ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Janice, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the ACI Worldwide Inc., third-quarter 2025 financial results. (Operator Instructions)

感謝您的耐心等待。我叫珍妮絲，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表 ACI Worldwide Inc. 向大家介紹 2025 年第三季財務表現。（操作說明）

And I would now like to turn the conference over to John Kraft. You may begin.

現在我謹將會議交給約翰‧克拉夫特。你可以開始了。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. On today's call, we will discuss ACI's third-quarter 2025 results and our financial outlook for the remainder of the year. We will take your questions at the end of the call. The slides accompanying this webcast can be found at aciworldwide.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call.

各位早安，感謝各位參加我們的電話會議。在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論 ACI 2025 年第三季的業績以及我們對今年剩餘時間的財務展望。我們將在通話結束時回答您的問題。本次網路直播的投影片可在 aciworldwide.com 的「投資者關係」標籤下找到，並在電話會議結束後繼續提供。

As always, today's call is subject to Safe Harbor and forward-looking statements. You can find the full text of these statements in our presentation deck and earnings release, both available on our website and filed with the SEC. Joining me today are Tom Warsop, our President and CEO; and Bobby Leibrock, our CFO.

與往常一樣，今天的電話會議受安全港條款和前瞻性聲明的約束。您可以在我們的簡報和收益報告中找到這些聲明的全文，這兩份文件均可在我們的網站上找到，並已提交給美國證券交易委員會。今天與我一同出席的有我們的總裁兼執行長湯姆·沃索普，以及我們的財務長鮑比·萊布羅克。

Before I turn it over, I did want to share that we will be attending some investor conferences, including Citi's 14th Annual Fintech Conference in New York City on November 18, Stephens Annual Investment Conference in Nashville on November 20, and the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Scottsdale, December 3.

在結束之前，我想分享一下，我們將參加一些投資者會議，包括 11 月 18 日在紐約市舉行的花旗集團第 14 屆年度金融科技大會、11 月 20 日在納許維爾舉行的史蒂芬斯年度投資大會以及 12 月 3 日在斯科茨代爾舉行的瑞銀全球科技與人工智慧大會。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom.

這樣，我就把電話交給湯姆了。

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q3 earnings call. I'm going to share some key takeaways, and then Bobby will review our financials and guidance before we take your questions. We've spent the last couple of years investing in our leading software and working hard to structurally reshape ACI for accelerating growth and financial predictability. Q3 was another strong quarter for ACI and another proof point that our efforts are working.

謝謝你，約翰。各位早安，感謝各位參加我們的第三季財報電話會議。我將分享一些關鍵要點，然後鮑比將回顧我們的財務狀況和業績指引，之後我們將回答大家的問題。過去幾年，我們一直致力於投資我們的領先軟體，並努力從結構上重塑 ACI，以加速成長並提高財務可預測性。第三季對ACI來說又是強勁的一年，再次證明了我們的努力是有效的。

We delivered 7% year-over-year total revenue growth with double-digit recurring revenue growth in the quarter. For the year so far, both total revenue and adjusted EBITDA are up 12%, reflecting consistent execution and operational efficiency across the business. Given this momentum, we're again raising our full year guidance, and Bobby will share more about that shortly.

本季我們實現了7%的總營收年增，其中經常性收入實​​現了兩位數的成長。今年迄今為止，總收入和調整後 EBITDA 均成長了 12%，反映出公司各業務部門持續穩定的執行力和營運效率。鑑於目前的良好勢頭，我們再次上調了全年業績預期，Bobby 稍後會分享更多相關資訊。

As I've mentioned on prior calls, our team is working hard to reduce some of the variability introduced by our historic term license software business model. While we can't completely eliminate it, our focus on getting deals closed earlier in the year, movement toward more ratable pricing structures in our Payment Software segment and consistent growth in our biller business is helping lessen the quarter-to-quarter variability. We're continuing this effort, and I expect to continue to see benefits.

正如我在先前的電話會議中提到的，我們的團隊正在努力減少我們傳統的期限授權軟體業務模式所帶來的一些不確定性。雖然我們無法完全消除這種波動，但我們專注於在年初完成交易，在支付軟體領域推行更靈活的定價結構，以及帳單業務的持續成長，這些都有助於減少季度間的波動。我們將繼續努力，我預計會繼續看到成效。

Looking at our segments, the Biller business continues to perform well, with Q3 revenue up 10% compared to a year ago. We're seeing particularly strong growth in the utility and government verticals. Our Payment Software segment delivered 4% growth compared to last year, and it's up 12% year-to-date with the strong start we had to 2025. We continue to see strong demand from both traditional banks and established payment processors as well as from up-and-coming fintechs. Bottom line is the winners in the marketplace are investing, and they're often choosing ACI for their software needs.

從我們的業務部門來看，帳單業務持續表現良好，第三季營收比去年同期成長了 10%。我們看到公用事業和政府垂直領域的成長尤為強勁。我們的支付軟體業務板塊與去年相比成長了 4%，今年迄今成長了 12%，這得益於我們 2025 年的強勁開局。我們持續看到來自傳統銀行、成熟支付處理商以及新興金融科技公司的強勁需求。歸根結底，市場上的贏家都在進行投資，而且他們通常會選擇 ACI 來滿足他們的軟體需求。

I've been talking about our ACI Connetic platform for several quarters now, and I'm happy to report we signed our first new ACI Connetic customer in Q3, Solaris, a German fintech and bank. We were very selective in choosing our first customer, as I've indicated we would be, and we're committed to working closely with the Solaris team to successfully implement the technology across their system. They are an ideal partner focused on the future and on dramatically improving their business, supported by our industry-leading technology and services. Solaris CEO, Carsten Holtkemeyer, was a featured speaker at our recent Payments Unleashed event in New York, and he talked about the many challenges and opportunities in the financial services industry and specifically about how we are working together to take advantage.

