Steven Alan Elder
Analyst · Phil Stiller
Thank you, Mike. For the second quarter of 2013, we reported total revenue of $178.3 million, an increase of $25.2 million from the prior year period and above the high end of our guidance range of $170 million to $177 million. This performance was driven primarily by strong payment processing growth in our fleet business, including the acquisition of Fleet One, versus the prior year. Net income to common shareholders on a GAAP basis for the second quarter was $42.2 million or $1.08 per diluted share. Our non-GAAP adjusted net income increased to $41.1 million or $1.05 per diluted share. This compares to our guidance of $0.98 to $1.05 per diluted share and $1 per diluted share reported in Q2 last year on an adjusted net income basis. Taking a look at some key performance metrics, which includes Fleet One. Validated fuel transactions increased to 12.1% over the prior year. Consolidated payment processing transactions increased 15.5% over the prior year, primarily due to the strong organic growth in our America fleet business and the acquisition of Fleet One. The consolidated net payment processing rate for Q2 2013 was 1.4%, which was down 23 basis points versus Q2 2012 and up one basis point versus the first quarter of 2013. Similar to last quarter, this reduction was primarily due to the lower rate charged by Fleet One on their diesel transactions, which are larger volume transactions given the nature of the vehicles serviced. Finance fee revenue in the fleet segment increased $2.1 million compared to Q2 last year due to the addition of Fleet One's factoring business. Excluding the factoring business, our late fee revenue has remained relatively flat as compared to Q2 2012, even though fueling volumes have increased more than 30%. This speaks to the very healthy condition of our portfolio. In the other payment segment, revenue for the second quarter increased 23% or $8.9 million year-over-year to $47.2 million as a result of continued strong performance and expansion in the online travel vertical with our virtual card product. We also continue to see good gains from rapid! PayCard, CorporatePay and UNIK. With respect to our virtual card, spend volume increased 13% over last year to $3.2 billion for the quarter. The net interchange rate for our virtual card in Q2 was 99 basis points, up 9 basis points year-over-year and up 3 basis points sequentially. The increase over the prior year was primarily due to customer-specific incentives we received, which will continue through 2013. Moving down the income statement. For the second quarter, total operating expenses on a GAAP basis were $111.2 million, a $21 million increase versus last year. The majority of this increase was related to salary costs and service fees, as a result of our recent acquisitions and increased investments to support future growth in our business. Salary and other personnel costs for Q2 were $40.6 million compared with $30 million in Q2 last year. The increase was predominantly due to our acquisitions of Fleet One, UNIK and CorporatePay last year. Service fees were up $1.8 million over the prior year to $26.6 million and was primarily driven by processing costs related to the 13% increase in spend volume in our virtual payment solution. During the second quarter, we again saw excellent performance in our credit losses, which, on a consolidated basis, totaled $4.9 million in Q2. This compares to $4.2 million in Q2 last year. Consolidated charge-offs in the quarter were $6.6 million, while recoveries of amounts previously charged off were $1.7 million. Consolidated fleet credit loss was 8 basis points in Q2 and was relatively flat compared to the prior year, reflecting the strong condition of our portfolio. Our operating interest expense was $1.1 million in Q2 as we continued to benefit from low interest rates, in addition to the savings resulting from the Higher One deposits. The average net interest rate on these deposits was 28 basis points in the quarter. During the second quarter, we've recognized a $1 million nonoperating loss on foreign currency transactions compared to $472,000 loss in the prior year due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. The effective tax rate on a GAAP basis for Q2 was 37.5% compared to 66.5% in the second quarter of 2012, which included a charge of approximately $31 million, due to the impact of tax legislation in Australia. Our adjusted net income tax rate this quarter was 37.2% compared to 36.3% for Q2 a year ago. The increase in the tax rate was due primarily to foreign exchange rate impacts resulting from the strengthening U.S. dollar, which we expect to continue for the remainder of the year. For the full year, we expect our ANI tax rate to be approximately 36.8%, which is up slightly from our prior guidance. Turning to our derivatives program. For the second quarter of 2013, we recognized a realized cash loss of $1.2 million before taxes on these instruments and an unrealized gain of $9.8 million. We concluded the quarter with a net derivative asset of $2.2 million. For third quarter 2013, we've locked in at the price range of $3.47 to $3.53 per gallon. For the fourth quarter, the average price locked in is $3.36 to $3.42 per gallon. Moving over to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $300 million of cash, down from $350 million at the end of the first quarter. The decrease in cash was driven by a seasonal decrease in deposits from Higher One. In terms of capital expenditures, CapEx for the second quarter was $7.5 million. We continue to expect our CapEx for the full year to be in the range of $40 million to $45 million, which includes approximately $15 million related to the consolidation of data centers, a significant portion of which will be spent in Q3. Our financing debt balance decreased $3.8 million in Q2, reflecting a quarterly payment required by our term loan. We ended the quarter with a total balance of $693 million on our revolving line of credit, term loans and notes. As of June 30, our leverage ratio was 2.2x our 12-month trailing EBITDA compared to 1.2x at the end of Q2 last year with the increase driven by our acquisition of last year. Regarding our capital allocation strategy, our primary objectives are to reinvest in our core fleet business, expand our international reach and establish our presence in a diversified set of revenue streams. At the same time, we are focused on M&A and joint ventures abroad to increase our international exposure and develop our foothold in new verticals that provide diversified revenue sources. Now for our guidance for the third quarter of 2013 and the full year, which reflects our views as of today and are made on a non-GAAP basis. Overall, we expect to build upon the positive momentum from the first half of 2013. We are updating our guidance to reflect a projected increase in fuel prices and the recent decline in foreign exchange rates. For the third quarter of 2013, we expect to report revenue in the range of $186 million to $193 million and adjusted net income in the range of $45 million to $48 million or $1.16 to $1.23 per diluted share. These figures assumes normal seasonality trends in the virtual card and prepaid businesses, as well as credit loss. Our third quarter assumes that fleet credit loss will be between 8 and 13 basis points, and that fuel prices will be $3.74 per gallon. For the full year 2013, we expect revenue in the range of $718 million to $728 million, and adjusted net income in the range of $167 million to $171 million or $4.27 to $4.37 per diluted share. Our guidance continues to assume a significant investment related to our virtual card product to expand into new geographies. As part of this strategy, we have started to move existing customer volume over to our new issuing and settling capabilities in European currencies. This will provide benefits to our OTA customers by minimizing their fees related to cross-border transactions. Additionally, this will reduce our cross-border revenue but will not have any impact on earnings. Our full year guidance also assumes that fleet credit loss will be between 8 and 11 basis points and assumes that domestic fuel prices will now be $3.69 per gallon versus our prior expectation of $3.49 per gallon. The fuel price assumptions for the U.S. are based on the applicable NYMEX futures price. Given our success to date on our international expansion efforts, the proportion of our business sensitive to changes in fuel exchange rates has grown -- and foreign exchange rate, excuse me, has grown. Our guidance also assumes that exchange rates will remain in the range of the current spot rates, which in the case of Australia and Brazil, where we have the most exposure, are down significantly from our last guidance. Lastly, we continue to include the negative impact to our business as a result of the pending merchant litigation settlement into our guidance. We expect the impact to be 10 basis points for an 8-month period, which began on July 29, resulting in approximate $0.07 per share decrease in earnings. Our guidance does not reflect the impact of any further stock repurchases that may occur in 2013. Now we'll be happy to take your questions. Natalie, please proceed with the Q&A session.