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Text: On our call today is our CEO, Hikmet Ersek; and our CFO, Raj Agrawal.
During the call, we will discuss some items that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles.
We have reconciled those items to the most comparable GAAP measures on our website, westernunion.com, under the Investor Relations section.
We will also discuss certain adjusted metrics.
The expenses that have been excluded from adjusted metrics are specific to certain initiatives, but may be similar to the types of expenses that the company has previously incurred and can reasonably expect to incur in the future.
We appreciate you joining us today to discuss our third quarter results and the progress of our business.
Our business continues to rebound from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic delivering double-digit revenue growth in digital and Business Solutions as well as strong profitability and operating cash flow during the quarter.
Additionally, we are continuing to make good progress on our key initiatives, including our pricing evolution and platform enhancements.
Now let's take a closer look at the third quarter results.
Overall, we achieved revenue growth in the quarter of 2% on a reported and constant currency basis, which was driven by 15% growth in digital and 31% growth in Business Solutions.
While these two business grew nicely, the Retail business was affected by the slower economic recovery, in particular, recovery in the labor markets where employment of migrant workers remains below 2019 levels.
As a result, our C2C revenue was flat on a reported basis or down 1% in constant currency terms with transaction growth down 1%.
Both principal per transaction and cross-border principal increased approximately 4% during the quarter.
Year-to-date, our cross-border principal increased 19%, reflecting the elevated levels of support that our customers provide to their loved ones during the period of uneven economic recovery.
With that, based on the latest World Bank forecast, we believe we are growing market share.
Our digital business continues to generate strong growth.
Revenue generated during the quarter was $266 million, maintaining the record high level that we achieved in the second quarter and putting us well on pace to exceed $1 billion in revenue this year.
Most of our digital business is westernunion.com, which grew at a healthy pace in the third quarter with 16% principal growth and 12% revenue growth.
Wu.com average monthly active users increased 8% in the quarter.
Although wu.com growth is moderating as expected, as we grow from a much larger base and compare results against the prior year's accelerated growth levels, we anticipate growth to remain healthy as we continue to invest in marketing, product and customer experience.
We were particularly encouraged by the results we are seeing in our account-to-account business, which is the fastest-growing portion of our business.
The other component of our digital business is digital partnerships.
Momentum is building in this business as we expand relationships with existing partners and launch new partners.
We recently completed our previously announced acquisition of a minority stake in stc Bank, formerly known as STC Pay, which was a leading digital wallet service provider and is now in the process of launching as one of the first digital banks in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, we are planning to launch a number of new partners in upcoming months.
Our progress confirms that the capabilities we have built to serve our branded direct digital business is also well suited to serve the needs of leading banks and digital wallet providers.
Our solution emphasizes flexibility and choice built on a strong foundation of compliance and technology.
We are able to offer a branded solution partners who want to feature our leading brand in cross-border payments or we can offer capabilities that partners incorporate as a white label solution.
Our real-time account payout capabilities, currently available in over 100 countries, improve on incumbent solutions while also providing choice for consumers who preferred to direct transfer to our agent network.
We recently announced that Western Union International Bank has joined SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme as a direct participant, further enhancing our real-time payment capabilities in Europe.
Our capabilities have focused on cross-border remittances historically, but partner needs are evolving to include broader use cases.
Thus, as we have integrated with traditional payment systems in the past, our platform can also be extended to incorporate future use cases related to digital currencies.
Key to our success, whether serving our direct consumers through our branded offering of -- or serving the customers of our partners is our omnichannel capabilities, which enable payouts to more than 200 countries and territories in over 130 currencies through our extensive global network of billions of bank accounts, millions of wallets and cards, and approximately 600,000 retail locations.
We continue to invest in expanding our payment capabilities to provide our customers and partners with additional options and convenience across platforms, devices, borders and currencies.
Turning to our profit performance in the quarter.
Profitability was strong, with operating margin increasing to approximately 25%, as a result of solid Business Solutions revenue growth and lower planned marketing investments, which was partially offset as we continued to invest in our technology and global omnichannel platform.
Earnings per share for the quarter was $0.57 on a reported basis and $0.63 on an adjusted basis.
Before turning it over to Raj to discuss our financial performance for the quarter in more detail and our updated 2021 financial outlook, I'd like to provide an update on a few key strategic initiatives.
Starting with Business Solutions, our planned divestiture remains on track.
