John Crawford
Analyst · BTIG. Please go ahead
Thank you, Bruce. Let's move to Slide 12 for a summary of our first quarter results. On a reported basis, revenue declined by 4% to $401 million. When we exclude the inorganic headwinds from FX, interest and the divestiture, revenue increased 5% organically. This was a little better than we originally expected, driven by modest outperformance from the ISO sales channel. Overall organic growth in Q1 reflects continued double-digit growth in e-commerce and 3% organic growth in digital wallets. This was partly tempered by flat performance in SMB. Adjusted EBITDA was $95.2 million and adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.7%, which was also slightly ahead of our expectations due to the timing of certain cost items that fell into Q2. When we exclude the impact of the divestiture, adjusted EBITDA would have been down 3% on a constant currency basis, driven by 190 basis point decline in gross margin, primarily due to two factors, lower interest revenue, which accounts for 40 basis points of the decline, and business mix, which accounts for 150 basis points. Specifically on the business mix, we were mainly referring to an unfavorable mix within the merchant solution segment due to growth in the ISO channel. To summarize, The underlying EBITDA was impacted by $17 million of inorganic items, 70% of which were attributable to the divestiture, and would have been roughly flat year-over-year, excluding those impacts, with the margin decline reflecting business mix. Turning to cash flow, we generated $57 million in unlevered free cash flow for the quarter with a 60% conversion of adjusted EBITDA and relatively inline Q1 of last year, which was 62%. On an LTM basis, unlevered free cash flow was $288 million, reflecting 66% conversion and in-line with our expected conversion range. Adjusted net income was $20.9 million, or $0.34 per share, down from $0.57 in Q1 of last year, as the adjusted effective tax rate increased to 25% compared to 21% in the prior period. Absent the inclusion of the BEAT tax provision this period, the tax rate would have been 22% roughly in-line with last year. Turning to Slide 13 for a breakdown of our Q1 revenue drivers. Existing customers contributed 13% to our growth and embedded in this category is also the remaining contribution of direct marketing, which was about $5 million, and more than offset by the headwind from interest revenue and FX. As you can see, this offset the impact of attrition, which reduced revenue by approximately 12% in the quarter, slightly higher than what we expect for the full year. We also had modest growth from new customers and NPI, contributing 2% to revenue growth, which we expect to accelerate to double digits as the year progresses, given our new sales pipeline, recent product launches, expanded partnerships, and other initiatives. Turning to Slide 14 to discuss the segment results. Merchant Solutions volume increased by 11% to $34.3 billion, reflecting strong growth in e-commerce, resulting in organic revenue growth of 6%. As a reminder, e-commerce verticals such as North America iGaming bring a lower take rate profile, and this is largely why volume growth outpaced revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $29.4 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.5%. There's a lot of noise here, but looking past the impact of the divestiture, the main drivers, the mix had win due to softer performance in SMB direct channels versus the ISO channel. Aside from that, SG&A for the segment was elevated in Q1, largely explained by the hiring across the sales organization in 2024, as well as some stranded costs related to the divestiture. Going forward, as the sales productivity improves and we lack the investments, we expect the margin to increase throughout the year. Turning to the digital wallet segment on Slide 15. Volume increased by 5% to $5.9 billion, and revenue from digital wallets was $187.6 million, an increase of 3% on an organic basis, with a stable user base of $7.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $82.5 million, down 1% year-over-year, reflecting a $6 million headwind from interest in FX while the margin increased slightly to 44%. Turning to Slide 16 for an update on our capital allocation. At the end of the quarter, total debt was just under $2.4 billion, reflecting principal prepayments of $23 million during the quarter. Net leverage increased slightly to 4.9 times, driven by the divestiture of our direct marketing business, as well as the strengthening of the euro at quarter end. The stronger euro at the end of March impacts our euro debt balances translated back to U.S. Dollars. Our average interest rate is just north of 5%, which is 70 basis points below the interest rate at this time last year. Lastly, we repurchased 613,000 shares during the first quarter and an additional 693,000 shares in April, returning approximately $20 million to shareholders year-to-date. That brings me to our 2025 guidance on Slide 17. We are pleased with our first quarter results, which came in slightly ahead of our expectations and growth in April trending largely in-line with growth in Q1. We remain confident in delivering our full year guidance while also being mindful of macroeconomic dynamics. We've had some puts and takes since the time of our initial guidance. FX rates have been volatile and while the euro is somewhat stronger than we saw at the beginning of the quarter, this modest potential tailwind is partly offset by a decrease in interest revenue given where the rates have moved and the fact that interest revenue contribution flows straight through to EBITDA. The attrition in SMB has been slightly higher than our original assumption, But as we drive our initiatives and implement new tools for relationship management and service with SMBs, we expect this to improve. With that said, we remain confident in our full year guidance, which you'll see on this page is a repeat of what we said on our Q4 call. Finally, turning to Slide 18, we're providing additional color on what we expect for the rest of the year, appreciating that we've already guided to an acceleration for the second half. Based on our year-to-date results and what we see for the remainder of the second quarter, we expect the second quarter organic revenue growth to be similar to Q1, with adjusted EBITDA margins in the first half to be around 24%. So that leads to organic growth in the second half, accelerating to the range of 8% to 10%, as we said on the Q4 call, with adjusted EBITDA margins exceeding the guidance range in the second half. We expect the fourth quarter to be our strongest quarter for reported growth, organic growth, and margin performance. So let me walk you through the drivers. First is the overall growth and operating leverage as we deliver on our existing contracts, execute on our sales pipeline, and drive revenue from partnership collaborations, as well as product initiatives that are already in market, as we continue to make progress towards our long-term target to generate annual revenue contributions of at least 10% from products released in the last three years. The second driver would be a slight mix improvement at the segment level, where we expect a stronger contribution from digital wallets in the second half. The third major driver is margin improvement in merchant solutions with an expectation that our initiatives to improve the growth profile, attrition, and channel mix will lead to an acceleration of gross margins in the second half. Finally, we continue to be focused on operating expenses. Fortunately, we completed our key investments last year. And with that behind us, we're focused on being very disciplined on the cost side. With that, I will turn it over to Bruce for final remarks.