Global Payments Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to Global Payments' third quarter 2022 conference call. Our earnings release and the slides that accompany this call can be found on the investor relations area of our website at www.globalpayments.com. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the comments made by management during today's conference call contain forward-looking statements about the among other matters, expected operating and financial results and statements about the proposed transaction between global payments and EVO payments. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including the impact of COVID-19 and economic conditions on our future operations that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our most recent 10-K and subsequent filings. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements. Forward-looking statements during this call speak only as of the date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to update them. We will be referring to several non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are more reflective of our ongoing performance. For a full reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this call to the most comparable GAAP measure in accordance with SEC regulations, please see our press release furnished as an exhibit to our Form 8K filed this morning and our supplemental materials available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining me on the call are Jeff Sloan, CEO, Cameron Brady, President and COO, and Josh Whipple, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jeff.

Thanks, Winnie. We delivered record results in the third quarter, consistent with the higher end of our September 2021 cycle guidance on a constant currency basis and excluding dispositions, highlighting the resiliency of our business model and our consistency of execution across market cycles. Importantly, our merchant business again delivered double-digit revenue growth, and our core issuer business continued to produce sequential improvement consistent with our expectations, each on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Internal metrics thus far into October suggest continuing solid performance for the fourth quarter, much as September did versus August and August versus July. It's certainly possible that things could change for the worse given ongoing macroeconomic concerns But that would require an adverse change that we do not broadly see in the current environment. Notably, we are achieving these results while making substantial progress on our strategic and financing initiatives. We received Hart-Scott Rodino clearance in the United States for our acquisition of EVO payments and divestiture of NetSpend's consumer business. And we have now made regulatory filings in all jurisdictions, foreign and domestic, contemplated by the transactions. We took steps to finance the EVO transaction with a successful $2.5 billion fixed income offering in early August at attractive rates, and we undertook a concurrent long-term extension and enhancement of our revolving credit facility. We also completed our $1.5 billion strategic investment with Silverlake and associated transactions. We are proud of the company that we keep, and we welcome Senior Partner Joe Osnos from Silverlake to our Board of Directors. Our issuer business remains on track for continued core growth acceleration into year end, following an acceleration into the third quarter after a robust Q2. Our relationships with many of the most complex and sophisticated institutions globally speak to our competitiveness well into the remainder of this decade. Our issuer conversion pipeline now stands at a record post-merger of 75 million accounts, providing further confidence of our growth trajectory well into the future. What better example than our recent go-live with one of the top 10 commercial banks in the United States, which was a competitive takeaway early after the announcement of our merger. We are delighted that earlier this month we began onboarding and servicing the bank's new consumer and small business commercial accounts on TS2. We expect this partner to be prepared for the conversion of its existing consumer and commercial accounts early next year. This quarter, we also converted the consumer and commercial portfolios for another large U.S.-based bank as a new customer, as well as a large retail portfolio acquired by an existing financial institution partner, both of which were competitive takeaways. And we continue to make great progress with AWS, our preferred issuer technology solutions partner for unique distribution and cutting-edge technologies. We are pleased to announce that we have reached an LOI with a leading global travel technology company who chose TSYS as its issuer solutions partner for its platform across the UK and EU after an extensive RFP process. Once live, this will be our first FinTech customer on prime in the AWS cloud in Europe. We currently have seven letters of intent with institutions worldwide, nearly all of which were achieved through a competitive RFP process and a competitive takeaway. Another seven of our recent LOIs, including five competitive takeaways, have gone to contract since the beginning of 2022, providing further future growth opportunities. Traditional accounts on file increased by $14 million sequentially this quarter, driven by account growth with existing customers, as our strategy of aligning with market share winners continues to pay dividends. and transaction volumes grew double digits in Q3, led by commercial card transactions, which increased 25%, highlighting ongoing recovery trends in cross-border corporate travel and the strength of our long-lasting partnerships. At our investor conference last September, we announced B2B as the fourth and newest pillar of our strategy, meaningfully expanding our target addressable markets. As of this quarter, we are now managing NetSpend's B2B assets as a part of our issuer business, after successfully aligning MiddleTree's capabilities with this segment earlier this year. We are delighted with the momentum we are seeing across our B2B portfolio, which includes technology centered on virtual card solutions, a vast commercial card footprint, massive distribution partnerships with the world's leading financial institutions, data and analytics, market-leading payroll technologies, and access globally to non-bank card rails. Recent B2B highlights include providing virtual commercial account services to banks and FinTechs in partnership with Xtend, reaching a letter of intent with specialty FinTech Eden Bowl to enable commercial expense management and integrated payable solutions, and signing a multi-year commercial card agreement with Santander in the United States as a competitive takeaway. We are also pleased to have signed new virtual card services and AP services in wins with two leading U.S. financial institutions. Additionally, MineralTree achieved a number of milestones, including signing a marquee deal with Grupo Bimbo in the U.S. and Canada, one of our largest B2B bookings to date, generating record-breaking virtual card spend in the month of September, and executing a referral agreement with FinTech Ramp to cross-sell expense management and card on-file capabilities. We're also pleased to have recently enhanced our relationship with Visa to support their branded cards in the payable space. And this is all, of course, before augmenting our B2B capabilities with Evo's leading accounts receivable automation software solutions, including its extensive proprietary integrations to some of the most widely used ERP environments in the market through its PayFabric platform, including SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, Acumatica, and Sage. Moving to merchant solutions, we are pleased to announce in partnership with Google that we have partnered with Genuine Parts Company to deliver innovative cloud-based payment solutions for the extensive Napa Auto Parts domestic distribution network. Leveraging the combined power of global payments and Google Cloud, Napa will streamline commerce operations for its B2B transactions across the United States. We continue to expand our acquiring relationship with Google in North America following the success of our initial launch in Asia Pacific late last year. Volumes are now building in the US market with Google as a customer, and we expect the ramp to continue throughout this quarter. We also anticipate bringing our partnership with Google to Europe next year. Additionally, we remain on track to launch phase two of Google Run and Grow My Business to help our merchants grow faster by connecting additional Google services to our digital platform this quarter. We yet again delivered solid growth in our e-comm and omni-channel business for the third quarter, well ahead of the markets as we have done all year. We continue to benefit from our unique ability to seamlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds in more markets than our peers. And of course, the pending acquisition of Evo and entry into new geographies like Poland and Germany will enhance our target addressable markets. We are excited to have recently reached an agreement to expand our e-commerce partnership with Gucci, a division of French multinational corporate Caring, for acceptance services beyond Europe and into Asia Pacific, where we will deliver a uniform solution and seamless experience virtually for one of the most sophisticated luxury retail brands. Our partnership with Citi via UCP recently went live in Spain, France, and Italy, and we continue to expect to go live in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden prior to year-end. Together, we are currently targeting Citi's largest Treasury and Trade Solutions customers and are excited to announce Citi recently signed one of the world's top social media platforms and one of the world's top e-commerce markets platforms. In our vertical markets portfolio, we saw a significant return to growth in school solutions as expected, and this business delivered substantial improvement in the quarter with the lapsing of pandemic-era subsidies on school lunches. Also, our Xenial business continues to pose solid wins in the sports and entertainment areas with new signings with the Carolina Panthers and the Winnipeg Jets, and our pipeline in this channel remains robust. Lastly, we continue to see strong double-digit growth in our real estate vertical market business, Xego, with our new flexible payments product driving significant demand for our digital solutions. Lastly, I'm delighted to announce that we launched our merchant referral relationship with Virgin Money in the United Kingdom this quarter and are already realizing strong lead flow and new signings from this partnership. We also remain on track to launch Virgin Money's new pay proposition early next year. We did exactly what we said we would do in the third quarter of 2022. Our core businesses continued their track record of extraordinary growth and are well positioned heading into year end. Our strategic investments are tracking the plan, and our new partnerships are right in line with our expectations. We are very fortunate to be in the position that we are in heading into the final quarter of the year. Josh?

