Earnings Call Transcript
NCR Atleos Corp (NATL)
Earnings Call Transcript - NATL Q1 2025
Operator, Operator
Good day, and welcome to the NCR Atleos First Quarter FY '25 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Brendan Metrano, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Brendan Metrano, Head of Investor Relations
Good morning, and thank you for joining the Atleos First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Joining me on the call today are Tim Oliver, CEO; Andy Wamser, CFO; and Stuart MacKinnon, COO. Tim will start this morning with an overview of the company's business performance and strategic progress in the first quarter. Andy will follow with a review of our financial results and our outlook for the second quarter and full year. Then we'll move to Q&A. Before we get started, let me remind you that our presentation and discussions will include forward-looking statements, which are often expressed by words such as may, will, include, expect, and other words of similar meaning. These statements reflect our current expectations and beliefs and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expectations. These risks and uncertainties are described in today's materials and our periodic filings with the SEC, including our annual report. Also, in our review of results today, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which the company uses to measure its performance. These non-GAAP measures are described and reconciled to their GAAP counterparts in the presentation materials and on the Investor Relations website. A replay of this call will be available later today on our website, investor.ncratleos.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Tim.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Thank you, Brendan, and thank you to everyone for joining us on this call this morning. I'll start this morning by reinforcing the compelling Atleos investment thesis, describing a successful start to our 2025 and providing some company-specific context for the current uncertain business climate. Andy will then walk you through the more detailed financial results, and then we'll both take your questions. Since separating from legacy NCR through a spin transaction in late 2023, Atleos is now a pure-play independent company with a leadership position in self-service banking and a clear growth strategy. Atleos has an installed and service fleet of approximately 600,000 ATMs, including approximately 80,000 machines that we own and operate in our own network. In a global environment that continues to demonstrate steady cash-based consumer transactions and a stable base of installed ATM hardware, our growth will come from generating more revenue for every Atleos machine that we support, whether that's from providing higher quality, more efficient, and more comprehensive services to our financial institution clients or by driving more transaction volume across our owned network machines located in blue-chip retail locations. Both of these strategies are fueled by our customers' desire to improve financial access for their customers while outsourcing more of their cash ecosystem. And both growth vectors leverage a common Atleos infrastructure that is unmatched in scale and is world-class. So starting on Chart 6. Revenue was in line with our plan with growth from the more strategic parts of our business offsetting lower non-core separation-related revenue from our former parent company, Voyix, some regulatory changes, and lower volumes at our Bitcoin business, LibertyX, and the timing of hardware revenue, which will grow nicely across the remainder of the year. From a profitability perspective, a more lucrative revenue mix, coupled with direct productivity efforts in our service organization pushed margins up almost 3 points overall. Operationally, nearly all of our customer KPIs are moving in the right direction, and our service levels remain at post-spin highs. We exited Q1 with an order book for hardware that is very strong and an increasing backlog for new service revenues. Our productivity initiatives are on pace to deliver the targeted savings levels, and our contingency planning efforts are beginning to recover some of the profitability we expect to lose to tariffs. I'd like to take a minute to describe Atleos's exposure to what we know now about tariffs and what could be second-order effects of a global trade rebalancing. Because we are a global company with a preponderance of our revenue coming from recurring services, our tariff exposure is generally limited to ATM hardware and replacement or repair parts produced overseas and then imported into the U.S. Those goods represented less than 7% of our total costs in 2024. Going forward, about 90% of the hardware is going to be imported to the U.S. from India, with the remainder split between Hungary and Mexico. We do also have a small tail of parts from China that we are looking to locally source in India. Beyond the direct and easier-to-calculate cost of tariffs, we are also watching closely the potential follow-on effects of tariffs on global consumer behavior, on bank and retailer capital spending, on interest rates or currency and exchange rates, and on the potential for reciprocal tariffs. Andy will walk you through the gross impact of tariffs and discuss the contingency actions we are taking to reduce that net impact. In past challenging economic environments, our business has proved to be very resilient. Over 70% of Atleos revenue is generated from recurring services and software streams that facilitate essential customer transactions for financial institutions and other partners. In addition, in periods of economic uncertainty, cash usage often increases due to tighter credit conditions and consumer budget pressures. And our strategy to grow our share of a continuum of ATM service revenues with comprehensive outsourcing capabilities could have a more compelling value proposition when banks are looking to enhance efficiency. On our year-end 2024 call, I introduced 3 primary Atleos goals for 2025 that are appropriately broad to allow for increasing specificity down through our organization. These 3 goals provide a framework for prioritization and ensure organizational alignment for our 2025 objectives. I'll refer to them again as I describe successes in each of our business segments later. The first is to grow efficiently. Accelerating growth while we reduce leverage to targeted levels requires