Pierre-Antoine Vacheron has been appointed as Worldline’s new CEO amid ongoing challenges, including a significant stock decline and disappointing financial results. While the company reduced its net loss to €297 million, adjusted EBITDA fell short of expectations, and free cash flow dropped 43.4%. Looking ahead, Worldline anticipates modest revenue growth for 2025. Vacheron, with extensive experience in the payments sector, is expected to develop a strategic recovery plan, but analysts warn of the hurdles he will face.
Pierre-Antoine Vacheron Takes the Helm as Worldline’s New CEO
Worldline is set to welcome Pierre-Antoine Vacheron as its new CEO, stepping into a leadership role amid a series of challenges that have beset the company since 2023. From exiting the CAC 40 to facing operational outages and profit warnings, the payment processing giant has been struggling, with its stock recently plummeting by 17.36% to €6.13. Following the release of disappointing 2024 results, Worldline now finds itself at the bottom of the SBF 120 index, raising concerns that the company has not yet hit rock bottom, according to Invest Securities.
Financial Performance and Future Outlook
In the previous year, Worldline managed to reduce its net loss to €297 million, a significant improvement from the €817 million loss in 2023. However, the adjusted EBITDA experienced a decline of 3.7%, totaling €1.070 billion, falling short of both the company’s target of approximately €1.1 billion and market expectations of €1.084 billion. This represented 23.1% of revenue, a drop from 24.1% the year before.
All divisions displayed EBITDA figures that did not meet expectations, with financial services particularly suffering—a drop to €242 million from €254 million. Revenue for 2024 stood at €4.632 billion, marking an internal growth of 0.5%, bolstered by a 1.9% increase in merchant services.
Worldline’s free cash flow fell sharply by 43.4% to €201 million, translating to an adjusted EBITDA conversion rate of 19%. This decline was largely due to the Power24 transformation initiative, which incurred costs of €139 million. Nevertheless, this cash flow still surpassed analysts’ projections of €183 million.
Looking ahead, Worldline forecasts a revenue growth rate for 2025 similar to that of 2024, with expectations of a gradual uptick in the latter half of the year. The company plans to provide further insights into its 2025 trajectory during the first-quarter publication on April 23.
In a positive turn, the appointment of Pierre-Antoine Vacheron as CEO, effective March 1, has been announced alongside these financial results. He takes over from Marc-Henri Desportes, who served as interim CEO since October 2024. Invest Securities anticipates Vacheron’s arrival to be a welcome development for the company during these turbulent times.
With over three decades of experience as both a CEO and CFO in the payments, retail, and banking industries, Vacheron is well-equipped to lead Worldline. His recent tenure as CEO of payments at the BPCE group and CEO of Natixis Payments will serve him well as he works on a new strategic plan to be unveiled in the fall.
However, analysts from Jefferies caution that the new CEO faces significant challenges, particularly following worse-than-expected fourth-quarter results regarding cost management in both the merchant services and financial services sectors.
As Worldline navigates through this complex landscape, all eyes will be on Vacheron and his strategies to steer the company towards recovery and growth.