Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the EVERTEC's first Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Kay Sharpton, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. With me today are Mac Schuessler, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joaquin Castrillo, our Chief Financial Officer. A replay of this call will be available until Wednesday, May 7. Access information for the replay is listed in today's financial release, which is available on our Web site under the Investor Relations section of evertecinc.com. For those listening to the replay, this call was held May 1. Please note there is a presentation that accompanies this conference call, and it is accessible in the Investor Relations section of the Web site. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements about our expectations for future performance are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. EVERTEC cautions that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. All forward-looking statements made today reflect our current expectations only, and we undertake no obligation to update any statements to reflect the events that occur after this call. Please refer to the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement. During today's call, management will provide certain information that will constitute non-GAAP financial measures under SEC rules, such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per common share. Reconciliations to GAAP measures and certain additional information are also included in today's earnings release and supplemental slides. I'll now hand the call over to Mac.

Thanks, Kay. Good afternoon everyone. We are pleased with our results for the first quarter of 2019, which was at the high-end of our expectations. We are executing well and we continue to benefit from Puerto Rico's increased rebuilding and recovery activity. Beginning on slide four, I'll cover some of the quarter's financial highlights and provide you with an update on our recent developments. Total revenue was $119 million, an increase of 8% compared to 2018. January and February were elevated relative to last year as the economy was still recovering from the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in September of 2017. We also benefited from revenue related to EBT services for the Government of Puerto Rico. Adjusted EBITDA was $58 million or 7% growth over the prior year, and adjusted earnings per share was $0.50, an increase of 6% compared to last year. We generated significant operating cash flow and returned approximately $21 million to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Moving on to progress in Puerto Rico on slide five, first, we were pleased with the strong revenue in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, which grew approximately 11%, driven by transaction growth of approximately 10%. We continue to benefit from relief and recovery programs, increased tax payments as well as our continued deployment and value-added solutions for merchants and partners. Regarding the federal funds flowing into Puerto Rico, the government submitted to the PROMESA Board a revised fiscal plan on March 27, and although it is not certified by the Board at this time, it includes revised timing of federal funds, and offers us a view of the local government expectations. Although, the total anticipated funds continue to be the same at approximately $82 billion, deployment of such funds is expected to be slower…

Thank you, Mac, and good afternoon everyone. I will now provide a review of our first quarter 2019 results. Turning to slide eight, you'll see the consolidated first quarter results for EVERTEC. Total revenue for the first quarter was $118.8 million, up 8% compared to $110.3 million in the prior year. While it was a somewhat easier comparison to last year, given January and February were still feeling the effects of the hurricane. Our sales volume for the month of March was relatively flat versus prior year. We benefited in the quarter from one-time revenue of $2.7 million related to the EBT service contract we manage for the Government of Puerto Rico. Lastly, we've also benefited from increased core banking transactions and an increase in network services related to new managed services projects. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $57.6 million, an increase of 7% from $54 million in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 48.5%. And this represents a 40 basis point decrease in our adjusted EBITDA margin compared to the prior year. The year-over-year decrease in margin primarily reflects the lower corporate and other expenses in the prior year quarter, as one of the elevated average ticket we experienced last year, as a result of disaster risk spending that drove a higher than normal margin. The margin this year benefited from the EBT one-time revenue, partially offset by higher investment in our technology platforms. Without the EBT benefit, normalized adjusted EBITDA margin would have been approximately 47.3%. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 12.5% and we continue to anticipate that our full year tax rate will be approximately 13% or slightly below. Adjusted EPS was $0.50 for the quarter and grew 6% compared to the prior year. Moving on to slide nine, and I'll cover…

Joaquin, before we open the line, I'd like to comment on a recent development in the local media today. Yesterday, the special claims committee of the Financial Oversight and Management Board in order of Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight Board filed more than 200 lawsuits seeking to recover payments received from the Puerto Rican government as the statute of limitation deadline expires tomorrow, May 2. The Oversight Board released a statement clarifying that these legal actions, "Do not necessarily imply that any individuals and entities committed any wrongdoing. And if a vendor demonstrates the proper basis for the payments the Oversight Board will dismiss the claim". So, EVERTEC was one of those more then 200 parties that were subject to a lawsuit, however, the complaint has various causes of action all of which we feel confident, we can properly defend. And we believe we should obtain a small -- I mean, obtained a dismissal on all the accounts. So I did want to address that before we go into the Q&A in case anyone saw that in the media today. It has been in the Puerto Rican press. So with that, we will turn over the call to any questions that you may have.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Jim Schneider with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could maybe comment on, first of all, just the pipeline of any new kind of partnerships or deals that you see throughout Latin America in your business development efforts? I apologize if I missed that, but I just wanted to get an update on that.

