Earnings Labs

WEX Inc. (WEX)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call· Mon, Feb 25, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day everyone and welcome the Wright Express Corporation’s fourth quarter 2007 financial results conference call. As a reminder today’s call is being recorded. There will be an opportunity for questions and comments after the prepared remarks. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. [Steve Elder], Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir. Steve Elder]: Good morning and thank you for joining us. With me today is our CEO, Mike Dubyak and our CFO, Melissa Smith. The financial results press release we issued earlier this morning is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.WrightExpress.com. A copy of the release has also been submitted as an exhibit to an 8-K we filed with the SEC. We also issued a press release this morning regarding the acquisition of the assets of Pacific Pride Services which Mike will be discussing in a few minutes and that release is posted on our website as well. We’ll be discussing a non-GAAP metric, specifically adjusted net income during this call. Please see Exhibit 1 included in the press release for an explanation and reconciliation of adjusted net income to GAAP net income. I’d also like to remind you that certain information contained in this call constitutes forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially fro those forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including those discussed in today’s press release, our Form 10-K which was filed on February 28, 2007 and our other SEC filings. While the company may choose to update forward-looking statements in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our estimates change. You should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views after today. With that I’ll turn the call over to our CEO, Mike Dubyak.

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us. Looking across all the parts of the business we closed 2007 with a good fourth quarter and the business is performing well as the new year begins. It was in the fourth quarter a year ago that we began seeing the impact of a softening economy but our financial results in the 12 months since then and the milestones we achieved in 2007 demonstrate two important points. Number one our business model gives the ability to consistently deliver shareholder value in the short term and number two we’ve been successful at the same time in creating new products and pursuing alliances and acquisitions with the potential to diversify our business and generate greater value for the long term. In terms of our ability to benefit when economic trends start strengthening I think we’re in a better position than we were when 2007 began. Looking at the fourth quarter highlights adjusted net income was on the high side of our guidance. The majority of our revenue drivers came in where we expected including the number of transactions processed and transactions per active vehicle. Total fuel transaction volume increased 7% from the fourth quarter of 06 to 63.1 million transactions. This was hard-earned growth because the annuities side of our business was just as soft this past quarter as it was in the fourth quarter a year ago albeit for different reasons. The growth we enjoyed came from our front end and from very low attrition. The fourth quarter concluded a year in which our overall attrition rate improved to 4.7% the lowest in seven years. Involuntary attrition was down partly because of the large account cleanups we completed in 2006. Voluntary attrition was a very low 2.3%. I believe this is attributable to…

Melissa D. Smith

Management

We are very pleased that once again earnings for the fourth quarter were in line with our expectations. In addition we exceeded to top end of our revenue guidance primarily due to the price of fuel which was $0.32 higher than projected. In a period of economic uncertainty our business continued to grow and generate predictable operating results. As Mike mentioned general economic conditions are having an effect on vehicle growth in our existing customer base. However, thanks to the success on the front end and our low attrition numbers we were able to grow total transactions 7% from the prior year in Q4 and 4% for the full year. We also performed well in terms of credit quality. Our loss rate for the fourth quarter was flat with Q4 last year at 23.2 basis points. This brings the full year to 16.3 basis points of loss for our fleet business which is approximately the midpoint over our losses from 2001 through 2006. This is consistent with the guidance we provided throughout the past year. I’ll talk at length about credit quality in a moment. First let’s focus on the operating results for the quarter. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2007 increased 28% to $90.7 million from $70.8 million from the fourth quarter of 2006. Net income to common shareholders on a GAAP basis was $4.6 million or $0.11 per diluted share. This compares with $19 million or $0.46 per diluted share for Q4 last year. The company’s adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 increased 46% from last year to $19.7 million or $0.49 per diluted share. This non-GAAP figure excludes an unrealized mark-to-market loss under derivative instruments as well as the amortization of purchased intangibles. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter last year…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today will come from Anurag Rana with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Anurag Rana - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

Would it be possible for you to give us some idea as to when you can all make downturns, what kind of transaction processing quote should we be looking at and also could you please remind us also about the range of credit losses historically that you have seen in such an environment?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

On the transaction side as you know, Anurag, we had started to see the slow down last year, a little bit more pronounced in the third quarter which continued into the fourth quarter. So we are projecting that to basically be similar to our core growth all through 2008. So we’re seeing that annuity slow down and at this point we’re not expecting that to pick up during any of 2008. We started to see it before other sectors were talking about slow down and so far it’s holding steady and we’re keeping it at that level.

