Brinks Co (BCO) 2016 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to The Brinks Company's fourth-quarter 2016 earnings call. Brinks issued a press release on fourth-quarter results early this morning.

The Company also filed an 8-K that includes the release and the slides that will be used in today's call. For those of you listening by phone, the release and slides are available on the Company's website at Brinks.com.

(Operator Instructions)

As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Now for the Company's Safe Harbor statement. This call and the Q&A session will contain forward-looking statements.

Actual results could differ materially from projected or estimated results. Information regarding factors that could cause such differences is available in today's press release and in the Company's most recent SEC filings.

Information presented and discussed on this call is representative as of today only. Brinks assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. The call is copyrighted and may not be used without written permission from Brinks.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host,. Ed Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Mr. Cunningham, you may begin.

Thank you, Denise. Good morning, everyone. Joining me today are CEO, Doug Pertz, and CFO, Ron Domanico.

This morning we reported results on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP results exclude certain retirement expenses, reorganization and restructuring costs, acquisitions, dispositions, and tax related adjustments. In addition to these items, our non-GAAP results exclude Venezuela due to a variety of factors including our inability to repatriate cash, Venezuela's fixed rate exchange policies, continued currency devaluations, and the difficulties we face operating in a highly inflationary economy.

We believe the non-GAAP results make it easier for investors to assess operating performance between periods. Accordingly, our comments today, including those referring to our guidance, will focus primarily on non-GAAP results.

A summary reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP results is provided on page 4 of the earnings release. More detailed reconciliations are provided in the release, in the appendix to the slides we're using today, in this morning's 8-K filing and on our website.

Page 8 of the press release provides a summary of several outlook items, including guidance on revenue, operating profit, earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA. I'll now turn the call over to Doug.

Thanks, Ed. Good morning everyone, and thanks for joining the call. This morning we reported much improved fourth-quarter and full-year results, ending 2016 on a very positive note that strongly supports our trajectory for 2017 and beyond.

Fourth-quarter non-GAAP earnings grew 58% from $0.55 per share to $0.87 per share. Operating profit for this quarter was $77 million, up 71% on an organic basis, with an operating margin of 10% versus 6.6% in the fourth quarter 2015. Revenue for the quarter grew 10% on an organic basis, helping support our 6% organic growth rate for the full year.

I'm especially pleased to report that this strong performance was partially driven by continued profit improvement and revenue growth in the US, along with improved revenue results -- excuse me, along with the improved results of both revenue and margins in Argentina, Mexico and Asia.

In Mexico, fourth-quarter revenue and profit growth was driven primarily by continued growth in the retail sector and customers. In the US, operating profit for the quarter was $8 million compared to a slight loss in the fourth quarter of 2015.

US revenue and profit benefited from the previously announced sale of several hundred cash recyclers to a large retailer. In addition to initial sale and installation revenue, this new business will also provide a stream of high margin recurring revenue in 2017 and future years.

Looking ahead we expect positive US year-over-year comparisons in 2017 and beyond, driven by our investments in new trucks and other strategic initiatives. It's important to note that the fourth quarter is typically our strongest in most countries including the US, with the first half of the year typically the weaker part of the year.

For example, our country-wide operating margin in the fourth quarter of 10% compares with a full-year margin of 7.1%, clearly demonstrating the seasonality of the business. More importantly, the fourth-quarter margin of 10% versus the year-ago margin of 6.6% demonstrates the material improvement in our overall performance.

Our strong fourth-quarter results help push full-year earnings in 2016 to $2.24 per share, a 33% increase over 2015. Full-year operating profit was $207 million, up 32%, with a margin of 7.1%, a solid improvement over the 5.3% operating margin in 2015.

On an organic basis, 2016 revenue rose 6% and operating profit was up 43%. Our 2016 adjusted EBITDA was $333 million.

We've made good progress over the last six months, and we're just getting started. We expect continued profit momentum in 2017 and beyond.

On an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange translation, acquisitions and divestitures, our 2017 non-GAAP guidance includes 6% revenue growth, operating profit growth of 18% to 23% to a range between $230 million and $240 million. And earnings growth of 17% to 21% to a range between $2.45 to $2.55 per share. Our 2017 adjusted EBITDA is expected between $370 million and $380 million.

