ACI Worldwide, Inc.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Today's call, like all of our events, is subject to both safe harbor and forward-looking statements. You can find the full text of both statements on the first and final pages of our presentation deck today, a copy of which is available on our website as well as with the SEC. On this morning's call is Ocalan Almeida, our president and CEO, and Scott Behrens, our CFO. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Ocalan.

Thank you, John. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. When we discussed our preliminary 2020 results in January, I shared my excitement about our strong performance and reinforced my confidence in the significant value creation potential of ACI. Today, we'll provide you with a more detailed update on the 2020 results, 2021 outlook, and growth initiatives. Let me start by providing some additional color on our financial results for 2020. Our laser focus on rationalizing costs and maximizing profitability has driven significant year-over-year EBITDA growth and net margin improvements, even against the backdrop of COVID-19. We are also pleased to be reaffirming the outlook we provided previously, including the Rule 40 for the first time ever in 2021. In 2020, our revenue grew 3% in a business environment highly affected by the pandemic, Our adjusted BTDA grew 17%, and our net adjusted BTDA margin grew more than 450 base points, which shows our focus on shareholder value creation. Further, our consolidated new bookings grew 36%, and in particular, under Yves Aritakis' management, our demand segment bookings more than doubled. These results position the company extremely well to achieve our organic growth goals in the coming years. Turning to our strategic initiatives, we have made excellent headway advancing the Fit for Growth, Focus on Growth, and Step Change Value Creation initiatives we announced in November. On January 1, we launched our Fit for Growth organizational plan to become a more nimble and agile company. we have successfully flattened our organizational structure and centralized sales. We are excited about the benefits of this new structure and we are already seeing positive results, including faster decision-making and increased responsiveness to our customers. We look forward to continuing to drive efficiency, productivity, and customer responsiveness through this flatter, leaner model. As part of our Focus on Growth initiative, We have been targeting our investment span on high-growth product areas, such as real-time payments, e-commerce with large, sophisticated global merchants, and fast-growing emerging markets. We are on track to meet our goal of increasing sales and market investment by 25% and increasing the number of sales associates by 35% in 2021. And we already deliver improved results demonstrated by our recent bookings wins across the globe with both new customers and contract renewals from existing customers. Notable Q4 deals for our issuing and acquiring solutions include the top UK retail bank and the leading Japanese international payments brand. In immersion and e-commerce, we expanded our relationship with a leading European retailer and pharmacy chain. and one of the largest global furniture conglomerates. In the building space, we signed many new customers, including a large U.S. financial services and insurance company and a leading U.S. auto finance company. In Latin America, we also had an important real-time payment win as a result of our new partnership with MasterCard. It was our first one through our MasterCard alliance, and it happened in Peru. Finally, under our third pillar of the strategic plan, we continue to sharpen our focus by evaluating and pursuing opportunities for accurate transactions, and we will undertake a complete review of our business portfolio to maximize HCI's growth profile and deliver transformational long-term value to our shareholders. I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing. And I am confident that the new foundation we have built for ACI will empower us to deliver continuous profitable organic growth and stamp change value creation through M&A. With our strong fourth quarter performance and our continued momentum, I am confident that 2021 will be an important milestone year for ACI. In summary, we expect to achieve for the first time ever the Rule of 40 in 2021 And in parallel, we are actively looking into investments and divesters to maximize our growth profile and deliver transformational value to our shareholders. Before I turn the call over to Scott to discuss the financials, I'd like to briefly touch on an announcement we made today. Pursuant to an agreement we reached with one of our shareholders, Starboard Value, our nominating and corporate governance committee will work with Starboard to identify two new independent directors to be appointed to the HCI board in March 2021. This announcement builds on our board's track record of refreshment following the appointment of two additional independent directors over the past two years. We are pleased to have reached this agreement and expect these new directors will offer fresh and valued perspectives as we continue our efforts to maximize profitability and create significant shareholder value. With that, I will turn it over to Scott to discuss the foundations. Scott?

