Global Payments Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 2, 2021

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Global Payments Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will open the line for questions and answers. And as a reminder, today's conference will be recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Winnie Smith.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and welcome to Global Payments' 2nd quarter Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the comments made by management during today's This conference call contains forward looking statements about expected operating and financial results. These statements are subject to risks, Uncertainties and other factors, including the impact of COVID-nineteen and economic conditions on our future operations that could cause Actual results could differ materially from our expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our most recent 10 ks and subsequent filings. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements. For a full reconciliation of these and other non GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure in accordance with SEC regulations, Please see our press release furnished as an exhibit to our 8 ks filed this morning and our trended financial highlights, both of which are available in the Investor Relations area of our website at www.globalpayments.com.

Speaker 1

Joining me on the call are Jeff Sloan, CEO Cameron Brady, President and COO and Paul Todd, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO. Now I'll turn the call over to Jeff.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Wendy. We delivered a terrific second quarter with each of adjusted net revenue, adjusted operating margin and adjusted earnings per share outperforming our targets. We are most pleased by the compounded rates of growth that we realized in the quarter and are now forecasting for the full year compared to pre pandemic 2019 levels. While we've not caught back all the impact of COVID-nineteen relative to our pre pandemic expectations, We have made substantial progress and are far down that path. As we have throughout the pandemic, we continue to expand our competitive mode Leading strategic partnerships.

Speaker 2

First, we are excited to have agreed with our partners, Achaia Bank, to acquire Bancia's payments businesses in Spain. Specifically, we will enhance our position in one of the most attractive acquiring markets in Europe with the addition of Bankia's merchant business, consisting of roughly 100,000 customers in the region. This pending acquisition further enhances our distribution and will allow us to delight Bankia's customers with our market leading technologies, providing us with significant cross selling opportunities and deepening our presence with 1 of the leading institutions in Europe. This agreement follows our purchase of an additional 29% stake in our Comercia joint venture last October, which increased Global Payments ownership to 80%. Additionally, our Money2Pay joint venture has agreed to purchase Bankia's prepaid business as we continue to execute on our strategy to expand and diversify our Netspend business into international markets.

Speaker 2

We expect both of these transactions to close in the 4th quarter. 2nd, we are delighted to announce that we have entered into a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services, AWS, For unique distribution and cutting edge technologies at NetSpend to substantially increase our target addressable markets and accelerate our strategy across our 3 pillars of digitization, internationalization and B2B expansion. Much as we have done with our issuer business, we plan to leverage the AWS partner network and dedicated partner development specialists to bring NetSpend's B2C and B2B digital payment solutions, including program management, to a broader base of neobanks, fintech startups and other e commerce players as well as to new geographies. This partnership will also provide an industry leading cloud based platform for Netspend's customers to access cutting edge technologies with greater speed to market, security and flexibility. We are thrilled to deepen our go to market collaboration with 1 of the world's largest technology companies to continue our disruption of these markets.

Speaker 2

3rd, we are pleased to have closed our acquisition of Zeego in June, further capitalizing on the convergence of software and payments in one of the largest and most attractive vertical markets worldwide. As I highlighted last quarter, real estate is the quintessence of the type of market that we seek. Sizable, global and scope, fragmented and ripe for further software, digital commerce and payments penetration. And COVID-nineteen has accelerated the underlying trends that make this $6,500,000,000 target addressable market so attractive as we continue to expand our software driven footprint. It is my great pleasure to welcome Zego team members to Global Payments.

Speaker 2

In addition to these strategic accomplishments, we produced yet another outstanding quarter of results. Since we began running the company in 2013, Our main focus has been on 2 areas, enabling diverse, distinctive and defensible distribution and developing market leading technologies. We could not be more pleased with the momentum across our businesses evident in our 2nd quarter results and reflected in our increased guidance for 2021. It's worth noting that we have delivered the greatest value creation in our history Over the last 8 years, despite numerous new market entrants during the entirety of that period, public and private, and we have generated consistent Financial and operating outperformance through a variety of macroeconomic cycles, including most recently the financial impact of the 1st worldwide pandemic in over 100 years. The results are self evident.

Speaker 2

We have record performance in 2nd quarter in our merchant segment on several basis: absolute, sequential and year over year, while also producing strong growth versus pre pandemic levels. Simply put, our payments businesses continue to significantly And gain share fueled by our long held technology enabled focus and solid ongoing execution. On a more granular basis, We saw strong double digit growth in new sales in both Global Payments Integrated and our vertical market businesses in the quarter And our U. S. Relationship led business again achieved record new sales.

Speaker 2

This marks the 3rd quarter out of the last four in which we have achieved such a high level of performance. Rather than impede our strategy, the pandemic spurred further share gains and with growth in excess of 20% despite lapping the enhanced shift toward e commerce globally that began with the start of the pandemic in early 2020. New customer signings this quarter include Foot Locker as a key customer in Europe that will leverage our unified commerce platform or UCP to modernize its payment acceptance capabilities. We are pleased to have also signed new global UCP partnerships with Hunter Douglas and Euronet Worldwide Subsidiary z.com. Our ability to deliver a single API solution virtually around the world has been a key driver of our success.

Speaker 2

And our unique multinational footprint in both the virtual and the physical worlds has proven to be a differentiator versus both legacy and new market entrants. Within our vertical market businesses, We had a number of new key customer wins for a quick service restaurant business including Fresha's Big Boy, Crystals and the Fiesta Group, while AMD and TouchNet continue to deliver record revenue performance as they have throughout the pandemic. Notably, TouchNet continues to add new marquee colleges and universities domestically and internationally, including the Arkansas State University System and Sheridan College in Canada this quarter. We are also making great progress in our partnership with Google and remain on track to board Google as a merchant customer this quarter and expect to launch our Run and Grow My Business product that integrates Google solutions in our digital Our issuer business delivered growth beyond the high end of our targeted long term range. We are pleased to have signed a new multiyear partnership with Banco Carrefour in Brazil, the financial services arm of the country's leading supercenter retail chain to provide a range of technologies for its credit card and digital accounts as well as to handle on us acquiring transactions.

