Worldline is a payments firm based in France. It offers a variety of electronic payment services and solutions including online payment systems, payment terminals, among others. The company has links to the crypto ecosystem through Alliance Blockchain France. It is a consortium of various firms aiming to protect the interests of French companies in terms of blockchain.
Worldline shares fall, French crypto industry threatened?
It’s a shock wave on the stock market. The stock of the French payment company Worldline, linked to the French crypto industry, experienced a sudden and unexpected fall on Wednesday October 25.
They lost around 60% of their valuation, causing shock waves in the European payments sector. This sharp drop came after the French payments giant revised downwards its objectives for the whole year.
A choice the repercussions of which were felt not only by Worldline, but also by competitors such as Nexi and CAB Payments. However, the payment company explained its decision.
According to the company, this was a proactive measure to distance itself from certain merchants in order to mitigate the growing threat of cybercrime. The situation also takes place in a difficult economic context, marked by the slowdown of its operations in Germany.
Obviously, this caused a panic among investors, causing the company to lose approximately $4 billion of its market capitalization. Its shares having fallen to a historic low price of 9.31 euros. It remains to be seen whether this new situation, which has repercussions outside of France, would affect the local crypto ecosystem in one way or another.
A crash beyond France
Beyond its immediate impact on the French stock market, the fall in Worldline shares was felt in Europe. Shares of Dutch payments company Adyen, for example, suffered from this decline, falling by more than 11%, reaching their lowest level in four years.
The earthquake of this European slowdown has extended to American payment companies. This led to pre-market losses. Sector leaders such as Block Inc, Upstart Holdings, Affirm Holdings and especially PayPal, whose links to the crypto industry are known, all suffered declines. These ranged from 2.1% to 7.1% at the opening of the American market.
Worldline’s revised outlook for 2023 indicates sales growth of 6-7%, compared to a previous estimate of 8-10%. The company also forecasts a 150 basis point decline in its operating margin before depreciation and amortization for 2023. This is in contrast to the previous forecast of a 100 basis point increase.
These revisions disappointed analysts, including those at JPMorgan. The latter suggesting that Worldline would be very likely to be removed from the French CAC 40.
A prospect which would materialize during the next revision of the Euronext benchmark index in December. Despite its pessimistic forecasts, the company’s stock price appears to be recovering. According to the latest news, the latter rebounded by 6.68% to trade around 10.045 euros.
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