judicious allocation of growth capital and operating expense. We're emphasizing the growth vectors that drive the most immediate returns and are accretive to margin and cash generation. The second is to develop a service-first culture. We believe service, not product, is the primary differentiating factor in the ATM industry and in the cash ecosystem. Service already makes up a preponderance of the revenue base and carries higher margins. As our strategic plan plays out, service revenue opportunities will outpace the underlying market growth dynamic. Every customer interaction should start with a conversation about solutions. Gaining share of wallet through outsourced services requires a deep customer trust that can only be achieved through sustained customer excellence and leading service performance. Our 24/7 always-on customer service mindset is essential to our long-term success. And finally, we will embrace simplicity. The complexity we inherited from our former life as part of a larger legacy NCR is unnecessary and inefficient. Investment in modern systems, improvement in processes, and organizational redesign that reduces layers and handoffs will extricate us from our former parent and make us more nimble, make our employees' jobs more rewarding, and make us much easier to do business with. I will illustrate progress on each of these overarching goals as I walk through the segment results. Moving to Slide 7 and the Self-Service Banking business review. This is primarily a service business comprised of a global installed base of over 500,000 ATMs that we sell to financial institutions with a software subscription and a service and support agreement. Traditionally, those services have been centered on maintenance and repairs, but increasingly, banks are opting to outsource more of their other services necessary to run the ATM to us. And for the eighth year running, this business was named the global ship share leader for the ATM industry. First quarter financial results were either in line or slightly ahead of our expectations. Revenue grew modestly on a constant currency basis. Combined services and software revenue grew 6%, which translated to similar growth for our recurring revenue streams. ATM as a Service was the primary source of service growth with good sequential and year-over-year gains in revenue, the number of customers, and backlog. While hardware revenue was down year-over-year in Q1, hardware will post strong growth across the remainder of the year with a higher refresh replacement cycle of orders and strong incremental demand for our recycler product. Favorable revenue mix combined with cost productivity generated more than 300 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year. Moving to the bottom of the page, Q1 is an important quarter for our reinvigorated innovation efforts. Our prototype machines and technologies have been installed in 2 of our locations and have received hundreds of customer visits. We held our first North American multi-day customer event and launched our customer feedback panels that allow us to reflect customer preference in further development and inject their strategic needs into our labs. While our service-first initiative is just getting started, we are already seeing returns. A more robust set of key performance indicators is allowing a more refined approach to incremental improvement. In Q1, we extended our market-leading service levels and set new highs in customer service quality. Our customers are already rewarding us with add-on orders that are additive to our installed base or have gained more share of wallet. And finally, our AI-driven dispatch and service optimization model is completing a very successful test run in Canada and is now ready for global rollout. Moving to the network on Slide 8. The Network segment is our utility banking business, which consists of approximately 80,000 owned and operated ATMs located in blue-chip retail locations. The network business continues to grow the number of network cardholders, is now in 13 countries, and is expanding the capability of its installed base. First quarter financial results were generally in line with our expectations. From a revenue perspective, we experienced typical seasonality, some lower transaction volumes in the U.K., and some decline in cross-border or travel-related transactions. And we anticipated the further erosion in the LibertyX Bitcoin transaction revenue due to regulatory changes. Allpoint cash withdrawals grew modestly, and cash deposits continue to ramp quickly. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by more than 140 basis points, and ARPU continued to increase sequentially and year-over-year, hitting another new high. Moving to the bottom of this page. This business signed 7-Eleven to the Allpoint network, adding thousands of convenient and safe locations for our 75 million cardholders to conduct their daily banking. We also signed a partnership in the U.K. to extend our deposit network there and added more deposit-enabled locations in the United States. The benefit of higher service levels also accrued to this business. Higher availability of our owned and operated machines means more foot traffic for our retail partners and more revenue for Atleos. And finally, we made our devices easier to interact with by expanding access to TAP-enabled machines. We're also implementing upgraded and modern ERP modules that will improve our invoicing and collections capabilities. Back in March, we provided guidance that reflected only what we knew at the time, including the then pending tariffs on imports from Mexico. Since then, a lot has happened. Uncertainty has increased significantly, and many companies have suspended their guidance waiting for a clear line of sight. That said, we believe Atleos, through pricing actions, supply chain adjustments, and indirect cost productivity, can absorb the net effect of the tariffs and remain inside the guided ranges we provided back in March. Andy will give you more details on that next. But before I hand off to Andy, I want to recognize the 20,000-strong Atleos team for their performance this quarter and a great start to 2025. We were not distracted by the most recent and a long string of uncertain business environments but rather embraced the opportunity and began developing solutions. With your collective effort, we will lead our industry from the front and deliver strong 2025 results. With that, Andy, over to you.
