Earnings Call Transcript - CPAY Q2 2025

James P. Eglseder, Senior Vice President of Global Investor Relations

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today for our earnings call to discuss the second quarter 2025 results. With me today are Ron Clarke, our Chairman and CEO; and Peter Walker, our CFO. Following the prepared comments, the operator will announce that the queue will open for the Q&A session. Today's documents, including our earnings release and supplement, can be found under the Investor Relations section on our website at corpay.com. Throughout this call, we will be covering several non-GAAP financial metrics, including revenues, net income and net income per diluted share, all on an adjusted basis. We will also discuss organic revenue growth. This metric neutralizes the impact of year-over-year changes in FX rates, fuel prices and fuel spreads. It also includes pro forma results for acquisitions and divestitures or scope changes closed during the 2 years being compared. None of these measures are calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently than in other companies. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP to GAAP information can be found in today's press release and on our website. It's important to understand that our comments may include forward-looking statements, which reflect the information we have currently. All statements about our outlook, expected macro environment, new products, business development expectations, future acquisitions or synergies are based on that information. They are not guarantees of future performance, and you should not put undue reliance upon them. We undertake no obligation to update any of these statements. These expected results are also subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Some of those risks are mentioned in today's press release and Form 8-K and on our annual report on Form 10-K. These documents are available on our website and at sec.gov.