This guidance includes a projected negative foreign exchange impact of $80 million on revenue and $15 million on operating profit, which equates to $0.18 per share on earnings. More information regarding our 2017 guidance, including assumptions for organic growth and foreign exchange, is provided on page 8 of the earnings release. In addition, Ron will provide a more detailed financial update in a few minutes.

But first, I want to review our longer term strategy and our plans to communicate the details of this strategy. I'll start by reinforcing our belief that there are no structural differences between the US business and our competitor's operations.

In fact overall, we may be better positioned than our competition to drive shareholder value. Brinks is already the largest cash management company in the world, about 50% larger than our next largest competitor, with strong market positions in key countries and an unmatched global infrastructure.

Compared to our four largest competitors, I believe we have at least as many, and probably more, opportunities to grow both our revenue and our margins. We have solid market positions in many countries, including the number two market position in 7 of our 10 largest countries, and the leading market position in the other 3 of the top 10.

These top 10 countries represented about 80% of our revenue in 2016. Our top -- excuse me, our market position in each of these countries represents significant opportunities to improve margins and grow revenue, both organically and through acquisitions.

In fact, in most of these countries we're positioned better than both the number one player and other smaller competitors to grow through acquisition, due to the relative market position we have, and to achieve greater cost synergies. Our strategy is designed to achieve both organic and inorganic revenue growth while driving margins consistently higher.

We have a lot of work to do, but I see no reason why we can't meet and eventually surpass the highest margins and growth levels in the industry. It's about leadership, culture, strategy and execution. I firmly believe that our strategy will drive significant profit growth and shareholder returns over the next three years.

Today we provided guidance on our 2017 year. At our Investor Day on March 2, we'll share the details behind our three-year plan, including 2019 financial targets.

I'll now provide a quick summary of our strategy, including some of the initiatives that are already well underway. Many of you are already familiar with the primary components of our strategy, which we summarize using three simple acronyms: APG, CTG and IDS.

APG stands for Accelerate Profitable Growth. We have opportunities to organically grow revenue in high margin lines of business, such as CompuSafe services and recyclers, outsourced money processing and Brinks Global Services. Our plan calls for growing revenue with both large and small financial institutions, or FIs, and increasing penetration in the large and underserved retail market.

With a debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio now well under one times, we have the financial capacity to complete accretive acquisitions in both core and adjacent markets. The centerpiece of our plan is to achieve operational excellence and close the gap, or CTG, between our margins and those of our most successful competitors.

We have already begun an aggressive drive to improve internal productivity, optimize cost and achieve industry-leading margins. The margin gap is clearly widest in the US, which is our greatest near-term opportunity to create substantial value; but we also have specific strategies to expand margins in other countries. For example, both Mexico and Canada, we are implementing plans to improve our labor cost and other operational efficiencies to increase margins.

The third component of our strategy is to introduce differentiated services to our customers by strengthening and leveraging our IT capabilities. Our IT strategy and systems will also drive improved service levels and operational efficiencies.

Along with the Track & Trace customer portal, the systems will include productivity tools such as dynamic route optimization and fleet telematics. At Investor Day Rohan Pal, our Chief Information and Digital Officer, will share plans for leveraging IT to drive both revenues and operational excellence.

Some of you may recognize this illustrative slide on slide 7 from our last earnings call in October. It depicts some of the key initiatives aimed at driving revenue and margin growth over the next three years.

Our strategy encompasses a broad range of profit improvement actions but the primary focus is on what we call Breakthrough Initiatives, which include reducing overall fleet cost, reducing labor cost per truck, optimizing our branch network and reinvigorating our sales and marketing efforts. For example, in the US we're aggressively investing in smaller, more efficient vehicles that can accommodate both one- and two-person crews.

The initial cost of these new gas-powered trucks is about 35% to 40% below the cost to replace the old, heavier diesel-powered trucks. This initiative will substantially reduce the average age of our fleet, improve service levels to our customers and reduce overall expenses related to fuel, maintenance and repair.

Deploying smaller crews in the US, and in other countries as well, is a great opportunity (technical difficulties) reduce our labor cost. At the end of 2016, for example, in the US we had about 300 trucks operating with one-person crews.

About 40% of these trucks were put into service during the fourth quarter. As a result the cost savings impact was just starting to be felt in the last few months of the year.

We're on track to add about 400 trucks in 2017, including about 100 in the first quarter that were originally scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2016. These fleet-related initiatives should have a significant impact on US margins, and the ROI on these investments is very attractive. We'll provide the expected profit impact and returns on March 2.