Andy Wamser, CFO
Thank you, Tim. Building on Tim's comments, we are off to a solid start for 2025 with the first quarter essentially playing out as we expected. Starting on Slide 10. The key takeaway from this slide is that the top line trends remain solid in our key strategic businesses that will drive profitable growth and value for shareholders. I will focus my comments on core results because the wind down of Voyix-related business had a meaningful impact on year-over-year growth in the first quarter. The impact of Voyix steps down in the second quarter and lessens progressively throughout the balance of the year. First quarter core revenue was $966 million, just slightly less than the prior year period on a constant currency basis and in line with our outlook. Our core services and software businesses grew a healthy 4% year-over-year on a constant currency basis, led by strong growth in ATM as-a-Service and software. ATM network transaction services were flat on a constant currency basis. Hardware was down year-over-year as planned, reflecting a skew in first-half deliveries to the second quarter. Note that we expect combined first and second quarter 2025 hardware revenue will grow mid-single digits compared to the first half of 2024. The growth in services and software revenue, in conjunction with lower hardware drove recurring revenue mix to 75% for the first quarter for our core businesses. The T&T segment, which comprises less than 5% of the total business, was down year-over-year and in line with plan. And as a reminder, we manage this segment for profit, and it does enhance the scale of our service operations. Moving to Slide 11. Top line growth in our higher-margin recurring businesses, coupled with good early progress on productivity initiatives drove 9% growth in adjusted EBITDA, or 11% on a constant currency basis to $175 million. The primary source of EBITDA growth was the Self-Service Banking segment. Network EBITDA was up modestly and was offset by a decrease in T&T and incremental corporate costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 270 basis points from the prior year to 17.9%, illustrating the tremendous earnings power of our strategy to drive incremental high-margin service revenue from our installed base of 600,000 devices. Below the line, net interest expense decreased $11 million compared to the prior year, benefiting from a lower debt balance, lower variable rates, and lower credit spreads achieved in our credit facility refinancing late last year. The other expense line increased $3 million year-over-year. The non-GAAP effective tax rate was approximately 28% for the first quarter compared to 27% in the prior year. Non-GAAP fully diluted earnings per share increased an impressive 56% year-over-year to $0.64. As anticipated, we did not generate positive free cash in the first quarter due to working capital associated with the ramp in hardware deliveries planned for the second quarter and was in line with our expectations. Turning to Slide 12. Self-Service Banking had another strong quarter with results that were in line with our expectations. Starting in the upper left, revenue grew 1% year-over-year on a constant currency basis to $624 million. The primary growth driver was 6% growth for combined software and services revenues, partially offset by a shift in the timing of hardware deliveries from the first to the second quarter. In addition, the impact of deferred hardware revenue included in new ATM-as-a-Service agreements reduced segment revenue growth by around 100 basis points. In the chart on the top right, the key takeaway is the impressive year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA and margin expansion that we delivered in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 14% year-over-year to $153 million, and margin expanded 320 basis points to 24.5%. At a high level, margin expansion was due to higher gross margins in each of our business lines, most notably 150 basis points of expansion in services, combined with the mix shift towards services and software. Key accretive developments within our businesses included solid revenue growth in high-margin software and ATM-as-a-Service revenues and net cost savings from productivity initiatives. Tariffs had a minimal negative net impact in the quarter of approximately $2 million. Moving to the bottom of the slide, KPIs remained on a positive trajectory in the first quarter. The mix of recurring revenue was 64%, up approximately 200 basis points year-over-year. ARR was up 2% year-over-year, reflecting the continued build in services and software revenue from our existing installed base. Next is Slide 13 and our ATM-as-a-Service outsourcing business. As a reminder, our Bank Outsourcing Solutions business resides within our Self-Service Banking segment. Advancing our customers through the continuum towards full outsourcing is a strategic priority for the company. Therefore, we present key operational metrics separately to help investors better understand and track our progress. Referring to the top left of the slide, revenue grew 24% year-over-year to $57 million for the first quarter. We continue to build momentum in this area as we onboarded new customers and expanded into new markets. The strong momentum we've built over the past year is highlighted by a 44% increase in unique customer count compared to the prior year period. On the right, you can see the impressive profitability of the outsourcing model with 24% top-line growth translating to 54% gross profit growth and over 700 basis points of gross margin expansion to 38%. Moving to the bottom of the slide, KPIs also demonstrate the positive trajectory of the business. On the left, ARR continued to increase sequentially in the first quarter and was up 26% year-over-year to $230 million. We finished the quarter with a strong backlog and sales pipeline to support reaching 40% growth for the year. On the right, you can see the healthy revenue uplift we generate from our ATM-as-a-Service business with first-quarter ARPU of $8,400. ARPU ticked down modestly in the first quarter, which was influenced by a higher mix of asset-light customers onboarded in recent quarters. Such fluctuations are expected because the base is relatively small, so several variables like region, scope, and timing of onboarding can impact ARPU for the quarter. Over the longer term, it should continue to trend upward from growth in higher ARPU regions like North America and Europe. Moving to the Networks segment on Slide 14. First quarter results were in line with our expectations. Segment revenue of $299 million was down 4% year over year on a reported basis. Excluding the effect of currency headwinds and the Liberty Crypto business, our ATM network revenue was essentially unchanged compared to the prior year. Digging into business results, cash withdrawal transactions were approximately 3.5% lower than the