Speaker 2

Recall that transaction optimization is one of our key post merger initiatives, more to come on that at our investor conference. We also signed a letter of intent with a large global financial institution and longstanding partner in a new market in LatAm Elemark, another significant milestone for us in our continued expansion into the region. Further, we executed a multiyear extension with the UK's largest Retailer, Tesco, enabled by our shared digital modernization vision for the future. Finally, we are pleased to have extended our relationship with Mercury Financial for a range of digital technologies. This relationship serves as further proof that our industry leading platform offers the agility to support leading edge Fintech Companies.

Speaker 2

TSYS recently launched a strategic go to market partnership with Price Warehouse Coopers or PwC. As part of the TSYS partner program, we expect that our collaboration with PwC will diversify and expand our distribution and allow us to jointly offer innovative solutions, expertise and execution capabilities to clients of all sizes across the full spectrum of neobanks fintech startups and program managers. Again, diversification and distribution has been one of our key objectives since 2013 and we are using the same playbook with TSYS that we have successfully deployed in the past. We continue to capitalize on the broad and deep pipeline we have the good fortune to have in our issuer business. Today, we have 15 letters of intent with institutions worldwide, 6 of which are competitive takeaways.

Speaker 2

Turning to our unique collaboration, we now have 20 active prospects in our pipeline with AWS, up from a dozen last quarter and 4 at the end of 2020. These include a mix of new financial technology entrants and other non traditional issuers in addition to large financial institutions. As growth accelerates in this market, we believe that we are the ones doing the disrupting. While buying now, pay later solutions may seem novel to some, we have in fact been providing leading technologies to that segment of We are currently enabling our merchant customers in Canada in partnership with Desjardins with the Visa Installment Solution. CIBC will also launch a combined TSYS Visa installment solution in early 2022 and we signed a global referral agreement with Mastercard Supporting installment payments in June.

Speaker 2

Finally, in our business and consumer segment, we expect a unique Co sale arrangement with AWS to expand our distribution capabilities, again, much like we've been doing since 2013. And together with our issuer business, we intend to further disrupt the program management segment in the near future.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jeff. Our financial performance in the Q2 of 2021 demonstrated meaningful sequential momentum exceeded our expectations. These results highlight outstanding execution on our differentiated strategy of technology enablement. Specifically, we delivered adjusted net revenue of $1,940,000,000 representing 28% growth compared to the prior year and 10% growth compared to 2019. Adjusted operating margin for the 2nd quarter was 41.8%, A 480 basis point improvement from the prior year despite the return of certain costs we temporarily reduced at the onset of the pandemic.

Speaker 3

The net result was adjusted earnings per share of $2.04 for the quarter, an increase of 56% compared to the prior year and a 35% improvement from the same period in 2019. Taking a closer look at our performance by segment, Merchant Solutions achieved adjusted net revenue of $1,290,000,000 for the 2nd quarter, a 42% improvement from the prior year. We delivered an adjusted operating margin of 48.5 percent in this segment, an increase of 7.50 basis points from the same period in 2020 as we continue to benefit from the recovery and our improving technology enabled business mix. We are pleased that our acquiring businesses globally generated 46% adjusted net revenue growth compared to the Q2 of 2020 led by strength in the U. S.

Speaker 3

Notably, our U. S. Acquiring business, which includes our integrated and relationship led channels grew approximately 25% compared to the same period in 2019. These results were led by our integrated business, which produced a stellar quarter, Generating a 53% adjusted net revenue improvement compared to 2020 35% growth relative to 2019. And achieved solid sequential improvement relative to the Q1.

Speaker 3

As Jeff mentioned, our vertical markets businesses continue to see positive bookings trends guiding us with a favorable tailwind for the second half of twenty twenty one. Additionally, our worldwide e commerce and omnichannel businesses saw growth in excess 20% year on year as our value proposition, including our unified commerce platform, or UCP, continues to resonate with customers. Regarding our international businesses, while these markets have been a bit slower to recover compared to the U. S. On an absolute basis, Our portfolio of businesses across Europe and Asia contribute favorably to our overall merchant adjusted net revenue as a growth matter compared to 2020.

Speaker 3

These businesses also returned to growth on a combined basis when compared to 2019. Moving to Issuer Solutions, we are pleased to have delivered a record $446,000,000 in adjusted net revenue for the 2nd quarter, marking an 8% improvement from the prior year period. This strong performance was driven by the ongoing recovery in transaction volumes across many of Our markets, while non volume based revenue increased mid single digits during the period led by our outfit service business, which grew at roughly ten Our issuer business also achieved record 2nd quarter adjusted operating income and adjusted segment operating margin expanded 110 basis points from the prior year, also reaching a new 2nd quarter record of 43.9% as we continue to benefit from our efforts to drive efficiencies in this business. This is an impressive result, particularly given we achieved margin expansion of 6.40 basis points in the Q2 of 2020. Additionally, our issuer team signed 5 long term contract during the quarter and our strong pipeline bodes well for future continued momentum going forward.

