Thermo Fisher Scientific Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 26, 2023

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to EVERTEC's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Beatrice Brown Saenz of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you and good afternoon. With me today are Max Schuessler, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Joaquin Castillo, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward looking statements and should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and the company's most recent periodic SEC report. 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 related supplemental slides, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our company website at at www.evertechinc.com.

Speaker 1

I will now hand the call over to Mac.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Beatrice. We provided some very exciting news on the M and A front last week and we now have encouraging news on the earnings front. As previewed last week, we delivered strong 2nd quarter results above our expectations. Revenue for all segments exceeded our internal plan and margins were also above our expectations. On today's call, I will start with some highlights from the quarter and then we'll turn it over to Joaquin, who will provide further details on our Q2 results as well as an update to our expectations for the rest of the year, which include another increase to our guidance for 2023.

Speaker 2

Beginning on Slide 4, total revenue was approximately $167,000,000 for the Q1, an increase of 4% compared to the Q2 of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $74,000,000 a slight increase when compared with the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 44.6 percent, above our expectations, and adjusted earnings per share was $0.71 an increase of 6% from the prior year quarters, adjusted EPS of $0.67 As a reminder, we changed our calculation of adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share metrics Last quarter, to exclude the impact of non cash, unrealized gains and losses from foreign currency re measurement and all variances against prior year have been compared against recasted figures considering this change. We generated operating cash flow of $126,000,000 We returned approximately $22,000,000 to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Additionally, our liquidity remains strong at approximately 3 In Puerto Rico, we experienced strong growth in both merchant acquiring and payment processing, with Business Solutions down as expected.

Speaker 2

Merchant Acquiring revenue was up 7% year over year, driven by an increased spread per transaction as we continue to benefit from pricing actions taken last year in addition to a beneficial card mix as well as an increase in sales volumes. Payments Puerto Rico was up 10% year over year above expectations, reflecting increased transaction volumes, continued growth from ATH Movil and an increase from services provided to our LATAM segment. Our Business Solutions segment revenue was down approximately 12% year over year as expected due primarily to the assets sold as part of the Popular transaction. I'd like to provide a few comments on the macro environment in Puerto Rico. The overall backdrop remains stable overall and some of the economic data even picked up slightly in the second quarter after moderating late last year into the Q1.

Speaker 2

The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1% in May from 6% in prior months, This is still near the lowest level in decades. The economic activity index was up 1.8% year over year in the month of May, below the mid single digit growth for much of 2022, but an improvement over the modest declines experienced in the Q1. Travel and tourism also accelerated in the 2nd quarter with year to date total airline passengers up 18% year over year. Auto sales also picked up from the Q1, but we're still down slightly year over year in the month of June. In sum, the macroeconomic environment remains supportive of growth, but at this point, we are not counting on significant tailwinds the economy in 2023.

Speaker 2

Finally turning to Latin America. Revenue was up 27% year over year in the quarter As the segment benefited from the revenue contributions of the VBR acquisition completed in the Q3 last year and the PaySmart acquisition completed in the Q1 of this year. We continue to experience double digit organic growth across the region driven in part by some of the business wins we have highlighted over the past year. And as discussed, we are excited about the potential for the Cinthia acquisition to further strengthen EVERTEC's position in the region. This was a strong quarter that reflects our ability to execute our plans both organically and inorganically.

Speaker 2

I want to thank the team that worked really hard this past quarter to put us in the position of delivering great numbers while also executing on what is a game changing deal for AVERTYK with Syncya. With that, I will now turn it over to Joaquin to provide a more in-depth look at our Q2 results and our increased outlook for 2023.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Mac, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to Slide 7, you will see the consolidated Q2 results for EVERTEC. Up approximately 4% compared to $160,600,000 in the prior year. We experienced Strong growth across all of our payment segments, both in Puerto Rico and LatAm. The revenue strength was driven primarily by increasing sales and transaction volumes, as well as better spreads.

Speaker 3

Revenue growth also benefited from the contribution of the 2 acquisitions completed over the past year, partially offset by the impact from the assets sold as part of the Popular Transaction that mostly impacted our Business Solutions segment. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $74,500,000 an increase from $74,100,000 in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 44.6 percent, an approximate 160 basis points decrease compared to the prior year. The decrease in margin, which was expected, reflects the impact of the Popular transaction, specifically the revenue sharing agreement and the sale of assets, which as we have previously said, or of higher margin. I will highlight that the margin for the quarter was above our expectations and driven by our ability to leverage our revenues, but also as a result of specific cost initiatives implemented during the quarter, our own personnel, cloud costs and others In order to offset some of the impacts to our margin resulting from the Popular transaction, but in addition, in preparation for a potential acquisition in Latin America, such as the one we announced last week, which as we have stated, would put pressure on our overall margin.