prior year, primarily driven by a high single-digit decrease in the U.K. On a positive note, we outperformed broader U.K. withdrawal trends, suggesting we gained share in the market. Our Allpoint network continued to generate solid withdrawal volumes and grew transactions in the low single digits year-over-year in the first quarter. We also generated strong top-line trends from sources other than withdrawals, helping to diversify the business and support future growth. Deposit transactions increased more than 200% year-over-year and 9% sequentially, and branding revenues increased 10% year-over-year. Moving to the upper right, adjusted EBITDA of $88 million was at the high end of our expectations and grew low single digits year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 29% and expanded approximately 150 basis points year-over-year, benefiting from a mix shift to more profitable transactions and lower SG&A and R&D expenses. The metrics at the bottom of the slide highlight key elements of our strategy. The chart on the left shows our last 12-month average revenue per unit continued to move higher sequentially and was up 5% year-over-year in the first quarter. On the right, you can see our ATM portfolio finished the quarter at approximately 77,000 units with year-over-year decreases about evenly split between our two largest markets in the U.S. and the U.K. The reductions in the U.S. were a combination of our optimization plans and pharmacy partners closing low-performing stores that also had less productive ATM locations for us. Our analysis suggests that this had limited impact on our transaction volumes. The reductions in the U.K. were also a combination of internal optimization plans and retail partners rationalizing their footprint. Looking forward, we expect the number of ATM network units to increase in 2025 through the addition of both new retail partners and geographies. This is evidenced by the recently announced partnership with FCTI 7-Eleven that our leading utility banking platform is increasingly a sought-after partner in the broader payments and cash ecosystem. Slide 15 presents a trending product-centric view of our results. This helps visualize how the complementary nature of our businesses create a company that operates in attractive, growing, and highly profitable markets. Most notably, it reinforces that Atleos is primarily a services business that generates recurring streams of revenue and profit rather than a hardware company with cyclical sales associated with refresh cycles. Second, the trends demonstrate that our strategy is working. Our services, software, and transactional businesses have solid momentum with respect to both revenue and profit. As a reminder, the other Voyix operations represent legacy NCR Voyix exited geographies and commercial agreements between Atleos and NCR Voyix. We expect business results to continue to decline in these non-core operations. On Slide 16, we present a reconciliation of Q1 2025 free cash flow and a snapshot of our financial position at quarter end. We had a $23 million cash outflow for the first quarter to support our robust hardware delivery that is scheduled for the second quarter and is consistent with our plan for the year. We expect to generate positive free cash flow in each of the remaining quarters as adjusted EBITDA progressively builds throughout the year. Net leverage was 3.2x for the first quarter and was down approximately 0.4 of a turn compared to the prior year. We made $25 million of debt principal payments in the first quarter and finished with $2.9 billion of gross debt. Our unrestricted cash balance decreased by $67 million during the quarter and resulted in a net debt balance of just under $2.6 billion. Based on our financial outlook and capital allocation priorities, we expect net leverage to be less than 3x by the third quarter. Moving to Slide 17 for financial outlook. Given our solid first-quarter results and positive momentum heading into the second quarter, we have reaffirmed the full year 2025 guidance ranges presented earlier this year. On a related note, I'll add some perspective related to tariffs. First, this is clearly a very uncertain and fluid situation. As Tim noted, our tariff exposure primarily stems from hardware and parts produced in India, but our supply chain does have exposure to other countries. Hardware and replacement parts represent about 20% of our total revenue base, and about one-third of that is imported into the U.S. We are developing plans to mitigate the potential cost of the tariffs. If the current tariff proposals stand, we still believe we can deliver results within our 2025 guidance ranges, but probably in the lower half of the range. Recapping our full year 2025 guidance, we expect total company core revenue will grow 3% to 6% on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA to grow 7% to 10% on a constant currency basis, adjusted EPS to be in the range of $3.90 to $4.10, and free cash flow to be between $260 million and $300 million. We currently forecast that foreign currency will be approximately a 1% headwind to EBITDA. For the second quarter, we expect consolidated core revenue to grow in the low to mid-single-digit range, including a modest FX headwind. The Voyix-related impact on the top line should diminish further in the second quarter and result in low single-digit growth for the total company. We expect Self-Service Banking revenues should grow mid-single digits, benefiting from approximately 20% year-over-year growth in hardware and positive top-line growth for services and software. We expect network revenue should be flat year-over-year with growth in the core ATM network business, offset by lower Liberty Crypto revenues. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be between $190 million to $205 million, with margins in the mid-20s for Self-Service Banking, high 20s for Network, and low 20s for T&T. Below the line, interest expense should be similar to Q1. The effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 26%, and share count approximately 75 million. Putting the pieces together, we expect adjusted EPS to be in the range of $0.75 to $0.90. We expect positive free cash flow for the second quarter. Concluding my comments, Atleos is off to a successful start to 2025 with a strong first quarter that positions us well to achieve our plan for the year. We delivered solid financial results, great operational execution, and progress on our strategic priorities to grow efficiently, prioritize service, and embrace simplicity. We have reaffirmed our guidance for 2025 despite the external uncertainty and are developing plans to mitigate risks. We move forward with confidence in our approach and ability to drive profitable growth with our unmatched platform of ATM solutions for our customers, which will ultimately translate to shareholder value. With that, I will turn it back to the operator.