The majority of the business and the entire proceeds are expected to transfer in the first quarter of 2022.
As we announced earlier today, we are expanding our ecosystem strategy.
We are on track to launch our digital bank pilot in Germany and Romania in the fourth quarter, offering customers a digital banking and integrated money transfer solution through our Western Union International Bank.
The digital banking offerings Western Union branded WU Plus is an important part of our ecosystem strategy, which is focused on bordering and deepening our relationship with customers by offering them additional relevant products and services.
Another component of our ecosystem strategy is WU Shop, a shopping and cash back rewards program that enables our customers to shop internationally at over 12,000 online stores and send gifts directly to their families and friends in other countries while receiving cash back on their purchases.
WU Shop is now live in Germany and Austria, several more countries, including the U.S., are targeted to launch by year-end.
Overall, despite an uneven economic recovery and the continuing effects from the pandemic, our business proved resilient, and we are on solid footing as we finish the year.
Today, I will discuss third quarter results and our full year 2021 financial outlook.
Third quarter revenue of $1.3 billion increased 2% on a reported and constant currency basis.
Currency translation net of the impact from hedges benefited third quarter revenues by approximately $3 million compared to the prior year.
In the C2C segment, revenue was flat on a reported basis or decreased 1% constant currency.
B2C transactions declined 1% for the quarter as the slow recovery from COVID-19 impacted retail money transfer, partially offset by 19% transaction growth in digital money transfer.
The spread between C2C transaction and revenue growth was one percentage point on a reported basis and flat on a constant currency basis.
Total C2C cross-border principal increased 4% on a reported basis or 3% constant currency, driven by growth in digital money transfer.
Total C2C principal for transaction or PPT continued to grow and was up 4% or 3% constant currency, driven by mix and changes in consumer behavior.
Digital money transfer revenues, which include wu.com and digital partnerships increased 15% on a reported basis or 14% constant currency.
Wu.com revenue grew 12% or 11% constant currency on transaction growth of 9%.
Wu.com cross-border revenue was up 16% in the quarter.
Regionally, wu.com revenue growth was led by North America and Europe and CIS.
Digital partnerships continued to show solid growth across revenue, transactions and principal in the quarter.
Moving to the regional results.
North America revenue decreased 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis, on transaction declines of 5%.
Constant currency revenue was impacted by U.S. outbound, including U.S. regulations concerning Cuba that limit our ability to provide services there and continued declines in U.S. domestic money transfer.
Revenue in the Europe and CIS region declined 3% on a reported basis or 5% constant currency on transaction growth of 3%.
Our digital business continued to generate strong transaction and revenue growth, offset by softness in the retail business.
The digital partnership business in Russia was the primary contributor to the spread between transactions and constant currency revenue in the quarter.
Revenue in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region declined 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis, while transactions grew 2%.
The digital partnership business continued to generate strong performance, driving regional transaction growth in the quarter and was the main contributor to the spread.
Constant currency revenue declines were driven by the regional business.
Revenue growth in the Latin America and Caribbean region was up 25% or 26% constant currency on transaction growth of 10%.
Constant currency revenue growth was generally broad-based as the region recovered from prior year economic dislocation due to COVID-19 with growth led by Mexico, Chile and Ecuador.
The driver of the spread between transactions and constant currency revenue growth was due to business mix.
Revenue in the APAC region increased 1% on a reported basis and declined 1% on a constant currency basis while transactions declined 13%.
Constant currency revenue in the region continued to be impacted by COVID-19.
Business Solutions revenue increased 31% on a reported basis or 28% constant currency.
Revenue growth was driven by increased payment services activity and the education vertical, while trends remained on a positive course with the continuing recovery in cross-border trade.
The segment represented 9% of company revenues in the quarter and benefited by growing over lower revenue in the prior year period.
Other revenues represented 5% of total company revenues and increased 3% in the quarter.
Turning to margins and profitability.
The consolidated GAAP operating margin in the quarter was 24.8% compared to 22.7% in the prior year period, while the consolidated adjusted operating margin was 25.2% in the quarter compared to 23.5% in the prior year period.
The GAAP and adjusted margin increases were primarily driven by revenue growth and lower planned marketing investment, partially offset by higher technology investment.
The GAAP operating margin also benefited from prior year restructuring costs.
Adjusted operating margin excludes M&A expenses in both the current and prior year period and last year's restructuring expenses.