Reinvesting in our sales organization is another important element of our plan. In the US we're growing our sales forces aggressively to increase coverage of financial institutions and retail markets.

We have great opportunities to grow account share with large institutions and to increase penetration in smaller banks that are currently underrepresented in our sales mix and in our sales organization. On the retail side, there's significant growth potential in the large and relatively unvended retail market, especially for our CompuSafe services and related higher margin offerings.

As I mentioned earlier, our fourth-quarter earnings were helped by the installation of on-site cash recyclers for our national retailer. This new business will generate recurring revenue from service, monitoring and cash-in-transit activities.

In fact, the recyclers sold in 2016 alone should add an estimated $10 million in higher margin recurring revenue per year, starting this year. Growing this service, the sale of CompuSafe services are key elements to our overall strategy. Again, more on March 2.

The initiatives I described in the last slide are primarily US-based because that's where our greatest near-term opportunities are. But we're also executing on similar initiatives to improve margins in many other countries globally, such as France.

And as we stated earlier, implementing labor reductions and route optimization actions in Mexico and Canada. I'm also confident that we'll leverage our organic revenue and margin improvements with accretive acquisitions. Ron is up next for a brief financial review, then we'll open it up for questions. Ron?

Thanks Doug, and good day everyone. Please direct your attention to slide 10 where I'll discuss our non-GAAP revenue.

Adjusting for ForEx and the businesses we exited, revenue in the fourth quarter increased from $695 million in 2015 to $768 million in 2016, an organic increase of 10%. Latin America, driven by Chile and Argentina, and the US all delivered double-digit organic growth.

The growth in the US was primarily due to sales of on-site cash recycling services to a national retailer, which Doug already mentioned. Asia, Brazil and Mexico all grew organically in the mid- to high single-digit range.

EMEA grew 3%. Canada was flat and France decreased 3%, due to the loss of an airport guarding contract in early 2016.

ForEx in the fourth quarter was $29 million unfavorable versus the same period last year, driven primarily by devaluation in Argentina and Mexico partially offset by a stronger real in Brazil. Dispositions reflect a previously announced exits from Ireland and Russia.

For the year, revenue increased organically by $167 million, or 6%, to $2.9 billion. The organic growth rate of 6% is 100 bps better than the 5% we included in our full-year outlook at the end of the third quarter.

All segments, except Europe and France, grew organically. Latin America up 25%, followed by Brazil and payment services at 11%, and the other segments in the low to mid-single-digit range.

Year-to-date ForEx was $198 million unfavorable, as on average the US dollar strengthened against most currencies. In 2017 we expect revenue growth from price and volume increases in Latin America, Brazil and Mexico, and volume growth in the United States from our increased focus on sales, especially around our CompuSafe retail solution and mid-tier banks.

Turning to slide 11. Fourth-quarter 2016 non-GAAP operating profit grew organically by $35 million, or 71%, to $77 million versus the fourth quarter 2015. Operating profit as a percent of revenue increased 340 bps from 6.6% in the fourth quarter 2015 to 10% in the fourth quarter of 2016. The improvement was driven by revenue growth and price increases in Latin America, improvement in the United States including the impact of the on-site recycler sales, improvement in Mexico in payment services, and lower corporate expenses.

For the full year 2016, non-GAAP operating profit of $207 million increased organically by $68 million, or 43% over 2015. Operating profit as a percent of revenue increased 180 bps, from 5.3% in 2015 to 7.1% in 2016.

The operating profit margin rate of 7.1% is 20 bps better than the high end of the range that we included in our full-year outlook at the end of the third quarter. The full year improvement was driven by price increases in Brazil and Argentina, including the inflation impact on ad valorem charges, margin expansion in France, revenue growth in Asia and lower corporate expenses.

Mexico was flat, as 2015 included a gain from a change in employee benefits. Lower results in the United States were due to higher insurance and repair expenses.

Full-year operating profit ForEx was $22 million unfavorable, as the US dollar on average strengthened against most other currencies, and especially strengthened versus the Argentine peso. For 2017 operating profit outlook, we expect margin expansion in the US from new business and the efficiency and cost measures Doug mentioned earlier, volume and price increases in Latin and Brazil, benefits from fourth-quarter restructuring actions, and growth in Mexico from labor and other cost improvements. We exited December with an operating profit margin rate in the United States that gives us confidence in our ability to achieve our 2017 margin target.