Yes, Jim, this is Mac. Thanks for the question. We talked a lot on our call kicking the year off that we really do see these markets opening, and we've seen some clear regulatory and competitive shifts in the markets. We are still very focused on partnering with different financial institutions across the region, but we're not going to comment on those until we sign a specific contract, but we do have a healthy pipeline, both on the sales front and we are constantly looking at M&A as well, but we didn't have anything specifically to announce on this call.

Very well, and then maybe as a follow-up, can you maybe just kind of comment on what you're seeing in terms of solutions wins on the Business Solutions side, I think you've commented before on some of the knock-on effects of the hurricane relief efforts and how that's benefiting you from a local government perspective and also just elsewhere in terms of other contracts? So, can you maybe comment on kind of how you'd expect those contracts to trend and whether you expect kind of an steady improvement in that line item over the course of the year?

Yes, I'll talk qualitatively, just like we talked about in the last call, I mean in the last call we talked about we signed an extension with Santander in Puerto Rico, which is one of our largest customers in the segment. We also signed a deal with the Department of Education due to consulting, the call wasn't that long ago between the Q4 and the Q1 call is a pretty typically shorter period of time. We are still finding that there are opportunities and Business Solutions, as we continue to perform well, we execute well in this market and we are in the best provider in many the areas in that segment, again, nothing to announce on this call, but we are still seeing and demand for our services. Joaquin, I don't know if -- I mean, I think that's…

No, I think that covers it.

Great, thank you very much.

Thanks, Jim.

Our next question comes from Vasu Govil with KBW. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question and nice quarter.

Thank you.

Just first question, I guess, the one-time revenue benefit that you called out for the quarter, was that already contemplated in the guidance?

Hi, Vasu. So yes, we did have that as part of our higher end of the range when we guided on the last call. Obviously, we weren't sure if we were going to close out one of the engagements with the government. And well, yes, we have included as part of our higher end of the range.

Got it. And then I guess just a question on how are you feeling about the rest of the year, I know you called out certain changes that the government is sort of proposed in the new fiscal plan, but versus where we were back in Feb, are you feeling better, worse, the same about the rest of the year? Any commentary there would be helpful.

I think we're feeling confident in the guidance that we put out. And based on what we said, we are increasing the lower end of the range, which is positive given the performance that we had in Q1. However, we continue to be cautious, just given the information out there and in terms of what the government expects from fed relief funding and what we see here on the island, but we continue to work through our initiatives in both Merchant Acquiring and Payment to try and come up with new fees or incremental revenues. And in Business Solutions, we continue to as Mac alluded to, look for opportunities to continue assisting the government and getting additional ground in helping them with their strategies and obviously with Popular as well.

That's helpful. And then I guess, lastly, I know you don't provide quarterly guidance, but because we have this EBT benefits that are going away starting next quarter, I was hoping you could help us, with just the quarterly cadence on revenue growth by segment.

Revenue? I think you answered the question at the beginning. We can't give quarterly guidance, because of the way the business, but that -- we would love to be able to, but given the way that our business operates, it's very, very difficult, but that was a great attempt…

Anything particular that we should be like careful while we model, because of the EBT program by the way…

No, I'd say, is the cadence will look very similar to what we've had in the past. We do expect Q2 to be slightly softer, but other than that, we do expect quarterly cadence to be similar to previous years.

Thank you very much, guys.

Thanks, Vasu.

Our next question comes from George Mihalos with Cowen. Please go ahead.

Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. Not sure if I missed this, but the commentary on sort of some of the more flattish recent trends in merchant acquiring, is the expectation that, that business will grow sort of low-single digits over the remainder of the year sort of the last three quarters. And was there any sort of Easter impact that would be worth calling out there?

So in terms of the Easter, last year Easter kind of had one of the days in Puerto Rico, which is a Good Friday fell in March and then Sunday fell in April, so we kind of had a split in how the Easter weekend impact the business. This time around we have that in April, so we don't really see anything particular to call out related to that specific holiday this time around. As it relates to sales volume, obviously, when we compared to the previous year, we had the EBT funding throughout the rest of 2019 as a comparable. So it will impact in sales volume growth or transactional growth for the remainder of the year, and I would say that reaction is reasonable given what we're seeing. And what we continue to, as I mentioned before, look for different ways of implementing other fees or increases in inter-sectional fees to -- and offset some of that. The other thing I'll mention is EBT was coming in at a lower spread. That volume that we had in the previous year which was mainly going to supermarkets, et cetera, was coming in on our spread. So the fact that now the portfolio is kind of shifting back even a more normalized levels, pre-hurricane, it will result in a slight increase in the spread.

