環匯 (GPN) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Global Payments Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) And as a reminder, today's conference will be recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝大家的支持，歡迎參加 Global Payments 2023 年第四季和全年收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，今天的會議將會錄製。

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Winnie Smith. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給主持人、投資者關係高級副總裁溫妮史密斯 (Winnie Smith)。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to Global Payments Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Conference Call.

早上好，歡迎參加 Global Payments 2023 年第四季和全年電話會議。

Our earnings release and the slides that accompany this call can be found on the Investor Relations area of our website at www.globalpayments.com.

我們的收益發布和本次電話會議附帶的幻燈片可以在我們網站 www.global payments.com 的投資者關係區域找到。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the comments made by management during today's conference call contain forward-looking statements about, among other matters, expected operating and financial results. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the impact of economic conditions on our future operations that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our most recent 10-K and subsequent filings.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，管理層在今天的電話會議上發表的一些評論包含有關預期營運和財務業績等的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到風險、不確定性和其他因素的影響，包括經濟狀況對我們未來營運的影響，這可能導致實際結果與預期有重大差異。我們向 SEC 提交的文件中列出了我們業務固有的某些風險因素，包括我們最近的 10-K 和後續文件。

We caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements. Forward-looking statements during this call speak only as of the date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to update them.

我們提醒您不要過度依賴這些陳述。本次電話會議期間的前瞻性陳述僅代表本次電話會議當日的情況，我們不承擔更新這些陳述的義務。

We will be also referring to several non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are more reflective of our ongoing performance. For a full reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this call to the most comparable GAAP measure, in accordance with SEC regulations, please see our press release furnished as an exhibit to our Form 8-K filed this morning and our supplemental materials available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

我們也將提及多項非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標更能反映我們的持續績效。如需根據SEC 法規將本次電話會議中討論的非GAAP 財務指標與最具可比性的GAAP 指標進行全面協調，請參閱我們今天上午提交的8-K 表格附件中提供的新聞稿以及我們的補充資料請造訪我們網站的投資者關係部分。

Joining me on the call are Cameron Bready, President and CEO; and Josh Whipple, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO.

與我一起參加電話會議的還有總裁兼執行長 Cameron Bready；以及資深執行副總裁兼財務長 Josh Whipple。

Now I'll turn the call over to Cameron.

現在我將把電話轉給卡梅倫。

Thanks, Winnie, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results, which exceeded our initial expectations outlined last February. I am extremely proud of our teams around the world for an outstanding execution. Together, we accomplished a great deal in 2023.

謝謝，溫妮，大家早安。我們對 2023 年第四季和全年業績感到滿意，超出了我們去年 2 月概述的最初預期。我為我們世界各地團隊的出色執行力感到非常自豪。 2023 年，我們共同取得了巨大成就。

Starting with our financial performance. For the full year, we achieved high single-digit adjusted net revenue growth and increased adjusted earnings per share 12%. This includes a more than 400 basis point headwind from the divestiture of our Netspend Consumer business, which we completed early in the second quarter. We also expanded adjusted operating margins 90 basis points, including the impact of EVO Payments, which had a lower margin profile than Global Payments at the time of the acquisition.

從我們的財務表現開始。全年，我們實現了高個位數的調整後淨收入成長，調整後每股盈餘成長了 12%。其中包括我們在第二季初完成的 Netspend Consumer 業務剝離帶來的超過 400 個基點的阻力。我們還將調整後的營業利潤率擴大了 90 個基點，其中包括 EVO Payments 的影響，該公司在收購時的利潤率低於 Global Payments。

Importantly, we delivered this performance consistently throughout the year despite ongoing headwinds, including macroeconomic uncertainty, persistent inflation, FX volatility and geopolitical unrest, highlighting the durability of our model.

重要的是，儘管宏觀經濟不確定性、持續通膨、外匯波動和地緣政治動盪等不利因素持續存在，但我們全年始終如一地實現了這一業績，凸顯了我們模型的耐用性。

Strategically, we also made significant progress during the year executing on a number of key initiatives. First, we successfully closed the acquisition of EVO Payments in March, which complements our strategy by providing further penetration into integrated payments, enhancing our B2B capabilities and expanding our exposure to stronger secular growth markets globally. Our integration has progressed quite well, and we remain on track to deliver on our revised target of $135 million in annual run rate expense synergies within 2 years.

從策略上講，我們在這一年中在執行一些關鍵舉措方面也取得了重大進展。首先，我們在 3 月成功完成了對 EVO Payments 的收購，這透過進一步滲透綜合支付、增強我們的 B2B 能力並擴大我們在全球更強大的長期成長市場的曝光度，補充了我們的策略。我們的整合進展順利，我們仍有望在 2 年內實現年度營運費用綜效 1.35 億美元的修訂目標。

And while revenue synergies generally take longer to materialize, we are more excited today than when we announced the transaction about opportunities we have to cross-sell our products and capabilities into EVO's existing customer base. We are continuing to invest in these opportunities in 2024 and expect them to scale more fully in 2025.

雖然收入協同效應通常需要更長的時間才能實現，但今天我們比宣布交易時更興奮，因為我們有機會向 EVO 現有客戶群交叉銷售我們的產品和能力。我們將在 2024 年繼續投資這些機會，並預計它們將在 2025 年得到更充分的擴展。

Further, we completed the divestitures of our Netspend Consumer assets and our Gaming Solutions business in April.

此外，我們在 4 月完成了 Netspend Consumer 資產和遊戲解決方案業務的剝離。

These 3 transactions represent important milestones as we seek to advance our strategy and operate a simpler business model centered on our core corporate and financial institution customer base.

這三筆交易代表著重要的里程碑，因為我們尋求推進我們的策略並經營以我們的核心企業和金融機構客戶群為中心的更簡單的業務模式。

In our Merchant business, that strategy is spearheaded by a software-centric approach, leveraging our strengths across our vertical markets, integrated and point-of-sale businesses. And we seek to drive distinction in our offerings by providing omnichannel capabilities and value-added commerce enablement solutions across our markets, including those that benefit from stronger payment digitization and secular growth trends. We continue to see good momentum in our Merchant Solutions as we execute against these strategies.

在我們的商家業務中，該策略以軟體為中心的方法為先導，利用我們在垂直市場、整合和銷售點業務方面的優勢。我們力求透過在整個市場（包括那些受益於更強大的支付數位化和長期成長趨勢的市場）提供全通路功能和增值商務支援解決方案來推動我們的產品脫穎而出。當我們執行這些策略時，我們的商家解決方案繼續保持良好勢頭。

Starting with our vertical markets businesses, we had a number of notable achievements in 2023 across the portfolio. These include Xenial's new partnerships to be the official commerce technology provider for both the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks as we look to further expand our market presence in the stadium and event venue vertical.

從我們的垂直市場業務開始，我們的整個投資組合在 2023 年取得了許多引人注目的成就。其中包括 Xenial 的新合作夥伴關係，成為亞特蘭大勇士隊和亞特蘭大老鷹隊的官方商務技術提供商，因為我們希望進一步擴大我們在體育場和活動場地垂直領域的市場份額。

In the United Kingdom, we renewed our relationship with Principality Stadium, home of Welsh rugby and football, and expanded our services with Wembley Stadium in London.

在英國，我們與威爾斯橄欖球和足球的主場公國體育場恢復了合作關係，並擴大了與倫敦溫布利體育場的服務。

We were also selected by leading food service management company, Sodexo, to be its preferred point-of-sale and kiosk partner and are now the partner of choice for the 3 largest players in the food service management space.

我們也被領先的食品服務管理公司索迪斯選為其首選的銷售點和自助服務終端合作夥伴，並且現在是食品服務管理領域三大參與者的首選合作夥伴。

Our education solutions business delivered many new marquee customer additions across our K-12 and our university businesses and continued to expand to international markets with School Solutions launching MySchoolBucks in Australia, and TouchNet achieving new wins in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

我們的教育解決方案業務為我們的K-12 和大學業務帶來了許多新的大客戶，並繼續擴展到國際市場，學校解決方案在澳洲推出了MySchoolBucks，TouchNet 在加拿大、澳洲和英國取得了新的勝利。

And our ACTIVE Network business had a record bookings year, signing 839 new logos, including its largest ever win in the community vertical with the City of Toronto.

我們的 ACTIVE Network 業務今年的預訂量創歷史新高，簽署了 839 個新徽標，其中包括與多倫多市在社區垂直領域有史以來最大的勝利。

Moving to partner and software solutions. We achieved record bookings in 2023 with new partners increasing 23% from the prior year. This was in part driven by the strong momentum we have seen with our new progressive payment facilitation or ProFac model that we launched midyear. This hybrid option provides many of the benefits of being a payment facilitator while minimizing the heavy burden that comes with it.

轉向合作夥伴和軟體解決方案。我們在 2023 年實現了創紀錄的預訂量，新合作夥伴比前一年增加了 23%。這在一定程度上是由於我們在年中推出的新的累進支付便利或 ProFac 模型所看到的強勁勢頭。這種混合選項提供了作為支付服務商的許多好處，同時最大限度地減少了隨之而來的沉重負擔。

ProFac is unique to Global Payments, and we are delighted to have signed 16 ProFac partners to date who already have thousands of merchant customers using our payment solutions. Some notable new partners in our integrated business include 402 Ventures, a leading provider of auction software in the heavy equipment and machinery vertical; AutoSoft, which provides a software management platform for auto dealerships; Black Knight, a leading provider of mortgages and loan origination software; and Inovalon, a leading data analytics ISV in the health care vertical.

ProFac 是 Global Payments 所獨有的，我們很高興迄今已與 16 個 ProFac 合作夥伴簽約，他們已經有數千名商家客戶使用我們的支付解決方案。我們的綜合業務中一些著名的新合作夥伴包括 402 Ventures，這是重型設備和機械垂直領域拍賣軟體的領先提供者； AutoSoft，為汽車經銷商提供軟體管理平台； Black Knight，抵押貸款和貸款發放軟體的領先提供者；以及 Inovalon，醫療保健垂直領域領先的數據分析 ISV。

These trends, including the momentum we are seeing with ProFac, underscore our confidence in our ability to maintain consistent growth going forward as our differentiated capabilities continue to resonate with the ISV market.

這些趨勢，包括我們在 ProFac 上看到的勢頭，強調了我們對未來保持持續成長的能力的信心，因為我們的差異化能力繼續與 ISV 市場產生共鳴。

As for the third leg of our software strategy, our point-of-sale software business delivered strong growth for the full year as we continue to see solid demand for our solutions and benefit from the releases of new product enhancements. Notably, our average revenue per unit continues to expand up 9% year-over-year as more merchants are using payments and other add-on capabilities in our evolving POS platform. And of course, this is prior to the full launch of our complete next-generation restaurant and retail point-of-sale software platforms, which we continue to expect this quarter.