Moving to slide 12. We prepared this slide and the next one to bridge operating profit, income from continuing operations, and adjusted EBITDA. This slide is a bridge for the fourth quarter, and the next slide is a bridge for the full year.

The variance from the prior year for each part of the bridge is included at the bottom of the slides. I want to highlight that we've adjusted the non-GAAP income tax rate to 36.9%, which is the full-year rate for 2016 and about 210 bps better than we had estimated at the end of the third quarter. The reduction was primarily due to the early adoption of an accounting change in the fourth quarter.

Fourth-quarter 2016 non-GAAP operating profit of $77 million was reduced by $6 million of net interest expense, $26 million of taxes and $1 million of minority interest to generate $44 million of income from continuing operations. This equates to $0.87 per share in the fourth quarter of 2016, which was up $0.32 per share, or 58% higher than the fourth quarter 2015.

Depreciation and amortization was $33 million. Adding back the $32 million of combined interest and taxes resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $109 million for the fourth quarter 2016. This was up $27 million, or 32% versus the same quarter last year.

Turning to slide 13. Full-year 2016 non-GAAP operating profit was $207 million. Net interest expense was $19 million, which represents an effective borrowing rate just over 4%. Taxes of $69 million again reflect an effected tax rate of 36.9%.

Minority interest was $5 million. Backing out interest, taxes and minority interest from operating profit results in $113 million of full-year income from continuing operations. This equates to $2.24 per share in 2016, which was up $0.55 per share, or 33% higher than 2015. Depreciation and amortization was $130 million.

Adding back the $89 million of combined interest and taxes resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $333 million in 2016. This was up $41 million, or 14% versus last year. We expect the interest rate and effective tax rate to be at approximately these same levels in 2017.

Continuing on slide 14. Capital expenditures in 2016 were $137 million versus $116 million in 2015. This is in line with depreciation, and in line with our prior guidance. The increase was driven primarily by the acquisition of additional armored vehicles that will reduce labor, drive down maintenance and repair expense, and provide greater safety.

We expect 2017 capital expenditures to increase, as we plan to accelerate the level of armored vehicle replacement and continue to make other investments to drive operating profit improvement. Our 2017 plans also include investment in Mexico to relocate our operations to ensure we have the right footprint to drive performance improvement over the long term.

In addition, we expect increased investment in our CompuSafe offering to support revenue growth, not only in the United States but in all markets in 2017 and beyond. We're continuing to review the most cost effective way to finance future investments. We'll share more details about our expected future capital expenditures, associated returns and financing decisions at our Investor Day on March 2.

Moving to slide 15. This slide illustrates Brinks' debt and leverage position. The bars on the left of the slide illustrate our debt at the end of 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The height of each bar represents gross debt, the top part of each bar represents our cash position, and the bottom part of each bar represents the net debt position. As of December 31, 2016, our net debt was $247 million. This was down $22 million from year end 2015.

On the right of the slide, the bars illustrate our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA at the end of each of the three years. Above these bars is the ratio of net debt divided by trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. This leverage ratio of approximately 0.7 is the lowest amongst our peers, and indicates that Brinks has a strong balance sheet to make accretive investments.

Turning to slide 16. We believe that adjusted EBITDA is the most meaningful non-GAAP metric for stakeholders to assess cash flow. We calculate adjusted EBITDA on a trailing 12-month, or TTM, basis. TTM adjusted EBITDA at December 31, 2016 was $333 million.

This 14% increase versus 2015 was due to the organic increase in operating profit, with a slight offset due to the ForEx impact on operating profit and depreciation, amortization and other. The adjusted EBITDA margin as a percent of revenue, however, increased 160 bps to 11.4%.

The Brinks Enterprise value divided by adjusted EBITDA resulted in a 1.3 turn expansion in the multiple from 5.7 times to 7 times. Perhaps of greatest relevance in the past year, the BCO stock price increased over $12 per share, or approximately 43%.

Looking at the right side of the chart, on the top you can see how the Brinks multiple has increased in 2016. But on the bottom you can see that our multiple is still materially below that of our closest peers.

We believe this gap will close as we implement our strategy and consistently achieve projections. With that, I'll turn it back over to Doug.

Thanks, Ron. In summary, it was a good quarter and a good year with solid and accelerating growth. For the year, EPS was up 33%.

