Euronet Worldwide Inc

NASDAQ:EEFT

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q1

[Operator]

Greetings, and welcome to the Euronet Worldwide First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jeff Newman, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Euronet Worldwide. Thank you. Mr. Newman, you may begin.

[Jeffrey B. Newman, executive]

Thank you, Tikia. Good morning. And welcome, everyone, to Euronet's quarterly results conference call. We will present our results for the first quarter of 2018 on this call.

We have Mike Brown, our Chairman and CEO; Rick Weller, our CFO; and Kevin Caponecchi, CEO of our epay division, on the call.

Before we begin, I need to call your attention to the forward-looking statements on the first page of the PowerPoint presentation we'll be making today. Statements made on this call that concern Euronet's or its management's intentions, expectations or predictions of future performance are forward-looking statements. Euronet's actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors that are listed on the first page of our presentation. Euronet does not intend to update these forward-looking statements and undertakes no duty to any person to provide any such updates under any circumstances.

In addition, the PowerPoint presentation includes a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures that we'll be using during this call to their most comparable GAAP measures.

Now I will turn the call over to our CFO, Rick Weller. Rick?

[Rick Weller, executive]

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today.

I will begin my comments on Slide 5.

We began 2018 delivering revenue of $550 million, operating income of $45 million and adjusted EBITDA of $75 million. As you may have read in the press release, when adopting the new revenue recognition standard, we reduced revenue by approximately $22 million from what would have been reported under the former standard. Had we not adopted this new standard, consolidated revenue on a constant currency basis would have grown 11%.

First quarter adjusted EPS was $0.73, the same as last year and in line with the guidance we provided in early February. On one hand, the $0.73 was burdened by about $0.04 of tax compared to the prior year largely as a result of recently enacted tax legislation in the United States, together with a stronger mix of earnings this year from countries with higher tax rates. On the other hand, the $0.73, when compared to our guidance, includes a couple pennies of tax benefit from a better-than-expected tax rate stemming from onetime favorable conclusions of open tax years in certain countries. However, that couple-of-cents benefit was offset by a nonrecurring legal settlement in the Money Transfer Segment and a rate decrease we agreed to for a sizable Middle East money transfer agent in return for increased volumes we anticipate for the balance of the year. So net-net, against our guidance, a couple of pennies of nonrecurring headwind in Money Transfer offset by a couple pennies of nonrecurring tax benefit. Bear in mind that each $0.01 is about $0.5 million, so all in all, with a couple of pennies of put and take here and there, our quarter shook out pretty much as we expected it. And while we always welcome some extra tax benefit, we continue to believe our effective adjusted EPS tax rate will be in the mid 20s throughout the balance of 2018.

Finally, as you may recall in our 10-K disclosure, we repurchased approximately 1.4 million shares in the first quarter. It should be noted that we had that mapped in our $0.73 expectation.

Slide 6. Slide 6 shows our 3-year transaction trends by segment. EFT transactions grew 16% from the expansion of our ATM and POS processing in Europe and India. epay transactions declined 16%, with the decline coming principally from the Middle East where as we noted in prior quarter updates we ceased processing for a large distributor with low-value, low-margin mobile transactions. Total Money Transfer transactions grew 17%. Money transfers grew 17%, and non-money transfers grew 22%. Money Transfer growth came from double-digit growth across Ria's businesses: United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Next slide, please. On Slide 7, we present our results on an as-reported basis. The year-over-year changes in currency varied widely, but for the most part, currencies appreciated against the U.S. dollar. To normalize the impacts of these currency fluctuations, we have presented our results adjusted for currency on the next slide.

Slide 8. For the first quarter, EFT revenue and adjusted EBITDA grew 15% and 11%, respectively, while operating income remained constant year-over-year. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth was the result of continued deployment of ATMs in Europe and India, with India operating free of the burden of cash demonetization. We also have been pleased to see the emergence of a favorable impact of the demonetization. That is, more transactions driven by more bank accounts opened in India. Gross profit per transaction held consistent with the prior year. The flatness in operating income and slight decrease in operating margin was largely the result of the increased depreciation and other costs from the larger estate of seasonal ATMs, including approximately 1,000 more winterized ATMs this year versus last year. While the first quarter is burdened with higher operating costs from newly deployed ATMs, as you have seen in prior years, we expect these ATMs to produce nice returns as we move into our seasonally higher quarters.

Epay constant currency revenue decreased 1%. And it would have increased 9% if not for the new revenue recognition rules where we were required to reduce revenue by approximately $16 million on a constant currency basis this quarter compared to what we would have reported under the former standard. So on an apples-to-apples basis under the former revenue recognition standard, from the 9% growth, approximately 8% of the 9% came from more cadooz sales in the first quarter, where that revenue would have been recognized at gross face value rather than on a commission basis as we do in the rest of epay. Accordingly, if netting the revenue growth down for the higher-gross-value recognized revenue, epay grew revenue approximately 1% year-over-year, largely in line with our expectations of low single digits for revenue.