Thanks, Ocalan, and good morning, everyone. I first plan to go through our financial results for 2020 and then provide some additional commentary regarding our outlook for 2021. We will then open the line for questions. For the full year 2020, total bookings were up 21%, while new bookings were up 36% compared to 2019. New bookings in our on-demand business more than doubled over last year, while new bookings in our on-premise licensed software business declined, primarily due to COVID-related delays. purchasing decisions by our bank customers, which impacted significantly our license fee revenues. 2020 revenue was $1.29 billion, up 3% from 2019, largely due to having a full year of speed pay results offset by declines in non-recurring license fee revenue. Recurring revenue grew 10%, significantly above total company revenue growth, and now represents 76% of total revenue in 2020, up from 71% in 2019. Revenue from our on-premise business was down 9% in 2020 due to lower non-recurring license revenue from new sales, primarily resulting from COVID-related purchasing delays As you know, our products are mission critical, so it didn't impact our existing customer renewals, meaning we are not losing customers, but it did impact license revenue from new sales, in particular from our bank customers. Revenue from our on-demand business was up 13% in 2020, primarily due to the contribution from SpeedPay. In addition, On an organic basis, we saw higher e-commerce volumes and omnichannel merchant payments helping offset COVID-related slowing of certain verticals in our biller solution. Obviously, in 2020, we had little control over the macro-related headwinds impacting the purchasing behaviors of our bank customers and transaction volumes in our biller business, but we were laser-focused on the areas we could control, including profitability and liquidity. Our efforts to improve our operational discipline helped generate significant profitability growth in 2020, with adjusted EBITDA of $359 million, up 17% from 2019. Consolidated, not adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 37%, up from 33% in 2019. And it's important to note that this growth is not just a result of the incremental speed pay contribution, as EBITDA also grew on an organic basis. We saw significant profitability improvement in our on-demand business from 19% in 2019 to 34% in 2020. We are very pleased with our profitability improvements in our on-demand business. And even with the revenue decline in our on-premise business, our cost control efforts were able to maintain our 55% margins in 2020, which were in line with 2019. Our EBITDA growth contributed to strong cash flow growth in 2020, with cash flow from operating activities of $336 million up more than double from 2019. And we ended the year with significant liquidity, including $165 million in cash and $444 million available on our revolver. During the year, we paid down $223 million in debt and repurchased 1 million shares of our stock for $29 million. We ended the year with 1.2 billion of debt, representing a net debt leverage ratio of 2.8 times. And finally, turning to our outlook for 2021, while we currently expect COVID-19 related headwinds to persist through the first half of 2021, we expect growth to accelerate to the mid single digits in the second half of the year. For the full year 2021, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of 375 to 385 million. which assumes net adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. This excludes one-time costs related to cost reduction initiatives we discussed at our analyst day in November. For Q1 2021, we expect revenue to be in a range of 270 to 280 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of 25 to 35 million. So with that, I will now pass it back over to Ocalan for some closing comments. Ocalan?

Thanks, Scott. In closing, we are pleased with the company's performance in 2020 and look forward to continuing our momentum in 2021. We are well positioned to advance our three pillar strategy, and we are confident that we will continue to excel within our new organizational structure and increase the focus on our higher growing areas. In parallel, We are actively looking into investments and investors to maximize our growth profile and deliver transformational long-term value to our shareholders. I look forward to updating you on our progress. We are now happy to take your questions. Thank you.

And as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Again, that is star and the number 1 to ask a question. And we will allow one question and one follow-up only during the Q&A. And please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. We have our first question from the line of Mr. Brett Huff from Steffens Incorporated. Your line is now open.

Good morning, guys. How are you? Good. Good morning, Brad. Just a couple questions. Number one, congrats on the MasterCard joint win. I think it was Peru or somewhere in Latin America. Can you just give us, unpack that a little bit? You know, how did the sales process go? Was it competitive? Kind of what got you guys over the finish line from a decision point of view?

Yeah, well, to answer that, it is Peru. You know, we had announced last summer that more enhanced partnership with MasterCard, and in particular really targeting a specific list of countries to go to market on a joint effort. And that's really a product of that partnership that we announced last summer. So it's obviously getting early traction, and we're really confident in it.

Yeah, Brett, it's basically the national switch, and MasterCard is going to operate, and we are going to be the software. So that's the summary of it.

And so this is where you guys are doing most of the bank on-ramp stuff, whereas MasterCard is doing the central hub. Is that kind of the division of labor? Correct. Correct. Okay. That's helpful. Second question is just on the guidance. I think you guys said accelerating to mid-single digits in the back half. You had mentioned sort of mid-single digits, I think, over the next three years of the analyst day. Is that a little bit of a shift? Are we just feeling a little bit longer COVID negative impact in the first half? Is that what's going on, or am I misreading that communication?

Yeah, no, Brett, we don't believe it's a shift. We continue to have the same guidance of before. We continue under COVID-19, as you just said. So there is impact of COVID-19 in the first quarter, no question about that. I mean, nothing changed versus the Q4 quarter. So we continue to see our banks delaying decisions on license revenue, basically. So that's the only effect that we see. We also see some effects on the volume of bill payment that is also consistent with Q4. And so the effects of COVID-19 continues. We don't know how long they will be. We don't expect them to continue during the second half, and that's why we're saying mid-digit by second half.

Okay, that's helpful. And then last one, on the strategic review, any purview on that? I think you mentioned reviewing the portfolio, but kind of how broad or narrow is that? Just give us a, you know, I don't know how much you can say. I know there's an 8K probably coming out soon, but just what are the kind of parameters of that, if you could give us any qualitative thoughts on it?

It's very broad. I mean, and that's what the third pillar is about, right? So there is no news here. I mean, since the beginning, we said that the third pillar is to provide step change value creation to our shareholders, to M&A. That could be through divestiture of known strategic assets or buying some assets also in a highly accurate way. And we continue to do that. So it's very broad and continues to be very broad.