Organic operating profit was 43% growth, with an operating margin of 7.1%. That's 180 basis points improvement. Organic revenue grew by 6% and adjusted EBITDA was $333 million.

As a new management team, one of our goals is to build confidence among investors. Our 2016 operating profit and earnings came in well ahead of our guidance, and we expect further improvement in 2017, with our guidance for 2017 for organic revenue growth of 6%.

After taking into account and overcoming FX-related profit headwinds of $15 million, operating profit is expected to be between $230 million and $240 million with an operating margin approaching 8%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the $370 million to $380 million range, and that's before any acquisitions.

With both a historical and future earnings growth rate in excess of 20%, Brinks is currently trading at just over a 7 times trailing adjusted EBITDA and a forward multiple of about 6.3 times, both well below our peers, as Ron suggested. We have a strategic [ban] in place and a strong team that is ready in execution mode.

Several of our strategic initiatives are starting to produce results in the US and other countries. And there's more to come, including additional internal initiatives and potential acquisitions designed to drive revenue and profit growth over the next three years. We look forward to sharing the details of our plans and our three-year financial targets on March 2. Let's open it up for calls.

Thank you, sir.

(Operator Instructions)

Your first question will come from Jamie Clement of Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Doug, Ron, Ed, good morning and thanks in advance for taking my questions.

Thank you.

Doug, I just want to be real clear about something. The $2.45 to $2.55 of EPS, non-GAAP EPS guidance for 2017, that is inclusive of an $0.18 per share headwind from currency. Is that correct?

That's correct. So what we're doing is trying to reset based on FX at the end of the year, end of 2016, because we saw the additional FX headwinds, in the latter part of the year in particular, that provided us the reset for the FX at the end of the year. This number includes that which we stated, both on an EPS basis -- well, EPS operating margin basis, as well as EPS basis. So that's correct (multiple speakers).

Okay. Question on Mexico, if I could? Big organic increase in operating profit in the fourth quarter. Have you already reset some of your labor costs that you've discussed, or is that still to come in 2017?

Jamie, part of that was the Mexican government approved a diesel fuel credit, but it was a small portion. As you insinuated, a lot of the improvement was from changes that have been under way in the last few months, especially on the labor side.

I would actually, Jamie, say that part of it was that, but a very relatively small part of that. Usually -- part of it is, it's a stronger fourth quarter, plus you saw there was good revenue growth. And that adds to, obviously, a better margin in the quarter.

But we're just starting to, in this year, implement the changes in the labor structure and the optimization of the routes. We should see this year and into next year, both 2017 and 2018, substantially improved margins as a result of those changes, and ultimately continued revenue growth on the retail side.

Okay. All right. Gentlemen, thanks very much for your time, as always.

Thank you, Jamie.

The next question will come from Ashish Sinha of Gabelli. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I had a few, myself. Starting with the US, the strong organic growth you posted in the fourth quarter, I just wanted to dig a little bit deeper on it.

And since we're speaking about that, I just had a clarification on CompuSafe versus cash recyclers. Is my understanding correct that they are two different products? CompuSafe is slightly more advanced than a typical cash recycler? And if so, could you talk about the difference in the economics of both of these products, and if there is any cannibalization threat? Thank you.

Yes. Those are very good questions, and I think that's something on March 2 we should provide a lot more detail and background on, and maybe even have one there. Actually, if you look at the continuum of retail offerings that we offer and that the industry offers, I would start off with a safe that is relatively -- what we call maybe a dumb safe, in that it's just a safe without the interconnects, without the monitoring, without the ability to know how much the balances are, without the ability to give automatic credit, et cetera, more of a dumb safe to keep (inaudible) low end of it.

Next on the continuum would be what we call our CompuSafe, which is really the modern-day smart safe. It would be what we think has the opportunity for significant growth, and obviously what our competitor has been doing a very good job of selling in the marketplace as well.

At the further end of that, and at a higher cost, is the recycler that is generally used in a more sophisticated setting where they actually recycle cash within the store or the retail operation. So it sells at a much higher price, maybe a price point that's closer to $40,000 to $50,000, $60,000, and is a more sophisticated piece of equipment, probably offering more ability to reduce headcount and cost savings as compared to the smart safe, or the CompuSafe, that's closer to the $5,000 range.

