France's Ingenico said to be tabling bid for Worldpay

France’s Ingenico is reportedly tabling an offer for an £11bn merger with UK payments processing company Worldpay that would derail its plans for a flotation.

According to Sky News, Ingenico, which is listed on the Euronext stock exchange and has a market value of £5.2bn, submitted an offer earlier this week that is said to have valued Worldpay at more than £6bn.

Ingenico is said to be determined to see off competition from Germany’s Wirecard and a private equity consortium comprising Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Singapore’s Government Investment Corp.

The bidders are looking to persuade Worldpay’s owners, Bain Capital and Advent International, to ditch plans to float the company by offering greater certainty in the form of a full exit.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Wirecard had joined the bidding process, making an offer that values the company at about £6bn, or 17 times its projected earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation next year.