我已經談論我們的 ACI Connetic 平台好幾個季度了，我很高興地宣布，我們在第三季度簽下了我們的第一個新的 ACI Connetic 客戶，即德國金融科技公司和銀行 Solaris。正如我之前所說，我們在選擇第一個客戶時非常謹慎，並且我們致力於與 Solaris 團隊緊密合作，成功地在他們的系統中實施這項技術。他們是理想的合作夥伴，專注於未來，致力於大幅提升業務，而我們行業領先的技術和服務將為他們提供支援。Solaris 執行長 Carsten Holtkemeyer 是我們最近在紐約舉辦的 Payments Unleashed 活動的特邀演講嘉賓，他談到了金融服務業的諸多挑戰和機遇，特別是我們如何共同努力來把握這些挑戰和機遇。

Looking ahead, Connetic's architecture and capabilities are resonating with customers who are looking to modernize and simplify their payments infrastructure. We have expanded our pipeline. We've deepened relationships with existing customers, and we're excited about what's ahead as we roll out this compelling new platform.

展望未來，Connetic 的架構和功能引起了那些希望實現支付基礎設施現代化和簡化的客戶的共鳴。我們擴大了產品線。我們加深了與現有客戶的關係，隨著這個引人注目的新平台的推出，我們對未來的發展感到興奮。

In addition, we made a small but important acquisition of a European-based fintech Payment Components that provides software for financial messaging translation, orchestration and integration. Although the direct impact to our revenue will not be material, the software they provide and the great team of technologists that have now joined us will augment our AI-first initiatives and help accelerate the development road map of our ACI Connetic offering. We will continue to be opportunistic in our approach to M&A grounded in disciplined capital allocation.

此外，我們還進行了一項規模雖小但意義重大的收購，收購對像是總部位於歐洲的金融科技公司 Payment Components，該公司提供用於金融資訊翻譯、編排和整合的軟體。雖然對我們的收入不會產生實質的直接影響，但他們提供的軟體以及現在加入我們的優秀技術團隊將增強我們的人工智慧優先計劃，並有助於加快我們 ACI Connectic 產品的發展路線圖。我們將繼續採取機會主義的併購策略，同時堅持嚴格的資本配置。

I also want to point out our ongoing commitment to returning capital to shareholders and point you to our other announcement today. Year-to-date, we've repurchased 3.1 million shares for $150 million. And just today, we announced the increase of our repurchase authorization to $500 million.

我還想強調我們一直以來對股東返還資本的承諾，並請大家關注我們今天發布的另一項公告。今年迄今為止，我們已回購了 310 萬股股票，耗資 1.5 億美元。就在今天，我們宣布將回購授權額度提高到 5 億美元。

Stablecoin has obviously been another hot topic in our industry and on our recent earnings calls. Just a few weeks ago, we announced a partnership with BitPay, which supports our ability to unlock even more potential as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins continue to grow in importance. This partnership strengthens our existing commitment to digital currency innovation by expanding our payments orchestration platforms and established capabilities for our customers.

顯然，穩定幣一直是我們行業和我們最近的財報電話會議上的另一個熱門話題。就在幾週前，我們宣布與 BitPay 建立合作夥伴關係，隨著加密貨幣和穩定幣的重要性不斷提高，這將支持我們釋放更大的潛力。此次合作透過擴展我們的支付協調平台和現有能力，加強了我們對數位貨幣創新的現有承諾，從而更好地服務我們的客戶。

I mentioned Payments Unleashed briefly, and let me take a moment to give you a bit more insight on this great event. Payments Unleashed was ACI's premier payments summit and a celebration of our 50th anniversary. We brought together some of the brightest minds, thought leaders, innovators and visionaries to discuss the future of payments. Topics included stablecoins, real-time payments, AI, modernization strategies for banks, merchants and billers. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we're proud to be at the center of these important conversations.

我剛才簡要地提到了 Payments Unleashed，現在讓我花點時間更詳細地向您介紹一下這個盛會。Payments Unleashed 是 ACI 的頂級支付高峰會，也是我們慶祝成立 50 週年的活動。我們匯集了一些最傑出的頭腦、思想領袖、創新者和遠見卓識者，共同探討支付的未來。討論的主題包括穩定幣、即時支付、人工智慧、銀行、商家和帳單機構的現代化策略。回饋絕大多數都是正面的，我們很自豪能夠成為這些重要對話的核心。

On the topic of thought leadership, ACI has also been active in the media. Most recently, I joined Bloomberg TV's Crypto show to share our perspective on stablecoins and its role in cross-border real-time payments. A couple of weeks earlier, I discussed similar topics, including the role of Europe in the growth of stablecoins on CNBC's Squawk Box Europe. This is all part of a focused campaign to make ACI's points of view clearer and more widely shared. Expect to see me and the entire ACI leadership team much more often.

在思想領導方面，ACI 也一直活躍於媒體。最近，我參加了彭博電視台的加密貨幣節目，分享了我們對穩定幣及其在跨境即時支付中的作用的看法。幾週前，我在 CNBC 的 Squawk Box Europe 節目中討論過類似的話題，包括歐洲在穩定幣發展中的作用。這一切都是為了讓ACI的觀點更加清晰、更廣泛地傳播而進行的專項宣傳活動的一部分。大家以後會更頻繁地見到我和整個ACI領導團隊。

Before I turn it over to Bobby, I'd also like to touch on the ongoing Board refreshment that has continued to be a priority for us. We recently appointed Todd Ford and welcome back Didier Lamouche as independent directors. Todd's many years as CFO of high-growth software technology companies in combination with Didier's successful track record of leadership in global technology companies will add value to our Board and additional support for our management team as we focus on accelerating sustainable growth, delivering industry-leading software solutions and generating shareholder value.