So the combination, and there are differences. We were talking about a large sale in the fourth quarter; we announced that at our third-quarter conference call for a large retail chain that we were very pleased to have finalized that. That will provide us fairly significant ongoing, what we call ongoing high-margin recurring revenue streams, similar to, but at a higher level, a different scale, if you will, as compared to the CompuSafes, which again, provides the same sort of thing. A typical CompuSafe is sold with a five-year recurring revenue stream associated, or payments for the services that include CIT, money processing, and the monitoring, and the cost of, the financing, of the safe. Does that help?

Yes, that's helpful. And in terms of the economics, a customer can essentially either buy it or lease it from you? Is that how it works?

Yes, that is how it works, although our primary offering is the offering of a full monthly payment over a five-year period of time that includes the combination of the financing cost of the unit. Effectively it could be a back-to-back lease (multiple speaker). Yes, or it could be we buy it and it's CapEx for us, or we finance it through a lease and then we just effectively back-to-back the payments on it and we make the money off the payments. We then have maintenance that goes along with that.

But we have the other services, too. It's the monitoring of the equipment. It's the guarantee of instant daily credit. We also guarantee any risk associated with losses.

So those are all pieces of the package that are much different than if they just buy the safe and handle it themselves. And then, again, obviously it's packaged together with our CIT and money processing services.

So if you could give us a ballpark of what are we looking at in terms of dollars per month if somebody was to go for a CompuSafe versus a recycler?

I'll give you a range, but I don't really want to have it specific. Look for something in the $4,500 to $5,000 a year on the revenue streams associated with a CompuSafe, and anywhere from $18,000 to $20,000 a year for a high-end recycler.

Understood. Thank you very much.

The next question will be from Jeff Kessler of Imperial Capital. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Can you talk about what additional services you've been able to provide to both Canada and Mexico that would help them to stay -- if you're trying to get a, if you want to say, a North American-wide strategy? Will CompuSafe and cash recycling services be added to those offerings? And one truck or one-person trucks be added to those offerings in spots, particularly because there is no -- you've got a significant competitor in Mexico, you've got a significant competitor in Canada. To what extent can you go to make yourselves more efficient, but also to what extent can you go to unify or take the United States as a petri dish, so to speak, and bring that into the adjacent countries?

Yes, that's a multi-prong question. I'll start off by kind of dissecting it by country maybe a little bit. We've talked about the structural differences in both Mexico and Canada, heavier in Mexico than Canada. While we say in the US there aren't really any major structural differences between us and the rest of the industry, it's a difference of strategy and a difference of investment and a difference of execution of that strategy in the US.

And now we're changing our strategy in the US, the execution of it and the investment, and that's what is going to make the difference in the US. And CompuSafe is a key piece of this; the retail portion of our strategy in the US is a key piece of this. Obviously, recyclers will be helping -- be similar to CompuSafe as a component of that as well.

In Mexico, there is a structural difference, and we're modifying that structural difference from the labor standpoint. And that structural change that we're making there is similar to the marketplace with our largest competitor in Mexico. So we're very pleased that we're able to work with our unions and our employees to accomplish that and move that forward. That's what we're going to be starting to see the benefits of this year and in the future years.

Along with that includes optimization of our routes and our operational structures, and also the reduction in some routes in the number of crew on our trucks as well. So it's a combination of all those things on an operational basis that will yield significant improvements in our cost structure because of structural changes versus competition in Mexico that are already in place with the competitor.

Now, augmenting that is what we saw in the fourth quarter and what we will continue to see, is that Mexico is a very, very large retail market, very heavily cash driven in that retail market, and offers, as you've already seen, good opportunities for revenue growth. And it's also a market that we think that the modified CompuSafe-type strategy will also be a strong one in Mexico as well.

So it's the cost side in Mexico. It's a structural piece that we're already addressing, will give us significant benefits going forward on the cost side, as well as hopefully driving the revenue side there.

In Canada, again, it's something a little bit similar, although not nearly to the extent or to the benefits that we'll see in Mexico. But it's a combination in some of the providence of Canada of moving from a three-person crew to a two-person crew on those trucks, and our competition is already doing that today. So, again, the ability to do that.

Driving in the US, again, it's heavily moving to one-person crews as we roll out the new trucks, both with the technology and the capacity to do that on the labor side, as well as the fleet cost savings associated with those new trucks. Then the strategy to more aggressively pursue the retail side of the market with the CompuSafes and the recyclers, which, frankly, is not a structural difference versus our competition, but is a strategy difference and an investment difference which we were not pursuing historically.