Operator, Operator
Our first question is from Matt Summerville from D.A. Davidson.
Matt Summerville, Analyst
A couple of questions. First, just on the Self-Service Banking business, looking at kind of the legacy hardware-driven piece of the company, can you give a little bit more color on overall backlog this year relative to last? And how much of this year is sort of spoken for from a hardware standpoint? And then on the as-a-service side of the business, in order to get to 40% growth for the year, that obviously implies a pretty big ramp through the remainder of the year. Can you help sort of paint a picture on how that ramp builds from here? And then I have a follow-up.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Matt, it's Tim. I'll give it a shot and then I'll let either Stuart or Andy jump in. First on hardware, I think it's going to be the best hardware year we've had since 2019. It's going to be a very good year from a hardware perspective for a couple of reasons. The replacement cycle is clearly giving us some lift lapping those 2019 units. And our product is supremely competitive. And while we may have been a little bit challenged a year or so ago, we're back, and our recycler demand is very strong. So I think we get to the end of the year, we're going to post probably 8% revenue growth on hardware, and that's after absorbing some of those machines into ATM-as-a-Service and into our own network. So from a unit perspective, it will be an exceptional year. As I said, I think it will be the best since 2019. So really good backlog, really good demand, and very good customer reaction to our product offering. On as-a-service, this is just like last year. There's a race at the end of the year to implement machines and onboard customers. We had a huge fourth quarter, as you'll remember, in terms of machines coming on board. And then you haven't inducted any or started the process and some of the others are focused on completion. And so you just start a little bit slow in the first quarter. Much like last year, implementations will ramp across the year, very similar, in fact, in pattern to how we did last year. So as much as I hate riding that cyclicality, we see it in hardware as well. The spend-it-or-lose-it mentality of customers, the annual planning cycle of customers, and frankly, our behaviors as we ramp up across the year just cause those 2 revenue streams to be somewhat back-end loaded.
Matt Summerville, Analyst
As a follow-up, could you spend a moment discussing the balance sheet? Leverage is relatively flat at 3.2, but in Q3, you expect it to be slightly below 3x. How does this influence your perspective on the timing of potential buybacks? Has your view on this changed since we last talked a few months ago?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, it continuously evolves due to feedback from investors and Board members, as well as changes in the world. I believe our main goal is to achieve consistent progress towards getting under 3x leverage. I definitely want to allocate every dollar of free cash flow we generate to reduce our leverage to that level, and I think we are now very close to achieving it. Our cash flow is somewhat back-end loaded due to the nature of our hardware, which I've mentioned before. I used some working capital in the first half of the year, which we'll recover in the second half. As a result, our free cash flow is slightly more back-end loaded than we anticipated about a year ago when we aimed for 3x leverage by mid-year. I might be off by about 30 to 60 days, but we will reach that target. In about 90 days, when we share our second quarter results in July, I will provide more details on how we plan to utilize our free cash flow going forward. I estimate that in 90 days, we'll have a second half free cash flow total around $300 million, likely between $250 million to $300 million. For the following year, I expect a free cash flow closer to $400 million. Thus, over the next six quarters, we'll have around $700 million in free cash flow, and I will be ready to discuss how to use it at that time. I do not see paying a dividend as the right option. I hope there will be growth opportunities that allow us to reinvest in acquisitions or fleet investments. However, a significant portion of excess free cash flow should be returned to shareholders, and I believe the best way to do that is through share repurchases. Although I don’t have any news to announce today, you can expect a more concrete update from us in 90 days.
Operator, Operator
And our next question comes from Dominick Gabriele from Compass Point.
Dominick Gabriele, Analyst
If you just think about the hardware impact to the quarter, just mixing to the second quarter and the second half. Is there any way to discuss the amount of hardware impact by the segments? And then I just have a follow-up.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Most of the hardware revenue we report will be reflected in the Self-Service Banking segment. In the Network segment, we do not recognize any hardware revenue because it is primarily an investment in property, plant, and equipment to support that business. If you refer to the free cash flow analysis provided by Andy, you can see that we invested about $10 million in the quarter back into property, plant, and equipment, which mainly involves replacing and upgrading our existing network fleet. Additionally, there is a $16 million figure that shows our investment in machines for the ATM-as-a-Service business. When discussing 2019, you may remember that the demand for hardware was the highest since then, especially since we did not have these figures from 2019 until 2022 and did not own Cardtronics at that time, which meant that was real revenue for us as an outside customer. That $10 million would have counted as revenue, which would actually be $12 million due to a 20% share from Stuart when he worked there, and the $16 million would have been recognized upfront as well. We expect strong unit performance, and the overall impact of refreshing the network and our investments in ATM-as-a-Service aligns well with our annual model. If you multiply those figures by four, you will be close to estimating the full-year impact. Additionally, you will see revenue growth in the hardware segment due to an increased number of machines manufactured and improved pricing for some of them. I hope this addresses your question.
Dominick Gabriele, Analyst
Yes, absolutely. No, that makes a ton of sense. And to me, it means the Self-Service Banking business really did do quite well this quarter, excluding that.