Speaker 3

Adjusted net income for the quarter was $46,600,000 a decrease as compared to $48,000,000 for the prior year. Our adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 20% and aligned to our expectations given that the Q1 effective tax rate was lower than expected due to specific results in Latin America. We continue to expect the tax rate for the full year to range from 16% to 17%. Adjusted EPS was $0.71 for the quarter, an increase of approximately 6% compared to the prior year, with the increase driven by a combination of lower net cash interest expense driven by higher interest income and a reduced share count due to our repurchase activity throughout 2022. These positive impacts were partially offset by higher operating depreciation and amortization and higher non GAAP tax rate.

Speaker 3

Moving on to Slide 8, I'll now cover our segment results starting with Merchant Acquiring. In the Q2, Merchant Acquiring net revenue increased 7% year over year to approximately $41,200,000 This increase was driven primarily by an increased spread due to continued benefit from pricing initiatives, some of which were implemented during the Q3 of last year, as well as a shift in the mix of credit card spend towards premium cards and an increase in sales volume. Volumes were mostly aligned to what we saw exiting Q1 with low single digit growth over the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $15,600,000 down approximately 11% and adjusted EBITDA margin was 37.9%, down approximately 760 basis points as compared to last year. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA and margin is mainly due to the impact of the revenue sharing agreement with Popular as well as the effect of a declining average ticket, which is below prior year again this quarter with transactions up almost 6%, representing increased transaction processing expenses for the segment.

Speaker 3

On Slide 9, you will see the results for the Payment Services, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean segment. Revenue for the segment in the 2nd quarter was 50.8 $1,000,000 up approximately 10%, driven by solid transaction growth and strong performance by Adeache MoVI. POS transactions were up 6% from the prior year, more consistent with the trends we saw in 2022. ATH Business continues to be a big growth driver for the segment, with transaction growth of approximately 49% year over year and sales volume up 35% year over year. The segment also continues to benefit from issuing services being provided to healthcare companies in Puerto Rico, which continue to increase the number of participants in these programs as well as increases in transaction processing and monitoring services provided to the payment services Latin America segment.

Speaker 3

Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $29,200,000 of approximately 22% as compared to last year. Adjusted EBITDA was 57.5%, up approximately 560 basis points as compared to last year. The margin increase due to leverage off of the strong revenue and the impact in the prior year of a $4,100,000 impairment loss on a multi year software. On Slide 10, you will see the results for our payment services LatAm segment. Revenue for the segment in the Q2 was 39,100,000 up approximately 27% as compared to last year.

Speaker 3

We continue to see double digit organic growth with existing customers across the region, complemented by the addition of both the BBR acquisition completed in the Q3 of last year and the Pacemar acquisition that we announced in late February. On a currency neutral basis, year over year growth would have been approximately 29%. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $14,100,000 and adjusted EBITDA margin was 36%, up approximately 2 70 basis points compared to last year due to leverage from higher revenues as well as the reversal of some previous one time charges, partially offset by higher personnel costs driven by foreign currency appreciation as well as some higher professional services. Excluding the impact from the one time charges, our normalized margin for the quarter would have been approximately 32%. On Slide 11, you will find the results for the Business Solutions segment.

Speaker 3

Business Solutions revenue for the Q2 was down approximately 12% to 57,000,000 The decline is due to the assets sold as part of the Popular transaction last year and was partially offset by an increase in our IT consulting business driven by the timing of certain projects. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $23,400,000 Adjusted EBITDA margin was 41%, down approximately 510 basis points as compared to the Q2 last year and in line with our expectations. The adjusted EBITDA margin decrease was mainly driven by the impacts from the Popular transaction, which include the effect of the assets sold, which were of higher margin. Moving on to Slide 12, you'll see a summary of our corporate and other. Our 2nd quarter adjusted EBITDA was a negative $7,800,000 a decrease of approximately 5% compared to prior year.

Speaker 3

Our adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue was 4.7%, consistent with the prior year and in line with our expectations. Moving on to our cash flow overview on Slide 13. Our beginning cash balance was approximately 204,000,000 including restricted cash of approximately $19,000,000 Net cash provided by operating activities was approximately 126,000,000 a nearly $4,000,000 decrease compared to prior year, mainly as a result of the decrease in net income. Capital expenditures were approximately $35,000,000 and we continue to anticipate approximately $70,000,000 of CapEx for the full year 2023. We paid down the outstanding balance on our revolving credit facility of 20,000,000 Approximately $10,000,000 in long term debt payments and $6,000,000 in withholding taxes on share based compensation, which resulted in a total net debt decrease of approximately $36,000,000 We paid cash dividends of $7,000,000 and we repurchased approximately $16,000,000 year to date.