Okay. One other quick question, and that is: Use of technology, whether it is in anti-counterfeiting technology or whether it's in geo-location technology, to what extent have you been able to -- this has been around the edges for a while now.

Yes.

And I'm waiting to hear -- you have to walk before you can run. The question is how far have you begun to penetrate geo-location marking, not just boxes in Europe but actual bills, perhaps in the United States, things like that, that will make your trucks more efficient and reduce cargo loss?

Yes, there's actually two different areas you're looking at, the risk, and the how we track and monitor the risk associated with that. We are looking at that as an initiative, but it's too early to release what we can -- where we'll go with that yet on an economic basis.

The second piece, though, that is the telemetrics and the geo-tracking of our trucks. That will be part of what we do, and we're rolling out across the board, especially in our new trucks and our new IT systems. But that will be part of for the safety of our liability, but more importantly for the safety of our people, and then the management and efficiency of our routes.

And that will tie in, then, with both -- the telemetrics on our trucks in the US will tie both in with the optimization of our routes, which our challenge and our desire and our objective is to do that on a dynamic basis, which is be markedly different from what we've been doing in the past. And then also be able to use the telemetrics information to maximize our operations efficiency and minimize our cost of our fleet.

Have you had any tests yet to show exactly how much improvement in margin or just route efficiency you can get with this technology yet?

Yes, but it's premature to really talk about it yet.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Yes. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

The next question will come from Wayne Archambo of Monarch Partners. Please go ahead.

Good morning. You talked in the prepared remarks about -- with the cash flow you're generating, potential investments in other businesses. It crossed my mind in any terms of any M&A activity. Have you considered outside acquisitions? And if you do, what would the criteria be and what type of businesses would you be interested in?

Good question, Wayne. And we've not only considered it, but we're aggressively putting together a backlog of deals that hopefully we'll be able to start executing on this year. Priority strategy-wise would primarily be, first priority in our core business and in current geographic locations. We think those would offer us the ability to garner the highest number of synergies and the best return and best post-synergy multiple.

Second it would be in our industry around that in new geographies and so forth. And that would include some of our BGS markets, as well as our core cash businesses and geographies. And then second to that would be adjacent businesses that would help support and grow some of our other businesses. So you can think through geographically where we are positioned and how we're approaching some of that backlog and where we're going after that.

I did say in my remarks, and I think this is what I was trying to drive at, now maybe I'll go a little bit deeper on this, is that we're number one in 3 of our top 10 markets. We're number two, strong number two I would suggest, in 7 of those 10 markets. That number-two position, I think, positions us such that we have the ability to do acquisitions in those markets. And it also provides us a better opportunity versus a [unknown] player to do those acquisition. But it probably also gives us, if we do those acquisitions, the ability to garner greater synergies and margin improvements than the much smaller competitors that would be beneath our number-two positions.

So I think we're well positioned, because we are in so many relatively large markets. We're obviously the larger player than anybody else, as I said, 50% larger than anybody else on a global basis, to leverage that, use our balance sheet that's relatively underlevered at this point in time, to really start implementing that strategy.

Do you think we can expect some activity this year sometime?

Ron?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Clearly it's a change in focus from where we were before. And to be quite blunt, if you look at the industry, our competitors have been growing their business through acquisition. And in at least recent times, we have not as much as we probably could or we should, especially with our balance sheet. So it's a very, I think, important part of the overall piece of our strategy for growth.

Great. Very good. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

And the next question will be a follow-up from Jamie Clement of Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Good morning again, gentlemen. As we enter a new reporting year, obviously you all inherited this quarterly reporting format with all of the information. Do you think this is the right way to be disclosing information and reporting earnings, or might we see some changes this year?

Jamie, we've been looking at that since actually before we arrived when we were doing our diligence. It appears that the Company has a lot more segments than other companies of our size and complexity.

I'm not sure that complexity adds clarity for investors. So we have been working together to determine if there is a better way to report our earnings.

If we consolidate segments, which is probably the direction we're leaning toward, we would certainly disclose the performance of units within those segments that materially impact the performance of the Company and our dialogue on these calls and other communications. But I believe that our filings, including today's press release, are exceptionally long and complicated.

Yes.

And don't add the incremental value that we would be able to communicate with a simpler structure.

Is this something that you'll follow up on, on March 2?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Then I'll let it go at that. Thanks very much.

Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude the question-and-answer session. The conference has also now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.