Okay, great. That's what I needed. I appreciate the time, guys. Sure. Thanks, Brent.

And our next question is from the line of Peter Heckman from Davidson. Your line is now open.

Good morning, gentlemen. Nice results in the fourth quarter. I wanted to see how you're thinking about both the renewal pipeline for 2021 as well as new business. If you could talk about where you might be seeing some RFP activity on a on a country basis or a large financial institution basis that, you know, we should be keeping in mind?

Yeah, I'd say, you know, in similar to some of the comments I made in my prepared remarks, you know, even with 2020, it wasn't really the renewal book that was the issue. You know, we have a solid renewal book in 2021. I would say really where we're seeing the growth opportunity is really going to come as those banks pick up spending in the second half of the year. And what I'm referring to there is more the net new sales versus existing renewals. That was really where we fell short in 2020, not in renewals, but in net new spend, whether new logos or cross-sell of new applications, that's where we see in our pipeline this year that picking up. And that's going to allow us here in the second half of the year to deliver our long-term targets in this single digit.

Yeah, Pete, I have been in calls with the CEO of banks here in the United States, in Singapore. I was in meetings in Brazil also with some CEOs of some banks. And what I can tell you is that I start to see lighting the tunnel for the second half of this year. So they started to talk about projects that they're not talking anymore about modernization, about going to the cloud. So I'm positive. I'm optimistic about the second half of the year. I think things will get more to a normal state business-wise by the second half of this year.

That's great. That's great. And then Can you just talk about the interplay, and maybe in some of the countries that already have real-time payments, the interplay between kind of more traditional bill or direct bill pay and then real-time payments? Maybe how much of the payment volume has shifted over to a direct account-to-account payment versus a card-based payment?

I can tell you, for example, I'm giving an example because it becomes more real. I guess Brazil, the PIX in Brazil, right? I mean, that has just been launched and is already like making like 5 million accounts already in like a few months. So when it starts, it starts very fast. So there are basically three rails around the globe for payments, right? And all the others are variances of these three rails. You can have physical cash, you can have cards, or you can have real-time payments. And what we expect going forward is that cash will continue to be stable and going down a little bit, And cards is not going to be growing as much as they have been growing in the past, right, 20% plus. It's going to slow down a little bit. But the bulk of the growth is really be real-time payments, and that's what we're seeing. It's a much more effective, efficient rail, and that's why everybody's looking to that, and that's why it's the center of our strategy.

Got it. Thank you.

And our next question is from the line of Mr. George Sutton from Craig Hillam. Your line is now open.

Thank you. And first, my congratulations on your being responsive to shareholders with the upcoming board ads. I think that's going to be well received. I wanted to ask, and maybe it's wordsmithing, but both in your script and in the press release, you talked about long-term shareholder uh, appreciation. And as you may know, given the history, long-term has always been an amorphous kind of an item. Uh, and I wanted to look at that up against Odell on your quote, weekly sprints that, that you run in the business, just to understand the sense of timing that everybody has, uh, in this whole process. Thanks.

Yeah, I know. And thank you, George, for the question. Cause you, you just, uh, I think there is a flowing descript. Because we communicated, I think, the wrong thing. We're here for the short term, for the medium term, and for the long term. So it's value creation now. It's value creation also in the long term. And I think the most important proof for it is we are going to achieve the Rule of 40 for the first time this year. So after, you know, nine months, now it's one year almost that I've been in the company, this is going to be the first year ever that the company will achieve the Rule of 40. And that creates value to shareholders, right? I mean, immediate revenue to shareholders. So, yeah, so great catch, George. So it is about short, medium, and long-term.

All right. I really appreciate that clarification. Relative to your divestiture, you're talking about the slower-growing areas. As you're increasing your investment in the faster-growing areas, I'm just curious, how are you thinking of the investment of those areas that may or may not may or may not be targeted for a potential sale.

Yeah, so basically you have areas of high growth. You have areas that are important for us, like billers and issuing and acquiring, that are not going to be growing by double digits, but will be growing by mid-digits, by close to mid-digits, and we call protect and grow. And we have other divestiture areas that we are looking into now. assets that are not strategic. So it is a fine balance on protecting the core areas, but releasing funds to invest heavily on the high areas. Just to give you more color about that, George, last year through Bain, we went to the first, I would say, zero-base exercise of the company here, and really zero-base. On top of it, Scott was very much close to it, and we zero-based the investments of the company, and we came from that point to see, okay, what do we really need? And that's why, by that time, we were able to find $60 million this year and $75 million next year that we were able to reinvest in the business part of it and part of it, you know, give it to bottom line.

Perfect. I appreciate the thoughts.

Thanks, George. Thanks, George.

And again, as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Again, that is star and the number 1 to ask a question. Thank you. There are no questions at this time, sir. You may now proceed. Thank you.

Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us. We look forward to catching up with everybody in the coming weeks. Have a good day.

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.