As I mentioned in the previous slide, we ceased processing transactions for a high-volume, low-margin distributor compared to the prior year, but as can be seen in transaction margins, these transactions made minimal contributions to the business.

Declines in mobile transactions and revenue continued to be offset by growth in nonmobile, notably software and gaming. When compared to epay's effective revenue growth of approximately 1%, the 8% growth in operating income reflects the growth of nonmobile contributions to offset mobile declines, together with continued attention to expense management. Epay margins per transaction improved due to the exit of low-margin Middle East transactions and continued shifts from mobile to nonmobile. I would also note that epay operating margins on an apples-to-apples basis held tight year-over-year.

Double-digit Money Transfer revenue reflects the 17% transaction growth I mentioned earlier and, as you know, includes the lower Walmart2Walmart transaction pricing we agreed to last year to extend the agreement by 3 years. The 3-year declines in operating income were largely the result of the Walmart2Walmart rate reduction, together with increased investments we discussed last quarter related to the upgrade and expansion of our network in India; the Walmart as the U.K. launch; as well as a couple other items that came into the quarter that I mentioned earlier, legal settlement costs and a rate concession we provided a larger Middle East agent to drive volume. As we anniversary Walmart2Walmart extension in the second quarter and the nonrecurring items drop out of our P&L, we will move throughout -- as we move throughout the year, we would expect to see our operating margins ramp back to pre-extension margins and give us a cleaner view of year-over-year results.

Overall, our segments got off to a good start for the year, and we are well positioned to have another very good growth year.

Next slide, please. Slide 9 now. During the quarter, our balance sheet continued to improve. Our cash increased consistent with our free cash flows generated from operations, together with draws against our revolving credit facility. Offsetting the additions to cash were epay and Money Transfer payment settlement timings, cash used to fill ATMs as we begin to reactivate winterized ATMs and approximately $125 million used to repurchase shares.

Overall this was a good start to 2018, where we positioned our businesses to continue to deliver our historically strong annual growth rates driven by earnings achieved in our seasonally strongest quarters which we are now moving into.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mike.

[Michael Brown, executive]

Thank you, Rick. And thanks to everybody who's joining us today.

I'll start on Slide #13 to cover EFT. In keeping with what makes us successful, more products on more devices and more markets, I'm pleased to share with you that we just launched 2 new independent ATM networks, 1 in Bulgaria and the other in Sweden. We now have independent ATM networks in 28 countries around the world. We continue to expand our presence throughout Europe through outsourcing agreements with banks in Poland and Greece; as well as agreements to deploy ATMs in Spain with 2 large hotel groups, Iberostar and Meliá. We also continued to find new opportunities to offer our software solutions across many markets. You can see in the slide we are offering solutions that reach Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Bahamas and Indonesia. These types of opportunities are compelling to our business, as they allow us to monetize our key expertise and superior technical solutions in areas that we may not have a physical presence.

As you can see in the bottom of the slide, we also renewed a network participation agreement with one of our banks in Poland.

Next slide, please, Slide 14. As I discussed, new products launched this quarter. We have grouped them into 3 categories: value-added services on ATMs, card and POS outsourcing customers and software solutions for banks.

We'll start with the value-added services on ATMs, where we expanded our valued relationship with Piraeus Bank in Greece through implementing bill payment via credit card at a self-service kiosk. In addition, we launched ticket voucher distribution through our ATMs in Hungary. This is the second market we've introduced ticket vouchers through our ATMs since we started in Spain last year, and we're looking to launch similar offerings in new markets later this year. For card and POS outsourcing customers, we launched POS DCC arrangement in Greece and U.K. markets and partnered with YES BANK in India for 3D Secure issuer authentication services.

For software solutions, we implemented a broad array of solutions such as ITM switch and debit card management system; MasterCard acquiring at POS and ATMs; MasterCard EMV credit card issuing which enables chip, card and notification solutions. Our software solutions span countries including India, Sri Lanka and Suriname, just to name a few.

Next slide, please. As part of our focus -- this is Slide 15. As part of our focus to provide new value-added solutions, I'm excited about a small acquisition we recently made called INNOVA TAXFREE GROUP. INNOVA, which is headquartered in Spain, specializes in VAT refunds for the international traveler, currently operating in 10 countries. With INNOVA, Euronet will offer merchants a 3-in-1 solution bringing together card processing, multicurrency processing/DCC and VAT refund.

In addition, we will be able to leverage this existing technology and infrastructure to integrate INNOVA's solutions into our ATMs. This is another example where we're able to integrate new innovative solutions into our portfolio, thanks in a large part to our superior technical infrastructure and expertise which offers the flexibility to introduce such solutions on our company-owned estate of ATMs at our discretion. Again, more products on more devices in more markets.