Tim Oliver, CEO
I'm thrilled. Here's the other thing before you leave that. I love what the hardware business did and is going to do, and the position they put us in, our engineers have put us in to be successful with a recycler. I'm very, very excited about that. The more important thing in the Self-Service Banking business is we're crushing it from a service perspective. We're hitting every objective for our customers. We're posting the best customer service levels we've posted in some time, and we're doing it at less expense. And so we're generating huge productivity and incremental revenue opportunities because of what that service organization is doing. Our CEs are killing it out there. We're giving them better tools. But I think the most exciting thing about this quarter, yes, hardware is fun, but our service business is hitting on all cylinders right now.
Dominick Gabriele, Analyst
Did you provide the backlog average unit sale price that you usually give in the thousands per unit? If not, would you mind sharing that information?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Our backlog in ATM-as-a-Service units has increased to approximately 7,500 units, and the average revenue per unit for those devices is significantly higher than the average of 8,200 that we reported. This gives us a solid backlog at the moment. However, the 8,200 units won't fully meet our targets for the year. We're also working on other orders that I believe will help us reach our internal unit goals and the revenue targets we've set.
Andy Wamser, CFO
And let me just add a little bit more color. So if I look at the backlog, it is up 25% year-over-year. And then when we think about the ARPU, it was down on an LTM basis, down $200. But when we think about it, that just had to do with timing in terms of when the units went into service. But if we look at that on a quarterly basis versus an LTM basis, ARPU was actually up 5% in the quarter, quarter-to-quarter. So what that says to us is that we're really optimistic about the ARPUs that we're getting from North America and Europe, and we would expect it to go up higher meaningfully. And the only, I would say, caveat to that is that we have significant deals in India, which could change that. But given the small base, there could be volatility, as I said in my comments.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes. We are optimistic about securing some deals in India. In the past, we have walked away from certain deals due to profitability concerns. Additionally, there have been instances where winning bidders were unable to fulfill their commitments, leading to those deals being reconsidered. We aim to be more competitive in lower-cost markets. By the end of the year or in the second half, you might hear about larger unit deals in regions where costs are lower. While these deals may not significantly improve average revenue per user and could even slightly reduce it, they will enhance our revenue and provide greater scale in those markets.
Dominick Gabriele, Analyst
Yes. The adjusted EBIT seems to indicate that adjusted EBITDA growth is at the higher end of your annual target, particularly considering some recent hardware changes. However, you mentioned that tariffs might bring you closer to the lower end of that range. Could you elaborate on this a bit more, if possible?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, I'll let Andy take this one. But remember that the tariffs didn't really impact the first quarter. I mean it was a couple of million bucks. We did see lower transaction volumes. I think actually was part of this whole tariff follow-on effect. But those would ramp across the year. And so any conservatism around guidance would not be associated with demand. It would be entirely tariff-related, and it will be related to as those tariffs roll on in Q2 through Q4. I don't know, Andy, if you want to give.
Andy Wamser, CFO
Sure. To help clarify, I mentioned that for hardware and parts, revenue could be around $850 million, assuming a 20% margin. This leads us to costs that could be subject to tariffs amounting to $680 million. However, only one-third of that would actually be affected by tariffs as it pertains to imports into the U.S., resulting in a base figure of about $225 million. Currently, much of this is coming from India, which has a 10% tariff rate. If we consider a blended rate of about 15% on the $225 million, this would translate to an annualized cost of around $34 million for the year. With three quarters remaining, this results in approximately a $25 million cost impact. That said, we are actively pursuing various productivity initiatives and are evaluating changes to our supply chain, especially for some of the less significant areas mentioned in China. Pricing is always part of our ongoing discussions.
Dominick Gabriele, Analyst
And I guess most of what you're saying about comes through cost of revenue, correct?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, it would. It would hit gross margin.
Operator, Operator
Our next question is going to come from Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel.
James Holmes, Analyst
This is James Holmes on for Shlomo. The ATM-as-a-Service customer count growth was quite strong in the quarter. Can you talk about what kind of customers you are adding and in which geographies was weighted to in the quarter? And then I have a follow-up.
Andy Wamser, CFO
In the first quarter, most of the customers we acquired were in areas that had a strong average revenue per user. Looking ahead for the rest of the year, our pipeline appears to be well-distributed across various regions, including APAC, India, and to some extent, Europe. Overall, it seems quite balanced.
James Holmes, Analyst
And can you also talk about what's driving the strength in ATM-as-a-Service gross profit? Is it just more weighting towards smaller customers, and those customers are more profitable or anything around that?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, that's absolutely correct. We've previously mentioned that the transactions or contracts in North America tend to enhance our profitability, often because they involve fewer machines. As a result, we need to secure wins of 100, 200, or 300 machines at a time in North America. When we achieve that, our cost structure becomes highly scalable, and we can provide substantial value to those customers. This dynamic allows for a bit more profit. In contrast, markets like India and Brazil require more competitive efforts, leading to tighter margins. To compete effectively, we must enhance our productivity. Generally speaking, securing 100 and 200 machines in North America will help set apart the margin rate in this business and contribute to upward pressure on overall margins. The margins from ATM-as-a-Service in India and Brazil are not significantly different from the margins obtained from merely selling the hardware. Thus, while this model adds to overall revenue, it does not impact the margin rate as significantly as it does in North America and Europe.