Melissa D. Smith

Management

And relating to bad debt our losses in the last several years have been between 11 and 22 basis points which includes 01. In the last 10 years the high point has been 24 basis points.

Anurag Rana - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

Just once more, could you give us some idea about the financial impact of the acquisition that was done today in terms of transaction growth?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

Pacific Pride processes about 32 million transactions and I think Mike said earlier that about 80% of their revenues comes from transaction-related fees.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Abhi Gami with Bank of America. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: A few questions. On Pac Pride just following up on your last comment, Melissa, doing the math on that it looks like Pac Pride will add around $0.02 to annual EPS on a non-GAAP basis. Does that math sound about right?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

What we said is it actually just slightly accretive on a non-GAAP basis to our current year results and it will be accretive both on a non-GAAP and GAAP basis in 09. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: How fast has Pac Pride been growing?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

It’s been just a steady growing business because their product set has not changed that much over the years. What we’ve been building is the ability to provide more services to their distributors in terms of online products, settlement capabilities, all the way out to funding receivable. So those are some of the things we’ll be putting in place over time to accelerate in effect the growth rate on revenues but also allow them to reach out and sign up more distributors to their programs with some of these new products. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: Your guidance, your commentary regarding accretion, does that take into account some of the new programs providing revenue upside or is that primarily benefits from the existing products and cost takeouts?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

We’re not expecting to see significant growth in 08, it’s really more into 09 as we continue to roll out that product functionality to their customer base. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: On Pac Pride also do you have a plan to expand them more nationally? There are a number of states in the Northeast that they don’t currently cover.

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

Yeah, we think with some of the new product sets it gives them more appeal in the marketplace so clearly we’re going to look to try to drive more franchise sales on their program. It should be a natural for us with some of the enhancements we’re doing in terms of product offerings. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: One more quick question then I’ll come back later. On the credit provisions for 08, in the fourth quarter it looks like there was a higher level of net charge offs versus kind of the trend line, does that mean based on your calculations or your methodology that by mid-08 we should essentially be seeing a slightly higher than normal provision level?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

We’ve seen moderately higher trough drops in the last couple of months that have been led in large part by an increase in the size and the number of bankruptcies. So that’s something that we’re projecting into our first quarter estimates. If you look back in 07 we talk about seeing some seasonality typically anyway. We had 23 basis points of loss in the first quarter of 07 on 16, a little over 16 for the full year. We think we’re going to see kind of a similar trend in 08. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: Just quickly then do you also know the debt of points on your cost of funds for your CDs and your interest rate on deposits for the quarter?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

The fourth quarter of 07, I presume you’re asking? Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: Yes, for the fourth quarter.

Melissa D. Smith

Management

The all-in blended rate was about, a little under 6%. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: Do you have the exact rate by any chance?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

I’ve got 5.9 and that’s all-in including fees. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: Okay, great. I’ll come back with some more later.

Operator

Operator

We will hear next from Tien-Tsin Huang from JP Morgan.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

It’s actually Reggie filling in for Tien-Tsin. I guess a quick question 1Q guidance, it was down sequentially from 4Q. Just wondering if that’s the Citi ramp up or what’s driving the sequential I guess step down in the 1Q earnings?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

It’s impacted by the credit loss that we’re anticipating and again it’s a similar trend to what we had in 2007. The first quarter 07 our actual results were roughly 20% of the full year results and that’s roughly what we’re projecting right now, too. So you’re seeing that being driven down in part by our estimation of credit loss.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

As far as I guess tele-matics, can we get an update on how I guess that’s progressing and how you’re seeing the economics you know kind of work out there as far as its revenues per month and any other details can you provide on that one would be great.