We finished the quarter with 38,358 ATMs live, a 9% increase over last year. Including winterized ATMs which are expected to contribute later in this year during seasonal peaks, ATM growth would be at about 11% over the prior year. During the quarter, we added a net of 571 high-value ATMs across Europe and India. If you break apart the net increase, however, we had gross additions of 812 ATMs, offset by a 241-ATM reduction largely attributed to low-performing ATMs from our YourCash acquisition. We had anticipated a small rationalization at some point following that acquisition. Based on deployments in the first quarter, together with feedback I receive from the EFT team regarding ATM additions later in the year, I remain confident that we'll meet or exceed our previously stated forecast of 3,500 high-value ATM additions during the year, so while we keep up the momentum on ATM deployments, we also keep a careful eye on regulatory matters.

To that end, since our last call, the EU Commission has issued a proposal that sets up a process for DCC regulation. The proposal itself does not include any specific DCC regulation. It just would authorize the European Banking Authority or EBA to formulate transparency guidelines for DCC and impose a transition period cap on DCC margins while those guidelines are being implemented. Everybody is asking about time lines. So the time lines, as we see it, for adoption of any final DCC regulation and cap certainly depend on the EU legislative process, which is very uncertain, but they typically involve a few successive steps. First, the EU proposal that was recently issued needs to be adopted by parliament in some final form. And we believe the earliest that, that will happen is late this year or early 2019. That would start the time line on the EBA's consideration of the transparency guidelines and cap. The EBA is being given 6 months to propose its guidelines, but it's likely that it will take more time than that. The EBA's guidelines then need to be adopted through the EU legislative process, so we believe a realistic time frame for final adoption of DCC guidelines and cap by the EBA is sometime in 2020. Upon adoption of the guidelines, there would likely be another 36 months until final implementation and compliance of any of these new DCC regulations, which would put it into 2023. In summary, based on our analysis of what we've learned over the last few weeks, it now appears that the implementation time lines for a potential cap could well be into 2020, nearly a couple of years from now. On one hand, this view stretches out the uncertainty period, which I don't particularly like, but on the other hand it would give us more time to further grow and develop our business to overcome any potential downside effects, impacts, if any at all, of these decisions.

As I reflect on the uncertainty of the DCC matter, I can't help but recall the number of issues we've encountered over the years ranging from MasterCard, Visa rate changes in Poland and Germany -- in Poland; Germany debit card rate changes; a U.S. economy that handed us a 40% decline in transfers to Mexico; a global financial market dislocation driving 20% decline in foreign exchange rates; and a cash demonetization event in India. And as Rick reminds me, in the 15 years that he's been here at Euronet, we have grown both revenue and profit sequentially every single year. And I have no reason to believe we will not be able to continue with this trend. We have already started to think of alternative ways, with some potential opportunities already identified, to recover any downside impacts should they come our way. And I'm glad to tell you that I believe we have well more upside than we have downside. Accordingly, while I would welcome a finality to this DCC matter, I am more focused on keeping the business moving forward in our customary double-digit revenue and profit growth fashion, and I look forward to confirming that with you quarter by quarter.

Now let's move on to Slide #18 for epay.

Epay continued to see expansion in its nonmobile volumes in the first quarter, which effectively offset declines in mobile volume. This expansion resulted in modest gains on an overall margin basis. In particular, we're experiencing nice growth in our software and gaming categories across multiple markets. We launched Xbox and PlayStation to X-cite, a large electronics retailer in the Middle East. In addition, we continued to execute on our strategy to expand distribution through more digital channels. We added software content distribution to Harvey Norman's online store in Australia and also launched gaming content on the Penny online store in Germany.

Next slide, please, Slide 19. Under the signed agreements section, you can see more examples of broad distribution of nonmobile content across multiple countries. Epay is also entering new markets like the Nordics, Egypt and South Africa. In part, this market expansion is driven by strong relationships with our brand partners. For example, we signed an agreement to distribute Microsoft Office and Xbox in South Africa this quarter. The epay Segment is also exploring new and diverse ways to deliver growth from our existing infrastructure and retail connections. In that vein, we've entered into agreements with various alternative payment schemes and wallet companies. In Australia we launched Alipay and WeChat Pay across numerous high-value retailers, and we have a strong pipeline of interested merchants to onboard. We also have agreements to launch Alipay and WeChat Pay across Europe. Our first merchant will be Drogeriemarkt Müller, a large drugstore chain in Germany which is an existing epay customer. As part of our digital channel strategy, we are leveraging existing wallet relationships. In India we launched the distribution of Google Play through Paytm and PhonePe wallets.