Moving to segment margins.
Note that M&A expenses are included in other operating margins for both the current and prior year period and segment margins exclude last year's restructuring charges.
B2C operating margin was 24.3% compared to 24.6% in the prior year period.
The slightly lower operating margin was due to higher technology spend as we continued to invest in our platform partially offset by lower planned margin investments.
Business Solutions operating margin was 32.9% in the quarter compared to 10.5% in the prior year period.
The increase in operating margin was primarily due to increased revenue.
During the last 12 months, the Business Solutions segment generated $402 million of revenue and $86 million of EBITDA.
Other operating margin was 18.3% compared to 20% in the prior year period due to higher M&A costs this year related to the divestiture of Business Solutions.
The GAAP effective tax rate in the quarter was 20.2% compared to 12.4% in the prior year period, while the adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 13.7% compared to 12.7% in the prior year period.
The increase in the GAAP effective tax rate was due to deferred taxes recorded on the pending sale of Business Solutions.
GAAP earnings per share or earnings per share was $0.57 in the quarter compared to $0.55 in the prior year period, while adjusted earnings per share was $0.63 in the quarter compared to $0.57 in the prior year period.
The increase in earnings per share reflects the benefit of revenue growth and lower planned marketing investments, partially offset by a higher tax rate and higher technology investment.
GAAP earnings per share includes a $0.05 impact related to the deferred taxes recorded on the pending sale of Business Solutions.
Turning to our cash flow and balance sheet.
Year-to-date cash flow from operating activities was $686 million.
Capital expenditures in the quarter were approximately $35 million.
At the end of the quarter, we had cash of $1 billion and debt of $2.9 billion.
We returned $170 million to shareholders in the third quarter, consisting of $95 million in dividends and $75 million in share repurchases.
The outstanding share count at quarter end was 404 million shares, and we had $558 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization, which expires at the end of this year.
Moving to our outlook for 2021.
Today, we provided an updated financial outlook reflecting recent business trends in macroeconomic conditions.
As Hikmet mentioned earlier, the pace of recovery from COVID-19 has created a fluid environment.
For example, GDP expectations were revised downwards in recent months and labor markets have not fully recovered.
Our outlook assumes that the macroeconomic environment will be similar to what we experienced in the third quarter, while our previous outlook assumed a moderate improvement.
We now expect full year 2021 GAAP revenue growth will be approximately 150 basis points higher than constant currency revenue growth.
Our previous GAAP revenue outlook calls for a mid- to high single-digit increase.
Constant currency revenue, excluding the impact of Argentina inflation is expected to grow between 3% and 4%, while our previous outlook call for a mid-single-digit increase.
Our operating margin outlook has not changed, with the full year GAAP operating margin expected to be approximately 21%, while the adjusted operating margin is expected to be approximately 21.5%.
Compared to the third quarter, fourth quarter margins are expected to be closer to the full year average as we anticipated from incremental investment in lower revenue from Business Solutions in the fourth quarter, which benefited from seasonal factors like tuition payments.
We continue to anticipate our effective tax rate will be in the mid-teens range on a GAAP and adjusted basis.
GAAP earnings per share for the year is expected to be in the range of $1.80 to $1.85 compared to the previous outlook of $1.82 to $1.92, reflecting the tax impact related to the pending sale of Business Solutions.
We are also raising the bottom end of the range for adjusted earnings per share with a new range of $2.05 to $2.10, which compares to $2 to $2.10 in our previous outlook.
To summarize, we're pleased with the progress we continue to make toward achieving our long-term strategic objectives.
And operator, we are now ready to take questions.

user
compname reports q3 adj. earnings per share of $0.63.
q3 adjusted earnings per share $0.63.
q3 gaap earnings per share $0.57.
q3 revenue $1.3 billion.
western union - consumer-to-consumer revenue were flat on a reported basis, or declined 1% constant currency, while transactions declined 1% during quarter.
sees 2021 gaap revenue: about 150 basis points higher than constant currency revenue growth.
sees 2021 revenue on constant currency (excluding impact of argentina inflation): about 3% to 4% growth.
sees 2021 gaap earnings per share in a range of $1.80 - $1.85.
sees 2021 adjusted earnings per share in a range of $2.05 - $2.10.
advances ecosystem strategy with launch of wu shop and an upcoming pilot of digital banking services in select countries.

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