Speaker 3

Finally, our Business and Consumer Solutions segment delivered adjusted net revenue of $227,000,000 representing growth of 5% despite lapping the benefit of the 2020 CARES Act last year. As a reminder, this business delivered double digit growth in the Q2 of 20 driven in part by our support of the disbursement of over $1,400,000,000 in stimulus fund during that period. Adjusted operating margin for this segment was 26.9%, which was also ahead of our expectations. The outstanding performance we delivered across our businesses serves as a further proof point that we continue to gain share as well as the alignment of our strategy with the accelerating digital trends coming out of the pandemic. We are also pleased that our integration continues to progress And we have now executed actions allowing for the achievement of annual run rate expense synergies of at least $400,000,000 and annual run rate revenue synergies of at least $150,000,000 that we have been targeting exactly as we said we would do and despite the We will continue to deliver additional expense and revenue synergies over the coming periods as our efficiency efforts Continue and we leverage the collaborative growth opportunities across our businesses.

Speaker 3

From a cash flow standpoint, We generated 2nd quarter adjusted free cash flow of roughly $452,000,000 or a little over $1,000,000,000 through 1st 6 months and continue to expect adjusted free cash flow in excess of $2,000,000,000 for the year. We reinvested approximately 100 and $30,000,000 in capital expenditures during the quarter and continue to expect capital expenditures in the $500,000,000 to $600,000,000 range for the full year. In June, we successfully closed our acquisition of Zico, consistent with our expectations, and we expect this business will contribute roughly $50,000,000 of adjusted net revenue to our merchant segment in 2021. I would like to echo Jeff's excitement regarding the agreements we announced today to acquire Bankia's payments business is in Spain and we expect these transactions to close in the Q4. Further, we remain on track complete our purchase of Worldline's Payone business in Austria in the second half of this year.

Speaker 3

We are pleased to have continued to return cash to our shareholders this quarter with the repurchase of 1,500,000 of our shares for approximately $290,000,000 Following our balanced deployment of capital this quarter, we ended the period with roughly $3,300,000,000 of liquidity and a leverage position of roughly 2 point 6 times on a net debt basis, which is flat last quarter as expected, and this leaves us with continuing ample capacity going forward. Based on our current expectations for the continued global recovery, we are again increasing our guidance for adjusted net revenue to now be in a range $7,700,000,000 to $7,730,000,000 reflecting growth of 14% to 15% over 2020. We continue to expect adjusted operating margin expansion of up to 2 50 basis points compared to 2020 levels on a stand alone basis. As a reminder, ZIGO will be a modest headwind to the upper bound of our margin target now that it is closed as it does not currently operate at our margin levels despite having already achieved Rule of 40 status. At the segment level, we are increasing our expectations for merchant solutions adjusted net revenue growth to be around 20% from high teens previously, which assumes the current pace of recovery continues worldwide.

Speaker 3

This marks the 2nd consecutive quarter that we have raised our outlook for our merchant business. We are also increasing our outlook for our issuer business and now We continue to expect our Business and Consumer segment to achieve mid to high single digit growth for the full year, consistent with our long term growth target for net spend. As a reminder, we increased our guidance for this segment on our Q1 earnings call in May despite lapping the impact of the 2020 CARES Act. Moving to non We continue to expect net interest expense to be slightly lower in 2021 relative to 2020, While we anticipate our adjusted tax rate will be relatively consistent with last year. Putting it all together, we are increasing our expected Adjusted earnings per share for the full year to a range of $8.07 to $8.20 reflecting growth of 26% to 28 over 2020.

Speaker 3

Our raised outlook presumes we remain on a path to recovery worldwide over the balance of the year. We look forward to updating you on our longer term expectations for the business at our upcoming virtual investor conference, which we will host on Wednesday, September 8. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Paul. As we look ahead to next month, It is worth reflecting on how much we have evolved our business. Throughout much of the last 8 years, we have witnessed a multitude of new market entrants newly public companies, Shifting modes of competition and macroeconomic cycles too numerous to count. Some said a number of times over the near last decade that our best days were behind us. The facts say quite the opposite.

Speaker 2

In fact, we have delivered the greatest value creation in our during that period and we believe we are poised today to continue our track record of outperformance. The 2nd quarter and our raised guidance today are the most recent examples. Our rates of revenue growth and booking trends underscore Sustained share gains despite managing through an unprecedented crisis. One proof point, we now expect our U. S.

Speaker 2

Payments business to roughly reach its Its original growth target for 2021 based on 2019 goals. In short, we grew right through the pandemic. More to follow in September. The reasons for our success are straightforward. Our distinctive strategies, the technology investments we have made over many years, The support of our market leading partners and customers, our execution consistency and the quality of our team members have allowed us to significantly expand our competitive mode.

Speaker 2

As painful as it has been, COVID-nineteen has reaffirmed the wisdom of our long held beliefs in the digitization of our businesses. We believe that the best is yet to come. You can judge that for yourselves next month. Winnie?

Speaker 1

Before we begin our question Thank you. Operator, we will now go to questions.

Operator

And your first question is from Vasu Govil with KBW.

Speaker 4

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Great results here in the Merchant segment, particularly, but actually across the board. So maybe to start off, just looking at the Merchant segment, Revenues relative to 2019, I think they're roughly 12% higher. Could you talk about like what's driving that? Are you A lot of pent up demand among consumers that's driving that type of growth.

Speaker 4

I'm just trying to state whether as we go forward this type of Growth rate would accelerate going forward if there's a lot of pent up demand.

Speaker 3

Hey, good morning, Vasu. Thanks for the comments. It's Cameron. I'll kick it off and maybe ask Paul Provide a little bit of color as well. So I would say it's a few things and I would start with just the efficacy of our strategy.