Overall, I would characterize these new opportunities as being in the early stages, but I'm excited about their potential based upon the emergence of numerous alternative payment options, the relative quick adoption of these same options by consumers and the interest by retailers to adopt and support these alternatives schemes. Epay is in an ideal position to leverage its existing assets to deliver these solutions with nominal effort via the payment scheme and retailing. Overall, I'm pleased that epay continues to execute on its strategy and ways to diversify its product portfolio and expand channel and geographic distribution while also maintaining its operating margin.

Now let's move on to Slide #22, where we can talk about the Money Transfer Segment.

Q1 marks something of a milestone for Ria, as our Money Transfer network now reaches 350,000 locations. And our team has no intention of slowing down either, as they added another 18,000 locations to the pipeline this quarter with the signing of 24 new correspondents across 22 countries. Among the highlights of our network expansion efforts include the signing and launching of Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand. Siam Commercial Bank was exclusive to one of our competitors and will expand our network by over 1,100 locations once the rollout is complete. As we mentioned a couple of quarters ago when we announced the signing of Government Savings Bank in Thailand, Thailand is the 25th largest receive market in the world, with global volume of $6.3 billion as well as an important send market. And we're excited to expand our network in Thailand with these 2 partners. Staying in Asia, we opened bank deposit service to Korea, our initial entrée into this market. This service will enable Ria to deposit funds directly into account holders at 18 different Korean banks. Another important signing this quarter is Fatura Vizyon in Turkey. Turkey is an important market for our European business, and we have seen nice growths from it over the past 4 years despite our network being fairly small. Fatura Vizyon will add another quality cash pickup location for our customers with a network that will nearly double the size of our existing network to around 10,000 total locations.

In other highlights, as you know, our team has been working hard over the last 10 months or so rolling out our new network in India. Well, I'm proud to announce that we have completed the rollout of the retail portion of our network, and we are now the second largest cash pickup network in the country. By retail, I mean the store locations of the 3 agents we announced last May as well as their subagents. We still have many bank locations to add, but it's the retail network that's the most productive in India. By no means are we done, though, and we have additional strategic partners in the pipeline that are signed and are awaiting the Reserve Bank of India approval. And of course, what is most important is we're seeing transaction growth of over 400% compared to the prior year. And India is now our 10th largest payout market, whereas it was largely insignificant just a few years ago. Given India is the largest payout country in the world, we're optimistic that we will continue to see significant growth in this market. On the business performance side, Ria delivered 17% money transfer transaction growth during the quarter with every region, contributing to strong double-digit growth. Our Europe and Middle East businesses led the way with transaction gains of over 20%. While our India cash pickup product is certainly helping to drive some of the growth in the Middle East, the truth is we're seeing strong business in virtually all of our corridors from the Middle East.

Our digital business also delivered a very good quarter with transaction growth of 34% and revenue growth of 48%. We're seeing really good traction for this business in both the U.S. and our newer markets. Our U.S. digital business continues to deliver solid gains with transaction growth of 20% or more in 9 of our top 10 corridors. The digital team has a lot on their plate this year with plans to expand into several new markets. They're working on a redesign of the web version of our digital products that will bring many customer experience improvements, along with added functionality, as well as further upgrades to our mobile app. It is not a surprise that we see digital as an important part of our future, and the team is laser focused on accelerating our growth of the digital channel. One example is our collaboration with Serve, the former Amex prepaid card recently acquired by InComm, where we've added a new P2P product that allows Serve customers to send money to other Serve customers, but the important thing is that our digital team continues to grow their existing business rapidly while managing the demands of product and geographic growth expectations at the same time.

And finally, our international payments business delivered a solid quarter with double-digit revenue growth. This business tends to be more susceptible to macroeconomic variables. While Brexit and low FX volatility have been sort of a headwind for the European business, the North American and Australasian businesses continued to perform nicely. We are also pleased with some of the underlying performance metrics where, in addition to revenue growth, our active clients grew 21% this quarter. So the first quarter results have set a positive tone for the start of the year, and we believe the business performance supports near-term growth momentum.

So wrapping up Money Transfer for the quarter, I would like to call Q1 an excellent start to the year. Ria delivered double-digit growth across virtually all metrics of the business, and the Ria Digital business is showing strength in all of its platforms. Our digital international payments business also delivered double-digit transaction and revenue growth, so overall this was a very good start to the year. And the team is working hard to carry that momentum forward to the rest of 2018.

Now let's move on to Slide #23 to wrap up the quarter.

Okay, so we delivered adjusted EPS of $0.73 this quarter, in line with everybody's expectations. EFT is well positioned to deliver strong revenue and earnings growth this year. We're committed to meet or exceed our 3,500 high-value ATM growth target this year as well as rolling out other interesting new products. We are monitoring the DCC situation closely and will continue to be transparent as we gain more clarity. Epay continues to grow nonmobile and is further diversifying its product portfolio with interesting opportunities. Money Transfer outlook is strong with significant growth in our Europe and Middle East businesses and continued network expansion up to 350,000, notably in Asia. Our digital strategy is gaining traction. And our international payments business records double-digit growth.

