Michael J. Brown
Analyst · Avondale
Thank you, Rick. And thank you, everybody, for being on the call. I knew today was going to be a good day because we have exceptional results, but with the Royals win last night, I'm an even -- in an even better mood, let me tell you. But if we want to look at the quarter and get to the financials, I mean, what can you say? This was just simply an outstanding quarter. We had year-over-year cash EPS growth of 43%. We exceeded this guidance that we gave you 3 months ago by $0.07. And if you'll remember, back when we gave you that guidance, the consensus for third quarter was $0.05 less than what we gave you as our estimate. So if you add it all up, that means we're basically $0.12 ahead of the expectations that the market had for this company just 3 months ago. Again, simply an outstanding quarter. This is a result of each of the segments and their efforts to do what we do. I say this all the time. What do we do? We try to introduce more products onto more devices in more countries. It's just plain hard work, but it shows the dedication of our teams around the world to accept this challenge and implement. Now I do have a challenge, and it's first quarter. If we're not quite where we'd like to be with first quarter because there is some seasonality with respect to first quarter that I can't get around, and I just want to remind you of that now. First quarter last -- this year was 27% lighter [ph] than Q4 2013. This is a result of fewer ATM cash withdrawals, less mobile content that's being sold because the Christmas season is over, less mobile-phone calling, fewer migrant jobs in the Northern hemisphere, meaning that there are fewer money transfers sent. And so all these things kind of all add up to a perfect storm for Q1. So if I can only figure out how to get Q1 going, then we'd just have a perfect company here. The nice of it -- nicely, though, the analyst models do reflect this seasonal nature and it'll remain the same in first quarter of this year. But I can tell you, looking at Q3 and what we expect for Q4, we are certainly very well positioned for 2015. And I'd like to also point out, again, that our estimate for Q4's earnings of $0.72, comes with about a $0.02 to $0.03 headwind for foreign currencies based on where they were 3 months ago. So all in all, you can tell that when it comes down to the operations of the company right down to the countries and the local currencies that they're generating, we're definitely a lot better off than we were towards the beginning of this year, with a very strong last 2 quarters. So we've got nice, strong ATM growth. We've got all segments this quarter that contributed to our double-digit revenue and earnings growth and we've got a phenomenal set of numbers that I'll tell you about right now. So why don't we just jump to that, let's go to Slide #13 and we'll talk about EFT, our legacy and oldest segment. As I reflect on these year-over-year EFT results, I recall that our third quarter call last year where you asked if EFT could continue this growth. When I talk to shareholders now and again, sometimes, yes. But where are we on the runway? Are we at the end of the runway? Beginning of the runway? Where are we? Well, it's clear by these results and our recent earnings trends that these results aren't a fluke. EFT is on an exceptional run with operating income growth of 74% in the third quarter last year, followed this year by sequential quarterly growth rate of 12%, 94%, 44% and now 35% over the last four quarters. We are very pleased with these results, which are possible because of the great teams that continue to do well and work hard in both Europe and Asia. Moving on to Slide #14. We'll talk to you a little bit about the business highlights. We continue to expand our network across Europe. During the third quarter, we launched our ATM network in the United Kingdom. The first ATMs there were launched in partnership with Rontec, a fuel station chain, as part of an agreement to place ATMs on their premises. We signed 2 asset purchase and network participation agreements with Plus Bank in Poland, and the Libra Bank in Romania. These agreements will add 110 and 44 ATMs to our networks in Poland and Romania, respectively, all of which will be re-branded with the Euronet branding. We were able to complete the migration of several agreements we told you about last quarter. In Romania, we added Carpatica Bank's ATMs to our IAD network and we added the Citibank ATMs to our network in Hungary. We were also able to launch our IKANO Bank network participation in Germany. Finally, over the last several years, technology has been a real differentiator for this company. We continue to find new and interesting ways to use technology to bring additional value to our customers. For example, in India, the government has sponsored a project to provide electronic customer verification to comply with banks' know-your-customer rules. Customers are provided with a unique ID and their biometric information is recorded in an identification database. This quarter, we signed an agreement, or an electronic know-your-customer pilot, with the Development Bank of Singapore, which is located in India, using this technology. This is brand-new technology in the Indian market, but it has wide-ranging and varied potential. With real practical uses, access to this database provides Euronet with a unique value proposition to our customers in India. Let's move on to the next slide, Slide #15. As another example of technological leadership, we continue to develop innovative products that help our bank partners provide interesting options to their