The big French processor Worldline SA announced early Friday longtime chief executive Gilles Grapinet will leave the company effective Sept. 30. The company says the search for a successor will evaluate candidates both inside and outside the company. In the meantime, the board has appointed Marc-Henri Desportes, deputy CEO since 2018 and head of merchant services, to serve as CEO for “an interim period.”
Paris-based Worldline ranks 26th in volume among payments processors operating in the U.S. market, with $52.5 billion in volume from 25,000 merchants last year, according to rankings by the payments research and consultancy firm TSG. Its biggest markets are in Europe and Asia, with some presence in Latin America.
CEO since 2013, Grapinet leaves as the company’s shares, which have had a troubled record lately, plumbed a new low following Worldline’s third profit warning in the past 12 months. The stock on Friday sank to nearly 7 euros per share, down 92% since its high in July 2021, as investors grew weary of the company’s long struggle to generate growth independent of acquisitions.