Okay, that's very helpful. And then, Mac, I think on the last call you talked about regulation and the like in some of the LatAm geographies. Opening up some markets for you maybe creating some more conversation or opportunities, any update there that you can provide that has maybe changed the last couple of months.

No, I what would say is we talked on the last call, you recall very well that in Argentina Prisma was sold to Advent, and so those banks are going to probably be looking for alternatives overtime, Or at least finally, there is an opportunity to pitch those customers, in Chile we talked about Santander, Chile has been very vocal about, they're not going to continue to process with TransBank, so we are seeing interest in different markets across Latin America and alternatives, and it is more than we've seen in the past. We don't have an update as to any wins, but we are very, very focused on making the best of those opportunities during the year.

Very helpful, thank you.

Thanks, George.

Our next question comes from Bryan Keane with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi guys, this is Korey Marcello on for Bryan Keane. Just two quick questions, on the Business Solutions side that continues to perform very well, but the margins are little soft. Can you just give us some update on kind of how you're thinking about margins going forward in that business?

Sure, Korey, the margins that we saw in the current quarter as we mentioned, obviously, we continue to invest in technology, and we saw -- and from that will obviously impact that margin. Also some of the business that we bring in from the government is usually at a slightly lower margin than our overall segment. But in terms of what we saw in Q1, we did have a good growth year-over-year. Some of the transactional services that we're providing weren't 100% in the first two years of last year given that and some of those services -- the two months of prior year, they were still impacted by the hurricane. And obviously, we are seeing that in the year-over-year growth, and we don't expect that level of growth in the next three quarters, we expect that to come down a little bit and end up in the mid-to-low single-digits for the whole year.

Got it. That's clear. And then I guess on Latin America, you guys obviously you're expecting kind of the low-end on the attrition impact for the year. But does that change or has anything that has changed in terms of the conversions change from a timing perspective on how that what kind of impact, I think previously you guys were talking about it being pretty steady state throughout the quarters, and I think it was 700,000 this quarter, so, just curious how that kind of plays out through the year. Thanks, guys.

The attrition.

Yes, we were still expecting it to be relatively consistent throughout the year Korey at this point.

Thanks, guys.

Our next question comes from Bob Napoli with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. Question on the growth in Latin America and Payments and growth outside of Puerto Rico generally, how is the performance of PayGroup? How is Colombia doing? What are the thoughts about, I mean are you -- do you have visibility on making that a steady double-digit type of organic growth business outside of Puerto Rico?

Yes, Bob, this is Mac. So what I would say, we continue to be very pleased with the acquisition of PayGroup. As we talked about the last call, I mean from '15 to the end of last year, we've doubled the business, some of it through acquisition, some of it organically and grown EBITDA evens more so. We are finding that is these markets open, the products that we haven't PayGroup that are running throughout the region typically in a license model in multiple banks, whether it's the breast product or it's the merchant processing product or issuing product is being very, very well received. So we continue to be happy with the performance of the current business, but we are very optimistic on the solution that we have and that it's unique, and that given we have a presence in some of these markets, we have a unique advantage as they open up. So our optimism has not changed since the last call.

And then, Colombia, you made a small acquisition there a few years ago, obviously, a big market and any chance of -- what's the outlook for making that a much bigger market for EVERTEC?

Yes, we talked about -- so Colombia is a market of focus for us, because we have that investment, because it's one of the larger markets in the region. The move -- the trends we've seen in some of the other markets have been more significant as far as the market opening. We're still hopeful that Colombia will as well. When we -- and we're still making investments there. So we're happy with the acquisition. But frankly, Chile and Argentina and some of the other markets appear to be moving a bit more quickly. But there's still noise in that market. There are two, Redeban and Credibanco, and there's still noise about banks looking for alternatives. I would anticipate some of the other markets may move more quickly than some of the other markets that we're in.

Lastly, can you give an update on pvot and ATH Movil how those are progressing?

Yes, sure. In terms of ATH Movil, as we've said before, but we don't necessarily break that out given that it's a specific product. What I can see that we continue to see a growth year-over-year. And obviously, we continue to monetize the fees related to ATH Movil P2P, which we put in place in the second half of last year. And but in terms of usage, we continue to see very good usage. And we've actually seen also -- we continue to see the ATH Movil business side continuing to also gain some ground in terms of businesses continuing to register and volume going through the platform.

And I would say too, I mean, even just today actually went with the team sort of the product road map. We are very focused on investing in that platform to make sure that we're getting as many people to use ATH Movil Business instead of the P2P because we can make more money on that. And we're also very focused on rolling out other products and functions and features to increase the utility, but also find other sources of revenue. So no update significant past the last call, but we're very focused on it and pleased with its performance.