Speaker 3

Obviously, the technology enabled businesses that we've been investing in for the last of the enabled businesses that we've been investing in for the last 7, 8 plus years now really continue to lead the way for growth across the business, including our integrated business, which grew 53% in the quarter and up 35% versus 2019 levels. Addition, our e comm and omni business grew well over 20% this quarter, again, topping performance from last year, where it also grew in the high teens level. So again, relative to 2019, continuing to see very strong growth across the e comm and omni channels of the business. So for me, it's really the strategy that we've been deploying that's driving growth. And I think we continue to see a lot of tailwinds in those businesses looking forward Through the balance of 2021 and heading into 2022 and beyond.

Speaker 3

I don't know if you want to add any more specific comments on that. Yes, I would just say as we said in the press release, we're pleased so far with what we've seen in July as well as it relates to Continuing improvement relative to 2019 really across the merchant segment. The only other thing would be we were pleased to The growth in the vertical markets when you're talking about just the segment, the 30% improvement year over year in the vertical markets business.

Speaker 5

So Yes,

Speaker 3

I think that covers it.

Speaker 4

Got it. And just for my follow-up, I wanted to ask a capital allocation question. I saw that you guys raised the share buybacks. Any Color on whether you're expecting to do more buybacks versus M and A. And on the M and A front, I know historically you've been focused on doing accretive deals.

Speaker 4

But given where valuation for FinTechs are, that seems to be becoming harder and harder. So just curious on your thoughts, would you be open to doing something that Revenue growth accretive, but perhaps earnings dilutive at this point, if it makes sense for the long term. And if yes, like what are some of the areas That's what could be and might make sense for you to do. Yes.

Speaker 3

So this is Paul and I'll cover the share repurchase and then maybe turn over to Jeff on the M and A side. Yes, we did resize the share repurchase authorization due to the fact that we had Made significant purchases since our last authorization. And we've said all along, our preference is to allocate When an M and A opportunity is not in front of us, we will deploy capital on share repurchase and we were very Pleased to do so this quarter, much like we did last quarter. So we do not have share repurchases in the guide as a go forward matter the back half of the year, but we are always opportunistic as it relates to share repurchase. And so we want to make sure we have the capacity to execute if we choose to do that.

Speaker 3

Jeff, you want to talk about the M and A side?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, Paul. So Basu, on the second part of your second question. So We actually have been very active on the M and A front in the last 6 months. I think with today's announcements with Bankia, we've committed about $1,300,000,000 U.

Speaker 2

S. To M and A in the last 6 months welcoming to about $1,500,000,000 on the buyback. So as we said in the press release, I think we've been very balanced between the two. As we also said in the last quarter, Zego is a technology and software driven Business very consistent with our strategy, particularly given the size of the real estate target addressable market. Yet notwithstanding that, going back to the premise of your That deal was not dilutive and I think we announced it was immediately accretive although really no discernible impact on earnings, but nonetheless was not dilutive.

Speaker 2

We look at many things, so it's hard to say what we would or wouldn't do in the abstract. But I would say is, since we've been running the company in the last 8 years, we've not done a dilutive I don't expect us to. That's not the mindset we have as shareholders and owners and managers of the business. So I really don't expect our strategy to change.

Speaker 4

Got it. Thank you very much for the color.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is from Ashwin Shirvaikar with Citi.

Speaker 6

Hey, Jeff, Cameron, Paul. Congratulations on the good results. I was kind of hoping coming out of the pandemic or at least sort of lapping pandemic impact, If you can kind of provide a breakdown of the expectations, tech enabled businesses, 3Q versus 4Q, what do you see? What part of the Ricardis volume sensitivity that's yet to come that benefits Forward numbers, education events, things like that, some quantification would be great on 3Q versus 4Q.

Speaker 3

Yes, Ashley. I'll start off and maybe Cameron might want to add something as it relates to merchant. But largely speaking, we're expecting Roughly 3Q and 4Q to be largely similar across our businesses. As we had said at the beginning of the year, We had expected the back half of the year to return to a much more normal kind of state. And so Clearly, there are some reopenings that will continue to benefit kind of 3Q into 4Q as Countries around the world kind of reopened from some of the closures.

Speaker 3

You're exactly right Ashwin as it relates to some of our vertical markets businesses. As I just commented, we're very pleased with the growth we saw in 2Q, but we would see more meaningful growth on those businesses In the back half of the year, as we have more reopening and kind of more tailwind kind of impact as it relates So those businesses. So yes, those would be the dynamics between kind of Q2, Q3 to Q4, And there wouldn't be anything I would necessarily call out across the other two businesses. Obviously, very pleased to raise The revenue guide on our issuer business from low single digits to low to mid single digits that talks about kind of improving Fundamentals in the back half of the year there and pretty static state as it relates to our business and consumer once kind of the stimulus impact has been netted out of the first And going into the back half, Cameron, do you have anything to add? No, I think that covers it pretty well, Ashwin.

Speaker 3

I would only add just a couple of points. One is Across the Technology Enabled businesses, as I mentioned previously, going to the first part of your question, we're continuing to see very strong momentum in those businesses. As Paul highlighted, July sequentially is better than June as a trend matter. So I think we feel good about how things are continuing Progress and those businesses are poised to continue to see strength in the back half of the year. If you just look at the overall guide for the Merchant segment, That roughly 20% growth in 2021 versus 2020, the back couple of quarters kind of have to be around that same level to make the averages work the whole year.

Speaker 3

So that gives you a sense as to how the business is performing, again, against tougher comps in Q3 and Q4 than we certainly faced the Q2, so I think that should give you a little bit of a sense as to the momentum that we have in those businesses. To Paul's point around the vertical market businesses in Particular, obviously, schools, once we get back into, obviously, a normal school environment or hopefully quasi normal school environment, Here in August September, those businesses that businesses in particular is poised to see a rebound in the back half of the year as well as active. Active has seen very Strong booking trends, many of those events are occurring in the back half of twenty twenty one. So I think we feel very good about how that business is poised to recover. And again, SMD and TouchNet have continued to grow right through the pandemic, obviously at double digit pace throughout 2020 2021.