Andy Wamser, CFO
And the only thing I'd maybe just add is just because when we think about the ATM-as-a-Service, one, you saw the top line growth in terms of the mid-20s. But if you look at the flow-through in terms of just the margin expansion we had in terms of 700 basis points, I mean we're really impressed with that and with the leverage that we're getting into the business. I would say the second thing that I think is important as we mentioned the customer count. And so in terms of that customer count being up about 40%. And with that customer count, why that's important is we have a number of customers who are trying out the service and then potentially will expand. So we're not beholden. We don't have a customer concentration issue as we diversify that base. It lends itself to our bank customers expanding their portfolio offering and moving that further down the continuum. So we think all those factors together really make us optimistic for this business, not just for this year but for the longer term.
Tim Oliver, CEO
And we didn't see that when we first rolled this strategy out. We presumed to be all or nothing, all services, all machines, all the time. And that's not the way it's playing out. The way it's playing out is if people want to incrementalize their way there and build trust with us and let us show them that we can perform as well or better than they do. So they'll give us a portion of the fleet or they'll give a portion of the services of a portion of that fleet and allow us to grow into it over time.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from Matt Summerville from D.A. Davidson.
Matt Summerville, Analyst
I have a few quick follow-up questions. I want to clarify some of the transactional trends you're observing in the Network business. Can you provide insights on withdrawal transactions in North America compared to those in the rest of the world? Also, what is the strategy for LibertyX? It presented a significant challenge last year, and I had thought it was beginning to stabilize, but it seems to be declining again. Why do you continue to hold onto it? Additionally, you mentioned mergers and acquisitions. Are you actively working on developing a pipeline, and if so, what areas are you targeting for inorganic expansion?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, thanks, Matt. Regarding LibertyX, you’re correct that we acquired it using equity several years ago when there was a strong demand for Bitcoin solutions. Our offering is limited to Bitcoin, and while we did earn some revenue initially from that acquisition, regulatory changes have forced us to significantly reduce the maximum transaction size at the device, impacting how customers use the service. We have shifted our focus away from this business since it has minimal profitability; it primarily affects our revenue at the top line. This quarter, it had the most substantial impact due to a poor second half of last year. However, we don’t expect it to hinder overall revenue as much moving forward. We have no plans for further investment in this area and are currently exploring several options, including the potential to monetize Bitcoin at the device to improve business performance. Additionally, we’ve scaled back our activities, no longer engaging in cross-border transactions, and will continue to limit our involvement as it is more of a distraction. What was the other part of your question?
Brendan Metrano, Head of Investor Relations
On M&A.
Tim Oliver, CEO
As we discuss mergers and acquisitions, we currently have a lengthy list of ideas, many of which are relatively affordable due to our focus on managing debt. There are also more costly and strategic ideas that we can pursue once we address our debt obligations. Referring back to the earlier mention of the approximately $700 million in free cash flow we expect to have available after six quarters, especially following the next quarter, I hope to explore some of the promising opportunities that have been presented, particularly in expanding our global fleet. It’s generally easier to enhance an existing fleet than to build one from the ground up. Additionally, there are technologies we could integrate into our network business that would benefit from additional investment. We also see potential in filling some gaps in our nearly vertically integrated Self-Service Banking solution to enhance our portfolio. There are international opportunities we might consider if we had more resources. Overall, we have a broad array of ideas ranging from $100 million to $5 million in total cost that we could likely implement this year, but there are more significant projects we need to approach with greater timing consideration.
Andy Wamser, CFO
I want to add to what Tim mentioned. The key point about LibertyX is that it has low margins, which skews top-line results. However, from an EBITDA perspective, its impact is minimal. Regarding network volumes, they were relatively flat, but we are optimistic about seeing an increase in ready-code transactions. We are also focusing on more profitable deposit transactions, which, although on a small scale, will help diversify our transaction mix.
Tim Oliver, CEO
You asked about global withdrawal transactions. In the U.S., network transactions were up 2% for withdrawals, while in the U.K., they were down by 6% or 7%. The situation in the U.S. remains strong, but the U.K. has seen a decline. March tends to be a challenging month for some reason, but April has shown improvement. I believe the decline we saw was temporary and related to the timing of Easter and other factors. I am optimistic that we will not see a continued decline in the next quarter.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from Chris Senyek from Wolfe Research. Transactions in the U.S. network were up 2% for withdrawals, whereas in the U.K., they were down 6% or 7%. The U.S. performance is still quite strong, but the U.K. is struggling. March tends to be a particularly challenging month for various reasons, but April has shown improvement. I remain optimistic that the decline in the U.K. was temporary and influenced by the timing of Easter and other factors. I hope we see better results in the next quarter and that the decline isn't still at 6% or 7%.