And the pvot [ph] or pvot?

Yes. With pvot, well, we continue to obviously also gain some ground, as we mentioned, in 30 days. So we continue to focus on functionality and continuing to add features to cater to the different clients that we are trying to sell these to. And it's very positive and continuous to move very well. We continue to be very excited as to how we're competing with the product against some of the ISOs that are here in the island, and it continues to be a point of focus into the future.

With a healthy pipeline.

Correct, a very healthy pipeline.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Bob.

Our next question comes from John Davis with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, guys. First Joaquin, I just wanted to touch on the funding assumptions kind of baked in the guidance, obviously, I think there are half of last year and probably half what people thought was the beginning of this year, but doesn't seem to have an impact on your guidance kind of flowing through the beat in the first quarter. So it is safe to assume that you guys are playing it safe and are assuming that there will be very little to know federal aid this year. And so therefore even those come in slower than expected, could be upside or just help us think about what level of aid you guys are expecting, the government has our estimate, but kind of what do you have baked on the guide for kind of last three quarters there?

Look, when we went out with guidance on the beginning of the year, obviously, we kind of call this out in terms of timing and what we're seeing here in the island and just anecdotally, and in the news and what fundings actually coming in, and that's why we are able to stay with our higher end of the range. And today, obviously, we had a good first quarter. What we are expecting throughout the remainder of the year, I can't get into specifics of the amount of aid that we have considerable, what I can say that we're comfortable that what the expectation the government has and what we're seeing here internally, and we're confident what we were putting out there in terms of how we are expecting to perform.

Okay. And then, Mac, maybe I think the balance sheet is in the best shape it's ever been as a public company. Maybe just what's the M&A environment like out there, are you seeing -- are there deals coming up? What's the pricing environment look for maybe any commentary on things you think would make sense? It just seems like it's definitely part of your strategy going forward, and just curious what the M&A environment looks like in Latin America.

Yes, John, I would agree that we're very, very happy with our balance sheet. And as you can see in the quarter, we actually get pretty well on the share repurchase program. Again, M&A, we still see opportunities and we're actively looking at those opportunities. We've always said in the past that the sizable transactions are far and few between. The big one was the material, which I think at valuation of about $1.4 billion, but we still are looking at opportunities. We would love to continue to bolt-on additional products that they're symbiotic. And we're very focused on product type of investment right now. And then potentially unlocking new market, but we do feel like that we have a great product set today, that we can use in our markets, but it's still a very important part of our focus.

Okay. And then just lastly, any potential opportunity to take to the -- or ATH Movil and expand that outside of Puerto Rico and it was still early days for pvot, but ATH Movil has been fairly successful. Any -- can you take that in other LatAm markets where you already exist today, or is that something that's pretty much just going to be in Puerto Rico.

I mean, it's a very, very different product. What I would say with pvot is it definitely is a product that we think can help us in other markets, because when you go across Latin America, particularly the markets we're most focused on, so sort of ex-Brazil, that type of product is incredible. So we think it is a differentiator for us, when we pitch to banks across South America and Central America. So that would be core to our thesis that we can export that. On ATH and ATH Movil, it's a bit different in that it's a network product. So we love the technology, we love our strategy and we think that's one of the big reasons we've been successful, but it also the product that requires debit network and sort of a high level of bank participation to get the scale and adoption you need. So, we have clients that are interested, we have banks that are interested, but it's a much more complicated product export. So pvot is probably the one that's more likely we'd be able to export outside of Puerto Rico in the coming years.

Okay, any impacts on early the improvement in attrition and Puerto Rico from pvot, any type of early signpost without giving too many details on how the product launches gone in Puerto Rico?

Yes, I mean, we saw a very healthy pipeline. We found that, again, in this market, we don't have a lot of those type of solutions. We have one or two that we compete against and we've had some competitive takeaways from those. But the early indication is novel for merchants on the island. Right now, we've rolled it out to mostly small retailers, because that's the functionality and the features that we have, as we build out broader capabilities for different verticals. So restaurants or for different capabilities, we think we can expand it more fully. Again, the big benefit we believe that we have with this type of product is, one, is the local consultation service that we can provide, because these are sort of -- most of these merchants are very small. They tend to be bakers or musicians and really helping them automate their business and install the technology is complicated. We do it in person. And the second thing is ability to integrate into local networks and local capabilities. So we are still very optimistic on the product.

Okay. All right. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions in the queue, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mac Schuessler for any closing remarks.

So, I want to thank everyone for joining the call, and thanks again for your support. Joaquin and Kay look forward to seeing you guys on the road as we attend different conferences across the country. Thank you.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.