SIX's profit took a hit last year from events related to Wordline, a company it still partially owns after selling its majority stake in the company in 2020.
The Swiss Stock Exchange's net profit fell 83 percent to 73.5 million Swiss francs ($79 million) in 2021 from the previous year, it said in a statement Wednesday. The discrepancy was due to the «highly positive» result in 2020 from the partial sale of Worldline shares held by SIX when the payment service provider merged with Ingenico.
Separately SIX’s profit was hit by an impairment resulting from the announced sale of Worldline’s Terminals, Solutions & Services business last year, it said.
SIX plans to hold on to its 10.6 percent stake in Worldline as it sees the benefit of owning a part of Europe's largest payment service provider, «in spite this recent setback,» CEO Jos Dijsselhof, said in an earnings call with journalists.
Operating income rose 8.9 percent to 1,498 million francs while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization totaled 421.7 million francs, up 14.8 percent.
Important Year
The operator proposes an ordinary dividend of 4.75 Swiss francs per share, up from 4.30 francs the year before.
In 2021 SIX launched its digital exchange (SDX) and saw contributions from its Spanish business, acquired by SIX in mid-2020, over the whole year.