Speaker 3

So those businesses are obviously in a very healthy position overall, but getting a nice tailwind from Active and Schools in particular in the back half of the year Will help the vertical market business continue to recover as an overall matter.

Speaker 6

That's all great to hear. The second thing I had was with regards to AWS. Obviously, great to see the expansion of what you're doing with AWS. But on the Azure business, any update, any metrics You can provide that can be useful for investors as markers of the progress you're making on that?

Speaker 2

Yes, Ashwin, it's Jeff. I'll go ahead and answer that. Let me first start with NetSpend, because that's actually our new announcement today. It follows a very similar, I think format, the issuer announcement almost exactly a year ago to today. But the one thing I will point out is that in Netfin is that there's primarily a focus on our Part and Amazon's part on B2B distribution.

Speaker 2

And I'd say in particular on program management with the scale that we have directed at neobanks, fintechs and startups. So while it is a similar template, it's a very targeted initiative, Very much focused on B2B and obviously that's something on September 8th at our Virtual Investor Day that we'll be talking a lot about. In terms of your question on how we're doing on the issuer side, look, we're really pleased. We disclosed again yet today as we have for really the last year plus What our LOI pipeline looks like outside of Amazon and then with Amazon. I think what we said today is we have sent like 20 letters of intent with our colleagues over at AWS.

Speaker 2

And that's for the whole spectrum by potential issuers, again, including neobanks, fintechs And startups as well as traditional financial institutions and to give an update there, the one we singled out in Asia and Asia is in testing Already and is live on a beta basis and we expect to be fully live by the end of this calendar year. And that to give you a sense of progress Ashwin, That 20, I think is up from 4 at the end of calendar 2020. So we quintupled the number of LOIs that we have with Neobanks, Fintech Startups and Financial Institutions, AWS, really in a 6 through the end of the second quarter, so come out on a 6 month basis. So We couldn't be more pleased and the fact that we're doing more business with AWS now in the form of NetSpin should be a recognition not just internally, but externally of happy we are with how things are progressing.

Speaker 6

Great. We'll look for the update at the Investor Day.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is from David Togut with Evercore ISI.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Good morning, Jeff, Cameron and Paul. Your merchant results really underscore the strength In the credit card business with credit really roaring back in Q2 closing the gap with debit and debit strength It was a kind of hallmark of COVID. As you look forward, do you think strength in credit is really here to stay for the your plus.

Speaker 3

Yes, David, good morning. It's Cameron. I'll sort of kick off and I'll ask Jeff and Paul to chime in if they have anything they'd like to add. I think the short answer to your question is yes. I think credit card account growth is as high as it's been I think since 2010.

Speaker 3

And obviously, on the heels of the pandemic in a more normal operating environment, we clearly see credit outperforming. To your Debit clearly outperformed in the midst of the pandemic. And by the way, a lot of that was prepaid debit as stimulus was funded on those types of accounts. So a lot of the debit growth was prepaid. But certainly coming out of the pandemic, getting back to a normal operating environment, we would expect credit to drive growth and really Perform and I think we see a lot of tailwinds particularly for our merchant business as a result of that heading in the back half of twenty twenty one into 2022 as a result of that.

Speaker 3

Then of course, we see those same trends in our issuer business. I'll let Paul maybe touch a little bit on the metrics that we're seeing there. But I'd say overall, We feel good about the growth in credit. And obviously, as we've talked about throughout the pandemic, our book in the merchant side is more skewed towards credit. So that obviously provides a nice tailwind for the merchant business through the coming years.

Speaker 3

Paul, do you want to touch on the insurer business? Yes. So yes, as Cameron We did have good metrics as it relates to account Growth in the issuing business as well, kind of commensurate with the Visa kind of some of the numbers that you saw out of credit there. So yes, we're seeing very strong Credit kind of dynamics in that issuing business, which I think underscores your question and also Cameron's commentary on it. Yes, I would just add, if you look at our merchant our pure merchant businesses globally, as Paul highlighted in his script, I mean, they grew 46% In the Q2, I think that's versus worldwide credit growth in Visa of roughly 35%.

Speaker 3

We're seeing, again, really nice tailwinds. I think it's really as a result of our differentiated technology enabled strategy outsized growth relative to where we see the market overall. So those trends are very positive and obviously

Speaker 7

I'm curious what you think about PayPal's new pricing model at physical point of sale credit and debit Card transactions with the rollout of Zettle, Pay. Do you see that being a significant competitive threat to GPN or is PayPal too small at the physical POS? Yes, David, it's a great question. Let me just start by

Speaker 2

Yes, David, it's great question. Let me just start by saying PayPal is a good partner of ours, really, as we've said before, on both the TSYS side And the global side really around the world. So we've got a lot of respect for PayPal. We think they're a terrific company. As it relates specifically to iZettle and the physical point of sale, so iZettle has been in Europe for quite some time, David.

Speaker 2

In fact, when PayPal did the deal, I think it was mostly all European. Now they've announced as you're implying some migration in the United States. So our businesses in Europe, let's just use the UK and London as one Example, Idetal has been there for some time, yet our business has outperformed for many years throughout that period, both pre post PayPal acquiring, Hi, Zettle and Post. As it relates to the United States market, look that market is competitive today, it was competitive yesterday, it's going to be even more Competitive tomorrow, as Camarelli pointed out, our growth in our U. S.

