WORLDLINE_REGISTRATION_DOCUMENT_2017

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Group overview Group presentation [GRI 102-1] [GRI 102-3] [GRI 102-6]

Group presentation [GRI 102-1] [GRI 102-3] A.6 [GRI 102-6]

Formation of the Group [GRI 102-10] [GRI 102-45]

A.6.1

The Group is one of the leading European providers of electronic payment and transactional services and one of the largest such providers worldwide. The origins of Worldline’s business date back to 1973, when Sligos, a company formed in 1972 and majority-owned by Crédit Lyonnais, was awarded the first contract in history to process card-based banking transactions at the time the Carte Bleue credit card system was implemented in France. After its initial public offering in 1986, Sligos expanded internationally. In 1997, it merged with Axime, also a listed company. The Axime group had been formed in 1991 and became a major player in the rapidly consolidating information technology services industry (sociétés de services en ingénierie informatique, or “SSII”). The Axime group resulted from the merger of (i) SEGIN (electronic banking, telematics); (ii) SITB (banking and financial market transaction management); (iii) SODINFORG (later renamed SEGIN) (electronic banking and personalization of payment support). Customer relations centers and payments services functions were then regrouped within the Axime Services division, while the Axime Multimédia division took over the telematics activities. In 1997, Atos was created through Axime’s merger with Sligos. The Worldline Group’s activities initially arose out of these two entities. The Axime Multimédia division was contributed to Axime Télématique Multimédia, which then took the name Atos Multimédia. Axime’s electronic banking and processing division and Sligos’ payment and electronic banking activities division were contributed to the company Flow, which then took the name Atos Services. Atos Services was later renamed Atos Origin Services following the merger with Origin in 2000. On December 31, 2003, Atos Origin Services became Atos Worldline, when the various Atos Origin businesses relating to payment and electronic transactional services were merged. Atos Origin Multimedia was merged into Atos Worldline. Worldline also includes the Atos Origin Processing Services division in Germany (renamed Atos Worldline Processing GmbH in April 2004) and Atos Worldline Produits Solutions Intégration in France, which resulted in the 2005 contribution of the payment solutions business, which had previously been held by Atos Euronext SBF (with which it merged in 2008). At that time, Atos Worldline operated primarily in France and in Germany, becoming a leader in high-tech transactional services, or “HTTS”. In 2010, Atos Origin Processing GmbH became a wholly owned subsidiary of Atos Worldline. In the United Kingdom, the Group’s presence in transactional activities, in particular relating to private label cards for the hotel and petrol sectors, resulted from the 2000 merger with Origin.

Atos of SchlumbergerSema’s information services business further strengthened its transportation (primarily railroad) business. In 2006, Atos Worldline extended its scope of activity in Belgium by acquiring Banksys and Bank Card company (BCC), companies specialized in payment solutions and systems, thereby becoming a major player in the Belgian payments market, in particular through its role as operator of the Bancontact payment scheme. Since 2009, the Atos group’s payment services strategy has consisted in deploying its HTTS business internationally, initially in Europe – in particular in Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – and later in Asia. The Atos group has leveraged its established presence in traditional information technology services to organically develop its HTTS business, while also growing through acquisitions, such as the 2010 acquisitions of Shere Ltd., a UK solutions provider, and Venture Infotek, an independent player in the Indian market and payment sector leader. The acquisition of Venture Infotek strengthened the Atos group’s core payment services business and enabled it to penetrate one of the fastest-growing payment markets in the world. Atos also pursued expansion of its HTTS services in the Asia-Pacific region. In July 2011, the Atos group acquired Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS), a significant European SSII belonging to the German group Siemens AG, which resulted in the contribution of several of the German conglomerate’s information technology entities. Through this transaction, Worldline Group primarily acquired SIS’s Mobility & e-Transactional Services business (“MeTS”) in the United Kingdom, Chile and Argentina. With the 2012 acquisition of the Dutch company Quality Equipment BV, which had been a commercial partner of the Group’s for fifteen years, Worldline acquired a key player in the Dutch electronic payment market, in particular in the sales, restaurant and parking sectors. After announcing in February 2013 its intention to spin off all of its electronic payment and transactional services activities into a single subsidiary named Worldline, Atos announced in July 2013 that it had completed the project. Worldline completed its initial public offering in June 2014 and the first listing of Worldline’s shares on Euronext Paris occurred on June 27, 2014. The settlement and delivery of shares offered in Worldline’s initial public offering occurred on July 1, 2014. Following the initial public offering, all entities of the Group removed the reference to Atos in their corporate names. Origin’s 2004 acquisition of the bulk

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Worldline 2017 Registration Document

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