Thanks, Jeff. We are pleased with our strong financial performance in the third quarter, which was consistent with our expectations despite ongoing macro concerns. Specifically, we delivered adjusted net revenue of $2.06 billion. an increase of 6 percent from the prior year on a constant currency basis. Excluding the impact of our exit from Russia and the net spent consumer assets, which are classified as held for sale, adjusted net revenue was $1.93 billion, an increase of 9 percent on a constant currency basis. Adjusted operating margin for the quarter improved 240 basis points to a record 45.2%. The net result was adjusted earnings per share of $2.48, an increase of 18% from the prior year on a constant currency basis, which includes absorbing the impact of the exit of our Russia business during Q2. This performance highlights outstanding execution of our differentiated technology-enabled strategy. Taking a closer look at our performance by segment, Merchant Solutions achieved adjusted net revenue of $1.45 billion for the third quarter, a 10 percent improvement on a constant currency basis, and approximately 11 percent excluding the impact of Russia. We delivered an adjusted operating margin of 50 percent in this segment, an increase of 80 basis points year on year on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Our combined U.S. payments and payroll business delivered another strong quarter, led by our integrated channel, which again reported mid-teens growth. And we continue to see strong momentum in our POS software solutions, which grew nearly 30 percent this quarter, on top of over 70 percent growth in Q3 of 2021, as well as our HCM and payroll business, which grew mid-teens in the quarter. Our worldwide e-commerce and omnichannel businesses also delivered growth in the teens on a constant currency basis this quarter, as we continue to see strong demand for our omnichannel solutions across our business. And our vertical market solutions again achieved double-digit growth compared to the prior year, led by strength in our school solutions business and Zego, while bookings trends remain solid across the portfolio. Outside the U.S., despite ongoing headwinds from adverse foreign currency exchange rates and continued COVID-related restrictions in parts of Asia Pacific, the overall macro backdrop remains relatively stable, and we continue to gain share. Specifically, we continue to see strong revenue improvement in key faster growth geographies, including Spain, Central Europe, and Southeast Asia, as we're seeing significant demand for our differentiated capabilities outside the U.S. that are well aligned with shifting consumer needs coming out of the pandemic. Turning to Assure Solutions, this business delivered $489 million in adjusted net revenue, which is a 6% improvement on a constant currency basis from the third quarter of 2021, including NetSpend's B2B assets in both periods. Excluding the impact of B2B, issuer solutions core growth accelerated 20 basis points from the second quarter and was consistent with our long-term targets as we anticipated. Our transaction and account on file revenue grew high single digits and was consistent with the second quarter performance. As Jeff mentioned, our commercial card transactions increased 25% with growth improving throughout the period. Issuer adjusted operating margin of 46.4 percent increased 310 basis points from the prior year, fueled by accelerating growth and also by our focus on driving efficiencies in the business. We are pleased that our issuer team signed two new partners and one contract extension during the quarter. Additionally, as Jeff mentioned, our pipeline remains at record levels as we continue to see good sales activity in all markets for new clients and cross-sell opportunities. This includes the growing list of opportunities we have in collaboration with AWS. Overall, the outstanding results we delivered across our merchant and issuer businesses this quarter serves as a proof point of the wisdom of our strategy and resiliency of our model, while we also continue to maintain significant financial flexibility. From a cash flow standpoint, we delivered 640 million of adjusted free cash flow for the quarter after investing 139 million in capital expenditures. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be roughly 600 million for the full year. On the capital allocation front, we repurchased 6.9 million of our shares for approximately 890 million during the period. Our balance sheet remains extremely healthy, and we ended September with roughly 3.5 billion of liquidity and leverage of 3.1 times on a net debt basis. We made substantial progress on our strategic priorities this quarter, including the related financing initiatives. In August, we successfully completed a $2.5 billion senior unsecured notes offering with a blended yield of 5.5% and an average duration of 14.5 years. It's worth noting that the rates achieved in this offering are well below current market rates. We also completed the $1.5 billion strategic investment in the form of privately placed convertible senior notes with Silver Lake with a 1 percent coupon. As is customary with convertible instruments, we executed a tap call transaction that significantly raised the effective conversion premium to approximately $230 per share. We are delighted to have Silver Lake as a new partner. Our capital structure consists of 100 percent fixed rates currently. We used the proceeds from these offerings to pay down our existing term loan and the outstanding balance on our revolving credit facility. And we simultaneously closed a new $5.75 billion revolving credit facility that provides us with ample financial flexibility. Following the completion of the EVO and NetSpend consumer transactions, which we continue to anticipate closing by the end of the first quarter, we expect our net leverage to be approximately 3.9 times. We expect to return to current leverage levels by year-end calendar 2023, while maintaining our current investment grade ratings. Turning to the outlook for the remainder of 2022, Given the underlying trends we are seeing, our expectations for the core business remain unchanged from our August call. We continue to expect full-year constant currency adjusted net revenue growth of 10 to 11 percent over 2021, excluding the impact of dispositions. On a reported basis, we now expect foreign currency to be roughly a 300 basis point headwind to adjusted net revenue growth for 2022. or an incremental 100 basis points relative to the outlook we provided in August. Including these incremental FX headwinds, the reclassification of NetSpend's consumer assets to held for sale, and the exit of our Russia business, we expect to report adjusted net revenue in a range of $7.8 billion to $7.9 billion for 2022. We are increasing our expectations for adjusted operating margin expansion to up to 170 basis points for the full year, as compared to our prior outlook of up to 150 basis points. Lastly, consistent with our prior outlook, we continue to expect adjusted earnings per share on a constant currency basis to be in a range of $9.53 to $9.75, reflecting growth of 17% to 20% over 2021. We now expect FX headwinds to impact adjusted earnings per share by roughly $0.30 for the full year, an increase of an additional approximately $0.13 from our Q2 call in early August. As a result, we now expect to report adjusted earnings per share in a range of $9.32 to $9.55. albeit at the low end of the range given our exit from Russia and the sheer magnitude of the foreign currency impacts we are absorbing. In summary, we are very pleased with our third quarter performance. Our merchant segment led by our technology-enabled strategy continues to excel, and underlying trends in the business remain strong. Together with the record pipeline, successes of our modernization efforts, and enhanced B2B focus in our issuer segment, we are well positioned for the future. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.

