Mike Brown
Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open
Thank you, Rick and thanks to everybody who's joining us today. I'll start on Slide number 13 to cover EFT. In keeping with what makes us successful more products on more devices in more markets, I'm pleased to share with you that we just launched two new independent ATM networks one in Bulgaria and the other in Sweden. We now have independent ATM networks in 28 countries around the world. We continue to expand our presence throughout Europe, through outsourcing agreements with banks in Poland and Greece as well as agreements to deploy ATMs in Spain with two large hotel groups Iberostar and Melia. We also continue to find new opportunities to offer our software solutions across many markets. You can see in the slide we're operating solutions that reach Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Bahamas and Indonesia. These types of opportunities are compelling to our business as they allow us to monetize our key expertise and superior technical solutions in areas that we may now have a physical presence. As you can see in the bottom of the slide we also renewed a network participation agreement with one of our banks in Poland. Next slide please, Slide 14. As I discussed new products launch this quarter. We have grouped them into three categories. Value added services on ATMs, card and POS outsourcing customers and software solutions for bank. We'll start with the value added services on ATMs where we expanded our valued relationship with Piraeus Bank in Greece, through implementing bill payment via credit cards at a self-service kiosk. In addition we launched ticket voucher distribution through our ATMs in Hungary, this is the second market we've introduced ticket vouchers through our ATMs as we started in Spain last year and we're looking to launch similar offerings in new markets later this year. Our card and POS outsourcing customers, we launched POS DCC arrangements in Greece and UK markets and partnered with Yes Bank in India for 3D Secure Issuer authentication services. For software solutions, we implemented a broad array of solutions such as ITM Switch and Debit Card Management System. MasterCard Acquiring at POS and ATMs. MasterCard EMV Credit Card Issuing which enables chip, card and notification solution. Our software solutions span countries including India, Sri Lanka and Suriname just to name a few. Next slide please. This is Slide 15. As part of our focus to provide new value added solution I'm excited about small acquisition we recently made called Innova Tax Free Group. Innova which is headquartered in Spain specializes in VAT refunds for the international traveler currently operating in 10 countries. With Innova, Euronet will offer merchants a three-in-one solution bringing together card processing, multi-currency processing/DCC and VAT refund. In addition, we will be able to leverage this existing technology and infrastructure to integrate Innova solutions into our ATM. This is another example where we're able to integrate new innovative solutions into our portfolio. Thanks in a large part to our superior technical infrastructure and expertise which offers the flexibility to introduce such solutions on our company-owned estate of ATMs at our discretion. Again more product on more devices in more markets. We finished the quarter with 38,358 ATMs live a 9% increase over last year. Including winterized ATMs which are expected to contribute later in this year during seasonal peak, ATM growth would be at about 11% over the prior year. During the quarter, we added a net of 571 high value ATMs across Europe and India. If you break apart the net increase however, we had growth additions of 812 ATMs offset by a 241 ATM reduction largely attributed to low performing ATMs from our YourCash acquisition. We had anticipated a small rationalization at some point following that acquisition. Based on deployments in the first quarter together with feedback I received from the EFT team regarding ATM additions later in the year. I remain confident that we'll meet or exceed our previously stated forecast of 3,500 high value ATM additions during the year. So while we keep up the momentum on ATM deployment. We also keep a careful eye on regulatory matters. To that end, since our last call the EU commission has issued a proposal that sets up a process for DCC regulation. The proposal itself does not include any specific DCC regulation, it just would authorize the European Banking Authority or EBA to formulate transparency guidelines for DCC and impose a transition period cap on DCC margins while those guidelines are being implemented. Everybody's asking about timelines, so the timelines as we see it for adoption of any final DCC regulation in cap certainly depend on the EU legislation process which is very uncertain, but typically involve few success of step. First the EU proposal that was recently issued needs to be adopted by parliament in some final form and we believe the earliest that will happen in late this year or early 2019. That would start the timeline on the EBA's consideration of the transparency guidelines in cap. The EBA is been given six months to propose this guidelines but it's likely that it will take more time than that. The EBA's guidelines then need to be adopted through the EU legislative process, so we believe a realistic timeframe for final adoption of DCC guidelines and cap by the EBA is sometime in 2020. Upon adoption of the guidelines there would likely be another 36 months until final implementation and compliance of any of these new DCC regulations, which would put it into 2023. In summary, based on our analysis of what we've