Our free cash flow and balance sheet continues to be strong. And finally, we expect Q2 adjusted EPS to be approximately $1.32, assuming consistent foreign exchange rates.

Before we jump to the QA portion of the call, I'd like to spend some time reflecting on a potential DCC regulation which seems to have had a punitive impact on our stock price this last quarter. While I can't remove all clouds of uncertainty here, I do remain confident we will overcome the impacts that may come, if any. This company has proven its resiliency time and time again to overcome headwinds in the past, and I don't expect this one to be any different. It's not just luck that makes this possible. It is the diversity we have in products, markets and geographies, all delivered by a winning team. So when the dust settles and we look to the earnings growth from now until then, which we may not know the final impact of DCC until 2023, I expect we will be well ahead of where we are today.

With that, we're happy to take questions. Operator, will you please assist?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Lara Fourman with Goldman Sachs.

[Lara Fourman, analyst]

The DCC context that you provided was really helpful. And I just want to know, could you give us a little bit of insight into some of the high-value opportunities you referenced, just how you would diversify the ATM business or the overall business away from European DCC?

[Michael Brown, executive]

Well, as you might remember, Europe accounts for just north of 60% of the total DCC of the company. And we have expressed interest of moving DCC outside of Europe. As you might remember, we purchased Pure Commerce about 3 or 4 years ago, which provides DCC opportunities all across Asia and Europe and even the United States. So we've had our focus on DCC outside of Europe for a long time, and we will continue to make some investments there. We really see the rest of the world as our palette here. And there's a lot of opportunity for DCC outside of Europe, so we'll go after that over the next couple of years.

[Lara Fourman, analyst]

Great. And then just one more question from me. It looks like the Money Transfer business is gaining a bit of momentum, especially as you lap the Walmart2Walmart pricing renewal, but can you just comment on MoneyGram's Walmart2World products and if you're seeing any competitive pricing pressure in North America there and how to think about that relationship with Walmart when their renewal comes up again in 2 years?

[Michael Brown, executive]

So with respect to the kind of 2 sets of competitors Walmart kind of probably has here, one would be its other very big brand competitors, other grocery store chains and discount houses and so forth. And to those I think that's where this product was probably focused to try to extract customers from its competitors and bring them into Walmart. With respect to us, though, our agents are primarily all small bodegas in ethnic kind of neighborhoods, so we don't see -- and we've been in an extremely competitive position with both our smaller competitors and big guys for many years now, so I don't think I'll see much impact at all from the Walmart2World pricing with respect to us. I do imagine, though, that you'll see some pressure on the 2 big names, particularly MoneyGram itself because it's now taken a lot less revenue per transaction from its biggest customer, Walmart, than it used to.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Rayna Kumar of Evercore ISI.

[Anthony Cyganovich, analyst]

This is Anthony Cyganovich on behalf of Rayna Kumar. Just to follow up on that last question, could you talk about how Walmart volumes have come in relative to your expectations? And following an acceleration of revenue this quarter, do you feel like Money Transfer revenue growth could further accelerate as the year progresses?

[Michael Brown, executive]

Well, we initiated the new pricing basically May 1 of last year. That was like April 30 or something like that, so -- and what we believe is that, as the transactions continue to grow within Walmart, as they have been, by the end of this quarter, we should be pretty much back to kind of square one, back to where we were. We'll have much larger volumes but same kind of contribution at Walmart. So from that point forward, we see growth and margin expansion with that growth, as compared to the prior year.

[Rick Weller, executive]

No -- yes. I mean the only other thing is you said, continued to accelerate throughout the year. I thought that 17% transaction growth was pretty good acceleration.

[Michael Brown, executive]

I know. These analysts always want more.

[Rick Weller, executive]

Yes.

[Anthony Cyganovich, analyst]

And just as a follow-up for me, could you kind of talk about what your expectations are in terms of revenue and margin profile for each segment in the second quarter to go with your EPS guidance?

[Rick Weller, executive]

We don't do that, but we -- as we've said, in a longer kind of a horizon, we continue to believe that we've got good, strong double digit. And I'll speak principally on the operating income side, that we've got good, strong double-digit prospects for the EFT. We've got what I'd characterize as really solid double digits for the Money Transfer business; and as we've said, probably kind of in the mid- to upper mid-single-digit operating income growth out of epay. So we have, let's say, consistently talked about that expectation out of our business. And I'm quite glad to see that our business continues to produce there. So that's about as much as we put out there versus specific revenue kind of growth numbers.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Deleeuw with Piper Jaffray.

[Jason Deleeuw, analyst]

Good to see the strong results here. Just on the Money Transfer, though, the margins, the commentary there, I'm -- just want to make sure we understand the timing when you're saying you're going to -- the operating margins will ramp back to the pre-Walmart price cut margins. Is that kind of -- should we think of it as like an run rate exit 2018 type of thing? Or is that for, like, the full year 2018? Just want to make sure we think about that correctly.