Thanks, Josh. We delivered record performance again in the third quarter as we have throughout 2022. Underlying fundamentals across our businesses remain broadly healthy. While macroeconomic concerns abound, we do not see significant broad-based evidence of softness in the trends that we have experienced to date or in the bookings and implementation pipelines that we have the good fortune to enjoy currently. And with the dissipation of the pandemic, we are now back to typical financial and operating levels. Despite the background noise, we continue to make significant progress on our strategic and financial initiatives in the third quarter. The acquisition of Evo and the disposition of NetSpend's consumer assets remain squarely on track with our expectations. Our debt capital raise in early August was well-timed and executed, our balance sheet remained strong, and our new partnership with Silverlake is off to a terrific start. These transformative transactions will serve to accelerate our strategy and provide us with enhanced confidence in our increased growth and margin targets over the cycle. Upon the expected closing of these deals in early 2023, Merchant Solutions will represent approximately 75% of our adjusted net revenue with issuer solutions, including B2B, comprising roughly 25%. We have multiple levers in each segment to continue to gain share over the cycle with a simpler model, more geared toward our corporate customers with enhanced growth and margin prospects. Happy Halloween, everyone. Wendy?

Thanks, Jeff. Before we begin our question and answer session, I'd like to ask everyone to limit their questions to one with one follow-up to accommodate everyone in the queue. Thank you. Operator, we will now go to questions.

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Darren Peller with Wolf Research. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, guys. Thanks. Maybe we just start off on the merchant side. When we dive into the moving parts and the drivers, I, you're going, you're growing in line or actually a little bit better than the visa data. I think it was 11% volume. And so if you could just give us a little bit more color on what's driving the strength of your, your minds and what's sustainable about that, um, moving beyond just macro for a minute, but what's actually structurally really doing well versus not in that segment. And then maybe if you want to just reiterate again, if you're not seeing or any, if you are seeing any types of behavior, consumer behavioral changes,

Yeah, good morning, Darren. It's Cameron. I'll jump in. I'll ask Jeff and Josh to add any color they'd like to. So what I would say is if you look across the data, the volume data in particular in our merchant business, we're seeing very good sort of stability and strength kind of across most of our sectors. And I think what's particularly, I think, gratifying to me is when you look at our performance, which, to your point, is better than the networks and our peers's, That's without the benefit of the significant travel rebound that I think is propping up volume numbers for other people. As we've talked about many, many times, we don't really participate widely in travel and entertainment. And as a result of that, we're not really seeing the strength of the recovery coming in those channels, which I know is driving a good portion of volume growth kind of across the sector. I'm really pleased with the volume growth we're able to produce, notwithstanding the fact we're not really exposed to that segment of the market is the first point I would make. The second thing I would comment on is we're seeing, I think, largely what others are seeing in the marketplace. You know, consumers are focused more and more on experiences. Hospitality continues to be good in our space. Obviously, retail is not quite as good as it was during the pandemic time as people have pivoted away from goods. to more services and experiences, and I think you're seeing sort of volume trends in our portfolio that generally align with that overall macro trend. The last thing I'd say, and kind of to the end of your question, given the diversity that we have across our portfolio and how well positioned we are, I'd say, across 70 plus vertical markets from an exposure perspective i think we feel pretty confident that the stability and strength and volume growth that we've seen over the last several quarters is sustainable as we move forward in time so we feel as if we're kind of operating now in a normal environment and the results that you saw in q3 kind of reflect you know normal operating expectations for the merchant segment more broadly And the last comment I'll make, and sorry before I turn it over to Jeff, is just, you know, we are still dealing with pockets of weakness around the globe as well. So I'm, again, pleased with the overall performance, notwithstanding the fact that we're still seeing COVID-related impacts in Asia Pacific. Obviously, the greater China markets continue to struggle with periodic lockdowns and travel restrictions, et cetera, as it relates to their desire to have sort of a zero COVID policy. And of course, we're seeing a touch of macro impact in the UK, although a relatively small portion of our business. I think it's hard not to notice, obviously, the impacts in the U.K. stemming from a variety of overall macro factors there. And certainly that has weighed on the performance slightly as well. But if you look at everything in aggregate, again, very pleased with the overall sort of revenue growth and volume performance we've seen across the portfolio.