在把發言權交給鮑比之前，我還想談談正在進行的董事會更新工作，這始終是我們工作的重中之重。我們最近任命了 Todd Ford，並歡迎 Didier Lamouche 回歸擔任獨立董事。Todd 多年來擔任高成長軟體技術公司的財務長，加上 Didier 在全球科技公司中成功的領導經驗，將為我們的董事會增添價值，並為我們的管理團隊提供更多支持，以便我們專注於加速永續成長、提供業界領先的軟體解決方案和創造股東價值。

Overall, we're pleased with our progress and optimistic about the remainder of 2025. And none of what we're doing would be possible without the hard work of our team members. I want to thank our talented team for their steadfast commitment to our customers and to all of our stakeholders. As I mentioned earlier, our strategy to sign contracts earlier in the year continues to pay off, and our pipeline remains robust. We will continue to focus on increasing shareholder value through operational excellence and technology leadership, solidifying the durability of our improving growth.

總體而言，我們對所取得的進展感到滿意，並對 2025 年剩餘時間充滿信心。如果沒有我們團隊成員的辛勤工作，我們所做的一切都不可能實現。我要感謝我們才華橫溢的團隊，感謝他們對客戶和所有利害關係人的堅定承諾。正如我之前提到的，我們年初就簽訂合約的策略繼續奏效，我們的專案儲備依然強勁。我們將繼續專注於透過卓越的營運和技術領先地位來提升股東價值，從而鞏固我們不斷改善的成長動能。

With that, I'll turn it over to Bobby to walk through financials and guidance.

接下來，我將把發言權交給鮑比，讓他來講解財務和指導方面的內容。

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with our third quarter financial results and then cover our year-to-date performance and outlook. Q3 was another solid quarter, and we exceeded our expectations. Total revenue was $482 million, up 7% year-over-year and up 6% adjusted for foreign exchange. Recurring revenue was $298 million, up 10% and represents 62% of our total revenue.

謝謝你，湯姆，大家早安。我將首先介紹我們第三季的財務業績，然後介紹我們年初至今的業績和展望。第三季表現依然穩健，超越了預期。總營收為 4.82 億美元，年增 7%，經匯率調整後成長 6%。經常性收入為 2.98 億美元，成長 10%，佔總營收的 62%。

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $171 million and was up 2% year-over-year. Both of our segments contributed to this growth. The Biller business continues to perform well with revenue of $198 million, up 10% year-over-year. Segment adjusted EBITDA for Biller was $32 million, a 4% increase. In Payment Software, revenue grew 4% to $284 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $182 million, up 1%.

調整後 EBITDA 為 1.71 億美元，較去年同期成長 2%。我們兩個業務部門都為這一成長做出了貢獻。Biller 業務持續表現良好，營收達 1.98 億美元，年增 10%。Biller 部門的調整後 EBITDA 為 3,200 萬美元，成長 4%。支付軟體業務營收成長 4% 至 2.84 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 1.82 億美元，成長 1%。

We're pleased with our recurring revenue momentum, which was $100 million in Q3 and accelerated to 9% growth year-over-year.

我們對經常性收入的成長動能感到滿意，第三季營收達到 1 億美元，年增 9%。

Looking now at the first 9 months of the year, we generated $1.3 billion in total revenue and $346 million in adjusted EBITDA, both up 12% compared to the first 9 months of last year. That growth is the same as reported and adjusted for foreign exchange, so no impact from currency fluctuation. This strong performance reflects consistent execution across the business and the strong start we had in first quarter license sales. Payment Software revenue year-to-date grew 12% and adjusted EBITDA grew 13%. This includes growth across issuing acquiring, merchant, fraud management and real-time payments.

現在來看今年前 9 個月，我們實現了 13 億美元的總營收和 3.46 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，兩者均比去年同期成長了 12%。該增長與報告數據一致，並已根據外匯匯率進行了調整，因此不受匯率波動的影響。這一強勁的業績反映了公司各部門的持續執行以及我們在第一季許可證銷售方面取得的良好開局。支付軟體業務今年迄今的營收成長了 12%，調整後的 EBITDA 成長了 13%。這包括發卡收單、商家、詐欺管理和即時支付等領域的成長。

Biller revenue is also growing 12% year-to-date and adjusted EBITDA grew 4%. Our revenue momentum is driven by our continued bookings strength. Net new ARR bookings year-to-date grew 50% to $46 million, and new license and services bookings grew 8% to $189 million. And as Tom mentioned, we were pleased to welcome Solaris as our first Connetic customer. These results reflect the execution focus across our team and the growing customer demand across both segments.

帳單收入今年迄今成長了 12%，調整後的 EBITDA 成長了 4%。我們營收成長動能得益於持續強勁的預訂量。今年迄今的淨新增 ARR 預訂金額成長了 50%，達到 4,600 萬美元；新增授權和服務預訂金額成長了 8%，達到 1.89 億美元。正如 Tom 所提到的，我們很高興 Solaris 成為我們 Connetic 的第一位客戶。這些結果反映了我們團隊對執行力的重視以及兩個細分市場日益增長的客戶需求。

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $199 million in cash and a net debt leverage ratio of 1.3x. We continue to generate strong underlying cash flow with $201 million cash flow from operations year-to-date. That compares to $232 million last year and reflects the anticipated timing of receivables and tax payments between periods. We also repurchased approximately 400,000 shares in the third quarter, bringing our year-to-date total to 3.1 million or about 3% of our shares outstanding.

接下來看一下資產負債表。本季末，我們持有現金1.99億美元，淨負債槓桿比率為1.3倍。我們持續產生強勁的潛在現金流，今年迄今，經營活動產生的現金流已達2.01億美元。相比之下，去年為 2.32 億美元，反映了各期間應收帳款和稅款支付的預期時間。第三季度，我們也回購了約 40 萬股股票，使我們今年迄今的回購總數達到 310 萬股，約占我們已發行股票總數的 3%。

As Tom mentioned, we have increased our share repurchase authorization to a total of $500 million, underscoring our commitment to returning capital to shareholders.