Speaker 2

Business just around the same growth as our worldwide Acquiring business around 46% in comparison to Visa's and Mastercard's worldwide growth of like 35% for Visa and 33% For Mastercard, so whether Izetta was in Europe or Izetta was in North America over the last number of years, certainly hasn't played anything like a dent In terms of our growth and I think we'll be talking about next month, David, at our virtual investor conference is the resilience of our business, our market share gains, some of that as you rightly pointed out was in our But notwithstanding the coming and going, many new smart competitors, our business has been resilient both pre pandemic and post and We'll take you through the math and why we think that's going to continue. So listen, great company, but at the end of the day, I don't think that's normal for our division of our strategy when I know

Speaker 3

And David, it's Cameron. Just another point to add on top of that. If you look at growth in accounts and our point of sale business In North America, in the Q2, it was up 100%. So notwithstanding a competitive market across the point of sale distribution We continue to see great traction with our point of sale solutions, particularly in restaurant retail and obviously across the Vital platform. So again, I think we feel very good about how our point of sale system is stacked up to compete in the market today and the growth we're seeing.

Operator

Your next question is from David Koning with Baird.

Speaker 8

Yes. Hey, guys. Congrats. I guess my first question, when we think about kind of normalizing over I think over time, we would normally think 2022 Merchant would be 130% to 135% of 2019. And I guess I'm wondering, A, is that still possible?

Speaker 8

You're on a nice trajectory. And maybe if you could bucket what are the parts of

Speaker 2

the business That still have

Speaker 8

a lot of room to come back, what have some room to come back and what are already on like what percent are already on like a good Because I guess if we know there's a lot to still come back, we could kind of get to that $130,000,000 to $135,000,000 So I guess all those are kind of the question around just recovery.

Speaker 3

Yes, David, it's Cameron. Maybe I'll kick off and ask Paul to fill in some of the more explicit details. But if I step back and kind of think about where we are today, If you look at our pure acquiring businesses globally, they were up roughly 19% in the 2nd quarter versus 2019 levels. In the U. S, that number was 25%.

Speaker 3

So again, I think we feel from a pure acquiring standpoint, we're on a pretty good Now what still needs to come back to kind of get to 'twenty two a more normalized rate of growth relative to 20 Or to say it differently, where we would have been absent the pandemic. Well, Europe is growing relative to 2019, but It's certainly growing at a pace lower than that which we've seen in the U. S. Market. So Europe grew somewhere in the high single digits versus 2019 For the Q2, so we still need a little more tailwind from Europe fully recovering.

Speaker 3

As you know, the UK didn't open up until mid July. So as we get For the back half of the year, we're expecting to see a little more tailwind in Europe as it relates to growth and particularly relative to 2019 trends. And then of course Asia, which is a small part of the Business, but it's still lagging relative to 2019 level, largely because many markets continue to struggle with the pandemic remain closed and of course Cross border activity in Asia is very depressed and continues to be depressed because of the pandemic. So as we think about 2022, I think the U. S.

Speaker 3

Is on a pretty good trajectory to get back to something reasonably close to what we would have been absent the pandemic given the outsized growth and the momentum we have in that business. We need Europe to continue to improve as the lockdowns end and markets begin to reopen and you see more cross border travel pickup. And then I'd say the same thing is true for Asia, just given where it sits relative to the pandemic. I think the vertical markets are well poised to get back to reasonable levels compared to 2019 as we continue to see again a recovery in schools and a recovery in active in the back half of the year As those markets in particular reopen. So Paul, I don't know if you'd add anything more to that, but I think that gives a pretty good overview of the

Speaker 5

merchant business. I think

Speaker 2

I think I'd also just add on to Issuer, so and Paul can comment here too, Dave. But we produced a fantastic quarter this quarter in Issuer. But I would say in particular the non U. S. Businesses echo a lot of what Cameron said.

Speaker 2

So we only recently, which is to say And relating to the Q2 heading into July and continuing in July, we've only recently seen kind of a reopening for issuer purposes A lot of markets outside the United States, that will be a favorable comparison, David, to answer your question for the first half, obviously, of next year. And now to add to that commercial So while commercial card not surprisingly is up versus 20, it's really not up versus 19. So I think it's a pretty good picture Dave, adding it to 22 on the issuer side as Because you do have those two elements of broader reopening outside the United States and commercial card relative to 2019 starting to normalize that should be favorable tailwinds The issuer business and last I'll say, Issuer, we described again today as Ashwin asked, but those NOIs start to kick in. We start getting into back half of 2022, we obviously also had announced Truist probably about a year and a half ago. Now I think we said the time at the back half 2022 event, which we continue to believe.

Speaker 2

So I think you're going to get similar to the comments that Cameron made on merchant, you are going to get a nice tailwind heading into 2022 on Issuer as well.

Speaker 8

Thanks. Yes, I mean, yes, great momentum with a lot of room to go still, which is great to hear. And I guess just my follow-up, ZIGO, it looks like you paid almost $1,000,000,000 for acquisitions in Q2. I know you That $50,000,000 of RAS in the back half, which $100,000,000 I guess run rate, so 10 times revenue. Is that just growing at a just astronomical pace?

Speaker 2

Yes. Hey, Dave, it's Jeff. So I think you're missing one of our assets in there. So we also announced the acquisition of Payone's Austrian business in Worldline in the Q2 and then obviously today we announced Banky as well. So I think what we said was the purchase price for ZIGO just get the math right, it was about $930,000,000 There's also about $100,000,000 of tax asset.