Yeah, Darren, it's Jeff. I just add to what Cameron said. We see the same thing on the issuer business. So if you look at the report today, 4.2%, constant currency, kind of core issuer, X to B to B assets, growth and acceleration versus the second quarter and consistent with what we expected, you've seen pretty steady growth in accounts on file, in transaction growth and authorizations and value-added services. I think we added 14 million accounts in the quarter. We have a record implementation pipeline post-merger of 75 million accounts. That does not include Kaisha. We're tracking the same metrics on the issuing side, as Cameron mentioned, on the merchant side. The only thing I'd say is on the cross-border side, commercial card, as we said in the slideshow, is up 25% transactionally.

uh in the uh in the third quarter in september was also as a month a really good month for a commercial card so when we do that exposure i think it's tracking very consistently with the networks and what cameron described emergent that's really helpful guys thanks just one quick follow-up and maybe josh this might be a little bit more for you on the financial side but when we look at the the quarter itself obviously there were some adjustments to try to figure out what the um what the core results are um I guess there's bridge financing that you guys added back, but then when looking at guidance, you're talking about FX adjusted, but then you're also saying that FX was, I think you said, 400 or 500 basis points embedded in it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe you could just reiterate again what the reported outlook is for the year in terms of if there's any other adjustments going on, just to be clear.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Darren. So, you know, as I said in my prepared remarks, we said for the year it's a total of 300 basis points of, you know, FX headlands. What I would say is, you know, our expectation for the core business remains exactly the same. You know, constant currency adjusted net revenue growth of 10 to 11 percent, and then, you know, constant currency adjusted, you know, earnings of 17 to 20 percent. And if you look in our press release, Schedule 10, we've given each of the components where you can go ahead and break that out. But, you know, hopefully that's helpful and answers your question. Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Aaron.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Kupferberg with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning, guys. Thanks. I just wanted to start with a question on the pending acquisition and divestiture as we think ahead to the close of both of those in Q1. I think last quarter you'd said that the EVO earnings would offset the lost earnings from net spend consumer, but I just wanted to clarify, is that comment based on full run rate synergies being achieved at EVO. I'm just trying to understand whether in 2023 there's any net dilution here or not. Thanks.

Yeah, no, thanks. So as you think about, you know, net spend and EVO together, depending on timing, they, you know, it's pretty much an asset swap where they're offsetting, you know, one another. So we would expect that to go ahead and be neutral from an overall, you know, accretion dilution perspective. Yeah, Jason, it's Cameron. The only...

The only thing I'd add to that is you are correct. The commentary we provided last quarter at full run rate synergies, the EVO transaction and Netspan transaction do offset each other as an accretion dilution matter. They're roughly neutral. So that does obviously assume we get to full run rate synergies on the EVO transaction. I'd say it's really too early to comment on 2023. We'll obviously provide more colors as we get into the early part of the year, and we have better line of sight on the time of a close, as you can imagine, to Josh's point. The timing or close of each of the individual transactions will drive kind of the outlook for 2023. But if we think about the long-term trajectory of the business, you know, swapping out the consumer business for EVO, a business with better revenue growth potential, better margin profile, and obviously a strong kind of earnings contributor over time, when we get to full run rate synergies, we feel like it's a very good, you know, better positioning of the business, for lack of a better term, for the long run.

Okay. Okay, understood. And then just as a follow-up, I think you've steadily raised margin guidance this year, each quarter to a level that's well above your cycle guidance. I think you've gotten a little bit of benefit from exiting Russia, but just wanted to understand a little bit more of the underlying drivers you would point to that are driving the outperformance. And then if you can just make a quick comment on Q4 growth expectations for issuer. Thank you.

Yeah, I'll start. Jason asked Josh and Cameron to comment as well. So I think the fundamental driver of expanded margins is better transactional underlying performance. I know you know how our model is constructed, but the more software we sell, the more transactions we do. You look at the 11% revenue growth, the 11% volume growth. We announced today in the merchant segment, you look at the acceleration in the issuer segment of 4.2% core versus 4% In the second quarter, Joshua commented on the guide that we expect an increase in the fourth quarter. When you see those things going up, those things all come in at a very high incremental margin at the end of the day. So I would say the fundamental operating performance, you know, of the company is what's really driving the expanded margin throughout the year and as we head into the fourth quarter. Joshua, talk a little bit about the fourth quarter guide.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I think the question was with regard to issuer and Look, you know, throughout the year, we've seen a really nice, you know, trend in the issuer business. You know, 1Q to 2Q, obviously, and then, you know, 2Q to 3Q. We saw, you know, 20 basis points of growth there. And what I would say is, you know, based on the, you know, the internal metrics that we're seeing now would suggest that, you know, through the first, you know, month of the quarter, that things are consistent with regard to what we saw in September, which Jeff had mentioned earlier. just a moment ago. So, you know, we feel very, very good about the trends of the underlying business with an issuer, and we expect to see those trends continue into the fourth quarter.