至於我們軟體策略的第三站，我們的銷售點軟體業務全年實現強勁成長，因為我們繼續看到對我們的解決方案的強勁需求，並受益於新產品增強功能的發布。值得注意的是，隨著越來越多的商家在我們不斷發展的 POS 平台中使用支付和其他附加功能，我們的平均單位收入繼續同比增長 9%。當然，這是在我們完整的下一代餐廳和零售銷售點軟體平台全面推出之前，我們仍預計本季會推出該平台。

Lastly, our exposure to some of the most attractive secular markets globally remains a core element of our strategy, both in terms of contributing to our overall rates of growth and providing us the global footprint we need to support complex multinational corporations. We continue to see good trends across our businesses in Spain and Central Europe, each of which delivered high teens growth. And key new European markets entered with EVO, including Poland and Greece, also achieved double-digit growth.

最後，我們對全球一些最具吸引力的長期市場的接觸仍然是我們策略的核心要素，無論是在促進我們的整體成長率方面，還是在為我們提供支持複雜的跨國公司所需的全球足跡方面。我們繼續看到西班牙和中歐業務的良好趨勢，每個地區都實現了十幾歲的高速成長。 EVO 進入的主要新歐洲市場，包括波蘭和希臘，也實現了兩位數的成長。

Further, we have seen favorable secular trends in Lat Am, where we meaningfully increased our footprint with EVO. This includes new implementations in Mexico with large customers like dLocal, DHL and Petro 7 as we leverage our partnership with Citibanamex.

此外，我們在拉丁美洲看到了有利的長期趨勢，我們在那裡有意義地增加了 EVO 的足跡。這包括在墨西哥與 dLocal、DHL 和 Petro 7 等大客戶的新實施，因為我們利用了與 Citibanamex 的合作關係。

Turning to Issuer Solutions, where we have long-standing relationships with some of the most complex and sophisticated institutions globally. We are proud to have completed 11 customer conversions in 2023. In total, we added over 50 million accounts to our business and ended the year with record traditional accounts on file of more than 800 million.

談到發行人解決方案，我們與全球一些最複雜、最先進的機構建立了長期合作關係。我們很自豪在 2023 年完成了 11 位客戶轉換。我們的業務總共增加了超過 5,000 萬個帳戶，到年底，傳統帳戶數量創歷史新高，超過 8 億個。

We continue to have a strong pipeline of new business that extends into 2025 as well as 8 letters of intent with institutions worldwide.

我們繼續擁有強大的新業務管道，一直延伸到 2025 年，並​​與全球機構簽署了 8 份意向書。

In 2023, we achieved 13 multiyear renewals and new customer agreements. This includes a new contract with a leading U.S. bank that is a long-standing Global Payments merchant partner, a relationship that provided the foundation for the growth of our partnership to include issuer technology solutions.

2023 年，我們實現了 13 項多年期續約和新客戶協議。其中包括與一家美國領先銀行簽訂的新合同，該銀行是 Global Payments 的長期商業合作夥伴，為我們合作夥伴關係的發展奠定了基礎，包括發行人技術解決方案。

We also continued to expand into new and faster growth markets, including in Lat Am through our partnership with CAT, a credit card joint venture between Scotiabank and Chile's largest retailer, Cencosud.

我們也透過與豐業銀行和智利最大零售商 Cencosud 之間的信用卡合資企業 CAT 的合作，繼續拓展新的、成長更快的市場，包括拉丁美洲。

The confidence that many of the largest and most sophisticated, complex financial institutions have with us is enhanced by our issuer platform modernization efforts, which positions us to provide our clients market-leading, cloud native, real-time solutions at scale in more markets than we ever had previously. We've made substantial progress with our modernization with 2 clients now in production, leveraging products by our cloud solution.

我們的發行人平台現代化努力增強了許多最大、最複雜、最複雜的金融機構對我們的信心，這使我們能夠在更多市場為客戶提供市場領先的、雲端原生的、即時的解決方案。我們以前曾經有過。透過我們的雲端解決方案利用產品，我們在現代化方面取得了實質進展，目前已有 2 個客戶投入生產。

Further, we expect to complete the development of our client-facing applications this year and are planning to execute dozens of unique cloud issuer platform pilots spanning multiple services, products and geographies as we prepare for the commercial launch of additional cloud native capabilities.

此外，我們預計今年將完成面向客戶的應用程式的開發，並計劃執行數十個跨越多個服務、產品和地區的獨特雲端發行人平台試點，為更多雲端原生功能的商業發布做準備。

Moving to B2B. We continue to see solid demand for our leading capabilities across our 3 focus areas: software-driven workflow automation, money-in and money-out funds flow and employer solutions. We have successfully integrated EVO's PayFabric software into our Merchant business allowing us to go to market in B2B acceptance with a software-led approach. Further, our MineralTree business nearly doubled subscription bookings in its core mid-market, positioning the business well heading into 2024.

轉向 B2B。我們繼續看到對我們在三個重點領域的領先能力的強勁需求：軟體驅動的工作流程自動化、資金進出資金流和雇主解決方案。我們已成功將 EVO 的 PayFabric 軟體整合到我們的商家業務中，使我們能夠透過軟體主導的方法進入 B2B 接受市場。此外，我們的 MineralTree 業務在其核心中端市場的訂閱預訂量幾乎翻了一番，為該業務在 2024 年的發展奠定了良好的基礎。

As one of the largest virtual card issuers in the world, we are benefiting from accelerated adoption of virtual cards globally, which contributed to strong growth in commercial transactions this year. Additionally, our B2B bookings in Merchant Solutions increased over 20% in 2023 as more of the spend shifts towards digital channels.

作為全球最大的虛擬卡發行商之一，我們受益於虛擬卡在全球範圍內的加速採用，這推動了今年商業交易的強勁成長。此外，隨著更多支出轉向數位管道，我們在商家解決方案的 B2B 預訂量在 2023 年增加了 20% 以上。

Our employer solutions are also seeing favorable trends, including our payroll business delivering mid-teens growth for the full year and our Paycard and EWA solutions achieving nearly 2,000 new partnerships last year.

我們的雇主解決方案也看到了有利的趨勢，包括我們的薪資業務全年實現中位數成長，我們的 Paycard 和 EWA 解決方案去年建立了近 2,000 個新合作夥伴關係。

After an eventful and successful 2023, I'm pleased to report that we are carrying this momentum into the early part of 2024. In January, our Merchant business announced a new joint venture with Commerzbank in Germany. This new entity, Commerz Globalpay, is expected to launch in the first half of 2024 and will deliver a comprehensive suite of innovative omnichannel payments and software offerings including our GP point-of-sale software solutions and our GP touch-on-mobile technology at scale, providing merchants the capabilities needed to run and grow their businesses more efficiently in the largest economy in Europe.

在經歷了多事且成功的2023 年之後，我很高興地向大家報告，我們將在2024 年初繼續保持這一勢頭。一月份，我們的商業業務部門宣布與德國商業銀行成立一家新的合資企業。這個新實體 Commerz Globalpay 預計將於 2024 年上半年推出，並將提供一整套創新的全通路支付和軟體產品，包括我們的 GP 銷售點軟體解決方案和 GP 觸控行動技術規模，為商家提供在歐洲最大經濟體中更有效地運作和發展業務所需的能力。

We are delighted to be partnering with Commerzbank, a premier financial institution with unmatched relationships with small- and medium-sized merchants, to significantly enhance distribution in Germany where there are substantial opportunities to further digitize the payment experience. This partnership was achieved with Global Payment's leadership in payments technology and commerce solutions and extensive JV experience across European markets while our acquisition of EVO helped provide a foundation with this existing physical presence in merchant portfolio in Germany.

我們很高興與德國商業銀行（Commerzbank）合作，以顯著加強在德國的分銷，德國商業銀行是一家與中小型商家有著無與倫比的關係的頂級金融機構，德國有大量機會進一步數位化支付體驗。這項合作關係是憑藉Global Payment 在支付技術和商務解決方案方面的領先地位以及在歐洲市場的豐富合資經驗而實現的，而我們對EVO 的收購有助於為德國商戶組合中現有的實體存在奠定基礎。

In North America, we remain on track to launch our next-generation Heartland Restaurant and Heartland Retail offerings this quarter, which will provide best-in-class omnichannel experiences and further catalyze our success in point-of-sale software. Early feedback on our next-generation restaurant point-of-sale solution has been overwhelmingly positive, including our new updated and enhanced features like online ordering, loyalty, mobile point-of-sale and a simplified user interface on commercial grade hardware.

在北美，我們仍有望在本季推出下一代 Heartland Restaurant 和 Heartland Retail 產品，這將提供一流的全通路體驗，並進一步促進我們在銷售點軟體方面的成功。對我們下一代餐廳銷售點解決方案的早期反饋非常積極，包括我們新的更新和增強功能，例如線上訂購、忠誠度、行動銷售點和商業級硬體上的簡化用戶介面。

And our new retail POS solution will allow us to extend into additional retail verticals, which is the cornerstone of our broader strategy of sub-vertical expansion, allowing us to increase wallet share while also meeting the demands of a modern retail environment that bring supply chain, e-commerce, customer engagement and complex ERP functionality into a simplified and single ecosystem. This expansion not only aligns with our growth objectives, but also ensures we stay at the forefront of retail technology, providing our clients with the tools they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

我們新的零售POS 解決方案將使我們能夠擴展到更多的零售垂直領域，這是我們更廣泛的次垂直擴張策略的基石，使我們能夠增加錢包份額，同時滿足現代零售環境帶來供應鏈的需求、電子商務、客戶參與和複雜的 ERP 功能整合到簡化的單一生態系統中。此次擴張不僅符合我們的成長目標，還確保我們始終處於零售技術的前沿，為我們的客戶提供在快速發展的市場中蓬勃發展所需的工具。

Our POS momentum also continues in the enterprise QSR space. We were delighted to be selected to power CosMc's, a new concept from the McDonald's universe. Xenial's cloud point-of-sale, drive-through digital menu boards and Vision's speed-of-service solutions are enabling an innovative new drive-through traffic management system that supports CosMc's multiple drive-through lanes and pickup windows optimizing restaurant operations in a dynamic and flexible way. CosMc's is also using Xenial's back-office suite to provide real-time reporting and management of inventory, sales, labor, projections and scheduling.

我們的 POS 動能在企業 QSR 領域也得以延續。我們很高興被選中為 CosMc's 提供動力，CosMc's 是麥當勞宇宙中的一個新概念。 Xenial 的雲端銷售點、得來速數位菜單板和Vision 的服務速度解決方案正在實現創新的新型得來速交通管理系統，該系統支援CosMc 的多個得來速車道和取貨窗口，從而動態優化餐廳營運並且方式靈活。 CosMc's 還使用 Xenial 的後台套件來提供庫存、銷售、勞動力、預測和調度的即時報告和管理。

We are excited to have already launched with CosMc's at the initial Bolingbrook, Illinois restaurant concept in December and look forward to helping future-proof all new pilot locations with our cloud-based technology ecosystem as they open in additional markets in 2024.