Speaker 2

So that nets you down about $825,000,000 Dave. So To the $100,000,000 we view it here as about 8 times revenue. Now having said that, at the end of the day, we do think it's a great business. I think Paul alluded to this In his commentary, so if you think about it's already a rule of 40 growth and really beyond that. So if you think about what we guided to when we did the deal at the time, Kind of a double digit organic revenue growth rate with margins into the 20s, that's how you get to the rollover number.

Speaker 2

So we think it's very attractive on that basis, but we view it Dave closer to Times rather than your notional thing you mentioned.

Speaker 8

Got you. Great. Well, hey, thanks guys. Nice job.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Dave.

Operator

Your next question is from James Faucette with Global Payments.

Speaker 9

I'm actually with Morgan Stanley. Just so everybody is clear. I wanted to just follow-up on the acquisition commentary And there has been obviously inflation in valuations and as Jeff said, is still looking for things to be accretive, etcetera,

Speaker 10

At least

Speaker 9

in a reasonable timeframe, is that causing you to look further afield or look For acquisitions that are maybe more tangential to what you have done historically? And if so, where are you seeing I think the ones that you've announced thus far, ZIGO and PAYONE as well as Bankia today are quite interesting, but just want to understand more kind of the mindset.

Speaker 2

Yes, James, it's Jeff. So no, we're not the answer to your question is no, we're not looking We've got plenty of blue sky in front of us on our existing M and A strategy. We've spent, as you just referenced, $1,300,000,000 including today's banking announcements on M and A in the last 6 months. We certainly do look at and The economics obviously worked out just fine in response to Dave's question too just a second ago. So I think we've got plenty of pipeline and certainly more For us to do.

Speaker 2

We do balance though our view of M and A with where the capital markets are and what our view of intrinsic value in our share price And everything else. So we have bought back about $1,500,000,000 of stock, obviously not mutually exclusive. We did both at the same time, dollars 1,500,000,000 and $1,300,000,000 And we just re off the authorization back to $1,500,000,000 that's not in our guidance. Obviously, we balance our views to where we would like to be In terms of growth and earning out, I think it's important to consider that we think we're in a pretty healthy position heading into 2022 and the rest of 2021 without more So we think we're kind of where we want to be. As a strategy matter, I think we feel really kind of much the same.

Speaker 2

So there's plenty of stuff that we look at, but I can't think of a deal that we didn't do, James, because we said, gee, it's too expensive or it's not accretive enough for those other things. We can't add more value with the strategic buyer, the thing that we're doing in terms of revenue with margin earnings, then we're just not going to do it. I don't think it's a function of valuation so much, the function of Our view of where we are in strategy and our view of where the market is.

Speaker 9

That's great color. I appreciate it, Jeff. And Going back to kind of current market conditions, Cameron, you gave really good color on in terms of the different geographies, etcetera. I'm just wondering if You're seeing any fluctuations in activity related to the Delta variant? And how much you can isolate maybe to whether those variances, if there are any, are coming From regulation and policy versus just underlying consumer behavior.

Speaker 9

Hopefully that makes sense. But I'm trying to figure out where how much policy may be impacting Spending trends versus just the Delta variant itself.

Speaker 3

Yes, James, it's Cameron, and I'll comment on that. So As you think about the comments we made earlier as it relates to July, we did see sequential improvement in July relative to June. So I think we still feel very good about the momentum of the recovery To be very clear, I don't think we've seen any real impact yet from the Delta variant. Obviously, we're monitoring it very closely And it's a fluid environment, but I would say sitting here today based on data that we have through the end of last week, the volume trends again for July I were an improvement over what we saw in June sequentially, most of the markets around the globe in which we operate and particularly now in markets where we're seeing Reopening that's more recent, the UK, Canada, for example, obviously, I think they're poised to see stronger volume recoveries as we enter Back half of the year. So look, I don't think there's a lot of appetite for more widespread lockdowns, particularly here in the U.

Speaker 3

S. As it relates to the Delta variant. Markets outside of the U. S. May react differently, but again for our business, those are going to be relatively small impacts.

Speaker 3

We're most focused on the U. S. Of the 75% of our business and I'd say thus far we haven't really seen any discernible impact, but it is something that we continue to monitor very closely through the balance of the year.

Speaker 2

I think that's what Cameron said, James, it's Jeff, is that if you at the end of the day said that the non U. S. Markets, which Ken alluded to about 25% of the company and also in response to David Koning's question, if those reach the level of recovery that the U. S. Market saw, that's probably a couple of 100 Lines of incremental revenue growth over time that you could see and those as Cameron described were not there really in the second quarter.

Speaker 2

I mentioned the same thing Really on the issuer side. So we'll see how that plays out over time.

Speaker 9

Thank you very much.

Speaker 5

Thank you. Thanks, Jason.

Operator

Your next question is from Tien Tsin Huang with JPMorgan.

Speaker 10

Yes, just a quick clarification, just the two points of revenue raise. Can you break that up between obviously the quarter upside, the deals And just a cyclical piece, just want to make sure I covered that. And then on BANKIA, just I'm guessing that's the same playbook As Kaisha and I know that did very, very well for you. Just curious if there's any difference philosophically there? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes. So maybe I'll take the first one and then Yes, I'll turn it over to Jeff for the second one. So if you think about the or Cameron for the second one, if you think about the guidance raise, obviously, we commented on the close Of CECO, so we said that's roughly $50,000,000 as it relates to the back half of the year. So that's kind of The first section of the guidance raise. And then the second section would be both the over performance in Q2 as well as Continued kind of better performance in the back half, which underpinned the guidance raise as it relates to And it's on the issuing side as well as merchant.

Speaker 3

So those would be the 2 components. There's a little bit of FX headwind relative to the back half versus 1st half on a realized basis, we also don't have the same kind of stimulus impact in the first half versus the second half. But those would be the 2 components, the ZIGO of roughly $50,000,000 and then the remaining piece of that is the performance. And Tien Tsin, it's Cameron. Good morning.