And Jason, as Cameron, I just have one final point to that, and it's just reiterating something that we've said relatively consistently. We're very focused in the business on profitable growth. Right, we really do emphasize making sure that we're growing in a way that has flow through to profitability, that allows us to continue to expand margin, the mix of our business, particularly in merchant, towards more technology enablement, software, et cetera, to Jeff's earlier comment. Positions as well that continue to drive, you know, obviously attractive margin expansion in the business, but it's all sort of premised on a belief that we want to focus on profitable growth and we're not just booking kind of revenue growth for the sake of booking revenue growth, but it's flowing through and driving profitability for the business.

Okay. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Jason.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Keane with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good morning, guys. Just wanted to make sure we knew kind of maybe percentage of revenue of some of the areas, the pockets of weakness, Asia Pacific, UK, maybe Canada, just so we have that in our models.

Yeah, Brian, good morning. It's Cameron. I'll jump in. So, you know, we've talked about UK before. It's about 5% of the merchant business, you know, roughly 3% of the total company revenue. Canada is roughly the same size. It's actually slightly larger than the UK market. But again, going to be in that sort of little over 5% range. And again, 3% on the total company. Asia Pacific, it's more pockets of Asia Pacific. So it's probably a third of that size for the UK and Canada, where we're seeing a little bit of weakness, you know, given the COVID-related restrictions and lockdown. So I would say not material. And Brian, we've talked about for a long time, we don't need every market, every geography, every channel to perform perfectly for us to hit the expectations that we have for the business. And I think this is a really good sort of example of that. The performance in the quarter was very much in line with the expectations we have for overall business, 11% constant currency, revenue growth, you know, excluding Russia. which, again, is very good growth in that portfolio, notwithstanding, again, not everything is going perfectly in every market around the globe. So that's our expectation as we move forward. We'll continue to see, you know, pockets of areas that may create challenges, but we feel poised to continue to produce growth, you know, consistent with our cycle guidance for the merchant segment.

Yep, no, definitely, definitely can see that in the volumes. And then maybe, Jeff, just as you think about the macro, if it does deteriorate, I know a common question you get and we get is, you know, what kind of contingencies do you have in place to potentially protect EPS growth if the macro would deteriorate further?

Yeah, good question, Brian. I don't think you have to look any further than our history to see how we've operated in more challenging macro environments than the one that we The one that we see today, a great example would be kind of early on in the pandemic when we took an incremental $400 million of annualized costs saved out in a couple weeks, of which $200 million was permanent. You know, that was probably six to nine months, March of 20, after we closed the T-SYS merger. Of course, we're, as we announced, we're continuing to expect to close the EVO merger in the first quarter of 23. You know, when we do deals even beyond that, the normal operating environment. When we do deals, we have the ability to accelerate the synergies. If you go back to our commentary on the synergy expectation for evo it's 125 million dollars of annualized expense synergies i think we've assumed quite a third of those is i think what we said at the time on august 1st would be phased in that's the realized number in the first year obviously we've been ability to move those around and accelerate those so we have a track record of over performing on our synergy expectations on the cost side we also have the flexibility as we did in the case of the T-SYS merger and even the Heartland merger from accelerating synergy realization, if that's, you know, kind of what we need to do. So, listen, as we think about it and as we send our prepared remarks today, the internal metrics through the first three weeks of October are in a really good place. We don't see any kind of broad-based evidence of any impact from the macroeconomic environment. Having said that, we have plenty of levers that we can pull to manage to our expectations for 23 and beyond. I think if you look at the history, you'll see how we've done that.

Got it. Happy Halloween.

Thanks, Brian. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Fawcett with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you very much. I want to follow up on Brian's question there on EVO, and you mentioned the synergy potential. As you've kind of started to look more closely at that business, can you talk about like where the puts and takes that you at least at this stage think could come from that could move those synergies around? And what are you finding there that maybe is encouraging you to feel like a little bit optimistic in terms of potential to do more there than you've outlined? Yeah.

James, it's Jeff Allstar, and I asked Cameron to comment, too. It's a very good question. So, now that we're through the HSR regulatory, you know, period here in the United States, which was really the primary hurdle for us to proceed, we're starting our integration activities, you know, imminently. So, obviously, we continue to do more. What I would say is, for sure, the B2B assets, as we said at the time of the announcement of the transaction on August 1st, we think are highly attractive. You know, I have spent time with Jim. who's done an excellent job at Evo reviewing their B2B business, particularly meeting with their software developers in Anaheim and a bunch of their operating businesses in Tampa and elsewhere. I'm more bullish now even than I was on August 1st about opportunities in the B2B. As you know, Global Payments X, Evo, for the time being, has very aggressive targets. And what we think we can do with our B2B business, we expect that business to grow, MineralTree in particular, 20% plus the calendar year that we're in today in 2022. And that's before the addition of Evo's assets. So I was very impressed with where they are on the development and software side. I and Anna Heim and elsewhere have done a terrific job and, you know, very excited about the opportunity to combine go-to-market strategies and realize additional revenues in combination with B2B. Cameron, you want to talk more in detail?