我們很高興已於12 月與CosMc's 合作在伊利諾伊州博林布魯克開設了最初的餐廳概念店，並期待在2024 年在其他市場開放時，利用我們基於雲端的技術生態系統幫助所有新試點地點適應未來需求。

Our Issuer business has also started the year well, having executed multiyear renewal agreements with 2 of our flagship clients, Capital One and Navy Federal Credit Union, both long-standing relationships spanning decades. Our renewal with Capital One includes both its consumer and commercial credit portfolios in North America. And for Navy Federal, a not-for-profit credit union serving the military veterans and their families, our relationship supports its consumer portfolio as well as an array of value-added services, including loyalty, fraud and digital engagement solutions. The extension of these partnerships further validates our strategy of aligning our business with clear market winners.

我們的發行人業務今年也取得了良好的開局，與我們的兩個旗艦客戶第一資本和海軍聯邦信用合作社簽署了多年續約協議，這兩家客戶都保持了數十年的長期合作關係。我們與第一資本的續約包括其在北美的消費者和商業信貸投資組合。對於為退伍軍人及其家人提供服務的非營利信用合作社 Navy Federal 來說，我們的關係支持其消費者組合以及一系列增值服務，包括忠誠度、詐欺和數位參與解決方案。這些合作關係的擴展進一步驗證了我們將業務與明確的市場贏家結合的策略。

Looking ahead, we remain encouraged by the resiliency we have seen in consumer spending and expect fairly similar trends in 2024. However, we recognize there remain a number of risks to the global economy and consumer and are appropriately reflecting this in our expectations. Our outlook does incorporate a slightly more tempered expectation for the macro environment relative to what we experienced in 2023, but is roughly aligned with what we saw exiting the year. January trends were fairly consistent with what you heard from the networks and broadly in line with our expectations.

展望未來，我們仍然對消費者支出的彈性感到鼓舞，並預計2024 年的趨勢將相當相似。然而，我們認識到全球經濟和消費者仍然存在許多風險，並在我們的預期中適當地反映了這一點。與我們在 2023 年經歷的情況相比，我們的展望確實包含了對宏觀環境稍微溫和的預期，但與我們今年的情況大致一致。一月份的趨勢與您從網路上聽到的情況相當一致，並且大致符合我們的預期。

We are confident we have built a better and more durable business model, which positions us well to manage through any environment if the current backdrop changes.

我們相信，我們已經建立了更好、更持久的商業模式，這使我們能夠在當前背景發生變化時應對任何環境。

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

這樣，我就把電話轉給喬希。

Thanks, Cameron. We are pleased with our financial performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year, which reflects continued outstanding execution and the resiliency of our business model. I'm particularly proud that we delivered these results while simultaneously completing multiple transactions, which serve to accelerate our strategy.

謝謝，卡梅倫。我們對第四季和全年的財務表現感到滿意，這反映了我們持續出色的執行力和業務模式的彈性。我特別自豪的是，我們在完成多項交易的同時取得了這些成果，這有助於加速我們的策略。

Starting with the full year 2023, we delivered adjusted net revenue of $8.67 billion, an increase of 7% from the prior year. Excluding the impact of dispositions, adjusted net revenue increased 15% compared to 2022. Adjusted operating margin for the full year improved 90 basis points to 44.6%. The net result was adjusted earnings per share of $10.42, an increase of 12% compared to the full year 2022, which equates to over 16% growth, excluding the impact of dispositions.

從 2023 年全年開始，我們實現調整後淨收入 86.7 億美元，比上年增長 7%。排除處置的影響，調整後淨收入較 2022 年增長 15%。全年調整後營業利潤率提高 90 個基點，達到 44.6%。最終結果是調整後每股收益為 10.42 美元，比 2022 年全年增長 12%，相當於增長超過 16%（不包括處置的影響）。

For the fourth quarter, we delivered adjusted net revenue of $2.19 billion, an increase of 8% from the same period in the prior year. Adjusted operating margin for the quarter increased 30 basis points to 44.8%. This equates to 100 basis points of margin expansion, excluding EVO Payments and dispositions. The net result was adjusted earnings per share of $2.65, an increase of 10% compared to the same period in 2023.

第四季度，我們實現調整後淨收入 21.9 億美元，較上年同期成長 8%。本季調整後營業利益率成長 30 個基點，達到 44.8%。這相當於保證金擴張 100 個基點，不包括 EVO 付款和處置。最終調整後每股收益為 2.65 美元，較 2023 年同期成長 10%。

Taking a closer look at performance by segment. Merchant Solutions achieved adjusted net revenue of $1.67 billion for the fourth quarter, reflecting growth of 19% or approximately 8%, excluding the impact of EVO and dispositions.

仔細觀察各細分市場的表現。 Merchant Solutions 第四季調整後淨收入為 16.7 億美元，成長 19% 或約 8%（不包括 EVO 和處置的影響）。

Our performance was led by our software-centered businesses, which again delivered double-digit growth in the quarter. Specifically, we saw strength in Zego, School Solutions and AdvancedMD, which delivered strong double-digit growth for the fourth quarter. And our point-of-sale businesses again grew roughly 20%.

我們的業績由以軟體為中心的業務引領，該業務在本季再次實現了兩位數的成長。具體來說，我們看到了 Zego、School Solutions 和 AdvancedMD 的實力，它們在第四季度實現了兩位數的強勁成長。我們的銷售點業務再次成長了約 20%。

Focusing on faster-growth geographies, we achieved double-digit growth in Spain and Central Europe as well as in Poland and Greece. Our Lat Am business was another bright spot for the quarter as we benefit from the strong secular payments trends in Mexico and Chile.

我們專注於成長較快的地區，在西班牙和中歐以及波蘭和希臘實現了兩位數的成長。我們的拉丁美洲業務是本季的另一個亮點，因為我們受益於墨西哥和智利強勁的長期支付趨勢。

This performance was partially offset by ongoing weakness in the macro environment in the U.K. and Canada.

這一表現被英國和加拿大宏觀環境持續疲軟所部分抵消。

We delivered an adjusted operating margin of 47.7% in the Merchant segment, a decline of 60 basis points due to the acquisition of EVO. Excluding EVO and dispositions, operating margins grew 40 basis points year-on-year.

我們的商家業務部門調整後營業利潤率為 47.7%，由於收購 EVO，下降了 60 個基點。不包括 EVO 和處置，營業利潤率年增 40 個基點。

For the full year, we realized approximately 25% of our targeted expense synergies from EVO. And as Cameron mentioned, we expect to deliver on our raised expectation of $135 million in annual run rate expense synergies within 2 years.

全年，我們透過 EVO 實現了約 25% 的目標費用綜效。正如卡梅倫所提到的，我們預計在 2 年內實現我們提高的 1.35 億美元年度運行費用協同效應的預期。

Our Issuer Solutions business produced adjusted net revenue of $531 million, reflecting growth of 6% or 5% constant currency growth. The core Issuer business also grew mid-single digits this quarter, driven by ongoing strength in volume-based revenue. This was partially offset by slower growth in managed and output services as we continue to focus our Issuer business on more technology enablement.

我們的發行人解決方案業務調整後淨收入為 5.31 億美元，反映了 6% 或 5% 的恆定匯率成長。在基於數量的收入持續強勁的推動下，本季核心發行人業務也實現了中個位數成長。由於我們繼續將發行人業務重點放在更多的技術支援上，因此管理和輸出服務的成長放緩部分抵消了這一影響。

We added approximately 13 million traditional accounts on file sequentially. This equates to an increase of more than 50 million accounts year-over-year as we continue to benefit from the ongoing execution of our conversion pipeline in addition to healthy consumer and commercial account growth with our large existing FI customers.

我們按順序添加了大約 1300 萬個傳統帳戶。這相當於同比增加了超過 5000 萬個帳戶，除了我們現有的大型金融客戶的消費者和商業帳戶的健康增長之外，我們還繼續受益於轉換管道的持續執行。

Issuer transactions grew high single digits compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, led by commercial card transactions, which increased low double digits, highlighting ongoing strength in cross-border corporate travel.

與 2022 年第四季相比，發卡機構交易增長了高個位數，其中商業卡交易增長了兩位數，凸顯了跨境商務旅行的持續強勁勢頭。

Focusing in on our Issuer B2B portfolio, MineralTree delivered high teens growth and achieved record bookings this quarter in its targeted mid-market segment while Paycard saw improving trends as the business lapped a more difficult employment comparisons from the last year.

專注於我們的發行人B2B 投資組合，MineralTree 本季在其目標中端市場領域實現了十幾位數的成長並實現了創紀錄的預訂量，而Paycard 則看到了改善的趨勢，因為該業務擺脫了去年更困難的就業比較。

Finally, Issuer Solutions delivered an adjusted operating margin of 47.3%. As expected, this was relatively consistent with our third quarter performance, but represented a decline compared to the prior year due to a difficult comparison resulting from vendor benefits reflected in that period.

最後，Issuer Solutions 的調整後營業利潤率為 47.3%。正如預期的那樣，這與我們第三季度的業績相對一致，但由於該時期反映的供應商利益導致難以進行比較，因此與去年同期相比有所下降。

For the full year, our Issuer margins expanded 100 basis points, which exceeded our initial guidance for 60 basis points of margin improvement compared to 2022.

全年，我們的發行人利潤率擴大了 100 個基點，超越了我們對 2022 年利潤率提高 60 個基點的最初指導。

From a cash flow standpoint, we produced strong adjusted free cash flow for the quarter of $784 million and $2.5 billion for the year. This represents an approximately 100% conversion rate of adjusted net income to adjusted free cash flow for the full year, consistent with our expectations, excluding the impact of the requirement to capitalize research and development costs for income tax reporting purposes.

從現金流的角度來看，我們第四季和全年的調整後自由現金流分別為 7.84 億美元和 25 億美元。這意味著全年調整後淨利潤與調整後自由現金流的轉換率約為 100%，與我們的預期一致，不包括出於所得稅報告目的而將研發成本資本化的要求的影響。

Capital investment was approximately $157 million in the fourth quarter and roughly $660 million for the full year.

第四季資本投資約 1.57 億美元，全年資本投資約 6.6 億美元。

Since closing EVO in March, we have reduced outstanding debt by more than $1.4 billion, and our leverage position was 3.4x at the end of the fourth quarter.

自 3 月關閉 EVO 以來，我們已減少未償債務超過 14 億美元，第四季末我們的槓桿部位為 3.4 倍。

Our balance sheet remains healthy and we have approximately $3.5 billion of available liquidity. Further, our total indebtedness is approximately 91% fixed with a weighted average cost of debt of 3.78%.

我們的資產負債表保持健康，擁有約 35 億美元的可用流動資金。此外，我們的總債務約為 91%，加權平均債務成本為 3.78%。

While debt repayment was our top priority for capital allocation in 2023, we are pleased to have also repurchased 4 million shares for roughly $410 million prior to closing EVO.

雖然償還債務是我們 2023 年資本配置的首要任務，但我們很高興在關閉 EVO 之前以約 4.1 億美元的價格回購了 400 萬股股票。

Turning to the outlook. We are pleased with how our business is positioned as we enter 2024. We currently expect reported adjusted net revenue to range from $9.17 billion to $9.30 billion, reflecting growth of 6% to 7% over 2023 or approximately 7-plus percent, excluding EVO and dispositions.

