EVERTEC, Inc. Q2 FY2025 Earnings Call

Good day, and welcome to the EVERTEC Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Beatriz Brown from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. With me today are Mac Schuessler, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joaquin Castrillo, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements and should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and the company's most recent periodic SEC report. During today's call, management will provide certain information that will constitute non-GAAP financial measures under SEC rules, such as constant currency revenue, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per common share, and constant currency adjusted earnings per common share. Reconciliations to GAAP measures and certain additional information are also included in today's earnings release and related supplemental slides, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our company website at www.evertecinc.com. I will now hand the call over to Mac.

Thanks, Beatriz, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to announce second quarter results that reflect solid revenue growth across all of our segments. We delivered healthy growth over the prior year and exceeded our internal expectations as we continue to execute at a high level across all regions and business segments. I will begin today's call with a brief summary of our second quarter 2025 results, followed by a discussion of our Puerto Rico business and an update on LatAm. I will then turn the call over to Joaquin, who will provide some additional details on our Q2 results and our updated outlook for 2025. Beginning on Slide 4, I'll start by covering a few highlights from our second quarter results. Revenue for the second quarter was $230 million, an 8% increase over the prior year, while constant currency revenue was approximately $233 million, representing growth of 10% as we again saw growth across all of our segments. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $93 million, up approximately 8% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 40.3% for the quarter and aligned with our expectations. Adjusted EPS of $0.89 was up 7% year-over-year, driven by the strong adjusted EBITDA growth and lower interest expense, partially offset by higher tax expense and operating depreciation and amortization. We generated operating cash flow of approximately $86 million during the first half of the year and returned cash to shareholders through $6.4 million in dividends and $3.7 million of share repurchases. Our liquidity remains strong at approximately $485 million as of June 30. Let me now provide an update on Puerto Rico, beginning on Slide 5. Merchant Acquiring revenue grew 4% year-over-year, driven by an improvement in spread as we continue to benefit from pricing initiatives implemented in the prior year and sales volume growth. Payment Services Puerto Rico also grew 4% year-over-year, driven by the strong performance in ATH Móvil, primarily ATH business as well as POS transaction growth. ATH Móvil revenue grew 17% year-over-year. Business Solutions revenue also grew 4%, primarily driven by projects completed in the prior year, mainly for Popular and an increase in IT consulting services. The overall economic condition in Puerto Rico continues to remain stable. The unemployment rate remains near multi-decade lows of about 5.2%. Passenger traffic in the San Juan Airport remained strong, up approximately 11% year-over-year through April. Moving to Latin America on Slide 6. Revenue increased 15% year-over-year or 20% on a constant currency basis, driven by continued organic growth across the region and the contribution from the Grandata and Nubity acquisitions. Our pipeline remains as active as it's ever been, and we are confident in our ability to convert some of these opportunities into wins over the next quarters. Last quarter, I made a few comments regarding the tariff discussions. And while we still remain vigilant of the potential tariffs that might be imposed in the countries in which we operate, to date, we have not identified a direct impact on our results of operations. Before I turn the call over to Joaquin, I would like to note that our Board of Directors approved a refresh of our share repurchase program, authorizing the company to repurchase up to an aggregate of $150 million of shares of its common stock through December 31, 2026. I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead for EVERTEC, and our share repurchase program provides another avenue for capital allocation while allowing us to continue and invest in the business for long-term growth. With that, I will now turn the call over to Joaquin to provide deeper commentary around our second quarter results and discuss our increased outlook for 2025.