[Rick Weller, executive]

I would think of it as more of an exit. That's why we used the word ramp. We still have a little bit of the impact in the second quarter of the Walmart2Walmart rate change. And as Mike said, as we anniversary that, we're back about to square up, but there is a little bit yet in that month, the first month, there. The second thing is, as Mike said, we've really done a nice job in rolling out these Indian -- our agents in India, but we still have more work to do. Unfortunately, in India each agent that we open requires specific approval by the regulators, so that's a time and effort and cost type of thing. Then we put some advertising behind that. We're continuing to bring online the Asda stores, the 400 or so Asda stores, out of the U.K. And we'll put some promotional activities. So those will be a little bit earlier in the year and then we'll see a little bit more of that come to the bottom line, but we'll start ramping that in the second quarter as we move throughout the year.

[Jason Deleeuw, analyst]

Great. And then I want to just better understand the merchant processing business. Just kind of it's I believe it's mostly Europe focused, but just from a geography standpoint, types of merchants that you process for. You did an acquisition here with INNOVA. What are you thinking strategically? It's a business that I believe has not grown faster than the overall EFT segment, so -- but is that a growth opportunity you see for EFT going forward, the merchant processing?

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes. I mean we obviously do, or we wouldn't have bought INNOVA. What we're doing is focusing on unique kinds of merchants that have the needs of this kind of triplets that we have. We've kind of got a trifecta going here where we can provide that merchant additional revenue; and those customers additional, say, cost savings by offering them value-added tax refunds. We can also -- because they're obviously a foreign card, there's opportunities for that merchant to make money on DCC. And we can do the acquiring as well. So we've kind of got that trifecta there. We're going to focus on merchants where that's most appropriate.

[Rick Weller, executive]

And we -- you may have heard us talk in the past. I won't reiterate any of the names, but we have some very respected large hotel names in our portfolio, some duty-free shops in our portfolio. And in line with what Mike said, those are businesses that would benefit nicely from the triple-play product that we now have.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Heckmann of D.A. Davidson.

[Peter Heckmann, analyst]

Wanted to see if any of your research in the area of the proposals around DCC have allowed you to perhaps put some sort of brackets around any type of cap that might be implemented over the next several years. I mean, is there some feedback that would suggest potentially a minimum level of cap or a target level...

[Michael Brown, executive]

That's -- well, that's kind of the thousand dollar question. We really have no idea where the regulators will come out. I can tell you that banks -- that the banks across Europe are making money on this, and it helps their finances. And their rates for DCC range from [ 6 ] to low double digits. And so we'll see. That's kind of -- that's one point. Also, in all that literature, in those hundreds of pages that you could have read regarding DCC and EBA and all that, they did mention in there that some DCC providers are charging in excess of 30% spreads, okay? And they seem to believe that was too much. So I guess I can't tell you where it'll fall, but it seems like 30% is too much, which is quite aways outside of our realities. And then we'll just have to see what happens.

[Peter Heckmann, analyst]

All right, that's fair. We'll stay tuned there. And then on -- just on the software opportunity, you've talked a little bit more about that. You've talked about upgrading your capabilities in the 10-K. Do you think there's a significant opportunity from an upgrade cycle from existing software customers or new business opportunity from upgrading from other providers?

[Michael Brown, executive]

We do. And we also believe we've got new technology right now that we'll be able to sell into the types of banks that we've been unable to sell our product into heretofore, based upon the scalability and the new technology that we have. So we see software over the next several years as a growing piece of our business.

[Rick Weller, executive]

And the -- one of the important parts about our internally developed proprietary software is, if you think of it as being a switching product, it's not limited to card processing. We can switch virtually anything. If we wanted to switch fingerprints, we could fit -- we can switch fingerprints, okay? So our structure, our technology is not dependent upon the old historical ways of transacting. This is where -- when Mike commented on some of the things we're doing in whether it's in EFT or in epay, where we're looking at and doing transactions with alternative payment providers. We are doing these transactions outside of your traditional card settlement organizations. And this also reflects the value of other assets that we have, and that is we don't just move a transaction around. We move the money related to the transaction. So if someone wants to use our estate of more than 1 million devices across our geographical footprint, we can handle that transaction, whether it's a card, whether it's a virtual number. Whatever -- whether it's a barcode, a 3D code, we can handle that transaction. And then we can settle the monies between the card guy or that payment guy and the merchant. So we're excited about the software as well as the assets we have to take more advantage of it as we continue to grow.

[Peter Heckmann, analyst]

That's great. Just one quick maintenance question, and I'll get back in the queue: On the small acquisition, can just give us an idea of what the annualized revenue might be and when that deal closed?