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

Okay. Jim, thanks. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining our Q2 2025 earnings call. With me today here is Peter Walker, our new CFO, joining his first earnings call with us. I hope you'll get an opportunity to interact with Peter over the coming weeks. At the top here, I plan to cover 3 subjects. First, I will provide my take on Q2 results along with the rest of your forecast. Second, I will provide a brief update on our 2025 top priorities, and lastly, provide a bit of an update on our M&A activities. Let me begin with our Q2 results. We reported Q2 print revenue of $1.102 billion, up 13%, and cash EPS of $5.13, also up 13%. Cash EPS would be up 17% on a constant macro basis. The Q2 results really right in line with our expectations, both in terms of revenue and profits. We did enjoy a bit more favorable Q2 macro than expected, but that was mostly offset by both weaker lodging performance and fewer gift card shipments than we had planned, really landing us kind of right back at our Q2 revenue target of $1.1 billion. Our Q2 overall organic revenue growth, 11% in the quarter. That's up 2% sequentially from Q1. Inside of that, Vehicle Payments segment grew 9%, our Corporate Payments segment grew 18% in the quarter, and our Lodging segment declined 2% year-over-year. Trends in Q2 were quite good. Q2 sales finished up 31%. That's on the back of 36% growth in Q4 and 35% in Q1. So three consecutive quarters of 30% plus sales and bookings growth, again, we think the best indicator of demand. Retention in the quarter ticked up to 92.3%, the highest level we've seen in quite some time. Same-store sales really essentially flat in the quarter. So look, in summary, Q2 really finishing right on expectations. We did enjoy accelerating Vehicle Payments revenue growth, continued high teens Corporate Payments revenue growth and again, really solid fundamental trends. Let me make the turn to our rest of year guidance. So updated full year 2025 guidance today, mostly unchanged. After Q1, we provided $4.420 billion in revenue and $21 of cash EPS at the midpoint. Today, we're inching up full year revenue $25 million to $4.445 billion and full year cash EPS to $21.06. Our second half outlook does reflect a bit more positive macro, particularly more favorable FX. Some of that will be offset by continued lodging revenue softness, so results in $25 million of incremental print revenue. Really, most everything else in the second half is tracking to plan. We do expect our second half Vehicle segment revenue growth to reach 10%, so hallelujah. But inside of that, our U.S. vehicle growth accelerating to mid-single digits. The outlook in Corporate Payments is to report high teens organic revenue growth for the full year. This updated guidance would imply full year print revenue growth of 12% and full year organic revenue growth of 10%. I will transition now to our 2025 top priorities, which are intended to, first, simplify the company, so that it's easier to manage and understand; and then second, to better position the company for the long term. The first priority is the portfolio, working hard here to have fewer, bigger businesses, rotating the portfolio to more Corporate Payments with the recent Avid and Alpha announcements, and we are expecting the Corporate Payments segment to reach $2 billion in revenue and represent over 40% of the company next year. The second priority is U.S. sales. We're now live in market with our new Corpay brand advertising that targets CFOs with our entire solution set. We do have some impressive sales momentum, a streak of 3 straight quarters with 30% plus sales and bookings growth. The third priority is payables. We have successfully implemented the new enterprise client I spoke about. That client reached $1 billion in spend in the month of July. So now we are in search of our next enterprise client. Additionally, we have just launched our Corpay Complete payables tech platform in the U.K., bringing those capabilities into the international arena. The fourth priority is cross-border. We have successfully extended our cross-border business to now serve 4 market segments. We have moved beyond our original core business serving just middle market corporate accounts to now also serving financial institutions and more aggressively now with the Mastercard partnership. We plan to serve more institutional asset managers as a result of the Alpha acquisition. We are beginning to serve digital asset and stablecoin providers like Circle and Ripple with our on- and off-ramp services. We are super excited about the Circle partnership we announced earlier, which should give us a fast start in the space. Our new MCA multicurrency account product is off to a terrific start. We've got 10,000 accounts live now from zero a year ago. We've reached $1 billion in deposits in July, marking it as one of the best new product launches of the company. Overall, we're making terrific progress transforming the company into faster growth categories and across more geographies, extending the company's runway for years. On the M&A front, Paymerang, an AP automation and payment company acquired last July, is on track to double EBITDA this year. GPS, a cross-border company acquired in December, is performing quite well. We have shuttered the GPS IT infrastructure and are seeing GPS sales or bookings double as a result of them being in our system. The Zapay and Gringo Brazil card debt companies are growing rapidly. The combined revenue of those two businesses in the first half grew over 50% versus the prior year. We have cross-sold about $4 million of card debt alert services to our existing Sem Parar client base, marking an exciting new vehicle payments category. We're advancing two newest partnerships, Mastercard and Avid, both tracking toward a Q4 closing. The Mastercard partnership is progressing well, and we believe both companies are taking the opportunity seriously. Avid, our take-private investment with TPG, is also tracking to close in Q4. We've cleared HSR and still expect the Avid transaction to be accretive to earnings in 2026. We have recently announced our agreement to acquire Alpha, the European cross-border company for $2.2 billion. We couldn't be more excited about the addition of Alpha's global alternative bank account solution, which targets institutional asset managers but could also interest Tier 2 financial institution partners, which we can accelerate via the Mastercard partnership. We reaffirm that the Alpha acquisition will be at least $0.50 accretive in 2026. On the non-core divestitures, we have formally identified two candidates and expect to launch post Labor Day. Both of these are solid businesses and divestiture candidates due to their relatedness rather than performance. We hope that net proceeds will exceed $1.5 billion if we can successfully transact. All of this recent M&A activity is intended to go deeper, not wider, and result in fewer, bigger businesses. In conclusion, the story of 2025 is that we plan to finish with approximately $4.4 billion in revenue and approximately $21 of cash EPS. We expect a more favorable macro environment but a weaker lodging business. The vehicle segment is tracking to a 10% growth rate in the second half. The Corporate Payments business continues to show high teens growth. We are making significant progress repositioning the company towards Corporate Payments. In the Payables segment, we've added opportunities in the enterprise market, taking that business to the U.K. In cross-border, our new MCA product looks promising, and we are expanding into three new customer segments. These strategic moves extend the company's runway and potential. With that, I will turn the call back over to Peter, who will provide additional detail.

