Swiss Exchange SIX Faces Fourth Writedown on Worldline Stake

(Bloomberg) — Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group AG is expected to take another charge against its stake in French payments provider Worldline SA, which suffered a stock crash earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said.

UBS Group AG, which owns a 35% stake in SIX, has already written down its effective interest in SIX’s Worldline holding to zero by taking a $140 million charge in the third quarter, according to one of the people. The bourse valued the recoverable amount of its 10.5% stake at 326.8 million Swiss francs ($407 million) at the end of June, according to its interim report.

SIX, which is owned by various Swiss banks and will report full year results in March, may not apply the same valuation approach as UBS, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing an internal matter.

“We do not comment on UBS numbers,” said a SIX spokesperson. “UBS conducts its own view on the valuation of its SIX participation.” The bourse said in its interim report that its determination of the recoverable amount of Worldline is based on “post-tax cash flow projections derived from analyst estimates,” among other things.

A spokesperson for UBS had no comment. In a earnings call with journalists on Wednesday, UBS Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner said the lender wasn’t disclosing the identity of the associate behind the $140 million charge.

Worldline declined to comment.

Any charge would be SIX’s fourth linked to its Worldline investment. It booked an impairment on its Worldline stake of around 860 million francs for the fourth quarter of 2023 followed by a 168 million franc hit in 2024.

In June, SIX cut the value of its stake by 69 million francs after a further fall in Worldline shares. That came after various media reports alleged Worldline had ignored warnings and continued to do business with prohibited and other high-risk customers in recent years, effectively enabling some fraudulent transactions to continue.

Since the end of June, Worldline shares have fallen by 37%, giving SIX’s stake a market value of around $80 million.

SIX sold its payment services division to Worldline in 2018 as part of a 2.75 billion Swiss franc ($3.4 billion) deal that gave the Swiss bourse a 27% stake in the Paris-based firm.

–With assistance from Claudia Cohen.

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