Thank you, Mac, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to Slide 8, I'll start with a review of our second quarter results. Total revenue for the quarter was $229.6 million, up approximately 8% compared to the prior year quarter, reflecting strong organic growth across all the company segments and the contribution from acquisitions completed in the fourth quarter of 2024. Constant currency revenue was up 10% in the quarter, with most of the headwind coming from the Brazilian real. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $92.6 million, up approximately 8% from last year, with a margin of 40.3%, a decrease of 30 basis points from a year ago, but in line with our expectations. The decline was mainly a result of last year's margin being positively impacted by highly accretive one-time revenues in our Business Solutions segment. Adjusted net income was $57.7 million, an increase of approximately 7% year-over-year, driven by the growth in adjusted EBITDA and lower cash interest expense, a function of the lower SOFR rates in comparison to the prior year and the effect of the Term Loan B repricing efforts executed last year. This was partially offset by a higher tax expense with our effective tax rate for the quarter coming in at 7.1% and higher operating depreciation and amortization expense. As expected, our effective tax rate has been increasing slightly as we find ways to lower our interest expense, which drives certain tax efficiencies and also as our EBITDA in LatAm and higher tax jurisdictions continues to grow. Adjusted EPS was $0.89, an increase of approximately 7% from the prior year, driven by higher adjusted net income. Moving to Slide 9. I will now cover our second quarter results by segment, beginning with Merchant Acquiring. Net revenue increased approximately 4% year-over-year to $47.3 million as we continue to see benefits from a higher spread and positive sales volume growth. As discussed in previous calls, we have now anniversaried most of the pricing initiatives implemented in the prior year. We also saw lower gas prices this past quarter, which impacted sales volume growth negatively, but this was offset by an increase in government-related payments related to tax returns. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $20 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42.3%, an increase of approximately 200 basis points from the previous year as we drive revenue growth through improvements in spread. This effect was partially offset by higher processing costs as we saw higher overall transactions as a result of a lower average ticket. On Slide 10 are the results for the Payment Services, Puerto Rico and Caribbean segment. Revenue in the quarter was $56.4 million, an increase of approximately 4% from the prior year. The revenue increase was primarily driven by sales volume and transaction growth in ATH Móvil business as well as 5% POS transaction growth. This was partially offset by a decrease in services provided to the Latin America segment, mainly as a result of lower transactions processed due to customer attrition. Adjusted EBITDA was $33 million, up approximately 5% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 58.5%, an increase of approximately 70 basis points from the prior year. The increase in margin is driven mainly by revenue growth and expense management. On Slide 11 are the results for Latin America Payments & Solutions. Revenue in the quarter was $86.1 million, up approximately 15% year-over-year or approximately 20% on a constant currency basis. We experienced organic growth across the region and continue to benefit from strong performance in the GetNet Chile relationship and the continued re-acceleration in Brazil, offset by attrition impacts in the quarter, mainly related to the MELI relationship. The segment also benefited from Grandata and Nubity, the two acquisitions we completed in the fourth quarter of last year, both of which continue to perform as expected or better. Adjusted EBITDA was $23.3 million, an increase of approximately 33% from the prior year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 27.1%, up approximately 370 basis points. The margin increase was driven by the higher revenues, expense management initiatives, and a positive impact on margin from the MELI attrition that was coming in at lower margins than average. Moving to Slide 12. Our Business Solutions segment revenue increased approximately 4% to $64.5 million. The increase is due primarily to the tailwind from projects that went into production last year and an increase in IT consulting services. We are lapping a key project this quarter, and the second key project that went into production will be lapped next quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $26 million, down approximately 13% from a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA margin was down approximately 750 basis points from the prior year to 40.3%. Margin is down year-over-year as our prior year margins were positively impacted by the effect of a highly accretive nonrecurring project that was recognized. Moving to Slide 13, you will see a summary of our corporate and other expenses. Corporate and other adjusted EBITDA was negative $9.8 million in the quarter or 4.3% of total revenue, which is lower than the expected 5% as we see some of the benefits from expense management initiatives we have implemented. Moving on to our cash flow overview for the first half of 2025 on Slide 13. Net cash from operating activities was $86.1 million. Capital expenditures were $42.7 million through the second quarter, in line with our plan for $85 million for the year. We paid down approximately $16.8 million in debt, paid approximately $8.9 million in withholding taxes on share-based compensation, returned approximately $10 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, and exercised our option in the prior quarter to acquire the remaining non-controlling interest in a Sinqia subsidiary for approximately $5.2 million. We repurchased approximately 102,000 shares of our common stock during the quarter for approximately $3.7 million. And as Mac mentioned, our Board of Directors refreshed and extended our share repurchase program back to $150 million authorized for repurchase through December 31, 2026. Our ending cash balance, excluding cash in settlement assets, was approximately $314.4 million, an increase of $16.1 million from the year ended 2024. Moving to Slide 15. Our net debt position at quarter-end was $673.6 million, which includes $964.2 million in total long and short-term debt, offset by $290.6 million of unrestricted cash. Our weighted average interest rate was approximately 6.55%, a decrease of approximately 60 basis points from the second quarter of 2024. Our net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA was approximately 1.95x, down from 2.28x a year ago. As of June 30, our total liquidity, which excludes restricted cash and includes borrowing capacity, was $484.5 million, up approximately $33 million from a year ago. Now I will turn to Slide 16 for commentary on our updated 2025 outlook. We now expect revenues to be between $901 million and $909 million, representing growth of 6.6% to 7.6%. This is a result of Q2 overperformance and an improvement in foreign currency incorporated throughout the rest of the year, reflecting the improvement of the Brazilian currency this past quarter. On a constant currency basis, we expect growth of 7.8% to 8.7% year-over-year and above our prior constant currency range of 6.8% to 7.7%. Adjusted EPS is now expected to grow between 4.8% and 7% from the $3.28 reported for 2024, higher than our previous assumption of 2.4% to 5.2% growth. We continue to assume an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39.5% to 40.5% and adjusted effective tax rate of 6% to 7%. I will now walk you through some of the key underlying assumptions that we considered in arriving at the outlook, beginning with revenue expectations for our business segments. For Merchant Acquiring, we continue to expect mid-single-digit growth in 2025 as we anniversary some of the pricing initiatives implemented last year and approach tougher year-over-year comparables. In Payments Puerto Rico and Caribbean, we now expect low to mid-single-digit growth as we continue to benefit from strong ATH Móvil growth, partially offset by processing services with the LatAm segment and partial impact from the Q4 discount to Popular. For Payments Latin America, we continue to expect low double-digit growth as we continue to rely on strong organic growth across the region and the impact from M&A, offset by the headwind of foreign currency, mainly in Brazil. On a constant currency basis, we expect growth in the low to mid-teens. We are now seeing most of the impact from MELI reflected in our numbers. And as a reminder, we will anniversary both the Grandata and Nubity acquisitions in Q4. Finally, in Business Solutions, we continue to expect low single-digit revenue growth for the full year, mainly as a result of the 10% discount to Popular MSA services in the fourth quarter, which, as mentioned previously, amounts to approximately $18 million annualized or about $4 million per quarter. Now turning to overall margin. The 10% Popular discount that we have previously discussed will begin to impact our revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2025 by approximately $4 million. The cost initiatives put in place to offset this impact continue to progress as planned, and this was reflected in our Q2 margin. We continue to expect a gradual improvement in overall margin in the third quarter and then a reset lower in the fourth quarter as the discount takes effect, netting out to the 39.5% to 40.5% margin expected for the full year. We continue to expect an adjusted tax rate of 6% to 7% and CapEx of approximately $85 million for 2025. We expect to return cash to shareholders via dividends and repurchases. In summary, we had a strong first half of the year and are on track to deliver strong top-line growth in 2025 with improved margins. We look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year and hope to see some of you at conferences over the next few months.