轉向前景。我們對進入2024 年時的業務定位感到滿意。我們目前預計報告的調整後淨收入範圍為91.7 億美元至93 億美元，較2023 年增長6% 至7%，即約7% 以上，不包括EVO和處置。

We are forecasting annual adjusted operating margin to expand up to 50 basis points for 2024, driven by benefits to our business mix from our ongoing shift towards technology enablement, partially offset by the lower margin profile of EVO prior to full synergy realization.

我們預計，到2024 年，年度調整後營業利潤率將擴大至50 個基點，這是由於我們不斷向技術支援轉型為我們的業務組合帶來的好處，部分被EVO 在全面實現協同效應之前較低的利潤率所抵銷。

To provide color at the segment level, we expect our Merchant business to report adjusted net revenue growth of 9-plus percent for the full year. This includes growth in the 7% to 8% range, excluding the impact of the acquisition of EVO and the disposition of Gaming Solutions. We fully annualize these transactions by the end of the first quarter of 2024. We expect up to 30 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion for the Merchant business in 2024 with a slower expansion in the first half relative to the second half as EVO synergy realization ramps as the year progresses.

為了在細分市場層面提供色彩，我們預計我們的商家業務全年調整後淨收入成長將達到 9% 以上。這包括 7% 至 8% 的成長，不包括收購 EVO 和處置 Gaming Solutions 的影響。我們將在2024 年第一季末對這些交易進行完全年度化。我們預計2024 年商戶業務的調整後營業利潤率將增長高達30 個基點，隨著EVO 協同效應的實現，上半年的擴張速度將較下半年放緩隨著時間的推移而增加。

Moving to Issuer Solutions. We are anticipating adjusted net revenue growth in the 5% to 6% range for the full year compared to 2023 as we benefit from our strong conversion pipeline and continued account growth with our large existing FI partners. We expect core Issuer to grow in the mid-single-digit range and for MineralTree and Netspend's B2B businesses to grow low double digits.

轉向發行人解決方案。我們預計，與 2023 年相比，全年調整後淨收入成長將在 5% 至 6% 範圍內，因為我們受益於強大的轉換管道以及現有大型金融合作夥伴的帳戶持續成長。我們預期核心發行人將實現中個位數成長，而 MineralTree 和 Netspend 的 B2B 業務將實現低兩位數成長。

We anticipate adjusted operating margin for the Issuer business to expand by up to 50 basis points as we continue to drive efficiencies in the business, which will be offset somewhat by faster growth in our lower-margin B2B businesses.

隨著我們繼續提高業務效率，我們預計發行人業務的調整後營業利潤率將擴大最多 50 個基點，這將在一定程度上被我們利潤率較低的 B2B 業務的更快成長所抵消。

In terms of quarterly phasing, as I mentioned, we will anniversary the acquisition of EVO and the disposition of Gaming by the end of the first quarter. We will also anniversary the impact of the divestiture of Netspend's consumer assets at the end of April. As a result, we will continue to have some impacts from these transactions in the first half of the year.

在季度階段方面，正如我所提到的，我們將在第一季末慶祝收購 EVO 和處置 Gaming 週年紀念日。我們也將在 4 月底紀念 Netspend 消費者資產剝離所產生的影響。因此，今年上半年我們將繼續受到這些交易的一些影響。

Moving to a couple of nonoperating items. We currently expect net interest expense to be slightly above $500 million this year and for our adjusted effective tax rate to be approximately 19%. We also are planning for our capital expenditures to be around $670 million in 2024, which remains roughly 7% of revenue. We anticipate adjusted free cash flow to again be in a comparable range of 100%, excluding the roughly 5-point impact from the timing change to recognizing research and development tax credits.

轉向幾個非營運項目。我們目前預計今年淨利息支出將略高於 5 億美元，調整後的有效稅率約為 19%。我們還計劃 2024 年的資本支出約為 6.7 億美元，約佔收入的 7%。我們預計調整後的自由現金流將再次處於 100% 的可比較範圍內，不包括承認研發稅收抵免的時間變化帶來的約 5 個百分點的影響。

Regarding capital allocation, we plan to return to a more balanced capital allocation approach in 2024, and I'm delighted that our Board of Directors has approved an increase in our share repurchase authorization to $2 billion as share buyback remains one of our priorities.

關於資本配置，我們計劃在2024 年恢復更平衡的資本配置方式，我很高興我們的董事會已批准將我們的股票回購授權增加到20 億美元，因為股票回購仍然是我們的優先事項之一。

We also plan to further reduce our indebtedness until we return to roughly 3x levered on a net debt basis during the year.

我們還計劃進一步減少債務，直到年內以淨債務為基礎的槓桿率恢復到約 3 倍。

Putting it all together, we expect adjusted earnings per share for the full year to be in the range of $11.54 to $11.70, reflecting growth of 11% to 12% over 2023. Excluding dispositions, adjusted earnings per share growth is expected to be 14-plus percent for 2024.

綜上所述，我們預計全年調整後每股收益將在11.54 美元至11.70 美元之間，較2023 年增長11% 至12%。如果不包括處置，調整後每股收益預計將增長14-14 %. 2024 年增加百分比。

Our outlook for the year reflects the ongoing positive momentum in our business while accommodating for a more tempered economic environment given the continued uncertainty. We remain confident in the resiliency of our model and our ability to adapt to potential shifts in the economic environment. Cameron?

我們對今年的展望反映了我們業務持續的積極勢頭，同時考慮到持續的不確定性，以適應更溫和的經濟環境。我們對我們的模式的彈性以及適應經濟環境潛在變化的能力仍然充滿信心。卡梅倫？

Thanks, Josh. As I said when I was named CEO in May, it's an exciting time for Global Payments and I could not be more proud of what we accomplished last year. As we begin 2024, I remain enthusiastic about the opportunities in front of us. We have a compelling technology-enabled strategy, a world-class team, great partners and clients and a global presence with diverse distribution capabilities.

謝謝，喬許。正如我在五月被任命為執行長時所說，對於 Global Payments 來說，這是一個激動人心的時刻，我對我們去年取得的成就感到非常自豪。在 2024 年開始，我對眼前的機會仍然充滿熱情。我們擁有引人注目的技術支援策略、世界一流的團隊、優秀的合作夥伴和客戶以及具有多元化分銷能力的全球業務。

This year, I remain highly focused on the priorities for our business and customers I outlined at the time I stepped into this role. First, we will continue to execute against our strategies, which positions us well for growth and success across our markets. We will, however, sharpen our focus on the most attractive opportunities we see in these areas while seeking to further simplify our business and amplify the impact of our investments.

今年，我仍然高度關注我在擔任這一職位時概述的業務和客戶的優先事項。首先，我們將繼續執行我們的策略，這為我們在整個市場的成長和成功奠定了良好的基礎。然而，我們將更加關注我們在這些領域看到的最具吸引力的機會，同時尋求進一步簡化我們的業務並擴大我們投資的影響力。

Specifically, we are focusing on the most impactful of these initiatives and where we can drive further differentiation in our business, including with our software-centric channels across our own, partnered and POS solutions.

具體來說，我們專注於這些舉措中最具影響力的舉措，以及我們可以進一步推動業務差異化的領域，包括透過我們自己的、合作夥伴的和 POS 解決方案中以軟體為中心的管道。

Additionally, we will continue to harmonize areas of the business that are less differentiated with an eye towards further improving scale and enhancing margin characteristics.

此外，我們將繼續協調差異較小的業務領域，著眼於進一步擴大規模並提高利潤率特徵。

Further, in markets and businesses we are subscale with limited potential to build scale, we may choose to exit certain lines of business and activities in order to better focus our investments, resources and management intention on opportunity with better long-term growth prospects that can more meaningfully impact our business.

此外，在市場和業務中，我們規模較小，擴大規模的潛力有限，我們可能會選擇退出某些業務和活動，以便更好地將我們的投資、資源和管理意圖集中在具有更好長期成長前景的機會上。更有意義地影響我們的業務。

Second, I'm focused on making it as easy as possible to do business with Global Payments, while providing more solutions that deepen our relationships with our customers. We will continue to prioritize meeting our clients and customers how and where they want to be met with innovative and distinctive capabilities that integrate seamlessly. This includes our issuer modernization program and cloud investments, which will provide our clients with greater enablement capabilities and allow them to consume the services they need with greater speed to market and flexibility while providing best-in-class experiences for their cardholders.

其次，我致力於讓與 Global Payments 開展業務變得盡可能簡單，同時提供更多解決方案來加深我們與客戶的關係。我們將繼續優先考慮以無縫整合的創新和獨特功能滿足我們的客戶和顧客想要的方式和地點。這包括我們的發卡機構現代化計劃和雲端投資，這將為我們的客戶提供更強大的支援能力，使他們能夠以更快的上市速度和靈活性使用所需的服務，同時為持卡人提供一流的體驗。

Third, we will maintain our relentless focus on execution, which has been one of the hallmarks of Global Payments and a key component of our ability to produce consistent results through market cycles. We are, however, undertaking an initiative to further simplify our technology and operating environments across the globe to become more efficient and effective, placing greater focus on aligning with business outcomes. We are committed to redefining success with a continuous improvement mindset and increasing the speed of delivery and nimbleness of our business.

第三，我們將繼續對執行力的不懈關注，這是環球支付的標誌之一，也是我們在整個市場週期中產生一致結果的能力的關鍵組成部分。然而，我們正在採取一項舉措，進一步簡化我們在全球範圍內的技術和營運環境，以提高效率和效果，並更加重視與業務成果保持一致。我們致力於以持續改進的心態重新定義成功，並提高交付速度和業務靈活性。

Fourth, we remain committed to harnessing the power of generative AI to both innovate new products and solutions that deliver value and improve experiences to our customers and increase the productivity and efficiency of our operating environments and workforce around the globe. We have already made meaningful progress in our journey to embed generative AI into our business to leverage its power in the richness of data in our ecosystem.

第四，我們仍然致力於利用生成式人工智慧的力量來創新新產品和解決方案，為我們的客戶提供價值和改善體驗，並提高我們全球營運環境和員工的生產力和效率。在將生成式人工智慧嵌入我們的業務中，以利用其在我們生態系統中豐富的數據中發揮作用的過程中，我們已經取得了有意義的進展。

We have established a center of excellence to coordinate our adoption of generative AI technologies and provide a governance framework, implemented foundational tools and models that are being utilized throughout our organization, evaluated numerous use cases and deploy generative AI technology in a number of areas of our business.

我們建立了一個卓越中心來協調我們對生成式人工智慧技術的採用，並提供治理框架、實施在整個組織中使用的基礎工具和模型、評估大量用例並在我們的多個領域部署生成式人工智慧技術。商業。

For example, in our Issuer Solutions business, our Foresight solution, in partnership with Featurespace, provides a market-leading fraud solution that uses generative AI to detect fraud strategies in real time, utilizing our proprietary data. Clients using this solution have realized a nearly 50% reduction in fraud losses. And we are evaluating a number of development opportunities that use generative AI across our issuing and acquiring businesses as a key component of our next-generation applications to further combat fraud and identity risks across our portfolios.