正如湯姆所提到的，我們已將股票回購授權總額增加到 5 億美元，這凸顯了我們對股東返還資本的承諾。

Based on this strong year-to-date performance and a healthy fourth quarter pipeline, we are again raising our 2025 guidance. We now expect total revenue to be in the range of $1.73 billion to $1.754 billion, up from our prior range of $1.71 billion to $1.74 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $495 million to $510 million, up from our previous guidance of $490 million to $505 million.

基於今年迄今的強勁業績和健康的第四季專案儲備，我們再次上調了 2025 年的業績預期。我們現在預計總收入將在 17.3 億美元至 17.54 億美元之間，高於我們先前預測的 17.1 億美元至 17.4 億美元。我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 將在 4.95 億美元至 5.1 億美元之間，高於我們先前預測的 4.9 億美元至 5.05 億美元。

As I complete my first full quarter as ACI's CFO, I want to thank the team for their seamless collaboration and disciplined execution. Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to engage with employees across ACI and more deeply with our Board. I've heard directly from our customers and partners and had a chance to meet many of you, both current and prospective investors. And after these first few months, I'm even more energized by the opportunity ahead for ACI. I've been impressed by the strength of our team, the quality of our technology, and the clarity of our strategy.

在我擔任 ACI 財務長的第一個完整季度即將結束之際，我要感謝團隊的無縫協作和嚴謹執行。在過去的幾個月裡，我有機會與 ACI 的全體員工進行交流，並與董事會成員進行更深入的溝通。我直接聽取了客戶和合作夥伴的意見，並有機會與你們中的許多人見面，包括現有投資者和潛在投資者。經過這幾個月的發展，我對ACI未來的發展機會更加充滿熱情。我對我們團隊的實力、技術的品質和策略​​的清晰度印象深刻。

This is a strong, well-run company, and I'm excited to be part of it.

這是一家實力雄厚、管理完善的公司，我很高興能成為其中的一員。

I'm also very pleased with the operational discipline and financial controls across ACI. There is a strong tone from the top, both our Board and Tom, and we have the processes and assurances to back it up. We are prudent in how we manage financial risk. For example, as you know, our Payment Software business operates across approximately 90 countries with nearly 75% of revenue generated outside the U.S. While this demonstrates our global scale and leadership, we've always managed this exposure carefully and transparently.

我對ACI的營運紀律和財務控制也感到非常滿意。從高層，包括董事會和湯姆，都發出了強烈的信號，我們還有相應的流程和保障措施來支持這一信號。我們在管理財務風險方面採取謹慎的態度。例如，如您所知，我們的支付軟體業務遍及約 90 個國家/地區，近 75% 的收入來自美國以外地區。雖然這顯示了我們的全球規模和領先地位，但我們始終謹慎透明地管理這種風險敞口。

In hyperinflationary markets, we transact almost entirely in U.S. dollars to mitigate risk and we consistently disclosed the impact of foreign exchange on our results, providing visibility into our underlying operational performance.

在惡性通貨膨脹的市場中，我們幾乎全部以美元進行交易以降低風險，並且我們一直披露外匯對我們業績的影響，從而讓我們能夠了解我們的基本營運績效。

Looking forward, we remain focused on maintaining a proactive dialogue with the investment community. Transparency remains a top priority, and we're actively exploring ways to provide even greater clarity into our business and the progress we're making. I look forward to spending more time on the road again in Q4, continuing the conversation and deepening our engagement with investors.

展望未來，我們將持續致力於與投資界保持正向對話。透明度仍然是我們的首要任務，我們正在積極探索各種方法，以讓我們的業務和取得的進展更加清晰透明。我期待在第四季再次花更多時間出差，繼續與投資人對話，加深我們與他們的互動。

Tom, back to you.

湯姆，把鏡頭交還給你。

Thanks, Bobby. We're proud of our performance in Q3, and we're energized by the momentum that we have heading into Q4. Our strategy, execution and innovation, especially with ACI Connetic, position us well to enter 2026 on track to achieve our longer-term targets.

謝謝你，鮑比。我們對第三季的業績感到自豪，並且對進入第四季度的良好勢頭充滿信心。我們的策略、執行和創新，特別是與 ACI Connectic 的合作，使我們能夠順利進入 2026 年，並按計劃實現我們的長期目標。

Thank you for your continued support and for your continued interest in ACI. We're ready to take some questions.

感謝您一直以來對ACI的支持與關注。我們準備好回答一些問題。

(Operator Instructions) Trevor Williams, Jefferies.

（操作說明）特雷弗威廉斯，傑富瑞。

I wanted to start on pricing. Tom, maybe bigger picture, I'm curious how you would frame the runway for pricing as a lever within the longer-term growth algo. I know it's something you've talked about increasing monetization has been a focus over the last year plus. So I'm curious kind of where you still see the most opportunity? And then any way to put into perspective how impactful pricing has been this year relative to '24, maybe the historical growth algo?

我想先從定價入手。湯姆，或許應該從更宏觀的角度來看，我很好奇你會如何將定價策略作為長期成長演算法中的一個槓桿。我知道您曾多次談到提高獲利能力，過去一年多來，獲利一直是您的工作重點。所以我很好奇，你認為目前最大的機會在哪裡？那麼，有沒有辦法從歷史成長演算法的角度來衡量今年的定價相對於 2024 年的影響呢？

Any context around that would be helpful.

提供一些背景資訊會很有幫助。

Yes, sure. Thanks, Trevor. So it's a lever that we always pull as appropriate against the value that we provide to our customers. We -- essentially, we always get a price increase when we do a renewal or when a customer needs additional volume. And I think we -- I'm sure you and I have probably talked about the way we structure the capacity purchases by customers.