Our first question comes from Vasu Govil of KBW.

Mac, maybe first for you. Sinqia, that had been a strategic focus for the company for the last several quarters. And you laid out four or five different initiatives around tech modernization, repricing, etc. And obviously, you seem to be reaping the benefits of those initiatives as Brazil is getting better. But maybe you could just remind us what innings you are in with each of those initiatives? I know some of them will be ongoing, but just looking for some sort of update on what progress has been made.

Sure. Thanks, Vasu, for the question. So as you know, I mean, the entire segment grew double digits this quarter, and we're incredibly pleased with that. And there are three components. One is Sinqia, which actually outperformed our expectations for the quarter. The legacy business, which performed in line with what we expected and then the acquisitions performed incredibly well. So if you look at all three parts of that segment, they performed at or above our expectations. To your question, Sinqia was a significant amount of focus for us as we integrated that acquisition through a couple of initiatives. One was, again, really focusing on customers and modernizing our technology. So that's a multi-year sort of initiative, but we modernized the technologies and the platforms first where we thought we could get the most revenue in the short amount of time. So we're seeing that flow through the numbers, and we think that will flow into the rest of the year and into '26. But that will be a multi-year project where we modernize our platforms, we're able to change pricing and then we are also able to grow with our customers. Then we also did a repricing in general. So beyond just the modernization, we looked at some of these legacy contracts and went back to are we priced below market? Can we change it again so we can grow the market? And so with those revenue synergies, we did the repricing, and we're seeing the benefits of that this year and again into next year. And then margin optimization. We've taken a very close look at margins. We're managing those. As you can see, we don't break out Brazil separately, but the margins for the segment were pretty good. But all these initiatives, we're seeing the sort of benefits of those this quarter, and that was why we saw the strength in the quarter, and we think that will carry out through the rest of the year.