Speaker 3

As it relates to Bankia, I think the short answer to your question is yes, exact same playbook that we've executed with Taisha and our Plomercial joint Venture over the last decade plus now. Obviously, we continue to be very excited about the Spanish market. It is one of the most attractive markets in Europe. Frankly, it's one of the most attractive markets Globally, just to give you a little bit of color, that market grew, the domestic volume in Spain as a volume matter grew 30% in the second quarter And 15% over 2019, again, despite continued obviously restrictions throughout the country as a result of the pandemic. So the underlying sector trends In Spain, remain incredibly attractive, which makes the timing for the Bankia acquisition particularly attractive for us as well.

Speaker 3

Bankia consists of about 100,000 predominantly small to medium sized merchants, although they do venture more into the large But I think the interesting thing about the Bankia portfolio is it's more skewed towards domestic volume. So again, I think it's a really attractive addition to our Comecer Venture that's going to allow us again to further expand distribution in this very attractive market and gives great cross sell opportunities for the differentiated We have in the Covancey joint venture today. So we're delighted to be able to announce that this morning and a nice addition to our European business.

Speaker 10

Agreed. Thanks. Thanks, Finjan.

Operator

Your last question is from Ramsey El Assal with Barclays.

Speaker 5

Hi, guys. This is Ben on for Ramsey. Thanks so much for taking the question. I wanted to follow-up on something you mentioned

Speaker 3

at the beginning of the

Speaker 5

call on the issuer I think you mentioned some of the newer, like potential deals are with some kind of like newer entrant FinTechs. And I'm just kind of wondering, are those the kind of deals that as you've discussed You perhaps might not have gotten without the AWS partnership and what sort of capabilities do they require that may be different from your traditional issuing business?

Speaker 2

Yes, Jeff. So the answer is yes. I think the key pieces behind the partnership with AWS just almost a year ago, the day now Was first really just to modernize the architecture and technology. And as we said in response to Ashwin's question, that's actually gone very well. And the second piece was the distribution.

Speaker 2

So of those 20 LOIs that we have pending with AWS, a number of those are with neobanks, fintechs and startups and you're right, I don't think we would have been would not be in the position we are today, I think without that. And I would also say more broadly, even if you back up, just our general shift from cloud enabled Technologies issuing to cloud native technologies is just selling very well, a little bit institutions of all sizes, including Neobags and FinTechs and startups and alike. The second thing I'd say, you saw the announcement in the expansion of our AWS relationship today into NetSpend, Whether it's at the issuing business or at the NetSpend business, we're very focused on program management. So to answer your second question, I think we need to be more vocal on Program Management, I think historically, most of the revenue, the growth that we get in the issuing business is really with Financial institutions and generally inside the United States and North America and what's in Europe, larger financial institutions. Key focal point of ours Pre and now of course post AWS both the NetSpend as well as Issuer is on program management.

Speaker 2

That's a key part of the relationship with AWS going forward on the new partnership we announced today. So I would look for us to do more there and we will share more detail with you next month on September 8. Great.

Speaker 5

And if I could ask just one quick follow-up on kind of net spend as we're discussing it. Any update on the Money to Pay business and any potential synergies between that and net spend or how that Under the AWS partnership?

Speaker 2

Yes, Jeff. I'll go ahead and start and Cameron can join too. So we've got 3 legs to stool as far as our strategy is in NetSpend. First is ongoing digitization and I think NetSpend had pre pandemic a pretty good digital footprint and not surprising anyone on this phone. The pandemic has really accelerated that and I would say kind of high 20s, 30% of interactions today with consumers with NetCent are done online, meaning buying card online With the card online and we certainly expect AWS of course to continue to accelerate that given their footprint.

Speaker 2

The second Is what I just described in response to your first question, which is really B2B and program management, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it also Earnway, Jash, the access, PayCards and our TIC solutions. So those are all obviously also in play on B2B. And the 3rd leg of the stool is really what you get Which is internationalization. So a piece of that is Money to Pay. The second piece we announced today with Bankia because that also includes a Prepaid business, the debit business as well.

Speaker 2

And the short answer to your question is it's gone really well. Our thesis on internationalization is Given who Global Payments is, the 38 countries we operate in, particularly on the acquiring side, as well as the relationships we have in those markets, a great example is Continental Europe with Spain allows us uniquely to expand what was really a U. S. Only business, which it is today for Net spending for some of the competitors and really bringing it overseas and now they're approaching 9 or 10 months post the initial closing of the money to pay JV with I can tell you that we're running ahead of what we expected. I think our thesis that we can bring our management, our products, Our technologies, those markets has rung has rung true.

Speaker 2

The thesis that those markets are underpenetrated relative to United States is also true. We have seen some benefit there, Our government spending too as we all kind of emerge from the pandemic, not just here in the United States, but overseas. So it's really working out Better than we hoped and really pleased to be where we are, especially with the kind of partners that we have.

Speaker 3

The only thing I would add to that is the AWS partnership on the NetSpend It makes it easier for us to obviously bring our technology capabilities to markets like Spain, where we've been delighted, to Jeff's point, with the performance of Money2Pay And obviously look forward to adding the Bank of Prepaid business into that business for us as well. So as we move forward in time With AWS, it makes it easier to bring technology product capability to markets outside the U. S. As we continue the internationalization strategy for the Netspend business.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. Well, thanks so much for taking the questions and looking forward to seeing you next month.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Ramsey. On behalf of Global Payments, thank you for joining us on the call this morning.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Global Payments Q2 2021
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