當然可以。謝謝你，特雷弗。所以，這是我們根據實際情況，用來衡量我們為客戶提供的價值的槓桿。基本上，每次續約或客戶需要增加容量時，我們都會面臨價格上漲。而且我認為我們——我相信你我可能都討論過我們如何安排客戶的容量購買。

We try to encourage through our pricing model, we encourage customers to buy as close to exactly the number of transactions they need as possible because if they need to come back and buy more, they're more expensive.

我們透過定價模式鼓勵顧客盡可能購買他們真正需要的交易次數，因為如果他們需要回來購買更多，價格就會更高。

So there's a lot of levers that we pull there. I don't see that fading at all. In fact, as we add more value with new versions of software as we start to move customers on to Connetic, the value we add is higher, and we expect to get our fair share of that. So this is an important lever. It's been an important lever in '24 and '25.

所以，我們有很多手段可以運用。我完全看不到這種趨勢會消失。事實上，隨著我們透過新版本的軟體為客戶增加更多價值，並開始引導客戶使用 Connetic，我們增加的價值也更高，我們希望獲得我們應得的份額。所以這是一個重要的槓桿。在 2024 年和 2025 年，它發揮了重要的作用。

You specifically asked about those. It's always been an important lever. But '24, '25, it's been an important lever, will continue to be. And I think we're just excited about continuing to add new, more valuable features, functions and capabilities for our customers and then getting our share.

你特意問了那些問題。它一直是一個重要的槓桿。但2024年、2025年，它一直是重要的槓桿，並將繼續如此。我認為我們很高興能夠繼續為我們的客戶添加新的、更有價值的功能、功能和能力，然後從中獲得我們應得的份額。

Okay. Understood. And then on Payment Software, just as we're getting closer to '26, anything we should be mindful of in terms of the cadence of renewals, just thinking whether renewal cadence has been a tailwind to '25, if that potentially abates in '26? Any context you could give us around that would be helpful.

好的。明白了。至於支付軟體，隨著我們越來越接近 2026 年，關於續約節奏，我們應該注意些什麼？想想續約節奏是否對 2025 年的發展起到了推動作用，而這種作用在 2026 年是否有可能減弱？如果您能提供一些相關背景信息，將對我們很有幫助。

And Trevor, I'll jump in. This is Bobby. So one -- let me put it in the context of our backlog, and I'll give you the total number. We were healthy growth, again, double digits in our $7.1 billion 60-month backlog. And that's across both Payment Software, as you asked about, and our Biller business.

特雷弗，我來插話。這是鮑比。所以，第一點——讓我把它放在我們待辦事項的背景下，我給你一個總數。我們再次實現了健康成長，60 個月的積壓訂單金額達到 71 億美元，實現了兩位數的成長。正如您所問，這涵蓋了支付軟體和我們的帳單業務。

As I look into 2026, as I mentioned, we feel good about continuing to be on track for our longer-term high single-digit growth model and EBITDA tracking along that revenue growth. As you think about the cadence of the renewals, as you put it, we got off to a great start here in the beginning of this year, overall growing 25% and almost 50% in Payment Software. That level is something we're continuing to be focused on to have deals spread out throughout the year.

展望 2026 年，正如我之前提到的，我們有信心繼續保持長期高個位數成長模式，而 EBITDA 將與營收成長同步成長。正如你所說，考慮到續約的節奏，我們今年年初開局良好，整體成長了 25%，支付軟體業務成長了近 50%。我們將繼續關注這一層面，力求在全年達成更多交易。

But I do expect things to be more balanced throughout the quarters next year, especially against that compare against the first quarter. So in terms of cadence of renewals next year, we feel good about achieving our longer-term growth model. But I do expect it to be the levels we have this year, more balanced from a SKU standpoint.

但我預計明年各季度的情況會更加平衡，尤其是與第一季相比。因此，就明年的續約節奏而言，我們對實現長期成長模式充滿信心。但我預計今年的庫存水準會和今年差不多，從 SKU 的角度來看會更加平衡。

Yes. Trevor, just one more comment on that. I sometimes get the question, is it highly variable year-to-year, the volume of renewals? And if you just do the average math, obviously, it's -- if you have 5-year terms, you think kind of 20% per year. It's not exactly 20% per year, but it isn't that far off.

是的。特雷弗，關於這一點，我還有最後要補充一點。我有時會被問到，續約數量是否每年都有很大的變化？如果你只是進行平均計算，顯然，如果期限為 5 年，你會認為每年大約成長 20%。雖然不是每年20%，但也相差不遠了。

So we don't -- the good news, I think, is that we don't have huge variability year-to-year. A little bit, yes, but we feel very comfortable managing that relatively small level of variability.

所以，我認為好消息是，我們每年的變化幅度並不大。確實會有一點波動，但我們完全有能力應付這種相對較小的波動程度。

Okay. Great. So it sounds like there's not going to be some major change in the percentage of the portfolio that's renewing next year that we need to be mindful of. You're on track for the high singles. So all that sounds good.

好的。偉大的。所以聽起來明年續約的投資組合比例不會發生任何重大變化，我們無需對此保持警惕。你有望取得不錯的單曲成績。聽起來都不錯。

Jeff Cantwell, Seaport Research.

Jeff Cantwell，Seaport Research。

Congrats on the signing of your first Connetic client. Would you mind just telling us high level about the progression from here? Maybe talk about the pipeline. Do you think you'll start seeing more contracts signed from here? And what is the timing on when that converts into revenue?

恭喜您簽下第一位康奈特客戶。您能否簡單介紹一下接下來的發展方向？或許可以談談管道問題。你認為之後會有更多合約從這裡簽嗎？那麼，這些投入何時才能轉化為收入？

Any thoughts on sizing or the magnitude of that revenue would be great.