例如，在我們的發行人解決方案業務中，我們的 Foresight 解決方案與 Featurespace 合作，提供市場領先的詐欺解決方案，該解決方案使用生成式人工智慧，利用我們的專有數據即時檢測詐欺策略。使用該解決方案的客戶發現詐欺損失減少了近 50%。我們正在評估許多發展機會，在我們的發行和收單業務中使用生成式人工智慧作為我們下一代應用程式的關鍵組成部分，以進一步打擊我們投資組合中的詐欺和身分風險。

Finally, I'm focused on ensuring Global Payments' culture is second to none. Our culture dictates how we accomplish our goals and achieve results as an organization. Having a world-class culture will further differentiate us in the marketplace while driving value creation and benefits for all of our constituents. Winnie?

最後，我致力於確保 Global Payments 的文化是首屈一指的。我們的文化決定了我們作為一個組織如何實現我們的目標並取得成果。擁有世界一流的文化將進一步使我們在市場上脫穎而出，同時推動我們所有成員的價值創造和利益。溫妮？

Thanks, Cameron. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Operator, we will now go to questions.

謝謝，卡梅倫。 （操作員說明）謝謝。接線員，我們現在開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jason Kupferberg with Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jason Kupferberg。

I wanted to start with the guidance for 2024 on the top line. Looking at the Merchant piece specifically, I know we're talking about at least 7% organic. It did sound in your prepared remarks like you're maybe being a little bit more conservative versus this time last year. So if you can elaborate on that and just give us a sense. I mean, if the consumer doesn't slow at all, are we looking at more like 8%? Just trying to calibrate what some of the underlying assumptions might be in that part of the guide.

我想從 2024 年最重要的指導開始。具體看商家的部分，我知道我們談論的是至少 7% 的有機成分。在你準備好的演講中，聽起來確實比去年這個時候你可能更保守。所以如果你能詳細說明一下並給我們一個感覺。我的意思是，如果消費者根本不放慢速度，我們是否會考慮 8% 左右？只是試圖校準指南該部分中可能存在的一些基本假設。

Jason, it's Cameron. Thanks for the question, it's a good question. So the way I think about it is we exited the year at basically 8%. And as we said in our prepared remarks, our expectation for Merchant for 2024 is 7% to 8% kind of "organic," obviously excluding the pickup that we get from EVO in the first quarter before we anniversary the deal. So to me, that really reflects, as we said, a slightly more tempered view of the macroeconomic environment, given that we do see some risk to the consumer as we head into 2024.

傑森，我是卡梅倫。謝謝你的提問，這是一個好問題。所以我的想法是我們今年結束時的成長率基本上是 8%。正如我們在準備好的發言中所說，我們對 Merchant 2024 年的預期是 7% 到 8% 的“有機增長”，顯然不包括我們在交易週年紀念日之前第一季從 EVO 獲得的增長。因此，對我來說，正如我們所說，這確實反映了對宏觀經濟環境稍微溫和的看法，因為進入 2024 年我們確實看到了消費者面臨的一些風險。

That being said, to your point, if the consumer hangs in better than we would expect, I would anticipate us being towards the higher end of that range. Obviously, if the consumer is a little weaker, as our guide sort of contemplates or at least allows for, I think, at the low end, we might be towards the lower end of that range.

話雖這麼說，就你的觀點而言，如果消費者的堅持比我們預期的更好，我預計我們會達到該範圍的高端。顯然，如果消費者稍微弱一些，正如我們的指南所考慮的那樣，或者至少允許，我認為，在低端，我們可能會接近該範圍的低端。

So I think the way you're thinking about it is right, and it's consistent with how we're thinking about it. We're being a little bit cautious around the consumer heading into the year. Obviously, a continued resilient consumer who doesn't weaken at all will put us towards the higher end. And if we do see a little bit of softness, we think we'd be towards the lower end of that range. But again, we wanted to be prudent with our expectations around the consumer heading into the year.

所以我覺得你的想法是對的，也和我們的想法是一致的。進入今年，我們對消費者持謹慎態度。顯然，持續堅韌且絲毫不減弱的消費者將使我們走向高端。如果我們確實看到一點疲軟，我們認為我們將接近該範圍的下限。但同樣，我們希望對今年消費者的預期保持謹慎。

Understood. And I wanted to just pick up on your comments around simplifying the business, some possible portfolio pruning sounds like it could be on the table. Wondering if that might be a 2024 event.

明白了。我想聽聽您關於簡化業務的評論，一些可能的投資組合修剪聽起來可能會擺在桌面上。想知道這是否會是 2024 年的活動。

And then if you can just comment on the M&A front about whether or not large-scale acquisitions could be in the cards. There are obviously some media reports out a little bit before Christmas on that, which I know you guys denied, but just to get a sense of where A versus buybacks is sitting in your priority list right now.

然後，您是否可以就併購方面是否可能進行大規模收購發表評論。聖誕節前顯然有一些媒體對此進行了報道，我知道你們否認了這一點，但只是為了了解一下 A 股與回購現在在你們的優先列表中的位置。

Yes, happy to. Maybe I'll address the latter part of that question first and then I'll circle back to the front in a second. I think on the M&A front, as Josh mentioned in his prepared comments, we're kind of back to a business-as-usual mindset heading into the year as it relates to capital allocation. As I said, pretty consistently, whatever we do or consider from an M&A perspective, obviously, it has to fit strategically, it has to fit culturally and financially it needs to be attractive as the returns matter relative to the alternative uses of our capital. And given that leverage is right around our targeted level right now and we expect it to be for 2024, the alternative use of capital is buying back our stock.

是的，很高興。也許我會先解決這個問題的後半部分，然後我會在一秒鐘內回到前面。我認為在併購方面，正如喬什在他準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們在進入今年時又回到了與資本配置相關的一切照舊的心態。正如我所說，非常一致的是，無論我們從併購的角度做什麼或考慮，顯然，它都必須符合策略，它必須符合文化和財務，它需要具有吸引力，因為回報相對於我們資本的其他用途很重要。鑑於槓桿目前正好在我們的目標水準附近，並且我們預計到 2024 年，資本的替代用途是回購我們的股票。

So I remain of the view that anything we do from an M&A perspective needs to be competitive from a return standpoint relative to our ability to buy back stock and the returns that we think we can generate from that. And that's true regardless of whether we're thinking about smaller deals that present nice tuck-in or enhanced capability opportunities or we think of larger deals that obviously provide more opportunity for increased scale and advance the strategy as well.

因此，我仍然認為，從併購角度來看，我們所做的任何事情都需要從回報的角度來看具有競爭力，相對於我們回購股票的能力以及我們認為可以從中產生的回報。無論我們是在考慮提供良好整合或增強能力機會的較小交易，還是在考慮顯然為擴大規模和推進策略提供更多機會的較大交易，情況都是如此。

So as always, from an M&A perspective, we're open-minded. I think we're very deliberate, I think, in terms of how we think about M&A that's going to fit our strategy and the things that we want to pursue and we'll continue with that mindset as we move forward in time. But I'll be clear, the return expectations from M&A need to be competitive and that's how we view everything through that lens.

因此，一如既往，從併購的角度來看，我們持開放態度。我認為我們在如何看待併購方面是經過深思熟慮的，這將符合我們的策略和我們想要追求的目標，隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續保持這種心態。但我要明確的是，併購的回報預期必須具有競爭力，這就是我們從這個角度看待一切的方式。

I think as it relates to your first question around potential portfolio pruning, there is some chance that, that will be in the cards for 2024. Yes, it's not contemplated in our outlook currently today but it is something that we're continuing to evaluate. And it's really in the context of making sure that as we think about investing in the business, that we're investing in those areas where we have scale, we have differentiation, we have prospects to be able to continue to grow the business at attractive rates going forward and trying to minimize investment, minimize resources and management attention that's focused on markets that may be subscale or line of business where we don't have a particular differentiation and we don't see greater prospects to meaningfully impact the business moving forward.

我認為，由於這與您關於潛在投資組合修剪的第一個問題有關，因此 2024 年有可能出現這種情況。是的，我們今天的展望中沒有考慮到這一點，但我們正在繼續評估這一點。這確實是在確保當我們考慮投資業務時，我們投資於那些我們有規模、我們有差異化、我們有前景能夠繼續以有吸引力的價格發展業務的領域。未來的利率，並試圖最大限度地減少投資，最大限度地減少資源和管理層的注意力，這些注意力集中在可能是小規模市場或業務線的市場上，在這些市場上，我們沒有特定的差異化，我們看不到更大的前景來對業務的未來產生有意義的影響。

So that's the way we're thinking about it. Obviously, if we make decisions around that, we'll provide updates as we work through the year, but it is certainly something that we're contemplating as I noted in my remarks.

這就是我們思考的方式。顯然，如果我們圍繞這個問題做出決定，我們將在全年工作中提供最新信息，但這肯定是我們正在考慮的事情，正如我在發言中指出的那樣。

Our next question comes from the line of James Faucette with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 James Faucette。

Wanted to ask in terms of your current competitive environment, I think, Cameron, you highlighted a lot of different things that you're working on in areas of strength. But how would you generally assess the competitive intensity in the market right now? And where do you see opportunities versus challenges generally?

我想問一下您當前的競爭環境，卡梅倫，我認為您強調了您在優勢領域正在努力的許多不同的事情。但您一般如何評估目前市場的競爭強度？您一般認為機會與挑戰在哪裡？

I think it's a good question. I would say we feel fairly good about how we're positioned strategically across most of the markets that we're in today. Certainly, here, in the U.S., we feel quite good about, obviously, our integrated business, the capabilities we have there, the differentiation, the distinction we think we can bring to ISV partners and how that has allowed us to position that business for continued growth and success.

我認為這是一個好問題。我想說，我們對我們今天所處的大多數市場的策略定位感到相當滿意。當然，在美國，我們顯然對我們的綜合業務、我們在那裡擁有的能力、差異化、我們認為可以為 ISV 合作夥伴帶來的區別以及這如何使我們能夠將該業務定位為持續的成長和成功。

And certainly, we're very excited about the rollout of our next-generation of point-of-sale software solutions I talked about, which are coming, obviously, this quarter which we think will give us a more competitive positioning, obviously, in the POS space here in the U.S. market with feature-rich capabilities and obviously service that we think is distinctive relative to, again, the competitors in the marketplace. And obviously, we still see a long runway for growth around POS, whether it's enterprise QSR with what we're doing with CosMc's or small- to medium-sized merchants across restaurants and retail that we're targeting through our Heartland Restaurant and Heartwood Retail platforms. So I think we feel very good about that.

當然，我們對我談到的下一代銷售點軟體解決方案的推出感到非常興奮，顯然，該解決方案將於本季度推出，我們認為這顯然會給我們帶來更具競爭力的定位。美國市場的POS 領域具有豐富的功能和明顯的服務，我們認為與市場上的競爭對手相比，它們具有獨特性。顯然，我們仍然認為圍繞 POS 的成長還有很長的路要走，無論是我們與 CosMc's 合作的企業 QSR，還是我們透過 Heartland Restaurant 和 Heartwood Retail 瞄準的餐廳和零售業的中小型商家平台。所以我認為我們對此感覺很好。

And then, of course, across the vertical market software businesses and those verticals where we do own the entirety of the software stack, again, we think we're well positioned in those verticals to continue to grow nicely and continue to gain share with those businesses and the specific verticals that they're targeting.