customers. One of those products is a cardless cash withdrawal at our ATMs. I recently read an article where U.S. Banks were trying to figure out how to allow customers to withdraw funds on an ATM without inserting the card. Well, heck, we've been doing that in Poland for years now through our cardless payout product that we've mentioned previously. And our technology allows money transfer recipients to pick up their funds at any Euronet ATMs in Poland without a card by simply entering their transaction confirmation numbers. This quarter, we expanded that same technological solution to Raiffeisen Bank in Slovakia. Raiffeisen Customers can now use their banking applications to set up a cash withdrawal. When they arrive at the ATM, they simply enter the one-time authorization code and the ATM dispenses their money, giving them a more convenient and simple experience. As I continue with some noteworthy highlights, you may remember that last quarter, we launched China UnionPay card acceptance on Piraeus Bank terminals in Greece. According to the most recent global cards annual report, UnionPay is the world's leading debit card issuer based on volume. This quarter, we expanded UnionPay acceptance along with acceptance of American Express cards through our ATM networks in Italy, Romania and Spain, opening these ATMs to customers of the world's largest issuers. We also signed the POS DCC agreements with Vietin Bank in Vietnam and First Bank in Hawaii as well as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Intercontinental Hotels in the Philippines. During the quarter, we added 495 ATMs, bringing our total ATM count to 19,808. We expect to finish the year having added more than 2,000 ATMs. And even with the loss of the 1,600 IDBI very low-margin ATMs in India last year, we will exceed our 3-year goal of more than 20,000 ATMs under management by the end of the year. As you can see from these slides, our EFT team remains focused on adding more products to more ATMs in more markets. And their efforts are reflected with record earnings in the third quarter. Now let's move on to Slide #17, and we will talk a little bit about epay. On Slide 17, I can tell you that I was very pleased with epay because they posted a revenue and operating income growth for the second consecutive quarter. While we have seen declines across some of the business, in balance, our nonmobile strategy is working. I will tell you more about these successes in the highlights on the next page. So jump to Slide 18, please. In Germany, we extended our payment processing agreement with the Deutsche Telekom, which allows us to continue to process all payments made at Deutsche Telekom stores. In the U.K., we launched SIM distribution for Lebara. In Germany, we launched new Sim cards at Penny and Lotto Bayern stores. These products activate the SIM at the point of sale, reducing retailer risk of a SIM never being activated. Over the last year, we have become the leading mobile top-up aggregator in India, now processing more than 1 million transactions a day through both the traditional retail channel as well as the Indian banking channel. As Rick mentioned in his comments, we earn a significantly lower margin per transaction on our Indian-based mobile top-up transactions than our European-based top-ups. But despite the lower margin per transaction, we're proud of the progress that we have made in this very, very large market. Next slide, please. Here we see a lot of information here, I won't go through all of it, but we -- I'll select some of the highlights. We continue here, as you can see, the focus on expansion of nonmobile products which represent, this quarter, 39% of epay's total gross margin in this third quarter. We continue to execute well on our strategy to add distribution for key product areas, including software, music and digital gift codes. We extended our partnership with Microsoft to new markets in more retailers. In China, we launched Microsoft products with the country's second-largest online retailer, JD.com. JD.com is epay's first retail partner in China. We also launched Microsoft Xbox, Windows and Office in Media Saturn electronic stores in Germany. We signed a distribution agreement with McAfee. Through this agreement, epay will provide channel sales, distribution, logistics and merchandising for McAfee's security products using point-of-sale-activated cards, e-vouchers and digital codes. This is the first time McAfee will offer its security products in a post-a-form [ph] across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We continue to expand our distribution of Google Play. This quarter, we launched Google Play at The Warehouse store locations in New Zealand and at Metro-Saturn (sic) [Media-Saturn] and Public stores in Greece. We also signed a direct agreement to distribute Google Play in Brazil through GPA, Brazil's largest grocery retailer, as well as other leading retailers. In the third quarter, we continued to grow our market-leading digital code distribution. Similar to the PostFinance agreement we told you about last year, we launched our first iTunes promotion with Finanz-IT/Sparkassen in Germany. We also signed similar promotional agreements to offer iTunes codes through Postbank and Deutsche Bank online banking applications. Finally, we have seen some nice product -- progress with Opal Card distribution in Australia. This quarter, we reached a milestone with 1,000 retailers now offering card top-up. We have seen increasing volumes with this product and are pleased with the progress we're making with this partnership down in Australia. Our teams continue to execute well on our strategy to