關於規模或收入規模，任何想法都將不勝感激。

Yes. So we're really excited actually about the pipeline. These are big decisions, Jeff, first of all, thanks for the question. Good to talk to you. But we've -- these are complicated decisions for financial institutions and fintechs.

是的。所以，我們對這條輸油管真的非常興奮。傑夫，這些都是重大決定，首先感謝你的提問。很高興和你聊天。但是，對於金融機構和金融科技公司來說，這些都是複雜的決策。

And as I've -- hopefully, I've been clear that we want to make sure we get the right first few customers. So we've got a strong pipeline. It's getting stronger literally every month as we look at it. So I feel great about that. Obviously, we never know the exact timing of when sales are going to happen, but they're progressing really well.

正如我之前所說——希望我已經表達得很清楚了——我們希望確保我們能找到合適的最初幾位客戶。所以我們擁有強大的人才儲備。我們觀察發現，它每個月都在增強。所以我對此感到非常滿意。顯然，我們永遠無法確切知道銷售何時會發生，但目前進展非常順利。

So we'll continue to keep everybody informed as we add new customers.

因此，我們會隨著新客戶的加入，繼續向大家通報最新情況。

And you were asking specifically about the -- when it converts to revenue. The first couple of these are highly likely to be SaaS models where we're hosting the solution on behalf of our customer. And those -- the way that revenue model works is when the implementation is finished and transactions start to flow, that's when we'll see the revenue. So it will be a few months in the case of this first customer, several months, but we feel great about that. And I expect the first few will probably be like that.

您具體詢問的是－何時才能轉化為收入。前兩項很可能是 SaaS 模型，也就是我們代表客戶託管解決方案。這種收入模式的運作方式是，當實施完成且交易開始流動時，我們才能看到收入。所以對於第一位客戶來說，還需要幾個月的時間，好幾個月，但我們對此感到非常滿意。我估計前幾本可能都是這樣的。

Yes. I think -- and Jeff, if I can add to Tom's comments. The other comment I'd say is this is the first proper Connetic customer that will start getting revenue as we onboard but it's not a large discrete amount, but it is across every one of our customer conversations. We talked about Payments Unleashed and those conversations we had 2 weeks ago, it was across every one of them. And right now, we're focusing on our European and U.S.

是的。我想——還有傑夫，如果我可以補充湯姆的評論的話。我想補充一點，這是我們第一個真正意義上的 Connetic 客戶，隨著我們逐步完成入職，我們將開始獲得收入，雖然金額不大，但每次與客戶的溝通都會涉及收入。我們討論了 Payments Unleashed，以及我們兩週前進行的那些對話，這些對話貫穿了每一次討論。目前，我們正專注於歐洲和美國市場。

capabilities for Connetic. We'll have more of a global rollout through the medium term. But every customer in Mexico loves it. Every customer in Asia we talk to is excited about it. So I like the effect that Connetic has had to raise those conversations and encourage customers and get them to commit to the continued long-term ACI relationship they've had.

康奈克的功能。我們將在中期內實現更廣泛的全球推廣。但墨西哥的每一位顧客都非常喜歡它。我們在亞洲遇到的每一位客戶都對此感到興奮。因此，我非常欣賞 Connetic 所取得的成效，它引發了這些討論，鼓勵客戶，並促使他們繼續保持與 ACI 的長期合作關係。

Absolutely.

絕對地。

Okay. Great. And then you made a lot of moves during the quarter. So I want to ask you about a couple of them. Can you talk more about the payments components acquisition, why you wanted to capitalize on that opportunity, what that does for you?

好的。偉大的。然後你在這個季度做了很多動作。所以我想問你其中幾個問題。您能否詳細談談支付組件的收購，為什麼您想抓住這個機會，這對您有什麼好處？

How should we be thinking about the revenue contribution for your results going forward? And also, can you elaborate on the BitPay announcement? Maybe just explain what that unlocks for ACI? Is that domestic, international? I'm just trying to get a sense of how that becomes part of the story and what we should expect to see from here on that one as well.

我們該如何看待收入對你們未來業績的貢獻？另外，能否詳細介紹一下BitPay的公告？或許可以解釋一下這對 ACI 有什麼好處？是國內的還是國際的？我只是想了解這如何成為故事的一部分，以及從現在開始我們應該期待看到什麼。

Yes. Thanks, Jeff. So I would say super high level, they're similar. The reasons that we did both the BitPay partnership and the Payment Components acquisition, they're similar in that they allow us to accelerate progress in terms of adding or enhancing capabilities in our solutions so we can go faster through the partnership and the acquisition, different capabilities, obviously. But the BitPay partnership, we already have a lot of capabilities around crypto and stablecoin.

是的。謝謝你，傑夫。所以我覺得它們水平非常高，很相似。我們之所以選擇與 BitPay 建立合作關係和收購 Payment Components，原因有相似之處，那就是它們能夠加快我們在解決方案中添加或增強功能方面的進展，從而使我們能夠更快地透過合作關係和收購實現不同的功能。但是，透過與 BitPay 的合作，我們在加密貨幣和穩定幣方面已經擁有很多能力。

We talked a little bit about that on the last call. We have good capabilities. BitPay allows us to improve those -- the way that we serve our customers in those really important and increasingly important areas. And they -- frankly, that partnership allows us to add a few things that we didn't have. And so it's really an enhancement of the tools that we already have.

我們在上次通話中稍微談到了這件事。我們具備良好的能力。BitPay 使我們能夠改善這些方面——改善我們在這些非常重要且日益重要的領域為客戶提供服務的方式。坦白說，正是這種合作關係讓我們能夠增加一些我們以前沒有的東西。所以，這其實是對我們現有工具的增強。

We're excited about it. I think BitPay is excited about it. So that's a great one, good strategic reason to do that. So we're excited about that.