當然，在垂直市場軟體業務以及我們擁有整個軟體堆疊的垂直領域，我們再次認為我們在這些垂直領域處於有利地位，可以繼續良好增長並繼續獲得這些垂直領域的份額企業及其目標的特定垂直領域。

So that's really the software-centric strategies that we're pursuing here in the U.S. market. I do think those are the areas of growth that we're continuing to focus on and continuing to invest in, in our business and that's the best strategy for us competitively, I think, here in the U.S. market.

這確實是我們在美國市場追求的以軟體為中心的策略。我確實認為這些是我們繼續關注並繼續投資於我們業務的成長領域，我認為這是我們在美國市場競爭的最佳策略。

But I think we're feeling pretty sanguine about the overall competitive landscape in the U.S. I think pricing has become more rationalized obviously with rates rising and competitors focusing on sort of profitability and free cash flow, which I think creates a more constructive backdrop overall just from a competitive standpoint.

但我認為我們對美國的整體競爭格局感到相當樂觀。我認為，隨著利率的上升，定價顯然變得更加合理化，競爭對手專注於盈利能力和自由現金流，我認為這創造了一個更具建設性的整體背景從競爭的角度來看。

I'd say outside the U.S., we're pretty bullish how we're positioned competitively largely because of the capability that we can bring to bear on markets that are probably not quite as sophisticated from a product and solutioning standpoint as the U.S. market. So our ability to bring our point-of-sale solutions, our touch-on-mobile solutions, our commerce enablement capabilities, our Google Run and Grow My Business platform to markets outside the U.S., particularly in Europe, Lat Am, and to some degree, Asia Pacific, I think competitively positions us really well in markets where I'd say the competitive dynamic, in many cases, is probably less intense than it is here in the U.S. market.

我想說的是，在美國以外的地區，我們非常看好我們的競爭地位，主要是因為我們有能力應對從產品和解決方案的角度來看可能不如美國市場那麼複雜的市場。因此，我們有能力將我們的銷售點解決方案、我們的行動觸控解決方案、我們的商務支援能力、我們的Google Run 和Grow My Business 平台帶到美國以外的市場，特別是歐洲、拉丁美洲和一些地區。學位，亞太地區，我認為我們在市場中的競爭地位非常好，我想說，在許多情況下，競爭動態可能不如美國市場那麼激烈。

So from that perspective, I'm relatively bullish what we can do putting aside macro just in terms of competitive positioning in markets outside the U.S., bringing these distinctive and differentiated capabilities.

因此，從這個角度來看，我相對看好我們在美國以外市場的競爭定位方面可以做些什麼，拋開宏觀因素，帶來這些獨特和差異化的能力。

Appreciate that. And then as a follow-up and related to this year's outlook, how should we be thinking about the targets, especially from a profitability standpoint vis-à-vis kind of your cycle guide that was established a few years ago and wondering kind of the trajectory of that and how we should be thinking about medium-term EPS targeted growth rates, et cetera.

感謝。然後，作為與今年展望相關的後續行動，我們應該如何考慮目標，特別是從盈利能力的角度來看，相對於幾年前建立的周期指南，我們想知道其軌跡以及我們應該如何考慮中期每股收益目標成長率等等。

Yes, James, look, it's a fair question, and I'm not going to get ahead of my skis today and sort of give a new "cycle guide". Obviously, as I've communicated previously, we intend to host an Investor Day this year. That will be one of the topics that we cover at that time and then we'll provide a little more color about how we're thinking about the business end.

是的，詹姆斯，聽著，這是一個公平的問題，今天我不會超越我的滑雪板並給出一個新的“自行車指南”。顯然，正如我之前所傳達的，我們打算今年舉辦投資者日。這將是我們當時討論的主題之一，然後我們將提供更多關於我們如何思考業務端的內容。

But I would say if you just step back and look at how we're thinking about the business heading into the year, as we said, excluding kind of the anniversary-ing of deals, if you think about the business on a normalized basis, we're targeting 7-plus percent revenue growth on the top line and kind of 14-plus percent from an earnings per share perspective. So think about it kind of in the high single-digit top line growth and kind of mid-teens earnings per share growth, again, reflecting a little bit more of a tempered view of the macro environment heading into the year.

但我想說，如果你退後一步，看看我們如何看待今年的業務，正如我們所說，排除某種週年紀念交易，如果你在正常化的基礎上考慮業務，我們的目標是營收成長7% 以上，每股收益成長14% 以上。因此，再次考慮高個位數的營收成長和中位數的每股盈餘成長，這反映出對今年宏觀環境的溫和看法。

I think that's generally fairly reflective of how we think about the business. And I think that kind of business is one that we can continue to execute against those targets and expectations are something that we think we can sustainably achieve over a period of time. So I wouldn't characterize kind of the outlook broadly as reflective of how we think about the business, obviously, with the overlay of a little bit of a tempered macroeconomic expectation for 2024.

我認為這通常相當反映了我們對業務的看法。我認為這種業務是我們可以繼續執行這些目標和期望的業務，我們認為我們可以在一段時間內持續實現這一目標。因此，我不會將這種前景廣泛地描述為反映了我們對業務的看法，顯然，2024 年宏觀經濟預期有所緩和。

Our next question comes from the line of Darrin Peller with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自沃爾夫研究中心的達林‧佩勒 (Darrin Peller)。

I was actually going to touch on the medium-term guide, but that was helpful. But just as a kind of a quick follow-up on the guidance, when we think about the inputs, again, you said more conservative in terms of the consumer, which is helpful, are you incorporating any type of M&A or tuck-ins in that outlook that we should consider being at all material to the revenue growth rates?

我實際上打算談談中期指南，但這很有幫助。但就像對指導意見的快速跟進一樣，當我們考慮投入時，您再次表示，在消費者方面更加保守，這很有幫助，您是否將任何類型的併購或折衷納入其中我們應該考慮這種前景對營收成長率是否重要？

And then just going back to guide on margins, I think you're saying up to 50 basis points. Can we just walk through that a bit? It's a little lower than it used to be in terms of margin expansion. How much of that is synergies from EVO? How much of that is just operating leverage versus mix? Any conservatism in that outlook as well and just maybe the inputs.

然後回到利潤率指導，我認為您說的是最多 50 個基點。我們可以簡單介紹一下嗎？就利潤率擴張而言，它比以前要低一些。其中有多少是來自 EVO 的協同效應？其中有多少只是營運槓桿與混合槓桿？這種觀點中的任何保守主義以及可能的投入。

And then also, if your margins are coming to a level that's higher, does that inform your view on capital allocation more and more buybacks perhaps?

另外，如果您的利潤率達到更高的水平，這是否會影響您對資本配置的看法，也許會進行越來越多的回購？

Yes. A lot buried in there, Darrin. Maybe I'll start and then ask Josh to chime in as well on a couple of the comments. I would just say on the first question, the answer is no from an M&A perspective. We did a small portfolio buy in Q4, but it's de minimis in terms of contribution to 2024. I mean, less than 10 basis points. So that's not a particular large impact. We don't have any other M&A included in our guide. Obviously, if we do M&A, we'll update at the time as we have historically and provide an expectation of contribution for whatever M&A we do as we head into 2024.

是的。那裡埋了很多東西，達林。也許我會先請喬許插話一些評論。我只想說，第一個問題，從併購的角度來看，答案是否定的。我們在第四季度進行了小型投資組合購買，但就對 2024 年的貢獻而言，這是微不足道的。我的意思是，不到 10 個基點。所以這並不是一個特別大的影響。我們的指南中沒有包含任何其他併購。顯然，如果我們進行併購，我們將按照歷史記錄進行及時更新，並為進入 2024 年時所做的任何併購提供預期貢獻。

On the second question, I think, as it relates to the margin guide, I'll just give a couple of opening comments and then I'll let Josh maybe provide a little more color. I'd say 2 things really, one is I think we're taking a fairly prudent view of the outlook kind of heading into the year. We have a lot of things that we're trying to accomplish as a business, particularly as it relates to EVO integration as well as continuing to invest in the business in areas that we think are going to help drive growth and sustain growth over longer periods of time.

關於第二個問題，我認為，因為它與邊距指南相關，我只會給出一些開場評論，然後我會讓喬希提供更多的顏色。我實際上想說兩件事，一是我認為我們對今年的前景持相當謹慎的看法。作為一家企業，我們有很多事情想要完成，特別是與 EVO 整合以及繼續在我們認為將有助於推動成長和維持長期成長的領域進行業務投資有關的時間。

So I think like everything in life, it's a bit of a balanced view around how much of the benefit is flowing through margins to the bottom line versus how much we're reinvesting in the business to support the rollout of our new POS platform, obviously, to ensure that we execute integration of EVO seamlessly, effectively, while we continue to invest in their underlying platforms to ensure stability and reliability. We continue to invest in bringing new product and capability to their markets, which we think will drive revenue, obviously, longer term, et cetera.

因此，我認為，就像生活中的一切一樣，對於有多少利益透過利潤流向利潤，以及我們在業務上再投資多少以支持新 POS 平台的推出，這是一個平衡的觀點，顯然，以確保我們無縫、有效地執行EVO 集成，同時我們繼續投資其底層平台以確保穩定性和可靠性。我們繼續投資，為他們的市場帶來新產品和能力，我們認為這將增加收入，顯然是長期的，等等。

So I think the view around margins is pretty balanced around, again, wanting to invest in the business to drive growth as well as allowing some of that to flow through to the bottom line to impact earnings.

因此，我認為對利潤率的看法是相當平衡的，希望投資於業務以推動成長，並允許其中一些資金流入利潤以影響收益。

The last point I would make, and I'll ask Josh to add any color he would like is if you exclude sort of the impact of EVO, which obviously is still coming in at a lower margin profile, I think overall margins for the year would be up closer to 75 basis points and Merchant would be closer to 60%. So I'll just remind you that's going to move off of a base for Merchant of kind of 48%. So margins are fairly healthy in the business overall. We're focused on continuing to find opportunities for market expansion, again, while also continuing to find opportunities to invest to grow the business.

我要說的最後一點，我會要求喬許添加他想要的任何顏色，如果你排除 EVO 的影響，顯然 EVO 的利潤率仍然較低，我認為今年的總體利潤率將會上漲接近75 個基點，而Merchant 將接近60%。因此，我只想提醒您，這將超出商家 48% 的基礎。因此，整個業務的利潤率相當健康。我們再次專注於繼續尋找市場擴張的機會，同時也繼續尋找投資機會來發展業務。

Josh, I don't know if you'd want to add anything to that?

喬什，我不知道你是否想補充什麼？

No. Look, I think the only thing I would add is that if we think about margins by segment, we continue to expect Merchant margins to improve as synergies ramp. And Darrin, you may recall, if you go back to last year, Q2 margins were down 170 basis points; Q3, they were down 90; and Q4 60. So we're seeing a continued, consistent positive trend coming into the year.

