(Reuters) – The French Public Investment Bank Bpifrance supports the position of the Worldline payment group in terms of risk management, but anticipates an in -depth supervision from the group’s board of directors, said a member of the Bpifrance executive committee on Thursday.

The Worldline market capitalization fell by nearly 500 million euros after the publication in the press on Wednesday, of a European survey on its activities with high -risk players (HBR) of online commerce.

Bpifrance has an participation of around 5% in Worldline.

The journalistic survey “Dirty Payments”, coordinated by the European Network Investigative Collaborations (EIC) and published Wednesday by media such as Mediapart in France and in the evening in Belgium, points to the French group for transactions of a value of several billion euros deemed doubtful on behalf of “risk” customers linked to pornography or money games.

In response to these articles, the French group said it “strengthened its risk management framework related to traders” since 2023, and have ended the “non -compliant” commercial relations.

José Gonzalo, Executive Director of Bpifrance in charge of investments in SMEs, ETIs and large companies, said at a press conference “agree with what the company said”.

Need to be “reassured”

“This will translate into even more in-depth discussions on these controls,” he said. “We will have to [le directeur général Pierre-Antoine Vacheron] expresses us everything that is put in place so that we are completely reassured, “he continued.

José Gonzalo said that Bpifrance, as part of his broader role, will remain invested in Worldline.

Stressing the low course of action, he said that the latter “does not reflect the value of the company”. “We will stay there again a good time in a way that we find a value that reflects the value of society,” he said.

The Worldline course fell 38% on Wednesday, recording its second largest loss in one day since October 2023. The action, however, recovered part of this fall in the first exchanges on Thursday. At 09:46 GMT, it was up 7.5% to 3.04 euros, after climbing up to 14.3% earlier.

Formerly valued at more than 20 billion euros, the Defense based group faces a drop in consumer confidence and contract terminations that have led to repeated reductions in its financial prospects.

Recently appointed, in February, Pierre-Antoine Vacheron said on Wednesday that, since 2023, he had engaged in a rigorous process of identifying merchants whose practices are not aligned with his updated standards, which are under close regulatory surveillance, in particular in Germany.

“We are progressing well in the repositioning of the company and puts it back in the right track, towards a solid generation of liquidity,” he told analysts during a telephone call after the closing of the market.

Investors will want to see proof of stabilization before buying stocks, said JPMorgan analysts in a note.

“We always see a risk that today’s negative press articles have a detrimental effect on the company, hampering efforts to stabilize Worldline and bringing the business to a growth generating liquidity,” they said.

(Mathieu Rosemain report, with the contribution of Gianluca Lo Nostro and Diana Mandia, written by Florence Lève, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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