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

It’s still a small program in terms of revenue. I think what we are seeing is very strong response rates to our mailers. We’re seeing people signing up but they’re testing. I think some of the trends we’re now seeing is that they’re re-upping so after they test they do come back and then order additional units. We are growing basically as we talked about over the last year. We’re seeing the growth increase. We’re seeing good response although we have no sales yet, but seeing good response even with some of our larger fleets and we were glad to see that Sheets who’s a great marketer signing up as a private label now to market the program. So we know the product is ready for the price points and the functionality for our market, it just that it’s probably going to roll out slower than we thought, but we still feel very good about the trends.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

And then on the funding cost side, can we get I guess some type of range that you guys are assuming for funding costs in 08?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

We’ve built in the recent rate cuts into our estimates for the year and so we’re just rolling them in as we’re projecting the CD balances to roll off. I said before that about half the portfolio would roll off in the first six months and the weighted average actually at the end of January was about eight months remaining on the CD balances, if that helps.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

And then I guess finally any color you can provide for geographical weakness where you might be seeing slower growth or anything that you might want to add there?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

We haven’t seen any geographic anomalies, if you will, in terms of certain areas being slower than others at this point.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll go next to David Parker with Merrill Lynch. David Parker – Merrill Lynch: I think in your comments you talked about the annuity side of the business being soft and you mentioned that it was for different reasons than beforehand. Can you just provide a little bit more color on that please?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

When we saw the slow down in the fourth quarter of 06 what we really saw then was utilization of vehicles so we tracked transactions per active vehicle and we saw that down. What we saw happening though throughout the year was there was some recovery on that but then we started to see a slow down in the growth of our annuity business which typically would grow in the range of three to five, three to four to five percent based on GDP on their transaction growth, just adding new business and growing their business. We started to see that come off as the year progressed and by the fourth quarter the transactions per active card were somewhat back to normal, but the other really kept going down and that was the growth of transactions, the growth of vehicles with the annuity or the existing business. So that’s when we started to see the economy impact differently, they started to probably utilize their current vehicles more but were not expanding their business because of the economic slow down.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

Okay, great, that’s very helpful. And then with Pacific Pride, can you just talk about the integrations plans? It sounds like you’re going to leave them relatively alone and not going to be cutting costs. I mean are those are your general plans for Pacific Pride?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

To some extent, yes, because it’s not a large group and they’re kind of running a different type of business. A lot of the integration to some extent has been already invested in terms of the back-end products and services, the enhancements we have been working with them to build and roll out over the next year. So the good news is that as we do that more and more of their transactions start to reside on our platform. So the rest of what they do in Portland, Oregon or Salem, Oregon will pretty much stay intact. There’ll be some integration naturally of benefits and things like that, but not much else in terms of cost synergies.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

And then in terms of the 08 guidance, is Pacific Pride included or excluded from that guidance?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

It is included assuming that it closes within the first quarter.

Reggie - JP Morgan

Analyst · JP Morgan

And then just final question, you’re pursuing the construction vertical, you signed the deal with Bobcat. What are some other adjacent verticals to the fleet market that you might look at that are similar to the construction vertical as well?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

I would say right now that’s the one we’re focusing on. We think we have enough to build into that marketplace which I said is huge, a $400 billion market that has a lot of different merchants embedded within that market. So I think that’s where our focus at least for verticals is for the next number of years, I think we’ll be focusing on that market.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Ben [Kadlick] with First Investors. Ben [Kadlick] – First Investors: When I look at your guidance for 2008 can you kind of walk us through maybe the timing of your investments in the Citi contract and how operating margins should look going throughout the year as maybe revenue ramps and we get some leverage on the operating line?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

The Citi contract, Mike said in his comments, we’re heavily dependent on a joint team working with Citi on the timing of when that’s actually going to occur. Right now we said the latter part of the year, so it’ll be towards the very end of the year. In advance of that we need to ramp up our resources so roughly six weeks to eight weeks in advance, we’ll be adding about 100 people in order to deal with that contract. The other things we’ve said is that it’s lower than their average transaction processing fee, given the size of the relationship and it will decrease our operating margins once you roll it in, assuming the price of gas is neutral, about 1%. Ben [Kadlick] – First Investors: So when I think of your EPS guidance for 08, I mean is it possible to quantify what kind of sort of short-term negative impact that would have in 08 and how we should look at maybe 09 as a positive. Is there a way to frame that?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