不，我想我唯一要補充的是，如果我們按細分市場考慮利潤率，我們繼續預期隨著協同效應的增強，商家利潤率會提高。達林（Darrin），您可能還記得，如果您回到去年，第二季的利潤率下降了 170 個基點； Q3，他們下降了90；和第 60 季第四季。因此，我們看到今年將出現持續、一致的正面趨勢。

I'd also just reecho what Cameron said, we need to focus on balancing margin expansion with reinvestment in the business. And as it relates to our Issuer margins, we'll continue to see the benefit of strong volume-based revenue trends and ongoing expense management. In Q1 specifically, we expect margins to be slightly higher than the 50 basis points given the low Q1 '23 absolute margin figures. But otherwise, margin expansion for the overall company will be pretty consistent across each of the quarters.

我也想重申卡梅倫所說的，我們需要專注於平衡利潤擴張與業務再投資。由於它與我們的發行人利潤率相關，我們將繼續看到強勁的基於數量的收入趨勢和持續的費用管理的好處。具體來說，鑑於 23 年第一季的絕對利潤率較低，我們預計第一季的利潤率將略高於 50 個基點。但除此之外，整個公司的利潤率擴張在每季都將相當一致。

That's really helpful. And just quickly on the buyback question. I mean, is this -- it looks like you raised your authorization, if I'm not mistaken. And so is this an indication of more capital return expectations going forward?

這真的很有幫助。快速討論一下回購問題。我的意思是，如果我沒記錯的話，看起來你已經提高了授權。那麼這是否顯示未來會有更多的資本回報預期？

So look, Darrin, I would say that we plan to return to a more balanced capital allocation approach in 2024. Buybacks remains one of our priorities, but we plan to further reduce debt until we can return to that roughly 3x levered target on a net debt basis during the year.

所以，達林，我想說的是，我們計劃在2024 年恢復更平衡的資本配置方法。回購仍然是我們的優先事項之一，但我們計劃進一步減少債務，直到我們能夠恢復到淨槓桿率約3 倍的目標。年內的債務基礎。

Darrin, the only thing I'd add, I mean, it was important to us -- it was important to us going in the year to have the capacity to be able to do share repurchases if that's what capital allocation plans call for. So obviously, we're pleased the Board supports that and I think it sends a signal, obviously, that we're very open-minded to share repurchases if that's the best alternative for capital allocation this year.

達林，我唯一要補充的是，這對我們來說很重要——如果資本配置計畫要求的話，那麼今年我們有能力進行股票回購，這對我們來說很重要。顯然，我們很高興董事會支持這一點，我認為這顯然發出了一個信號，如果這是今年資本配置的最佳選擇，我們對股票回購持非常開放的態度。

Our next question comes from the line of Ramsey El-Assal with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的拉姆齊·阿薩爾 (Ramsey El-Assal)。

Could you help us think through the timing and magnitude of the contribution from the Commerzbank JV this year? Will it ramp quickly? Does it -- how much is baked into guidance basically from that deal?

您能否幫助我們思考德國商業銀行合資公司今年貢獻的時間和規模？會很快爬升嗎？該交易基本上將多少內容納入指導？

Yes, it's a good question. And let me just be clear, Ramsey, the joint venture itself. We're not buying into an existing portfolio that Commerzbank has. Commerzbank doesn't have an acquiring business today. What we're doing effectively through the joint venture is entering into a distribution partnership, whereby Commerzbank will obviously be a distribution channel for us. They'll own 49% of the business, but they're largely bringing distribution to the party as it relates to the joint venture that we're establishing with them.

是的，這是一個好問題。拉姆齊，讓我澄清一下，合資企業本身。我們不會購買德國商業銀行現有的投資組合。德國商業銀行目前沒有收單業務。我們透過合資企業正在做的有效事情是建立分銷合作夥伴關係，德國商業銀行顯然將成為我們的分銷管道。他們將擁有 49% 的業務，但他們主要為該方帶來分配，因為這與我們與他們建立的合資企業有關。

So essentially think of it as a greenfield opportunity to really grow and scale a business in Germany, starting with a very small base that we acquired through the EVO acquisition last year, but it's an opportunity to grow and scale a more meaningful business in Germany over a long period of time.

因此，本質上，可以將其視為在德國真正發展和擴大業務的綠地機會，從我們去年透過收購EVO 獲得的一個非常小的基礎開始，但這是一個在德國發展和擴大更有意義的業務的機會很長一段時間。

Commerzbank is one of the largest domestic banks in Germany. They have one of the strongest market positions, particularly across small- and medium-sized merchants, which is obviously more of our target market in the markets that we serve around the globe. So end of the day, we think it's a fantastic new partner that's going to allow us to build over time a more meaningful business in our -- in Germany but obviously it's going to take a while to scale there.

德國商業銀行是德國最大的國內銀行之一。他們擁有最強大的市場地位之一，特別是在中小型商家中，這顯然是我們在全球服務的市場中更多的目標市場。因此，歸根結底，我們認為這是一個出色的新合作夥伴，隨著時間的推移，我們將能夠在德國建立更有意義的業務，但顯然需要一段時間才能在那裡擴大規模。

Got it. Great. Sounds like a great new channel. A follow-up from me. Could you update us on the U.K. business? And just let us know if you're seeing stabilization there on the macro or consumer spending front? And I guess kind of being in the context of the sort of takepayments chatter, do you have the product capabilities that you need over there to compete effectively at this point?

知道了。偉大的。聽起來像是一個很棒的新頻道。我的後續行動。您能為我們介紹一下英國業務的最新情況嗎？請告訴我們您是否看到宏觀或消費者支出方面出現穩定？我想在那種關於收款喋喋不休的背景下，你是否擁有目前有效競爭所需的產品功能？

Yes, it's a good question, Ramsey. I'm not going to comment on the latter part of that. Naturally, not surprisingly, we don't comment on market rumors of that nature.

是的，這是一個好問題，拉姆齊。我不會對後半部分發表評論。當然，毫不奇怪，我們不會對這種性質的市場傳言發表評論。

But I think as it relates to the U.K. market, I would say a couple of things. One is we are starting to see some signs of stabilization there, which I think is positive. Obviously, they reported their sort of inflation numbers this morning. They were generally in line with expectations unlike where the U.S. was yesterday. So I think that's a constructive step forward as well.

但我認為，由於它與英國市場有關，我想說幾件事。一是我們開始看到一些穩定的跡象，我認為這是正面的。顯然，他們今天早上報告了通貨膨脹數據。與美國昨天的情況不同，它們總體上符合預期。所以我認為這也是向前邁出的建設性一步。

So I don't know that we've seen absolute bottom in the U.K. just as it relates to the macro pressure, obviously, that we've highlighted over the course of much of the last year and beyond. But I do think we are getting to a point where we're seeing -- obviously, seeing things stabilize in that market, which gives us a little bit more optimism about where we can go over the longer term in the U.K.

所以我不知道我們是否已經看到英國的絕對底部，就像它與宏觀壓力有關一樣，顯然，我們在去年及以後的大部分時間都強調了這一點。但我確實認為我們已經到了這樣一個階段——顯然，看到該市場的情況趨於穩定，這讓我們對英國的長期發展前景更加樂觀。

I would say as it relates to product and capability, the short answer is yes. I mean, we've worked hard to bring new product and new solutions to that market. We talked about bringing our GP POS solution to the U.K. market, which we think will give us a very competitive point-of-sale to market. And again, that's not highly differentiated like it is here in the U.S. market. We brought other solutions from a commerce enablement perspective to the U.K. market as well.

我想說，因為它與產品和能力有關，簡短的答案是肯定的。我的意思是，我們一直在努力為該市場帶來新產品和新解決方案。我們討論了將 GP POS 解決方案引入英國市場，我們認為這將為我們帶來極具競爭力的市場銷售點。再說一遍，這並不像美國市場那樣高度差異化。我們也從商業支持的角度為英國市場帶來了其他解決方案。

So I think, certainly, from a product capability standpoint, we have everything that we need to be successful in that market. I think the challenge with the U.K. has really been macro-driven over a longer period of time. And that's obviously something that I've said before, I think we're starting to see signs of stabilization there.

因此，我認為，從產品能力的角度來看，我們當然擁有在該市場取得成功所需的一切。我認為英國面臨的挑戰確實是在較長一段時間內由宏觀因素驅動的。這顯然是我之前說的，我認為我們開始看到那裡穩定的跡象。

Our next question comes from the line of Dave Koning with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自戴夫·科寧和貝爾德的對話。

I thought one of the really encouraging parts of the quarter and just the guidance is free cash flow conversion. Not many companies are guiding to around 100% conversion. Can you kind of discuss that a little bit why -- what about your company converts so well?

我認為本季真正令人鼓舞的部分之一以及指導就是自由現金流轉換。指導轉換率達到 100% 左右的公司不多。您能否稍微討論一下為什麼──您的公司轉型得這麼好？

And then kind of as a pairing with that question, you've had semi-high merger add-backs, although they've come down in the last few quarters. Are those going to go down pretty significantly in 2024?

然後，作為與這個問題的配對，您已經獲得了半高的合併附加回報，儘管它們在過去幾個季度有所下降。 2024 年這些數字會大幅下降嗎？

Yes, I'll go ahead and take that. So look, we were, I would say, generally very pleased with our free cash flow conversion, especially for the quarter, we were over 100%. For the full year, we were 100%, and this was in line with our expectations as we've been guiding over the last several quarters and last year. And I would say that this conversion follows the trajectory that we saw in 2022, a little bit weaker in the first half of the year and stronger in the second half of the year.

是的，我會繼續接受。所以，我想說，我們總體上對我們的自由現金流轉換非常滿意，特別是在本季度，我們超過 100%。就全年而言，我們的目標是 100%，這符合我們的預期，因為我們在過去幾個季度和去年一直在指導。我想說，這種轉變遵循我們在 2022 年看到的軌跡，上半年稍微弱一些，下半年更強一些。

So we -- what I would say in '24, we continue to go ahead and target that same general trajectory and pattern and we expect to go ahead and convert roughly 100% in 2024, excluding the impact of the timing -- change of the recognizing the R&D tax credit.

因此，我在 24 年會說，我們將繼續前進並瞄準相同的總體軌跡和模式，我們預計將在 2024 年繼續前進並實現大約 100% 的轉換，排除時間變化的影響。承認研發稅收抵免。

So as it relates to the add-backs, I would say we continue to go ahead and expect add-backs to come down. I think you'll note in our Schedule 10 of the press release, that we expect GAAP earnings to be approximately 50% of adjusted earnings. That's a significant improvement relative to last year and we expect that to go ahead and continue as time goes on.

因此，由於它與回加有關，我想說我們會繼續前進並期望回加會下降。我想您會在我們新聞稿的附表 10 中註意到，我們預計 GAAP 收益約為調整後收益的 50%。與去年相比，這是一個顯著的進步，我們預計隨著時間的推移，這種情況將會繼續下去。

And maybe just a quick follow-up. On the pace through the year of earnings, I mean, it sounds like once you anniversary Netspend and anniversary EVO, both revenue and EPS can accelerate a little bit given just the profiles?