我們對此感到興奮。我認為BitPay對此感到很興奮。所以這是一個很好的理由，是一個很好的戰略理由。我們對此感到很興奮。

On the Payment Components, we were faced with a decision as we continue to build out and enhance ACI Connetic, we needed world-class payment message translation and orchestration. And we either had to build some of the capabilities that Payment Components has or we needed to buy them. And we did tons of research, lots of due diligence. We really think highly of the Payment Components team and the capabilities and software that they already have, ready to go on the shelf was exactly what we felt we needed for ACI Connetic.

在支付組件方面，隨著我們不斷建置和增強 ACI Connectic，我們面臨著一個決定：我們需要世界一流的支付訊息轉換和編排。我們要麼需要自己建立 Payment Components 所具備的一些功能，要麼就需要購買這些功能。我們做了大量的調查研究，並進行了充分的盡職調查。我們非常看好 Payment Components 團隊，他們已經擁有的能力和軟體，可以直接上手使用，這正是我們認為 ACI Connectic 所需要的。

So it's not -- it's a small acquisition, as I said, but really important strategically. We didn't buy it for immediate revenue growth. We bought it because the capabilities they have and the talent they have is a great add to ACI. So we do not expect to say to you next quarter, oh, Payment Components added a bunch of revenue. That's not the reason we did it.

所以，正如我所說，這是一筆小規模收購，但從策略角度來看卻非常重要。我們收購它並不是為了立即增加收入。我們收購它是因為他們擁有的能力和人才對 ACI 來說是一筆寶貴的財富。因此，我們預計下個季度不會告訴大家，哦，支付組件業務增加了大量收入。我們這麼做並不是因為這個原因。

But it makes ACI Connetic more impactful and gets us where we want to go faster. That's why we did that.

但這使得 ACI Connectic 的影響力更大，並能更快地帶我們到達我們想去的地方。這就是我們這麼做的原因。

George Sutton, Craig-Hallum.

喬治·薩頓，克雷格-哈勒姆。

A highlight at Payments Unleashed for me was Scotty's Connetic presentation and demo. And it seemed clear to me that, Tom, when you originally announced this, it was really meant for an SMB type of a customer, potentially a mid-market customer. And it would appear that this is now potentially an offering that could be delivered to virtually any size. Can you just talk about that?

對我來說，Payments Unleashed 大會的亮點是 Scotty 的 Connetic 演講和演示。在我看來，湯姆，你最初宣布這個消息的時候，顯然是針對中小企業客戶，甚至是中階市場客戶。而且現在看來，這種產品似乎可以滿足幾乎任何尺寸的需求。你能談談這個嗎？

Yes, absolutely, George. Thanks for joining us. So you're 100% right. And when we were talking about the -- what new markets could we potentially tap or new segments could we potentially tap with ACI Connetic, if you're thinking about really new, then it really was focused on the -- it still is focused on the mid-market because they -- those customers may not have made enough investment or have enough experience and expertise to take advantage of the historical ACI offerings.

是的，當然，喬治。謝謝您的參與。所以你的說法完全正確。當我們討論 ACI Connectic 可以開拓哪些新市場或新細分市場時，如果你指的是真正的新市場，那麼它實際上一直專注於中端市場，因為這些客戶可能沒有足夠的投資，或者沒有足夠的經驗和專業知識來利用 ACI 的歷史產品。

So that -- from a new market perspective, that was true. We always expected that large financial institutions, large merchants would eventually be ready to take advantage of ACI Connetic and what we're building. So we always believe that what I -- maybe I should say it this way, we didn't want to get people too excited about that opportunity because that's going to take some time. These very big banks, for example, they've made so much investment in their infrastructure, and they have so many processes and ways of doing things that making a change to a new platform, no matter how good it is, is a big, big, big change.

所以——從新市場的角度來看，這是事實。我們一直期望大型金融機構、大型商家最終能夠利用 ACI Connectic 和我們正在建構的產品和服務。所以我們一直認為——或許我應該這樣說——我們不想讓人們對這個機會太興奮，因為這需要一些時間。例如，這些大型銀行在基礎設施方面投入了大量資金，並且擁有許多流程和做事方式，因此，無論新平台多麼好，對其進行更改都是一項非常非常大的改變。

So we absolutely see what you said, which is this is super appealing to a large customer, a large potential customer. Absolutely, yes. I think the early adopters are likely to be a little bit smaller, but we are in active conversations with people -- customers along that whole continuum. I couldn't think of the right word, along that whole continuum. So we have smaller financial institutions, smaller merchants, we have midsized and we have very, very large.

所以我們完全理解你的意思，這對大客戶、大潛在客戶來說確實非常有吸引力。當然，沒錯。我認為早期採用者規模可能會小一些，但我們正在與各個階段的客戶積極溝通。我一時想不出合適的詞來形容那整個過程。所以我們有規模較小的金融機構、規模較小的商戶，也有中型企業和規模非常非常大的企業。

They're all interested in the capabilities, and we're just trying to work with them to make them comfortable and get them ready for the transition.

他們都對這些功能很感興趣，我們只是想和他們合作，讓他們感到舒適，並為他們過渡做好準備。

Got you. And just one other question on Biller. It sounds like utilities were really a key component of the growth this quarter. Can you just talk about your win rates and what you're broadly seeing in terms of opportunities for continued growth there? There's definitely a movement we see in the market from bespoke solutions to kind of moving to an outsourced model like yours.

抓到你了。關於比勒，我還有一個問題。聽起來公用事業確實是本季成長的關鍵組成部分。能否談談你們的勝率，以及你們認為未來在該領域持續成長的機會有哪些？我們確實看到市場上出現了一種趨勢，即從客製化解決方案轉向像你們這樣的外包模式。

So just curious your thoughts and that would be helpful.

所以，我很好奇你的想法，你的意見會很有幫助。

Yes, sure. So I think we highlighted that utilities and government were very -- a big contributor to the growth in this quarter. That's been true through the year. But we see very good pipeline and pipeline growth across all of the verticals that we serve. So we feel good about the business.