Great. That was great color. And then maybe a quick one for you, Joaquin. Just on the outlook, the second half outlook also looks to be better than initially thought. And I think some of it is just FX headwinds are lower. But just if you were to think about the underlying trends, I know you called out some headwinds from gas prices in the quarter. But other than that, it seems macro is fine. How are you guys thinking about any impact from tariffs in the back half? Just sort of what's baked into the second half from expectations going into the year? Is it better or worse? And then from a macro perspective, what are you baking in?

I mean I think in general, it's better, right? I think the first half has been very, very good, and LatAm has, in general, exceeded expectations. What I would say to give a little bit more color in terms of what we're thinking, right, to your point, if we look at Merchant Acquiring, we're kind of lapping some of these pricing initiatives that have been a tailwind for us. So we won't necessarily have, let's say, that push going into the second half. And that's, I would say, what's driving the second half of that guidance. In general, when it comes to tariffs, I think more generally, on the low end of our guidance, we have, as we did last quarter, kind of included some conservatism just to give ourselves some space given the uncertainty. But again, nothing substantial in terms of how we're expected to perform for the full year. When we look at Payments Puerto Rico, I would say we continue to expect performance relatively similar to what we saw this past quarter, except that in Q4, part of the Popular discount will have some effect in that segment. So that will, again, kind of slow down in Q4. And when we look at Latin America, I think there's two key things. One, we kind of called out in the prepared remarks, we're going to anniversary the two acquisitions in the fourth quarter. But as a reminder, in Q3 of last year, we also had an important catch-up related to GetNet that amounted to about $1.8 million that we won't have this year. So that also kind of contributes to, let's say, our guidance for the second half. In the case of Business Solutions, again, what I would say is similar performance, except that in Q4, the full effect of the discount, which is mainly impacting Business Solutions is going to get, let's say, reflected in the numbers. So I hope that adds a little bit more detail as to how we're thinking about it.

Our next question comes from Nate Svensson of Deutsche Bank.

Guys, nice result. Mac, you mentioned an active pipeline that you think should lead to new business wins. I was hoping you could give a little more color on that. Maybe what areas of the business are getting you excited within the pipeline? And then has there been any change in tenor, tone, or tenor of these conversations that you're having? Like I know across the industry as a whole, we've talked about delayed decision-making, especially post the April tariff announcement. So just wondering if you've seen anything like that or any color you can give there?

No. I would say that we have a very active organic pipeline. We announced Grupo Aval a couple of calls ago, and we're very enthusiastic about some additional opportunities we expect to announce this year. We don't see clients pulling back due to the noise around tariffs. Financial institutions are making long-term decisions to upgrade or change their technology to grow their issuing or acquiring portfolios. We haven't really seen an impact on the demand we are currently addressing. We'll announce the deals as they materialize, but we're very optimistic about our pipeline.

That's great to hear. The other thing that I think stood out was just the strength in ATH Móvil. I think you mentioned that revenue growth of 17% seems incredibly strong. Could you unpack that a little bit? What is driving that really healthy growth? Is it macro factors, changes in consumer or merchant demand? Any strategic initiatives on your side that you're pushing?

Honestly, Nate, there's a little bit of everything there. I think we continue to take advantage of cash pockets just in the Puerto Rico economy and ATH Móvil, given the usage and the network effect that it has in Puerto Rico, given almost two million users, it is really impactful for businesses of all sizes. And so originally, ATH business, which we kind of envisioned as being something for small businesses, has really become something more universal in medium-sized businesses, even in some cases, larger businesses are looking for ways to use that sort of contactless technology. And so we're seeing just more volume and more businesses signing up.

Our next question comes from Cris Kennedy of William Blair.

Can you just talk a little bit more about Sinqia, historically they've done a lot of acquisitions? And how has that engendered the possibility of you doing acquisitions with the Sinqia asset?

Yes. So Cris, we were really focused after the acquisition on integrating Sinqia and making sure that it was operating well, make sure that the current business they have, we're getting the growth rate back to where we wanted it. During that time, we've still been actively looking at deals in Brazil. We probably have a deeper understanding of that market than any other market because at the depth of customers, they've already had an M&A function just focused on that market. So we have a very good purview. And as opportunities arise, we're highly confident that we can roll those into Brazil, that operation now that it's growing at the rate that we would like it to. I would just add on, we're still looking at stuff across the region. So if you think about Grandata and Nubity, both of those were in Mexico. So we're looking across the region, but we are extremely excited about looking at things in Brazil, and we have a confidence level now, it's a good time going forward to add things that we can find.

Great. And then just a follow-up. You mentioned Mexico, it seems like a big opportunity for you. Can you just talk about your priorities in Mexico?