Speaker 3

As we announced last week, we have expanded and extended our repurchase program. We now have $150,000,000 available for future use through December 31, 2024. And we also announced Another $0.05 dividend to be paid on September 1, 2023 to shareholders of record as of July 31, 2023. Our ending cash balance as of June 30 was $211,000,000 and this included approximately $19,000,000 of restricted cash. Moving to Slide 14, you'll find a summary of our debt as of June 30.

Speaker 3

Our quarter ending net debt position was approximately 2 $13,000,000 comprised of approximately $192,000,000 of unrestricted cash and approximately 405,000,000 of total short term borrowings and long term debt. Our weighted average interest rate was 5.4%. Our net debt to trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA was approximately 0.86 times. As of June 30, total liquidity was approximately $386,000,000 This balance excludes restricted cash and includes the available borrowing capacity under our revolver. Moving to Slide 16, I will now provide you with an update to our 2023 outlook as well as some comments on the remainder of the year.

Speaker 3

Given our Q2 results and additional visibility, We are raising our guidance and now expect revenue to be in a range of $652,000,000 to $658,000,000 representing growth of 5.4% to 6.4%. We expect adjusted EBITDA margin to range between 43% to 44%, up from our prior expectation of 42% to 43%, as we push through the rest of the year some of the cost initiatives that we mentioned previously as well as the impact from higher revenues. Our adjusted earnings per share outlook of $2.75 to $2.83 represents growth of 9% to 12% as compared to the adjusted earnings per share in 2022 of $2.53 and represents an increase versus our prior expectation of $2.59 to $2.68 On a GAAP basis, earnings per share is anticipated to be between $1.82 to $1.91 In terms of adjusted earnings per share, we are still anticipating our non GAAP effective tax rate to be in a range between 16% 17%. We have not considered any additional share repurchases as part of our outlook. In terms of the segments, we now expect Our merchant acquiring revenue to grow in the mid to high single digits.

Speaker 3

We expect our payments processing Puerto Rico segment to grow in the high single to low double digits. As a reminder, this quarter we lapped the tuck in acquisition completed in the We now anticipate our payments LatAm segment to grow in the high teens to low 20s for the year. As a reminder, In Business Solutions, we're still expecting a low to mid single digit reset for the full year, and we expect a return to positive growth in the second half of the year as we anniversary the Popular transaction in the Q3. In summary, we are pleased with our results in Q2 and the trends we see in the business. We are very excited about the combination of EVERTEC and Cinqia and look forward to providing even more details once the deal closes.

Speaker 3

We look forward to hopefully seeing you in person at our coming conferences in the coming months. Operator, please go ahead and open the line for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from John Davis with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Joaquin and Mac, given the renewed focus here on LATAM, given the Cinquea deal, just 27% growth, maybe Joaquin, can you help us with Organic growth this quarter and I heard you step down to high teens, low 20s for the full year. So I'm kind of getting mid teens organic growth, but just curious if that's In the ballpark?

Speaker 5

We actually gave a range, John. It's low double digits to low teens.

Speaker 4

Okay. So last time organic growth, low teens. Okay.

Speaker 5

Yes.

Speaker 4

That makes sense. And then any comments Quarter to date, we've seen for the networks, it's kind of been similar to 2Q. Obviously, you have a little bit different of a But anything to call out, anything different in July versus kind of 2Q worth noting?

Speaker 5

Actually, no. I would say that Even when we look at the sequence month to month during the Q2, it was relatively constant Stable. There's nothing really to go out other than for example, we did see gas station volume kind of move away from us mainly because we had such high gas prices last year. But other than that, we're seeing July behave very similar to what we saw in general during the Q2. Okay.

Speaker 4

And then last one for me. In the press release, you called out pricing actions and mix for kind of a higher spread in the acquiring business. Remind when you kind of made those pricing actions and should we expect further kind of price actions in the future or How are you thinking about price in general in the acquiring segment?

Speaker 5

Sure. So some of the pricing actions we are mentioning and that we're still benefiting from, I would say it took place during the Q3. So we'll have some benefits still going to the Q3 and that will start to diminish a little bit as we go into the Q4. But as a reminder, John, and I think we've said this before, we're constantly looking at the portfolio in general and looking at different verticals where We see we have some pricing power. We're obviously very cautious as to how we go about making these pricing actions.

Speaker 5

Well, this is something that we're constantly doing, maybe at a smaller scale. These specific ones, we will lap in Q3.

Speaker 4

Okay. Appreciate all the color.