當然可以。所以我認為我們已經強調了公用事業和政府是本季成長的主要貢獻者。今年以來情況一直如此。但我們看到，在我們服務的各個垂直領域，業務管道和業務成長都非常良好。所以我們對公司業務感覺良好。

I agree with what you just said that there continues to be a real interest and a move away from -- I think you called them bespoke, good the name as any, solutions per Biller to outsource. And that's been happening for quite a long time. It continues to happen. Obviously, that's the reason that we're so excited about this business. We have a great offering, great client base.

我同意你剛才所說的，人們仍然對外包有濃厚的興趣，並且正在逐漸摒棄——我想你稱之為客製化解決方案，這個名字很好——每個計費者的解決方案。這種情況已經持續很久了。這種事還在繼續發生。顯然，這就是我們對這項事業如此興奮的原因。我們擁有優質的產品和服務，以及龐大的客戶群。

And what we're -- our new customers are all going on to our Speedpay ONE platform, which is our new -- I don't know if you saw that one, George, at Payments Unleashed, but we also had a demo of Speedpay ONE, which is our new cloud-native solution around Biller. And it's exciting. And so we're putting new customers on that platform. It gives them much faster time to market for new capabilities, better experience for the consumers, better experience for the Biller themselves. So we're really excited about that.

我們的新客戶都將使用我們的 Speedpay ONE 平台，這是我們的新平台——喬治，我不知道你是否在 Payments Unleashed 大會上看到了 Speedpay ONE 的演示，這是我們圍繞 Biller 推出的全新雲端原生解決方案。這令人興奮。因此，我們正在將新客戶引入該平台。這讓他們能夠更快地將新功能推向市場，為消費者帶來更好的體驗，也為帳單方本身帶來更好的體驗。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。

We're happy with the performance of the segment, and we're just focused on accelerating that growth.

我們對這個業務板塊的表現感到滿意，現在我們只專注於加速成長。

Yes. Maybe I'll just add one comment on Tom, too. I think I mean besides the financials that you'll see, George, right, 10% in the period and a backlog that's growing at the same level going forward. The other part I'd say, I met with a lot of those same customers you asked about at Payments Unleashed in the utility space. The reason they're coming to us and some of the top players is the complexity is increasing.

是的。或許我也該對湯姆說句話。我的意思是，除了你會看到的財務數據之外，喬治，對吧，這段時間增長了 10%，而且積壓訂單在未來也將以同樣的速度增長。另一方面，我想說的是，我在 Payments Unleashed 大會上遇到了許多你提到的那些公用事業領域的客戶。他們之所以來找我們以及一些頂級玩家，是因為遊戲的複雜性越來越高。

And that's what a player like Speedpay can actually bring to them is to address that complexity that some of those bespoke ones can't. So that -- in terms of win rates, that's one of our bigger competitive advantages I see in that segment and one of the reasons we're winning more.

而像 Speedpay 這樣的支付平台真正能為他們帶來的，就是解決一些客製化支付平台無法解決的複雜性問題。所以——就勝率而言，我認為這是我們在該領域最大的競爭優勢之一，也是我們贏得更多比賽的原因之一。

Alex Neumann, Stephens Inc.

Alex Neumann，Stephens 公司

Just to double-click there, there's another great quarter for Biller with double-digit growth. I was wondering if you could just provide some additional detail on the drivers of growth there, whether it's new customers, volume, price and maybe the relative contribution there? And then just the same for the Payment Software segment, which had some nice growth over which was a pretty tough comparison this quarter.

再點擊一下，Biller 又迎來了一個非常棒的季度，實現了兩位數的成長。我想請您提供一些關於推動成長的更多細節，例如新客戶、銷售、價格以及它們各自的貢獻？支付軟體領域的情況也類似，儘管本季與上一季相比比較艱難，但該領域仍然取得了不錯的成長。

I can jump in, Alex. One, it's pretty broad-based across both. I'll start with the second part on Payment Software. As I mentioned in my opening comments, all key cylinders, all key solution areas are growing in that -- across that business on a year-to-date basis. In the third quarter, we saw a great contributing -- contribution from the issuing and acquiring space.

我可以加入，亞歷克斯。第一，它在這兩個領域都相當普遍。我將從支付軟體的第二部分開始。正如我在開場白中提到的，所有鑰匙缸、所有鑰匙解決方案領域都在這一業務領域實現了成長——就今年迄今為止而言。第三季度，我們看到發行和收購領域做出了巨大貢獻。

We saw real-time and fraud in Q2, they had really blowout quarters there on a year-to-date basis, all growing.

我們看到第二季度即時數據和詐欺數據都出現了大幅增長，與年初至今的數據相比，所有數據都在增長。

You go into the Biller side of it, it's -- I would emphasize it's new customers and retention. The price lever I view -- there was an earlier question that Tom was answering around pricing. I view that as untapped potential in our billing business actually. I view it more as success rates on getting new customers, onboarding them and expanding those into more use cases across there.

從帳單處理的角度來看，重點在於新客戶和客戶留存。我認為價格槓桿——之前湯姆回答過一個關於定價的問題。我認為這實際上是我們計費業務中尚未開發的潛力。我更傾向於將其視為獲取新客戶、引導新客戶以及將這些客戶拓展到更多應用程式場景的成功率。

(technical difficulty) Q&A session. I will now turn the conference back over to the company for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

（技術故障）問答環節。現在我將把會議交還給公司，請他們作閉幕致詞。請繼續。

Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us. We do look forward to catching up with individually -- with you guys individually in the coming weeks at the various events that we mentioned earlier. Have a great day.

謝謝大家的收看。我們期待在接下來的幾周里，在之前提到的各種活動中與你們逐一見面。祝你有美好的一天。

Thanks, everybody.

謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。