Michael D. Hayford
Analyst · Glenn Greene, Oppenheimer
Thanks, Gary. I'll begin on Slide 4. Adjusted revenue increased 10.8% to $1.4 billion in the third quarter. Organic revenue growth, after being normalized for acquisitions and currency, was 4.1%. Strong growth in International business offset difficult year-over-year comparisons in FSG, as well as ongoing headwinds within our Payments business. Third quarter EBITDA increased 2.7% to $438 million. EBITDA margin was 30.7% compared to 33.1% in the third quarter of 2010, reflecting a higher portion consulting revenues, growth in lower margin businesses, including the resilient card operation and nonrecurring items in both periods. These items include approximately $10 million in merger integration and severance costs in the third quarter 2011 and a $10 million benefit related to settlement of legal matter in the third quarter 2010, a $20 million swing we put into nonrecurring items. As shown on Slide 5, EBITDA margin compares favorably to the prior year when adjusted for the Capco acquisition and the nonrecurring items from both periods. Financial Solutions on Slide 6. Revenue increased 7.8% to $523 million, and increased 0.6% on an organic basis. As you may recall, FSG are particularly a difficult comparison due to a large software sale in the third quarter of 2010. Organic growth was also negatively impacted by the reduction in job scope for a large Capco client as we have previously discussed. Financial Solutions' EBITDA increased 1.9% to $224 million compared to $220 million in the 2010 quarter. The EBITDA margin was 42.8% compared to 45.3% in the prior year, reflecting the higher mix of consulting revenue and approximately $2 million of integration and severance costs in the third quarter 2011, in addition to a large license sale in third quarter 2010. As shown on Slide 7, Payment Solutions revenue totaled $604 million, which is a modest improvement over the third quarter of 2010. Payment Solutions revenue increased 2%, excluding the check business. Third quarter revenue declined on a sequential basis due to the peak tax processing revenues in the second quarter of 2011. While we are pleased with our progress in signing new clients, PSG continues to be challenged due to declining check usage, competitive pricing and consolidation within the client base. Payment Solutions' EBITDA totaled $230 million, including approximately $4 million integration and severance costs. EBITDA increased slightly, excluding the onetime costs. EBITDA margin declined to 38% in the third quarter 2011 compared to 38.4% in the third quarter of 2010. As shown on Slide 8, International revenue increased 49.3% to $298 million and grew 21.9% on an organic basis. The continued strong performance was due primarily to higher card processing volumes in Brazil, as well as growth within Capco's European business, which continues to perform very well. As a reminder, we have now cycled past the anniversary of the Bradesco card conversion, which occurred at the beginning of October 2010. Although new card issuance in Brazil remains strong, we will face tough year-over-year comparisons beginning in the fourth quarter of 2011. International EBITDA increased 44.1% to $67 million in the third quarter. The margin was 22.5% compared to 23.2% in the prior year, reflecting the addition of Capco, continued strong growth in Brazil and approximately $1 million of integration and severance costs. To reiterate Gary's remarks regarding our European business, keep in mind that Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland account for only a small portion, less than 1% of our International revenue base. The majority of the revenue is recurring and is not discretionary. While we are monitoring the markets closely, we continue to feel good about our European business. Corporate expense totaled $83 million in the third quarter 2011 compared to $71 million in the third quarter 2010. The increase was driven largely by the reimbursement of $10 million of legal fees in last year's numbers, as previously discussed, and approximately $3 million of severance and M&A-related costs in the current period. Please turn to Slide 9 for a reconciliation of net earnings. Third quarter net earnings from continuing operations increased 6.8% to $189 million compared to $177 million in the third quarter 2010. The effective tax rate declined to 30.6% in the third quarter of 2011 compared to 36.6% in the prior year quarter due to federal tax planning strategies and a nonrecurring benefit related to our International business. We now anticipated a full-year tax rate of approximately 33% in 2011. Earnings per share increased 19.2% to $0.62 per share compared to $0.52 per share in the third quarter 2010. The only adjustment to our reported GAAP numbers in the current quarter is the after-tax impact of purchase price amortization of $44 million or $0.14 per share. Approximately $10 million of onetime costs, including merger, integration and severance costs, were included in the results for the third quarter 2010 -- I'm sorry, 2011. These costs, which were excluded from the prior year results, lowered earnings by approximately $0.02 per share in the current quarter. Minority interest reduced earnings per share by approximately $0.01 in the current quarter. As shown on Slide 10, free cash flow totaled $193 million compared to $220 million in the third quarter 2010. The decrease was primarily due to the interest on our senior unsecured notes, which is payable in July -- January of the year. Capital expenditures have declined to $82 million in the third quarter 2011 as compared to $93 million in the third quarter 2010. As Frank mentioned, we purchased approximately 6.6 million shares during the third quarter, that will total cost of $181 million. 7 million shares remain under the February 2010 authorization, and our board recently approved an additional $500 million repurchase authority, which is effective through December of 2013. Debt outstanding declined to less than $4.9 billion as of September 30, and the weighted average interest was approximately 5.1% at quarter end. Looking ahead to 2012, we have $215 million of mandatory debt payments coming due, in addition to our $325 million term loan A facility, which matures in January. We are monitoring the debt markets closely and currently anticipate that we will extend, refinance or use our revolver to retire the 2012 term loan A facility. Additional details on our debt are provided in the Appendix. Before opening the lines for questions, I will provide a few comments regarding our full-year 2011 outlook and share some initial thoughts regarding 2012. We continue to anticipate reported revenue growth of approximately 10% for 2011 and organic revenue growth of approximately 5% for the full year. We expect 4% to 5% growth in EBITDA for full-year 2011. As we guided in September, we expect that lower interest costs, shares outstanding, combined with more favorable tax rate will offset the EBITDA challenges in 2011. We are tightening our earnings outlook for the full year to $2.24 to $2.30 per share, which is an increase of approximately 11% to 14% of share compared to 2010. We expect free cash flow to come in slightly higher than adjusted earnings in 2011 due primarily to timing differences. Turning to 2012, while we have not yet finalized our 2012 plan, we want to share some preliminary thoughts regarding the overall market environment. We'll provide more detailed guidance at our Analyst Day, which is scheduled for February 14. As Gary outlined, we continue to expect a challenging economic environment for our clients in 2012. However, given the nondiscretionary nature of our services and our strong business model, we expect that we will continue to drive organic revenue growth in 2012. We anticipate that revenue growth within our International business will continue to outpace the North American growth, given the more mature market in the U.S., the highly-competitive environment and the ongoing impact of bank consolidations. We believe that improved operating leverage and our ability to manage costs will enable us to more than offset continued pricing compression and client consolidation in 2012. With that in mind, we expect EBITDA to grow more closely in line with our revenue in 2012 and expect the margin to be higher compared to 2011. And finally, our thoughts regarding the cash remain consistent with our previous outlook. While we are focused on growing the business organically, we continue to look for opportunities to augment growth with mergers and acquisitions. That being said, the newly authorized share repurchase program provides us with additional flexibility to repurchase stock if we are unable to find deals that provide good strategic and financial benefits for FIS. That concludes our prepared comments. Thank you for your time this morning. We look forward to seeing you all in Orlando on February 14. Operator, you may now open the line for questions.