time and open-banking payments, and public/private infrastructure projects, providing enhanced contracted revenue visibility and recurring revenue stability.
  
• The disposal of lower-margin, non-core assets (MeTS, potential India sale) will streamline operations, allow reinvestment into high-growth digital payment adjacencies and core European operations, and reinforce strategic flexibility-enabling Worldline to better capitalize on secular trends like the expansion of embedded finance and cross-border digital commerce, ultimately supporting higher long-term earnings and return on capital.

Worldline Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Worldline's revenue will decrease by 1.0% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from -98.6% today to 2.0% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach €92.8 million (and earnings per share of €0.36) by about September 2028, up from €-4.5 billion today. However, there is a considerable amount of disagreement amongst the analysts with the most bullish expecting €282.1 million in earnings, and the most bearish expecting €71.7 million.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 16.7x on those 2028 earnings, up from -0.2x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the GB Diversified Financial industry at 14.0x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 0.14% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 12.1%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Worldline Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• The company reported a significant decline in revenue (organic decline of 3.4% year-over-year), a 7.3% drop in net-net revenue, and ongoing weakness in Merchant Services and Financial Services segments, suggesting persistent challenges to core revenue growth over the medium to long term.
  
• Worldline took a massive €4.1 billion goodwill impairment related to its Merchant Services business, explicitly acknowledging that negative changes in the European payment environment are "long lasting" and will reduce its long-term earnings power.
  
• Margins are under sustained pressure, with adjusted EBITDA falling sharply (e.g., Merchant Services EBITDA down 20%, Financial Services EBITDA down 27%), driven by adverse client/product mix, competition in core markets, and elevated churn rates, particularly in the higher-margin SME segment; this implies a structural headwind to long-term profitability and net margins.
  
• The company's overexposure to the highly competitive and mature European market, continuing elevated merchant churn (especially among SMEs), and slow recovery in hardware sales heighten the risk of persistent revenue stagnation and place limits on its ability to scale earnings in the long run.
  
• Delays, operational setbacks (e.g., terminal supply chain issues, integration hurdles following past acquisitions), and customer hesitation in response to recent negative press and regulatory scrutiny threaten customer growth, add execution risk to the troubled multiyear turnaround, and could result in suppressed revenue and cash flow for several years.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of €3.862 for Worldline based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of €8.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just €2.0.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be €4.7 billion, earnings will come to €92.8 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 16.7x, assuming you use a discount rate of 12.1%.
• Given the current share price of €2.69, the analyst price target of €3.86 is 30.4% higher.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.