[Rick Weller, executive]

It won't move the needle. It is already closed. And it's a good way to add a product without it being dilutive to our P&L, okay? But the important part is, because it won't be immediately contributory nor dilutive to our P&L on a stand-alone basis, it really gives us that third product to go to a merchant with a much more -- a much stronger and a more compelling opportunity for that merchant. So no real impact in our business but certainly a great addition to our product portfolio.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey with SunTrust.

[Andrew Jeffrey, analyst]

One of the areas where obviously you're doing extremely well is India. And I wonder if you can help us understand how much of a contribution India might be from a growth standpoint, and I'm thinking specifically in EFT. When I look in the 10-K, it's still a relatively small part of your overall revenue, but it's big market. And EFT -- it offers some EFT diversification. So can you help us frame up the India contribution in your ATM business and [AUDIO GAP] that market?

[Michael Brown, executive]

Well, we don't have the -- yes. You can see the percent that India kind of has of the whole EFT market. It's kind of like around 10%, but the interesting thing is you saw last year that EFT kind of grew its bottom line by 35% or 36%, if I remember correctly. India this year, compared to last year, of course it had some problems last year, is going to beat that number, so it'll be an even bigger percent of the total EFT this year than it was last year. It's just screaming right now, which is great.

[Rick Weller, executive]

And India, it's one of these markets that has a lot of excitement about it just because of its size. And we've been there for a while, but we're really starting to see where we are having contributions to our business from India from all 3 segments, whether it's doing transaction processing for the likes of Paytm or Flipkart, or go through the list; or it's doing ATMs or it's doing money transfer, like with our upgraded and improved, now #2 network in the country. And so all 3 segments are starting to have a greater and greater contribution. And then finally I would say, look, that's we've got a good team in India that is on that side of the globe and will give us the ability to expand in other markets. As Mike said, there's opportunity well beyond Europe on ATM deployment and development, and we've got a team that is expert in that and can really help us there. So it's beyond India. And then just to put in comparison because we won't put out, like, profit numbers on India: Just separately on Money Transfer keep in mind that that's a $75 billion receive market. That's 3x what the Mexico receive market is, so clearly a very big market. And we're firmly planted in all 3 segments there.

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes. And as Rick said, I think one of our biggest assets we have there is we've got technology. We're deploying new technology. And we've got a really capable leadership team there. And when you have that, then they can focus on not only India but the rest of the region.

[Andrew Jeffrey, analyst]

Okay, that's helpful. And then quickly, Mike, can you comment on capital priorities? You did buy back some stock. I believe it was higher in the fourth quarter...

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes, we thought it was a pretty good buy at $10 past today's price. So we'll -- when it comes to capital allocation, we'll use it the same way as we've always used it. We -- our preference is always an acquisition that keeps on growing, kind of that gift that keeps on giving. If we can't use it there, then these ATMs, we keep growing our ATMs, but we can't grow our count on ATMs fast enough to really eat through enough of this cash flow. So we will looked at -- we will look at stock buybacks if the market doesn't treat us well and we believe the opportunity is in excess of where the market puts us. So we'll just keep looking there. And we're careful. We've been very financially conservative, but we'll do it the same place as we've always done.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities.

[Mike Grondahl, analyst]

Two quick questions. One, on Page 13 of the deck, the 2 outsourcing agreements that you signed, it seems like we haven't had one of those in a while. What do you think of those 2 that you signed? And are there any more out there?

[Rick Weller, executive]

Well, the short answer is yes. There are more out there, Mike. We -- as we've said in the past, we've said we had seen some newer opportunities emerging on the outsourcing. We think that the banks have, let's say, for the most part, digested the financial crisis, the dealing with their capital structure, some of the sovereign debt issues and things like that, which kind of gets them back to the point of figuring out how they can be more efficient and run their business. And part of that is we simply offer a solution that costs less and gives them more capability for their customers. So there are other opportunities we've commented on the past, but Mike, you might have any other comments on those.

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes. So dealing with banks is a little challenging because sometimes they don't make very good business decisions, but the reality is we can do outsourcing for banks more cost effectively with better uptimes than anybody on the planet. And we have the most sophisticated software to do so. Banks are now starting to realize that, that software also gives them additional capabilities for marketing and other customer interfaces, so we're going to keep selling. And as we get more of them, we'll -- as we get more, the word gets around. We also can -- these ATMs typically think -- people think of ATMs in a cash-out version, that's it. Well, remember we sell products out of our ATMs. We've got -- probably 2,600, 2,700 of our ATMs are deposit machines, where they'll take bunches of currency. And you can put it into the machine, and it counts it and gives you immediate credit. This is great, particularly for the emerging market banks because they've got a real -- they've got to manage cash both coming in and out because so many of their purchases in their country, their merchants are kind of cash based. So we just have a whole plethora of opportunities to help banks be more efficient. And so we hope we'll get more. We should get a lot, but we're waiting on the banks to make that realization.