Operator

The next question comes from Mark Feldman with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, guys. Hi, guys. This is Mark on for Bob. Just wanted to ask about Cinqia.

Speaker 2

What I would refer back to is the presentation that we gave last week. And there's a slide that shows sort of the estimation of their share in Brazil across their 4 verticals. So if you look at the far right on the consortium business, which is primarily a business in Brazil, right, a way of financing transactions in And in the appendix, we have a slide that kind of describes how a consortium transaction works. I mean, they sort of dominate the market and they It's a much smaller market, much smaller addressable market, but they dominate that market. They have the best solutions.

Speaker 2

And then you go all the way to the left, to banking, which is a much larger addressable, sort of category, addressable market, But it's much, much more fragmented as well. So they're competing with local. So and it's a broader set of capabilities that banks look for versus a consortium or a fund. So if you look at that page from right to left, right is where it's a smaller market and they tend to have more sizable market share And they tend to dominate with their solutions. And to the far left, you'll see, again, with banks, much larger market, much broader set of Products required for banks and it's a much larger set of competitors.

Speaker 2

So you're going to be competing with potentially some large U. S. Players, you're going to be competing with some of the Local players in Brazil and then maybe some niche best of breed competitors. But they have 7 of the top 10 banks have some type of solution with these guys. So they're pretty entrenched in that segment.

Speaker 2

But as we close, we'll give And even further view, but we are excited because again, like we said, this puts us in Brazil, which is by far the largest market with an extremely strong franchise and it also gives us products. And also not just products potentially that we can export, But we can roll up similar type of assets in those verticals across the region.

Speaker 6

Understood. Thank you. And then I guess following up more with Sankhya, could you talk about, I guess, how does the tech stack Compared to a lot of these new and emerging solutions, is everything cloud enabled, modern API based,

Speaker 4

Just any details

Speaker 6

that you can have there because obviously, Big Tex can run the whole gamut.

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, I mean, they have A significant amount of acquisitions they made over time and trying to rationalize those platforms and ensure that their cloud base is an exercise that they've gone through and they continue to go through. We'll provide more details when we get closer to the closing, but we do So confident that the products they have are very competitive for the verticals that they participate in.

Operator

The next question comes from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, guys. It's Michael on for James. Thanks for taking our question. I just wanted to follow-up quickly on the merchant business. You alluded to I was hoping you could contextualize what that looks like and sort of how you're expecting that to trend over the next 6 to 12 months.

Speaker 5

Sure. So look, this is a dynamic that we saw kind of, let's say, going the other way during the pandemic With the let's say some of the Fed funds getting to people's bank accounts and the extra unemployment benefits, etcetera, Something that also happened in the U. S. Is we saw really increasing and really high average tickets. We also saw a very similar situation after the hurricane here in Puerto Rico where a lot of the insurance claims were getting paid, some of the FEMA money was And we also saw that excess cash in people's bank accounts got reflected in really high average tickets.

Speaker 5

And when after the hurricane over time that really started to come back and normalize as people kind of got back to, let's say, normal spending habits. And that is something that we also expected coming off of the pandemic. And I think that we've been noting that trend now for a few quarters. It's And obviously inflation has Somewhat kept it a little bit higher than what we marginally expected. And what we do see a little bit more space for those average tickets to come down When we look at what was, let's say, pre hurricane or pre COVID levels.

Speaker 7

Got it. That makes sense. And then maybe just on capital allocation more broadly, if I just think about the buyback, it looks like intra quarter, it was generally That price is in the mid-30s. I know you guys obviously just increased the buyback authorization, but how are you thinking about the relative attractiveness of the buyback with the stock in the low 40s as you sort of balance your other capital allocation priorities?

Speaker 3

Hey, this is Max. So let

Speaker 5

me answer that a little bit.

Speaker 2

I mean, we're not going to So to give commentary on our stock price and give you direction where we're going to go on the buyback. We did as you know, we do have to do some buyback as part of this transaction to offset The dilution from the 10%, the capital allocation will continue to be important for us. And we've talked about it for the last couple of years, and I think people, Rightfully so, we have focused that we need to deploy capital. We knew we were looking at transactions of the size of SNC and we'll continue to look at M and A. But we will, I mean, the authorization was partially because we're going to need to buy back stock for the transaction.

Speaker 2

Joaquin, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Speaker 5

No, no, that's exactly where I was going.

Speaker 3

So I think you guys rest of the month. Okay.

Speaker 7

Thank you, both.

Speaker 2

Thank

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mac Schuessler for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Again, I want to thank everyone for joining our call. I want to thank my colleagues for a great quarter and also for Helping get the Synchia transaction to this point. We look forward to talking to you over the coming months at different conferences. Have a good night.

Operator

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

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