The biggest impact it’s going to have is on our capital numbers for 2008. I’d say that’s the largest impact when you look at it particularly on an earnings basis. There’s going to be a little bit of dilution on an earnings basis depending on the timing of when that comes in. We don’t anticipate it being material. Ben [Kadlick] – First Investors: Again if I look at your, the range of your earnings guidances, I don’t know if conservatism is the right word to use, but is that conservative based more on your questions about the health of the credit market or how much of that is built into sort of the Citi ramp?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

There’s a lot of uncertainty right now I think particularly around what’s happening overall with the economy. So, as Mike said earlier, we’re anticipating when we put together our guidance that we’re going to see a pretty similar year as far as growth as we did in 07 excluding the impact of Citi and then on top of that we do anticipate to see elevated losses in a benefit of interest rates. So we’ve reflected all of that in there, but there’s a lot of unknowns still as we go into the year.

Operator

Operator

We’ll hear next from Robert Dodd with Morgan Keegan. Michael Shepherd – Morgan Keegan: It’s actually Michael Shepherd in for Robert. Just one quick question we had on the construction vertical you guys are talking about, are you guys going to be taking on the credit risk with that business or how is that going to work?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

Yes, we will be taking on the credit risk with that business so we will provide funded programs as we do to other partners and even the initial program with Bobcat, we take on the credit risk. We also have built, which I think is starting to differentiate us, is a strong front-end credit model which is very different than our fleet credit model to make sure it helps us manage and maintain a good portfolio management on that program.

Melissa D. Smith

Management

The customer mix that we also know well, it’s a different mechanism that we’re using to service them, but a piece of our business now is related to contractors. So we do have really quite good experience in dealing with that segment of the business.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And we’ll take a follow-up question from Mr. Gami. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: There’s about $1.9 million on the cash flow statement relating to I think purchase of receivables, can you just describe what that was or why that was done?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

We purchased a very small accounts receivable portfolio and we’ve talked in the past how we’re converting some of our relationships from transaction processing to payment processing. We did that with one of the smaller relationships we have. So it would be similar to what you saw happen last year with Exxon-Mobil only they’re smaller, much, much smaller size. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: It’s just simply flipping them over, there’s no purchase consideration involved in doing that?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

No, we pay them for the value of the accounts receivable portfolio based on market assessment. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: And then just as a clarification, I think you said earlier that your cap ex for the year was $19 or $20 million, did I hear that wrong? Am I reading this wrong? The cash flow statement says about $16.6 million.

Melissa D. Smith

Management

Yeah, that includes a capitalized lease that you need to add in from the cash flow statement. Non-cash where we capitalized one significant lease. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: And also, Mike, earlier you mentioned that the growth rate expectation for 08 would be similar to that of 07 at the core. Now, you’ve put about 7% growth in the fourth quarter, say about 4% for the full year, should we be keying off of that 7% number for 08? In other words, is that a sustainable sort of growth rate for 08 or is that 4% number more the realistic growth rate?

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

Yeah, we’re talking more the entire year number, the 4%. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: So coming up with the 7% number in the fourth quarter, what would lead to a further softening into 08?

Melissa D. Smith

Management

Some of things that are affecting the fourth quarter, we talked about the fourth quarter of 06 hasn’t seen a rapid decline in that transactions per active card. We’ve got, as Mike said, it was off in the fourth quarter of 07 for different reasons but they weren’t exactly equal. So you get a little bit of peck up on that comp. Abhishek Gami – Bank of America: I’ll follow up on that one off line.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And at this time we have reached the end of our Q&A session and we’ll now turn the conference back over to Mr. Mike Dubyak for any closing or additional remarks.

Michael E. Dubyak

Management

I’d like to just thank everybody and thank you, Andrea. Thanks everyone for listening. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter and this concludes the call.

Operator

Operator

Thank you and that does conclude our conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and joining us. Have a great day.