[Mike Grondahl, analyst]

Got it. And then on Page 13 and 14, does anything stick out there, 1 or 2 items, that could move the needle over the next year or 2?

[Rick Weller, executive]

Well, Mike, what I would say is, just like with a lot of our business, it's not one item that moves the needle. This is a -- as the guys said one time, when you're up laying bricks by a cathedral, you're putting it on brick by brick. And you stand back, and you've got a wall of a cathedral. I mean our business is brick by brick. It's more product. It's more devices. It's more markets. So now the themes of some of these again become maybe more significant here. And as Mike commented on earlier, our software truly gives us an advantage. We do cardless payout transactions. We do ticket type of productions. We do rebates for large mobile phone manufacturers; and more and more of these, I'll just call them, alternative payments. People that do not have the ability for a person to get cash through your traditional ATM because it takes a card, well, we don't have to have a card. And so I think it's probably some of the themes that will be more meaningful to us, as opposed to any one individual point that we've made on an expansion on this page. But Mike, you've got other observations.

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes. I mean just I'll just echo what Rick said. It's that's actually one of our biggest financial strengths for people who are buying our stock is that we don't have enormous blocks you take out and then we're in really big trouble. We'll be -- it's just lots of bricks. And so we'll just continue to do that. And the more of these deals -- it's interesting. When you sell one of these kind of not off-the-shelf products to somebody, to a bank, the other banks in the market have to be competitive. So then they start talking to you. So we'll continue with that into the future. And operator, I think it's 9:00 or past -- a little bit past 9:00, so we better take one more question. And then we'll call it quits for the day.

[Operator]

Our final question will come from the line of Josh Elving of Lake Street Capital.

[Joshua Elving, analyst]

So I hate to go back to the DCC. Well, I had one more question that hasn't been discussed. And that is historically you've talked about having a couple of different revenue models for your ATMs throughout Europe. And if we were to just fast forward a couple years and some kind of a cap has gone through, what is your flexibility to redeploy some of those ATMs? And how would you describe the market throughout Europe to do that or the opportunity...

[Michael Brown, executive]

Well, I mean, you might have heard in today's Q&A or presentation we talked about how we -- 200-and-some ATMs that we took off the streets that were associated with YourCash. I mean basically we're putting out ATMs all the time, and we miss a few. We pick really good sites. We're the best site pickers in the world, by far, but sometimes we miss. So actually redeployment of our assets is just part of what we do every day. It's business as usual.

[Rick Weller, executive]

And I would then further add that, when you take a look at the deployment of ATMs in Europe and -- the farther east you go, the number of ATMs per population or -- that's out there just drops continuously -- consistently as far as you go east. And then on the other side of that what you see is that accounts being opened, bank accounts being opened and cards being issued has completely the reverse kind of a trend where they're just continuing to go up. And just like we saw in India, where the fear was that, as bank accounts open, people would stop doing ATM transactions. They will just do card transactions. In fact, that's not the case. When people put their money in a bank account, their habits drives them back to picking up cash. And we've seen the emergence of that in India. So there's plenty of yet great opportunity to deploy ATMs in Europe. There's more and more accounts being opened even the farther east you go into Europe; and even more so as you go farther east into India, Asia Pacific et cetera. So I think that we have a very strong opportunity. If we need to redeploy these ATMs, there will be plenty of market to redeploy them.

[Michael Brown, executive]

And we look at every ATM as its own little P&L. So ATM by ATM, we make those decisions.

[Joshua Elving, analyst]

Okay. I think that's helpful. Then I guess we saw some press recently. And I know you talked a little bit about India and the ATM business. We saw some press recently that described a little bit of a cash crunch recently in India, kind of a second cash crunch, following the demonetization. Have -- with a bunch of the ATMs being drained of cash. Have you seen, is there any impact on your business [recently]?

[Michael Brown, executive]

We saw a little cramp for about 3 or 4 days, nothing that would really affect us. And everything was back on track, so...

[Joshua Elving, analyst]

Okay, good. And then I guess, one last quick question in epay. You talk about the customer that you no longer have in the Middle East, the high-volume, low-margin customer. Do you have many -- similar customers like that...

[Michael Brown, executive]

No. No, that was kind of -- that might have been the last one, but that's pretty close to the last one.

[Joshua Elving, analyst]

Okay. And could you offer any kind of color? I know you -- that mix has shifted from top-up to nonmobile products. Where does that mix lie today from either revenue or op income?

[Michael Brown, executive]

Well, we do it by margin. And it's around 60...

[Rick Weller, executive]

Approaching 2/3.

[Michael Brown, executive]

Yes, 65%, yes, is nonmobile, in margin. So call it 2/3, 1/3.

Operator, I think we can adjourn for the day. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to listen to us today on the phones. We'll be happy to talk to you later. All right, thank you.

[Operator]

And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.