Yeah, James, it's Cameron. I'll add a couple other comments. I would say in addition to B2B on the revenue side, I think we're particularly excited about the prospects of bringing our product, particularly our commerce enablement solutions, to EVO's international markets. into the U.S. portfolio as well, but certainly internationally. EVA has done a great job sort of building payment businesses in these markets, but their product set is very payments-oriented, and I think we have a significant opportunity to augment what they're doing in market today, particularly in markets where we don't operate, by bringing our commerce enablement solutions, some of our other product and solutions, particularly on the software side, to those markets. So we see very strong, I think, revenue opportunities there. Coming from that, and then secondly, more on the expense side, obviously, you know, we have very much duplication in markets where we overlap. So UK, Spain, Mexico, and then that gives us, and certainly here in the US market, of course, across the integrated channel, and then EVO is more traditional merchant business. Those areas are obviously going to provide meaningful opportunities for expense as we rationalize technology, operating environments, go-to-market strategies across those overlapping businesses. So I would say sitting here today, we have high confidence in the synergy targets that we provided. Certainly, I think there's more revenue upside there that we can tap into as we progress in time and we bring the businesses together, but certainly feel very good about our ability to achieve the 125 and In keeping with past practice, we're hopeful we'll find opportunities to even exceed that as we bring the two businesses together over the next few years.

That's a great call, gentlemen. And then a follow-up question. Obviously, it's not as important a topic right now as it was maybe a year ago, but I'd love any update on how you're seeing your place in the BNPL ecosystem develop. Are you seeing more of the BNPL integrations with global to try to drive more scale as opposed to those providers? BNPL providers trying to add merchants one by one. And I guess maybe more generally, are you still bullish on Global's place in the ecosystem as time goes by? Any update there would be helpful. Thanks.

Yeah, James, it's Jeff. I'll start and ask Cameron to join, too. I'll speak to the issuer side first. So we've made a tremendous amount of progress on the issuer side. in BNPL, and I think given our advantages with the 1,500 financial institutions pre-EVO that we have relationships with today, our perspective is providing BNPL technologies and services to regulated, responsible BNPL providers who are used to extending credit and provide AML and KYC is absolutely the right thing to do. We have a number of customer implementations underway, particularly outside the United States in the United Kingdom for BMPL, and the take-up rate from our FI traditional clients and issuer has been very high. In fact, I would say I don't think we've ever had, as we said in the slideshow, more of an implementation pipeline post-merger in issuer, and I don't think the funnel of opportunities beyond that in terms of what we're pursuing, which includes BMPL, has ever been greater. So I think our strategy along of aligning with market share winners and the most successful traditional financial institutions, as well as fintechs, including in particular in BNPL, has been absolutely the right thing to do. We're seeing a lot of traction in that area. on the issuer side. Cameron, you want to comment on the things we're doing in merchant?

Yeah, certainly. On the merchant side, we launched our BNPL as a service solution earlier this year in the first quarter that allows our merchants to tap into whatever BNPL provider they want to work with through our rails. So, end of day, as we talked about over a period of time, BNPL ultimately is just another alternative payment mechanism. Our objective is to provide our merchants the opportunity to utilize us for all of their payment requirements. make sure that we have the rails to tap into whatever BNPL providers are in the marketplace. We're providing consolidated settlement reporting, data analytics, and all the value-added services we're able to provide to our merchants, and we're doing that today. Not surprisingly, and to your point, you know, we are seeing demand for that obviously slow in light of just what's transpired over the course of this year. But again, we've done what we said we would do, which is position ourselves to be able to provide BNPL as a service, tap into all the major BNPL providers in the marketplace today and allow our customers to have choice, our clients to have choice around who they work with to the extent they want to offer BNPL capabilities to their consumers on any given day. So I feel good about how we're positioned strategically there. We're not in the business of taking sort of credit risk from consumers. So it's not a service we're providing on our own balance sheet, but we're providing the technology in the value-added services our customers are looking for, excuse me, to be able to work with any BNPIL provider they choose to.

I'd also add to your last point there, you know, James, if you look at our e-comm omni numbers, which we reported again this morning, those remain in line or ahead of the markets as represented by the e-comm omni numbers for Visa and MasterCard is now 30% roughly, you know, of the revenue there. of our company. So we've been in line slash accelerating slash multiples of where the market's been growing. We wouldn't be in those positions if we didn't have a hyper competitive offering via the UCP, which we've been talking about, I think, for four years plus now. So we feel really good about where that business is. Obviously, BNPL is a piece of that business, but we're very pleased with the continual growth in our card not present business as measured by our performance relative to the markets.

That's awesome. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Cameron.

Thanks, James. Thanks, James.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Friedman with Susquehanna. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good results here. Congratulations. I wanted to also ask about issuer. So on the commercial side, I think you said 25% transaction growth. Is that... Is that related to comps? Is that the marriage of the strategy? Or is that a reflection of the types of accounts on file you're boarding? Any caller you might have a commercial would be helpful.

Yeah, Jamie, it's Jeff. So I think it's really related to just that fantastic business in the commercial card area. So as it relates to the comparison, we've seen sequential improvement throughout most of 2022, very similar to what you saw from the card networks in the commercial card area as corporate cross-border travel, which is really what commercial is for us. for a bunch of large issuers, you know, really recovers. The other thing I would say is, you know, 25% is an average. We've got a bunch of people on the corporate side who are growing, you know, 50% north of that, right? So while that's the aggregate of a lot of financial institution issuers, we have some issuers, money center banks, who are growing at multiples of that number today. So that business remains very healthy. I would also add that that is part of the AWS modernization efforts. So that applies not just to TS2 and consumer, but also to commercial card. There's two elements to that. One is the technologies that we're developing in commercial card. You may remember that Citi, earlier this year, Citi Group signed an eight-year extension with us in the commercial card business to the end of this decade, really. And I think part of the confidence that large, smart institutions like that have in us is the modernization efforts we're undertaking. The second thing I would say, as we announced this morning and also throughout the year, is diversifying the revenue stream into fintechs. So I think we announced today in our B2B businesses, and the commercial part for us is really a core part, and in some cases the entryway into B2B, we announced today deals with RAMP, deals with Xtend. As we think about expanding beyond traditional financial institutions, which has obviously been terrific for us, into fintechs and startups. I think B2B and commercial card is a really good place to do that, and leveraging the relationship, the unique relationship we have with AWS, as well as the cutting-edge technologies we're building there, is showing in the results that we've been producing the last couple quarters in commercial cards. So it's really not the comparison so much as it is ongoing strength and recovery in the corporate travel marketplace.