learned over the last few weeks. It now appears that the implementation timeline for a potential cap could well be into 2020 nearly a couple of years from now. On one end, this view stretches out the uncertainty period which I don't particularly like, but on the other hand it would give us more time to further grow and develop our business to overcome any potential downside effect impact, if any at all of these decisions. As I reflect on the uncertainty of the DCC matter, I can't help but recall the number of issues we've encountered over the years ranging from MasterCard, Visa rate changes in Poland and Germany. In Poland, Germany debit card rate changes. US economy that handed us 40% decline and transfers to Mexico, a global financial market dislocation driving 20% decline in foreign exchange rate and a cash demonetization event in India. And as Rick reminds me in the 15 years that he's been here at Euronet, we have grown both revenue and profit sequentially every single year and I've no reason to believe, we will not be able to continue with this trend. We've already started to think of alternative ways with some potential opportunities already identify to recover any downside impacts, should they come our way. And I'm glad to tell you that I believe we have well more upside than we have downside. Accordingly, well I would welcome a finality to this DCC matter. I'm more focused on keeping the business moving forward in our customary double-digit revenue and profit growth passion and I look forward to confirming that with you quarter-by-quarter. Now let's move onto Slide number 18 for epay. Epay continued to see expansion in its non-mobile volumes in the first quarter which effectively offset declines in mobile volumes. This expansion resulted in modest gains on an overall margin basis. In particular, we're expecting nice growth in our software and gaming categories across multiple markets. We launched Xbox and PlayStation into X-cite, a large electronics retailer in the Middle East. In addition, we continue to execute on our strategy to expand distribution through more digital channels. We added software content distribution to Harvey Norman's online store in Australia and also launch gaming content on the Penny's online store in Germany. Next slide please, Slide 19. Under the signed agreement section you can see more examples of broad distribution of non-mobile content across multiple countries. Epay is also entering new markets like the Nordic, Egypt and South Africa. In part, this market expansion is driven by strong relationships with our brand partner. For example, we signed an agreement to distribute Microsoft Office and Xbox in South Africa this quarter. The epay segment is also exploring new and diverse ways to deliver growth from our existing infrastructure and retail connections. In that vein, we've entered into agreements with various alternative payment schemes and wallet company. In Australia we launched Alipay and WeChat Pay across numerous high value retailers and we have a strong pipeline of interested merchants to onboard. We also have agreements to launch Alipay and WeChat Pay across Europe. Our first merchant will be Drogeriemarkt Müller, a large drug store chain in Germany which is an existing epay customer. As part of our digital channel strategy we're leveraging existing wallet relationships. In India, we launched the distribution of Google Play through Paytm and PhonePe wallets. Overall I would characterize these new opportunities as being in the early stages but I'm excited about their potential based upon the emergence of numerous alternative payment option. The relative quick adoption of these same options by consumers and the interest by retailers to adopt and support these alternative scheme. Epay is an ideal position to leverage its existing asset to deliver these solutions with nominal effort, by the payment scheme and retailer. Overall I'm pleased that epay continues to execute on its strategy on ways to diversify its product portfolio and expand channel and geography distribution while also maintaining its operating margin. Now let's move onto Slide number 22. Where we can talk about the Money Transfer segment. Q1 marked something of a milestone for Ria, as our money transfer network now reaches 350,000 locations and our team has no intention of slowing down either as they added another 18,000 locations to the pipeline this quarter, with the signing of 24 new correspondence across 22 countries. Among the highlights of our network expansion efforts include the signing and launching of Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand. Siam Commercial Bank was exclusive to one of our competitor and will expand our network by over 1,100 locations once the rollout is complete. As we mentioned a couple of quarter ago, when we announced the signing of government's savings bank in Thailand. Thailand is the 25th largest receipt [ph] market in the world, with global volume of 6.3 billion as well as an important [indiscernible] market and we're excited to expand our network in Thailand with these two partners. Staying in Asia, we opened bank deposits service to Korea our initial entrée into this market. This service will enable Ria to deposit funds directly into account holders at 18 different Korean banks. Another important signing this quarter is FaturaVizyon in Turkey. Turkey is an important market for our European business and we've seen nice growth from it over the past four years despite our network being fairly small. FaturaVizyon will add another quality cash pick up location for our customers with a network that will nearly the double the size of our existing network to around 10,000 