Worldpay share price: Vantiv poised to announce deal for UK group

US credit card payment processor Vantiv has finalised a deal to buy Worldpay (LON:WPG), Reuters has reported. While the companies agreed the £7.7-billion deal last month, the FTSE 100 group said earlier today that the deadline for a firm offer had been pushed back to August 11.

Worldpay’s share price has advanced in today’s session, having gained 0.53 percent to 378.60p as of 14:31 BST, outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.04 percent lower at 7,529.13 points. The group’s shares have added a little over a quarter to their value over the past year, and are up by just under 40 percent in the year-to-date.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters today that Vantiv had finalised the deal to buy Worldpay and that the transaction was expected to be announced tomorrow. One of the sources explained that the US group had made some adjustments to the new governance structure but very little had changed in the composition of its cash and share offer for the UK group. In July, Vantiv offered 55p in cash, 0.0672 of a new Vantiv share and a 5p cash dividend for each Worldpay share, equivalent to 385 pence per share and valuing the British company at £7.7 billion.

The news comes after the FTSE 100 group said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange earlier today that it had requested that the Takeover Panel extend the deadline by which Vantiv is required to announce a firm intention to make an offer or that it does not intend to make one until August 11.

Reuters quoted the sources as saying that the global headquarters of the new company will be in Cincinnati where Vantiv is based and it will have a primary listing in New York and a secondary one in London.