Ingenico Names New CEO

Ingenico announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer on Monday (Nov. 5).

The company said that Philippe Lazare will step down from his current positions as both CEO and chairman.

Those two roles will be separated, and Nicolas Huss, the chief operating officer, will become the new CEO of Ingenico, while Bernard Bourigeaud will become the firm’s new chairman.

Financial Times reported that the moves may raise expectations that a “deal might be imminent” as the company is in the midst of a bidding war. As has been reported, Natixis has said it was exploring a deal with Ingenico that could be worth as much as four billion euros, with the former looking to buy the latter in a transaction that would boost the bank’s exposure to what the publication termed as “the rapidly consolidating” payments arena.

In another rumored bid as cited by FT, a smaller firm, Edenred, has made its own bid for Ingenico, where talks were reportedly in an earlier stage and where Edenred said it would not, in fact, buy a stake in the company.

Ingenico said last month – without naming suitors – that the company had received “preliminary approaches for a strategic transaction.” Financial media outlets, including Reuters, had said that Natixis was the party that had been in talks with Ingenico.

In an interview with FT, Huss said that Ingenico might be receptive to a deal, but for now is focused on internal change. “If some partners are interested, we would be very happy to look at [a joint venture] … but only if there is added value in putting together our assets. It’s all about growing the company.”

The news outlet said that Ingenico has been a rumored takeover candidate since its own 6.6-billion-euro approach for Worldpay three years ago.