Okay, thanks for that, Jeff, and there's a lot of good color on slide six on issuer. So about that, is there any reason why you're excluding Kaisha? I think you said in your prepared remarks you're excluding Kaisha. If I heard that wrong, I apologize, but what's the logic there?

Yeah, it's Jeff again, Jamie. Kaisa's not in that number because we're ready to go to contract shortly. So until it gets into the implementation queue, so that's like an implementation number, Jamie, which means we intend to board, you know, in the relatively immediate term. Kaisa's ready to go to contract shortly. The LOI was executed earlier this year. Once it gets slotted into the pipeline for conversion, then we'll add it. But, you know, if you add that number in, Jamie, then you roll over $100 million. in the pipeline accounts on file on a base business that's whatever the number is, $700 million, et cetera. So that gives you some sense, Jamie, as to the embedded growth opportunity carrying for the next couple of years in the issuer business. So I expect that to flow in in 2023, but I didn't expect consistent expectations to have that in the third quarter because the contract is going to be signed shortly.

Got it. Makes sense. I'll drop back in the queue. Thank you.

Thanks, Jamie.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Davis with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good morning, guys. Just wanted to touch on the margins here. I think very consistent, elevated, or raising margin guidance every quarter this year, despite a lot of your peers kind of doing the opposite. And so, Jeff, is this pull forward? Are you being a little bit more aggressive ahead of what could be a macro slowdown? Are these just opportunities in the business that you're seeing kind of top line better operating leverage, just trying to understand whether or not this is kind of a pull forward from the expense base or if we can expect kind of similar to cycle guidance going forward in 23 and beyond.

Yeah, John and Jeff, it's not a pull forward. I mean, as I said in response to a couple questions ago, the fundamental driver of margin improvement is terrific growth. So when you look at the things that are driving the growth of merchant, as Cameron alluded to, are software businesses, are higher margin businesses, are technology-enabled As those grow faster than market rates, which we reported again this morning, that is going to drive outsized margin performance. And I think that's what you're seeing emerging, which is 50-plus percent margins for the second time in a row this quarter. On the issuer side, it's a very healthy growth profile on issuers. I think Josh alluded to this. It was 4% core constant currency in the second quarter, now 4.2%. As Josh said, our expectations for north of that in the quarter we're in right now, based on the metrics through the third week of October. So when you have businesses that are probably 80% plus incremental margins relative to a 40% average margin number growing at above market rates, you're going to drive better margin growth. That's the fundamental thing. The second thing I would say, as you alluded to, is look, we pride ourselves in execution. We've got a long time here making or exceeding our margin targets, so we are appropriately cautious. throughout the back half this year heading into next year. But no, our expectations pre-EVO remain for normal margin enhancement heading into next year. I think EVO and the disposition of NETFAM provide opportunities for accelerated margins when we get there. But I think for the time being, it's really driven by, you know, 11% fundamental growth in merchants, 6% fundamental growth in issuers. If we keep doing that, we're going to keep expanding markets.

Okay, great. And this is a follow-up. I think you commented in a prepared remarks or response to a question that you expect a mineral tree to grow 20 plus percent. Maybe just spend a second to help us understand how mineral tree will fit with the B2B assets. You said you're more excited about Evo's B2B business, but obviously that's questions we get a lot is just the B2B strategy going forward. So maybe just how mineral tree specifically fits with what Evo has in B2B, that'd be helpful.

Yeah, John, it's Cameron. Maybe I'll jump in and I'll ask Jeff to chime in with any other additional comments. So, if you think about the B2B strategy, I'd break it down into its individual building blocks. Because ultimately, end of day, what we're trying to achieve is sort of a fully integrated B2B offering where we have software at the heart of our ability to provide accounts payable, accounts receivable solutions with money in, money out flows. you know, for largely mid-market customers and obviously enterprise customers to the extent we want to scale into that market as well. So if you think about that as a sort of core underlying strategy, you know, obviously MineralTree is the base foundational asset to support our AP software automation capabilities. It will complement, obviously, or Evo, I should say, will complement what we have with MineralTree by providing, again, the core foundational AR software capabilities Again, with the integrations into the largest ERP providers in the marketplace today. So if you think about the B2B strategy, much like we've done on the merchant side, the foundation of that will really be software driven by both AP and AR software solutions. And we'll wrap around that to the ability to provide, again, money in and money out solutions to our customers in the B2B space. So their ability to accept payments, obviously, of course, on the merchant acceptance side, their ability to make payments and outflows on the AP side, all of that in a fully integrated package that we can sell either as microservices or any one of those solutions or as a fully integrated package, again, into that market. So I think the attractive part of Evo, as we've talked about before, there are many attractive elements. One of the most attractive elements is the AR automation software that they bring to global payments. and how nicely, again, it complements the overall B2B strategy that we're trying to build out here.

Yeah, John, just the other way Cameron said, so this is our prepared remarks this morning, but I want to highlight it. So one of the largest software deals that MineralTree has ever recorded, Grupo Bimbo, was just done in October, which is something we called out the quarter we're in. Obviously, that's terrific news. We've also found very fertile ground in the cross-selling of our virtual card business into our traditional financial institution base. On the issuer side, I gave you a few examples in our prepared remarks, too. So, Tamara's absolutely right in terms of go-to-market. There's tons of opportunities. and low-hanging fruit on the T-SYS issuing side, leveraging the 50 million-plus virtual cards we do every year and the 30 billion-plus in volumes we do already in virtual cards. So we feel really good about where that business is headed, and our focus is to continue to build momentum in B2B heading into 23, and then obviously Evo, as Cameron alluded to, brings us a whole other universe of opportunities. So very pleased with where we are and really excited about the trajectory into 23. Okay.

