EVO Payments, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the EvoPayments fourth quarter 2020 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ed O'Hare, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to EVO Payments' fourth quarter and year-end earnings conference call. This call is being webcast today, and a replay will be available through the Investor Relations section of EVO's website shortly after the completion of this call. Please note that some of the information you will hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on currently available information, and actual results may differ materially from the views expressed in these statements, particularly due to the impact of COVID-19 on our business. For additional information on factors that may cause our actual results to differ from the views expressed in the forward-looking statements made today, please refer to today's press release and the risk factors discussed in our periodic reports filed with the SEC, including our 2020 10-K, which will be available on our website after the markets close today. In an effort to provide additional information to investors, today's discussion also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation and reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their nearest GAAP financial measures can be found in our earnings release available on our investor relations website. We have also posted slides on our website detailing recent volume trends for the company to further assist with today's discussion. Today, we will discuss fourth quarter results and provide an update on the impact the pandemic is having on our business. Joining me on the call is Jim Kelly, Chief Executive Officer. Tom Panther, Chief Financial Officer, Darren Wilson, President of the International Segment, and Brendan Tansel, President of the America Segment. I will now turn the call over to Jim.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We kicked off 2020 with strong financial performance that was abruptly affected by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March and continuing through the remainder of the year. Despite the adverse impact of the pandemic, we had a successful year and took significant steps to improve our business by expanding our referral relationships, investing in key products and capabilities, enhancing our technology, and taking decisive actions to reduce our expenses and leverage. These key accomplishments were made possible largely due to the dedication of our 2000 employees across the globe were forced to react to the numerous ways in which the pandemic impacted our industry. They remained resilient through the many challenges we faced in 2020 and continued to deliver quality service to our customers and partners. I am very grateful for our employees' determination to make this a successful year. Now I'd like to provide an overview of our recent volume trends. While volumes rebounded in the third quarter, They began declining in mid-October as restrictions were reinstituted across most of Europe and in certain areas of the United States and Mexico to curb increasing infection rates. This resulted in fourth quarter volumes decreasing 1% sequentially and 5% compared to prior year. For January, volumes were down 11% from the prior year as the strict lockdowns in Europe continued to negatively affect consumer spending. However, in February, volumes have improved slightly to a 9% decline over February last year as distribution of the vaccine rollout is now underway and some governments have begun easing restrictions. We are encouraged by the diversity of our business and the resiliency of our merchants across all markets, but until government restrictions ease, it is likely that our volumes will remain under pressure. Turning to our financial performance, as compared to the third quarter, revenue was flat, while adjusted EBITDA increased 11%, and margin expanded 380 basis points. Compared to Q4 2019, on a normalized constant currency basis, revenue declined 5%, while adjusted EBITDA increased 9%, and margin expanded 500 basis points to 38%. These results reflect the negative impact of the COVID-related restrictions offset by our expense management. Tom will cover our 2020 financial performance and our outlook for 2021 in more detail later on the call. As we enter 2021, we are monitoring the vaccine distribution across all our markets. as well as other key indicators that have a direct impact on economic activity, including government stimulus programs and cross-border activity. We are anticipating a strong global recovery in the back half of this year, driven by pent-up consumer demand and expect the accelerated adoption of digital payments to endure. We will continue to manage our business through this crisis and are now a more efficient company with ample capacity to execute our long-term strategy of solid organic growth coupled with targeted M&A, including bank alliances and tech-enabled investments. I will now turn the call over to Darren to discuss our European business. Darren?