Peter Walker, CFO

Thanks, Ron, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm thrilled to join Corpay during such an exciting time. The last several weeks have been incredibly busy, providing a great opportunity to learn the business and meet the team. I look forward to meeting more of our investors and analysts soon. I'm impressed by the exceptional talent and high-caliber capabilities that support the organization. Corpay has a proven track record of generating top line and bottom line growth, and I'm excited to drive the company forward to achieve our objectives. Now onto some additional details about the quarter. As Ron mentioned, Q2 print revenue of $1.102 billion was just above the midpoint of our guide. In the quarter, our print revenue benefited from a favorable FX environment, partially offset by weakness in our lodging business. Print revenue increased 13% year-over-year, driven by organic revenue growth of 11%, which is a 500 basis point improvement over the prior year. Q2 adjusted EPS of $5.13 per share increased 13% over the prior year due to strong top line performance paired with solid expense management. Adjusted EPS grew 17% over the prior year on a constant macro basis. The headline for the quarter is double-digit top and bottom line growth, excellent organic growth, all while maintaining strong margins. We've produced significant sales growth this year that will fuel our business over the balance of the year and into next year. This puts us halfway down the path to delivering both the revenue and profit targets laid out back in February. Turning now to our segment performance and the underlying drivers of revenue growth. Corporate Payments delivered 18% organic revenue growth for the quarter, with similar results in the Payables and cross-border businesses. Overall, the performance was driven by growth in spend volumes, which increased 36% on a reported basis and was up 19% organically. Spend volume was just over $58 billion in Q2, which puts us on pace to be well north of $200 billion annually. The Payables business continues to perform well, driven by strong execution on Paymerang synergies and solid progress implementing and ramping enterprise customers. We remain confident and excited about the future of the business and are laser-focused on customer acquisition. Cross-border sales were excellent in the quarter, setting a new record high. While there is little incremental clarity on U.S. trade policy and tariffs, markets outside of North America are performing well and making up for some softness in North America. There's no shortage of opportunity in cross-border regardless of the macro backdrop. Vehicle Payments delivered 9% organic revenue growth for the quarter, our third consecutive quarter delivering high single-digit organic growth, and a 400 basis point increase over the prior year. U.S. Vehicle Payments organic revenue growth turned positive in the quarter, a significant improvement over the prior year. This was driven by improved sales production, applications and approvals, onboarding new customers, and stronger retention. Brazil and international Vehicle Payments continued to perform well. In Brazil, the combination of 7% tag growth and growth in our extended network, including the car debt offering, is driving strong results. International Vehicle Payments continues to deliver consistent results driven by strong sales and performance across the U.K., Europe and ANZ. The vehicle payments segment is tracking to 10% organic growth in the second half of this year. Lodging organic revenue was down 2% for the quarter. Room nights decreased 1% as lower emergency services and distressed airline rooms offset some improvement in workforce. We feel good about the progress we've made here to position the business for the future, but the recovery is yet to show through in a meaningful way. We don't expect organic revenue to improve in the second half. The Other segment was up 18% as the gift business generated significant year-over-year growth from new gift card orders delivered in the quarter. Given the pent-up demand due to new regulations to upgrade gift card packaging to reduce fraud, we expect continued strong gift card performance in Q3. In summary, we delivered 11% organic growth in Q2 and are pleased with the continued strong high-teens corporate payments organic growth, with all other segments delivering significant year-over-year organic revenue growth improvement. Now looking further down the income statement. Second quarter operating expenses of $623 million increased 15% compared to Q2 of last year. $32 million of the increase was due to the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures compared with Q2 of last year. Excluding the M&A activity and normalizing for lower FX rates, operating expenses increased approximately 9% versus Q2 of last year. The increase in operating expense was driven by higher transaction volumes, sales activities to drive growth, and one-time M&A deal fees and integration-related expenses. The increase would be 7% if we exclude add-backs. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 56.3%, relatively consistent with the prior year. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 27.7%. The increase in the rate was driven by a discrete tax item, Pillar 2, and a change in the mix of earnings. Pillar 2 is effective in 2025 and resulted in multiple jurisdictions implementing a minimum tax rate of 15%. On to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter in excellent shape, continuing to deleverage with a ratio of 2.53x. We have over $3.5 billion of cash and revolver availability which gives us ample flexibility in how we fund our growth, including our recently announced Alpha acquisition. Capital deployment in the quarter was again limited as we prepared our checkbook for transactions. We spent $32 million on share buybacks associated with employee option exercises. We continue to work on non-core divestitures, including the recent announcement that we are divesting one of our legacy private label fuel card portfolios that will free up $100 million of capital. Executing on non-core divestitures will bring focus to our portfolio of businesses and provide additional capacity in preparation for closing the Alpha transaction in Q4. So now some updates and details on our Q3 and full year outlook. We're increasing our full year 2025 revenue guidance to $4.445 billion at the midpoint, representing print growth of 12%, primarily driven by the continued benefit of improved FX in the back half of the year. We're also increasing our adjusted EPS guidance to $21.06 per share at the midpoint, representing growth of 11% as a result of our slight Q2 beat and continued expense discipline in the second half of the year. Our organic revenue growth range is updated to 9% to 11% due to the expected weaker performance in our Lodging segment I mentioned earlier. For the third quarter, we expect print revenue of $1.165 billion at the midpoint, representing growth of 13%, and adjusted EPS of $5.60 per share at the midpoint, representing growth of 12%. We provided additional details regarding our rest of the year and third quarter outlook in our press release and earnings supplement. This concludes our prepared remarks.