Chris Senyek, Analyst
Great quarter, guys. And thinking about the cash flow and the cadence this year and next year, in your prepared comments, you had mentioned that there could be and should be substantial cash flow. How should we think about the cadence of that over the remainder of the year? I know Q1 is always a use type position. And as we look to 2026, because that would forecast a pretty significant ramp into '26.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, I'll go first because Andy has not been here that long and can't refer to history. But that's been the history for us from a free cash flow perspective, consume a little bit in the first quarter and maybe a little bit even in the second and then generate most of the free cash flow in the latter half of the year. I think that will play out again this year. We're a little more linear last year, which was terrific. It was a little bit of an atypical year. And our hardware business actually didn't have a great year last year, and that's what gets back-end loaded. So I think you'll see us get north of breakeven for this. So you have mildly positive in Q2 that offsets the loss we just — the use we just had in the first quarter, and then you see a pretty good second half of the year. We have published or will publish the cash outflows associated with taxes. Our best guess on taxes and interest. And so you can just lay that over our performance, the growth in profitability, the ability to harvest $110 million of working capital that we just utilized to seed future period hardware revenue. And I think it will — you can map that out. But I don't know anything you want to add?
Andy Wamser, CFO
Yes. The only thing I would add is in the comments, I talked about how EBITDA will ramp as we go throughout the balance of the year. And I think Tim said exactly right. When we look at the front half of the year, it could be relatively flat, slightly positive. But when we look in Q3 and Q4, as EBITDA does ramp, our free cash flow conversion should be closer to like 60% in each of those quarters. So it will considerably ramp as we go through the back half of the year, and that's relatively consistent with how it's been in the past. And in terms of the CapEx, can you remind me if the ATM as a Service CapEx is more focused internationally or if it is primarily utilized in the U.S.? It's going to be balanced. If we think about the potential for CapEx for ATM as a Service, it could be around $30 million to $40 million and could be distributed evenly across all geographies.
Operator, Operator
And our last question is going to come from George Tong from Goldman Sachs.
George Tong, Analyst
In the Hardware business, is there any way to quantify how much of the orders were shifted out of the quarter into 2Q and the second half of the year?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, none shifted. So this was exactly the hardware number we expected to deliver this quarter. It was just how the orders fell that we took last year. So it has nothing to do with orders moving out or moving in. It was planned this way. We tried to, on the last call, let people know that and say we have to use working capital to get there. I'd prefer not to have it be this way, but that's how the customers ordered it. So there's no delays. There were no cancelled orders. It was exactly as we had planned.
George Tong, Analyst
And then in the Network business, you're continuing to see optimization of the portfolio and some retail partners closing down some lower-performing locations. Do you have visibility into how much of a continuation of this trend will sort of play out? Are there additional closings you're expecting on the horizon?
Tim Oliver, CEO
Yes, I believe the pharmacy customer segment is facing challenges, particularly with some overcapacity. Recently, Rite Aid indicated they might close several stores as part of a bankruptcy plan. We currently have around 1,200 or approximately 1,100 machines operating with Rite Aid, which puts those at risk. However, it's important to note that our revenue doesn't come from the machines themselves, but rather from the transactions. As long as we can capture those transactions at other nearby machines, we will be okay. In fact, it could be advantageous because it means we would have fewer trucks servicing fewer locations and maintaining fewer machines, resulting in improved efficiency. While there is ongoing pressure in this area, we are proactively relocating those machines. Additionally, we have announced a significant deal with 7-Eleven that will enable us to integrate our network within their stores, which is a major opportunity. I'm not sure how many locations they have, though.
Stuart MacKinnon, COO
Roughly 11,000.
Tim Oliver, CEO
Only 11,000 locations. Go ahead.
Stuart MacKinnon, COO
We will implement changes gradually. In relation to the Pharma segment, which has been making closures for the past three years, we have a good understanding of how to optimize that portfolio and ensure those transactions integrate with the rest of our portfolio. Our partnership with 7-Eleven enables us to fill some gaps in locations where we may not have another retailer in the same ZIP code. As Tim mentioned, most of the transactions occurring at those units are from our customers on the Allpoint network who are actively seeking out Allpoint services. They will now look for another location, which is reflected in our average revenue per user as our unit numbers decrease. We continue to see strong transaction volumes that are shifting to other locations. Therefore, we are very confident about the growth of the Allpoint network. Moreover, as we introduce more transaction types, our customers are increasingly directing their clients away from teller lines in branches to our retail locations, supporting continued growth for Allpoint.
Tim Oliver, CEO
All right. I think that's the last question. Thank you, operator. That's the last question. We're right on time. We appreciate everybody tuning in today. We'll be available as the week plays out to answer questions beyond those that were asked on this call. We feel very, very good about our start to the year. It's working. The strategy is working. Our hardware is competing exceptionally well. Our service organization is performing remarkably well, and it bodes well for the rest of 2025. So thanks for tuning in today, and we'll talk to you again 90 days from now.
Operator, Operator
And this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.