add more content to more retailers through more channels in more geographies. Overall, this was a solid quarter for epay segment and we are well positioned for solid fourth quarter results. Now let's move on to Slide #21 and talk about Money Transfer. Okay. Last quarter was exciting with the launch of Walmart-2-Walmart and the acquisition of HiFX. Now we can look at these numbers, which include nearly 60% revenue growth and 68% op income growth, and they're simply awesome results. The growth reflected in the above results is no accident. We have introduced 5 new substantial markets and distribution strategies. They are: the high net-worth individuals, small- and medium-sized enterprises, online senders, U.S. domestic payouts and large retail. The Money Transfer team is working very hard to integrate these new assets and leverage them into commercial and network opportunities on both the send and the payout sides of the transaction. Just like most businesses, no one thing drives growth like this. It's the result of several factors coming together that drives this growth. This quarter, the hard work to introduce these 5 new markets came together and produced this quarter's record earnings. Jump to Slide #22 and you can see the 3-year transaction trends in the Money Transfer segment. I kind of like that bar on the far right, don't you? Money Transfer transactions grew 56% over the prior year, driven by organic growth across our markets, the launch of Walmart-2-Walmart and the acquisition of HiFX. Nonmoney transfers increase 8%, primarily from growth in check-cashing transactions in the U.S. and Canada. And we'll jump now to Slide #23. We can talk a little bit about the details of our network expansion, which are so key to our future growth of this business. Network growth remains strong, as the Ria team continues to work on expanding the ubiquity of its network in key remittance markets and regions. Total network locations increased 16% to 241,000 versus prior year. Key additions in Q3 include 1,200 locations with Banque Centrale Populaire, or BCP, in Morocco. BCP is one of the largest banks in Morocco, and this addition will continue to fuel Ria's already strong growth to this important remittance market. Ria also launched over 2,100 locations with Asia United Bank in the Philippines. Asia is the fastest-growing remittance market in the world, and the Philippines is the second largest market in Asia, growing at over 6% so far in 2014 according to the World Bank. With such a large opportunity, we continue to focus on building our network and improving our service. Two additional important Q3 launches were with Bank of Ceylon and Ceylon Bank in Sri Lanka, for nearly 700 locations. Remittances to Sri Lanka are growing at 12% in 2014 and even faster for Ria, so this market is a key focus for us. Finally, we added over 2,000 locations in Russia, nearly 1,200 in Nepal, 300 in Senegal and over a 1,000 locations in the Commonwealth of Independent States of the former Soviet Republic, all with existing correspondent partners. Ria also signed an important strategic agreement with Earthport. The U.K.-based Earthport operates an open network for global low-value bank payments. Many of you may not know that Ria already has one of the most robust cash-to-account and account-to-account service offering in the Money Transfer industry. Earthport offers access to bank deposit services in over 50 countries, and this agreement will enable Ria to expand its affordable bank deposit service as serviced to several new markets. We also anticipate that as we continue to integrate HiFX into the Money Transfer segment, we can leverage this agreement to create additional value for HiFX's customers as well. As this is the first full quarter we have reported HiFX's earnings, I would like to take a minute and give you some additional insight into this business. While the strengthening of the dollar, relative to the other currencies, has put pressure on our consolidated earnings, it has been economically beneficial to our Money Transfer segment. As foreign currencies experience periods of volatility, HiFX customers tend to send more money, thus driving additional transactions in revenue for the Money Transfer segment. This volatility resulted in a strong quarter for HiFX, which contributed to better-than-expected results. So to summarize, the Money Transfer segment had an outstanding quarter with strong momentum going into the last quarter of the year. Congratulations to our Money Transfer teams around the world on their record-setting quarter. Now we'll move on to Slide #24, and we'll wrap this up. Well, we achieved adjusted cash earnings per share, as I've said before, of $0.80, a 43% increase over Q3 2013; $0.07 ahead of our guidance; $0.12 or more than the analyst consensus just 3 months ago; and a new quarterly record for the company. EFT growth was driven by seasonally high transaction volumes, made possible by our continued focus on product and network expansion; Epay contributed to revenue and operating income growth for the second consecutive quarter; and Money Transfer realized expansion from strong organic growth, the successful launch of Walmart-2-Walmart and the acquisition of HiFX. Plus, we added another $43 million to our cash balance, reducing our debt by almost $33 million and our balance sheet remains strong and getting stronger. Finally, we expect our fourth quarter adjusted cash earnings per share to be $0.72, assuming foreign currency exchange rates remain consistent through the end of the quarter. With that, I'll conclude my comments and open it up now for questions. Operator, will you please assist?