Operator, Operator

We'll take our first question from Andrew Jeffrey with William Blair.

Andrew William Jeffrey, Analyst

I guess I wanted to dig in a little bit on Corporate Payments. It seems like you've built and are building certainly one of the most complete vertically integrated tech stacks in the market. When we think about GPS and the very strong sales and the pending acquisition of Alpha and very good performance, how do you frame organic revenue growth as you plan out over the next couple of years?

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

Andrew, it's Ron. It's a good question. Yes, we are pretty pleased with the setup. It will mostly be a function of what we elect to spend. We try to design businesses to grow at a certain rate based on the sales and marketing investment, which is why it's high teens. Assuming that we continue to pour money into that, these incremental segments should be additive. I think the diversity of the segments is the key attraction, as we are looking at not just end accounts but banks and digital players going forward.

Peter Walker, CFO

Thanks, Andrew.

Darrin Peller, Analyst

Maybe we could just hit on the U.S. vehicle acceleration and just help us understand what underpins the acceleration you're anticipating into the second half?

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

Darrin, it's Ron. A couple of drivers are retention, which we can see sequentially in the report. For example, Q2 of this year versus Q2 of the prior year, retention is up about 130 basis points. Additionally, we've seen better sales, specifically with new accounts like GasBuddy and Amazon that were sold earlier and are now increasing volumes in the second half.

Darrin Peller, Analyst

Okay. Just a quick follow-up on the Corporate Payments side. Was there anything with the domestic payables client that was notable?

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

Yes. It's exciting that we contracted that account at the end of last year and went live, moving $1 billion of spend in July. We expect this to contribute significantly to our volume growth. The key is to maintain this capability and find more accounts like this.

Peter Walker, CFO

For the total same-store sales, relatively flat year-over-year, and that's what we've assumed for the rest of the year.

Tien-Tsin Huang, Analyst

Just on the Lodging side, I'm curious about what could turn out differently than your forecasts, both upside and downside.

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

On the downside, some softness in our emergency or distressed segments is contributing to that. Lower weather situations are affecting this business, and sales aren’t meeting expectations. We're doing everything we can to improve it, but we don't expect organic revenue to improve in the second half.

Sanjay Sakhrani, Analyst

I guess I have a question for Peter and Ron. The growth is strong, but the fourth quarter will likely present a difficult comparison in terms of growth rate. Can you discuss the cadence of that growth?

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

Sanjay, we expect growth rates to be consistent, with Q3 projecting 13% and Q4 slightly higher at 14%. We're not overly concerned about the comps as we've shown consistent growth across the metrics.

Operator, Operator

We'll take our next question from Mihir Bhatia with Bank of America.

Mihir Bhatia, Analyst

I wanted to take a step back and ask about stablecoin and how you see it fitting into your existing business?

Ronald F. Clarke, Chairman and CEO

The new payment ecosystem is a bit of a mixture of stablecoins and digital wallets. We see this as a new way to move money for our clients that can provide significant benefits, especially in terms of transaction speed and 24/7 operation. We think there are large opportunities working with new players in this field.