Yes, our initial priority has been focused on issuing in Mexico. We are actively engaging with various clients and exploring opportunities there, in addition to integrating Grandata and Nubity. The capabilities that Grandata offers are unique and have enabled us to start conversations with other institutions in the market. We recognize the importance of Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Costa Rica. However, we will continue to prioritize Mexico moving forward, as our presence there is not as strong as in some other markets. We are actively seeking opportunities and having productive discussions.

Our next question comes from John Davis of Raymond James.

Mac, I just wanted to follow-up on a comment you just made on Sinqia. I think you said it was kind of back where you wanted it to be. I just want to confirm that. And I assume that, that means it's back to kind of the healthy, not putting a number on it, high single, low double-digit growth rate that you thought it could be or it was when you acquired it. So it was kind of come full circle, it decelerated and you're happy with the rate of growth there. Is that fair?

Yes, it exceeded our expectations for the quarter. As we mentioned earlier in response to Vasu's question, after acquiring the company, we focused on integrating it while also working to restore its growth rate. We made several changes and are very pleased with its performance. As I mentioned, it outperformed our expectations for the quarter.

Okay. And then I assume kind of an earlier question, I just want to frame it a little bit differently. I know you guys don't guide by quarter, but you said that 2Q was better than you expected, but it looks like the full year was raised by more than kind of the '2Q upside.' So it sounds like maybe Sinqia, you expect to continue. Like anything else that was better in the quarter that you also expect to continue to kind of outpace your initial expectations in the back half of the year?

John, so this is Joaquin. I mean, look, as Mac said before, I think we have pretty much the three key buckets in LatAm performing at a really high level, meaning Brazil, meaning our organic business in, let's say, the legacy Bay region plus M&A. So we're expecting that to continue. We do have included in that guide a slight improvement in foreign currency that is flowing through as well. But we will anniversary some of the M&A going into Q4. So I mean, nothing else really to highlight.

Okay. Last one on M&A. Mac, balance sheet is in really good shape, back under 2x. How do you think about the M&A pipeline? Anything exciting? Do you feel like you're far enough on the other side of Sinqia to do something more material? Or should we consider more deals like Grandata and Nubity?

We are not particularly focused on a significant transformational deal like Sinqia. However, our balance sheet is in good shape, and we have a robust pipeline. M&A will continue to play a crucial role in our growth strategy. You can expect us to pursue deals, whether they are larger or smaller, but generally within a similar scale.

Our next question comes from James Friedman of Susquehanna.

Let me echo the congratulations. Mac, the first one is for you. I'm curious, how would you articulate what you see as your competitive advantage in Latin America? Is it your technology advantage? Or is it your industry knowledge and experience? When you go to market in Latin America, I know it's a big place with a lot of different products. But if you had to summarize what gives EVERTEC the right to win down there?

I would start with our technology, which has evolved significantly over the past decade. Previously, we lacked proprietary technology in many markets, but now we have our own developed software that we can customize for customers and implement quickly. This capability is unique, and our technology is deployed with some of the largest companies in the region, proving its effectiveness. We also localize our solutions for each market. The next advantage is our expertise. When partners approach us about merchant acquiring, they often seek to move on from outdated processors in their countries. We have the knowledge to guide them on how to operate a merchant acquiring business, manage pricing, enhance customer acquisition, and establish the business effectively. Additionally, we are a public company that generates considerable EBITDA, instilling confidence in our partners. Being publicly regulated means that our operations are trustworthy, particularly when it comes to compliance and cybersecurity. Lastly, we have a strong presence in each country where we operate, with a workforce capable of working directly with clients. Our developers speak Spanish, and we don’t rely on distant teams; we have a local team in each country to support our partners effectively.

Our next question comes from James Faucette of Morgan Stanley.

Just on Merchant Acquiring, amidst the macro uncertainty throughout this year, it looks like consumer spend trends have held up pretty well. But just wondering if there's anything to call out in terms of category of spend changes and what trends have looked like through the early part of July?

In terms of patterns to highlight, we haven't pinpointed anything specific related to the tariffs. What we did mention is that gas prices have impacted our sales volume in the gas segment, primarily due to falling gas prices. On a positive note, we experienced strong volume in government payments owing to tax return season. Overall, the consumer remains quite resilient, and we haven't observed significant changes in other key areas of our portfolio.

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

I want to thank everybody for joining the call. I want to thank my colleagues for a great quarter, and we look forward to seeing you guys at conferences throughout the quarter. Good night.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.