Appreciate all the color. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Thanks, John.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Napoli with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Good morning. Jeff, over time, you've been on the forefront, I think, in global payments of innovations in the payments industry. As you look at the industry today globally, it's becoming more and more global, I think, a lot of the innovations. What areas of fintech are you most excited about? I mean, there's still a lot of VC going on? I mean, maybe it slowed down somewhat. But where is it geographic? Is it fraud areas? I mean, embedded payments seem to us a lot like integrated payments. But anyway, just any thoughts around areas of innovation around FinTech that you're most excited about?

Yeah, Bob, I won't belabor the B2B topic because I think we spent a lot of time on this call, you know, talking about our B2B strategies and how we do standalone and also with Evo. But just to start at the top, I mean, I think B2B is a big driver of our future growth expectations. We talked about last year, about a year ago, in our September 21 investor day. The second thing I would say is, you know, what we call commerce enablement, really on the merchant side of the house, which I know Cameron has touched on. If you look at our recent announcements today, With a bunch of stadiums, Mercedes-Benz is probably the most notable. But as we alluded to in the script, more are coming kind of imminently, probably before our next call. What's really driving that, Bob, at the end of the day is this seamless combination of software, digital, mobile, in the way that consumers want to be treated. So we've talked about this, I think, in our investor day. But, you know, pre-pandemic, maybe people got paper tickets. Maybe people were okay getting a parking pass. Maybe people were right taking a stub, you know, at the parking lot in the stadium. Maybe people were right, you know, touching something at the counter and inserting their card. It's now table stakes, I think, for all that stuff to be done, you know, digitally. Maybe that was going to happen anyway. But as we said repeatedly in 20 and 21, I think the pandemic probably accelerated that migration by three to five years, and that's what we're seeing. So when we're going into RFPs now with stadiums, and we won, obviously, a lot of them, more will come. But just take Mercedes-Benz, you know, more recently as one example. All that stuff now is done digitally, meaning your tickets on your phone, your parking pass is digital also on your phone. When you order something, you can do that from your phone, too. It can be delivered to your seat. You can do it from a kiosk. You can pick it up. you know, in a locker, no one wants to touch anything anymore. Another great example of this, we call that commerce enablement, which means it's less about what the point of sale device is and more about the consumer experience. Then if you look at something like real estate, and I think Josh and I alluded to Zego today in its performance, same thing. You know, if you go back, Bob, kind of pre-pandemic, people would show up at the landlord's office with their check. If they had a repair ticket to fill out, they'd fill it out in paper, hand it in if they wanted their car. They've handed a parking ticket. Well, no one wants to do that stuff anymore. No one wants to touch those things. It's all done on your phone. When you sign up for a new apartment, it's all done electronically. When there's a repair thing, you do it on your phone or your iPad. When you want your car, you kind of press a button on your phone. So when we think about commerce enablement and the opportunity to seamlessly combine what we've built here, which is software as well as payments, as well as a digital environment, as well as wallets, as well as e-com omni. We think there are only a couple people in the world who could really provide those services. And I think the rate of our growth or implementation, you know, provides all the evidence you need to do, you need to see as to how those undertakings are going.

And, Bob, it's Cameron. The only thing I would add to that, and I think you touched on this in your question, is the ability to bring those capabilities to markets outside of the U.S. I think it's really differentiated for us. So all the innovation that Jeff was describing, we're now in the process of bringing to markets outside of the U.S., our point-of-sale software solutions with the integrated analytics. and customer intelligence suite. We're bringing, obviously, our embedded finance offerings to markets outside of the U.S. as well. So part of what we've liked about our strategy now for quite some time is the fact that by owning these underlying software capabilities and solutions, we control the ability to export them to markets outside of the U.S., again, to drive distinction and differentiation in these markets as they continue to evolve. So I think that is a It's a unique sort of positioning for global payments and one that we're particularly excited about.

I'd also say, Bob, just to circle back to complete the question, you know, on the issuer side, the cloud sells. So, look, when we announced the deal, the unique partnership we have with AWS two and a quarter kind of years ago, years ago now, we were very excited but probably uncertain about the timelines and path of migration there. traditional financial institutions, we're not uncertain about that anymore. I think now that the world has reopened, I think I've been to Europe three times for work, along with Galen in the last few months, and met with most of the top financial institutions in the United States, in Canada, and most of Western Europe. As I mentioned a minute ago, in addition to the 75 million accounts implementation for accounts on file, I don't think we've ever had the bucket of opportunities that we have today on the issuer side. And every one of those RFPs comes in and says, we want 100% cloud kind of the first day. So I would just say in terms of other areas of focus on the issuing side beyond B2B and beyond what we've already described, I think the cloud sells. And in particular, I think the AWS cloud sells.

Thanks. Maybe that's just my follow-up. Issuer, you talked about a number of takeaways, quite a few takeaways. How much of that is driven by... You know, cloud versus, I mean, pricing, you have a lot of scale, so you have high incremental margins. But what's driving what seems to be an acceleration in takeaways and issuer?

Yeah, I think it's really, Bob, led by technology. So we really have a technology and product-centric first view of the world. I also think we have excellent people, both on the sales and support side, and we hear that consistently today. from our financial institution partners. So listen, as it relates to pricing, I think as with all things in life, you have to be competitive. These are big, smart, sophisticated institutions that run RFPs. But at the end of the day, I think it's really driven by the product stack and the technology stack. And I think public cloud are table stakes now in that environment. It also dovetails very nicely with our go-to-market on the B2B side, which is also obviously with MineralTree, very cloud-centric. So I think we've got all the elements of successful offering, and it's nice to see the investments we've made over a period of years, you know, play out in terms of wins and convergence.

Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. On behalf of Global Payments, thanks for your interest in us this morning, and again, happy Halloween, everyone.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.