total locations. And other highlights, as you know our team has been working hard over the last 10 months or so rolling out our new network in India. Well I'm proud to announce that we have completed the rollout of the retail portion of our network and we're now the second largest cash pick up network in the country. Retail, I mean the store locations of the three agents we announced last May as well as their sub-agents. We still have many bank locations set, but it's the retail networks that's the most predictive in India, by no means are we done though and we have additional strategic partners in the pipeline that are signed and awaiting the Reserve Bank of India approval and of course what is most important is we're seeing transaction growth of over 400% compared to the prior year and India is now our 10th largest pay out market, whereas it was largely insignificant just a few years ago. Given India is the largest pay out country in the world. We're optimistic that we will continue to see significant growth in this market. On the business performance side, Ria delivered 17% money transfer transaction growth during the quarter with every region contributing to strong double-digit growth. Our Europe and Middle East businesses led the way with transaction gains of over 20% while our India cash pick up product is certainly helping to drive some of the growth in the Middle East. The truth is we're seeing strong business in virtually all of our corridors from the Middle East. Our digital business also delivered a very good quarter with transaction growth of 34% and revenue growth of 48%. We're seeing really good traction for this business in both the US and our newer markets. Our US digital business continues to deliver solid gains with transaction growth of 20% or more in nine of our top 10 corridors. The digital team has a lot on their plate this year, with plans to expand into several new markets. They're working on a redesign of the web version of our digital product, that will bring many customer experience improvements along with added functionality as well as further upgrade to our mobile app. It is not a surprise that we see digital as an important part of our future and the team is laser focused on accelerating our growth of the digital channel. One example is our collaboration with Serve the former Amex prepaid card recently acquired by InComm where we've added a new P2P product that allows Serve customers to send money to other Serve customers. But the important thing is, that our digital team continues to grow their existing business rapidly while managing the demand of product and geographic growth expectations at the same time. And finally our international payments business delivered a solid quarter with double-digit revenue growth. This business tends to be susceptible to macroeconomic variables while Brexit and low FX volatility have been sort of headwind for the European business. The north American and Austroasian [ph] businesses continue to perform nicely. We're also pleased with some of the underlying performance metrics where in addition to revenue growth our active clients grew 21% this quarter. so the first quarter results have set a positive tone for the start of the year and we believe the business performance supports near term growth momentum. So wrapping up money transfer for the quarter. I would like to call Q1 an excellent start to the year. we have delivered double-digit growth across virtually all metrics of the business and Ria digital business is showing strength in all of its platform. Our digital international payment's business also delivered double-digit transaction in revenue growth. So overall this was a very good start to the year and the team is working hard to carry that momentum forward to the rest of 2018. Now let's move onto to Slide number 23 to wrap up the quarter. okay, so we delivered adjusted EPS of $0.73 this quarter in line with everybody's expectation. EFT is well positioned to deliver strong revenue and earnings growth this year. we're committed to meet or exceed our 3,500 high value ATM growth target this year as well as rolling out other new interesting new products. We're monitoring the DCC situation closely and will continue to be transparent as we gain more clarity. Epay continues to grow non-mobile and is further diversifying its product portfolio with interesting opportunities. Money transfer outlook is strong with significant growth in our Europe and Middle East businesses and continued network expansion up to 350,000 notably in Asia. Our digital strategy is gaining traction and our international payments business records double-digit growth. Our free cash flow and balance sheet continue to be strong and finally we expect Q2 adjusted EPS to be approximately $1.32 assuming consistent foreign exchange rate. before we jump to the QA portion of the call. I'd like to spend some time reflecting on the potential DCC regulations which seems to have had a punitive impact on our stock price this last quarter. while I can't remove all clouds of uncertainty here. I do remain confident we will overcome the impact that may come, if any. This company have proven its resiliency time and time again to overcome headwinds in the past and I don't expect this one to be any different. It's not just luck that makes this possible. It is the diversity we have in products, markets and geographies. All delivered by a winning team. So when the dust settles and we look to the earnings growth from now until then which we may not know the final impact of DCC until 2023. I expect we will be well ahead of where we are today. With that, we're happy to take questions. Operator, will you please.