也許只是快速跟進。關於全年收益的成長速度，我的意思是，聽起來一旦 Netspend 和 EVO 週年紀念日，僅考慮到概況，收入和每股收益都會加快一點？

Yes. So look, what I would say is we're expecting 11%, 12% EPS growth. Q1, as you rightly point out, we're anniversary-ing Netspend and Gaming. So that will be slightly below the range. But I would say, Q2 will be in the 11% to 12% range and then Q3, Q4 will be in the 12% to 13% range and that kind of gets you to the 11% to 12% for the full year.

是的。所以，我想說的是，我們預期每股盈餘將成長 11%、12%。 Q1，正如您正確指出的那樣，我們正在慶祝 Netspend 和 Gaming 週年紀念日。因此，這將略低於該範圍。但我想說，第二季將在11% 至12% 的範圍內，然後第三季、第四季將在12% 至13% 的範圍內，這樣全年的成長率將達到11% 至12 %。

Our next question comes from the line of Bryan Bergin with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Bryan Bergin 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

Wanted to dig in on the Merchant growth guidance first. Are you expecting volumes to be generally in line with the forecast you have? Just any comments on additional potential lift from pricing in that view.

想先深入了解商家成長指南。您預計銷售量是否與您的預測基本一致？只是對這種觀點下的定價帶來的額外潛在提升的任何評論。

And are you forecasting that Merchant growth level in the balance of the year after EVO and the Gaming sales to be generally level?

您是否預測 EVO 和遊戲銷售之後的剩餘年份的商家成長水準將整體持平？

Yes. Good questions. I would say, maybe just to address the last one quickly, the short answer is yes. Once we anniversary EVO in the first quarter and Gaming, I would expect Q2 through Q4 to be relatively consistent based on our current outlook for the full year.

是的。好問題。我想說，也許只是為了快速解決最後一個問題，簡短的答案是肯定的。一旦我們在第一季和遊戲領域慶祝 EVO 週年紀念日，根據我們目前對全年的展望，我預計第二季到第四季將相對一致。

Just going back to the first part of your question, I would say, yes, we would expect volumes to generally track relatively in line with the revenue growth that we're seeing in the business. That's been a consistent trend. If you look at the schedule we provide in our earnings presentation, you can go back quite a long period of time and see that trend being pretty consistent, which is something that we're pleased about.

回到你問題的第一部分，我想說，是的，我們預計銷量總體上會與我們在業務中看到的收入增長相對一致。這是一個一致的趨勢。如果您查看我們在收益報告中提供的時間表，您可以追溯到相當長的一段時間內，並看到該趨勢非常一致，這是我們感到高興的事情。

So the outlook for 2024, I would say, yes, by and large, we expect volumes to generally track our revenue expectations as we work ourselves through the balance of the year.

因此，對於 2024 年的前景，我想說，是的，總的來說，我們預計在今年餘下的時間裡，銷量將大致追蹤我們的收入預期。

And then I would say on pricing, we really haven't changed our philosophy on that front. We've been pretty consistent in our commentary as to how we think about pricing -- not only our commentary, but our actual execution of it as well, clearly geared towards making sure that we think we're getting paid fairly and appropriately for the level of value and service that we're giving to our customers. We're not the low-cost provider in the market and we don't strive to be. And we think the value proposition we bring to customers and clients is differentiated and we want the price for our services to reflect that.

然後我想說的是，在定價方面，我們確實沒有改變我們在這方面的理念。對於我們如何看待定價，我們的評論非常一致——不僅是我們的評論，而且我們的實際執行也如此，顯然是為了確保我們認為我們獲得公平和適當的報酬。我們為客戶提供的價值和服務水平。我們不是市場上的低成本供應商，我們也不會努力成為這樣的供應商。我們認為我們為客戶和客戶帶來的價值主張是與眾不同的，我們希望我們的服務價格能反映這一點。

So there's nothing unusual, I would say, in 2024 from a pricing perspective. It's a little bit of more of a continuation of executing against that philosophy that we've had over a long period of time.

所以我想說，從定價的角度來看，2024 年沒有什麼不尋常的。這更像是對我們長期以來所奉行的理念的繼續執行。

Okay. Appreciate that. And then a follow-up on the vertical solutions business. As you think about potential investments, where may you have further interest to lean in where you aren't currently exposed?

好的。感謝。然後是垂直解決方案業務的後續。當您考慮潛在投資時，您可能還有興趣在目前尚未涉足的領域進行投資？

Yes, it's a good question. And we take a lot of care to be very deliberate in terms of where we think we want to own software assets versus where do we want to partner. We obviously have a fantastic integrated business. We have a great partnership model. That is a business that gives us, I think, a lot of opportunity to continue to benefit from embedded payments, integrated payments, put whatever term you want to around it. So obviously, that is a focus of our growth as well as in certain vertical markets wanting to own software assets because we think we can drive better payment monetization, we think we can drive better growth and better differentiation in our solutions by owning software.

是的，這是一個好問題。我們非常謹慎地考慮我們想要在哪裡擁有軟體資產以及我們想在哪裡合作。顯然，我們擁有出色的綜合業務。我們有一個很好的合作夥伴模式。我認為，這項業務為我們提供了許多機會，讓我們能夠繼續從嵌入支付、整合支付等任何你想要的術語中受益。顯然，這是我們成長的重點，也是在某些想要擁有軟體資產的垂直市場中，因為我們認為我們可以推動更好的支付貨幣化，我們認為我們可以透過擁有軟體來推動我們的解決方案更好的成長和更好的差異化。

So we tend to target verticals, as we've said, for a long period of time that are large addressable spend markets. There needs to be a strong nexus with payments. Obviously, we're not in the business of owning software just to own software. We want to own software in vertical markets where there's strong consumer spend and a good opportunity to monetize payment flows coming out of that.

因此，正如我們所說，我們傾向於在很長一段時間內瞄準那些可尋址的大型消費市場。需要與付款有緊密的聯繫。顯然，我們並不是為了擁有軟體而擁有軟體。我們希望在垂直市場擁有軟體，那裡的消費者支出強勁，並且有很好的機會將由此產生的支付流貨幣化。

The third thing I would say is we want to invest in software businesses where we can leverage our investment across the broader Global Payments. A big focus for us is finding ways to amplify the impact of the investments we're making. Whether it's in our more traditional payments businesses or in our vertical market software businesses, we want to be able to take investments that we're making in those businesses and find ways to amplify them across the broader Global Payments portfolio.

我要說的第三件事是我們希望投資軟體業務，我們可以在更廣泛的全球支付領域利用我們的投資。我們的一大重點是尋找方法來擴大我們正在進行的投資的影響。無論是在我們更傳統的支付業務還是在我們的垂直市場軟體業務中，我們都希望能夠利用我們在這些業務中進行的投資，並找到方法在更廣泛的全球支付投資組合中擴大這些投資。

And then lastly, as I talked about before, we're very focused on those vertical markets that have some international applicability. One of the things we've been successful in doing, and I highlighted some of this in my script today, is taking our software solutions to markets outside of the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, et cetera, and using those, obviously, as a means by which to drive growth and differentiation in markets outside the U.S. that we serve today. So that's another important element as we think about vertical expansion.

最後，正如我之前談到的，我們非常關注那些具有一定國際適用性的垂直市場。我們成功做的事情之一，我今天在我的腳本中強調了其中一些，是將我們的軟體解決方案帶到美國、英國、加拿大、澳洲等以外的市場，並顯然使用這些解決方案，作為推動我們今天所服務的美國以外市場成長和差異化的一種手段。因此，這是我們考慮垂直擴展時的另一個重要因素。

So without getting into specific verticals, that's how we think about the world. But it's a pretty consistent mindset, I would say, that we've had over a long period of time as we thought about investing in software.

因此，在不涉及特定垂直領域的情況下，這就是我們對世界的看法。但我想說，這是我們在很長一段時間內考慮投資軟體時一直持有的心態。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Cameron, I love the build up to the growth rates in Merchant and the focus on software and technology broadly. Can you talk a little bit about, again, the macro aside, maybe a couple of levers that might accelerate Merchant organic revenue growth? Or longer term, and again, I want to stay away from the cycle guide, but just theoretically, conceptually, is there the capacity to accelerate top line and how do you do it? And how much of a sense of urgency is it versus just compounding what is a very nice rate today? Just trying to think about that longer term.

卡梅倫，我喜歡 Merchant 的成長率以及對軟體和技術的廣泛關注。除了宏觀因素外，您能否再談談一些可能加速商家有機收入成長的槓桿？或者從長遠來看，我想再次遠離週期指南，但只是從理論上、概念上來說，是否有能力加速營收以及如何做到這一點？與今天的複合利率相比，這種緊迫感有多大？只是試著考慮更長遠的事情。

Yes, Andrew, it's good questions. I would say, certainly, I think there are opportunities over time to be able to drive that higher -- slightly higher. I mean I would just sort of balance that against the fact that our Merchant revenue today is north -- well north of $7 billion. So you're moving a big number when we're talking about growth rates in the range that we're talking about.

是的，安德魯，這是個好問題。我想說，當然，我認為隨著時間的推移，有機會能夠推動這個更高的水平——稍微更高一些。我的意思是，我只是想在這一點上與我們今天的商家收入處於北方——遠高於 70 億美元這一事實進行平衡。因此，當我們談論我們正在談論的範圍內的成長率時，您正在移動一個很大的數字。

But the areas where I'm sort of bullish and I think there are probably prospects to drive better rates over time is really around point-of-sale software. We're making meaningful investments in that area. We spent a lot of time on our Q3 call talking about our overall point-of-sale strategy, how we think about the different assets that we own today, where we're trying to leverage those across our wholesale business, across our direct business, across our international markets, across enterprise QSR and stadium and event venues, et cetera.

但我有點看好並且我認為隨著時間的推移可能有前景推動更好的價格的領域實際上是圍繞銷售點軟體的。我們正在該領域進行有意義的投資。我們在第三季的電話會議上花了很多時間討論我們的整體銷售點策略，我們如何看待我們今天擁有的不同資產，我們試圖在我們的批發業務和直接業務中利用這些資產，跨越我們的國際市場、企業QSR 以及體育場和活動場所等。

So as we're rolling out our next generation of capabilities in 2024 and we think about bringing POS solutions to markets outside of the U.S. over time, as I touched on, I'm pretty -- I do have high expectations for what we're able to do with that point-of-sale business and growing and scaling it over the next several years. So I certainly think that is a lever that we want to lean on and try to drive, obviously continued strong rates of growth in that channel that can obviously augment the overall rate of growth for the business.

因此，當我們在 2024 年推出下一代功能時，我們考慮隨著時間的推移將 POS 解決方案引入美國以外的市場，正如我所提到的，我確實對我們的產品抱有很高的期望。我們能夠處理該銷售點業務，並在未來幾年內持續發展和擴大規模。因此，我當然認為這是我們想要依靠並嘗試推動的槓桿，顯然該通路的持續強勁成長率可以顯著提高業務的整體成長率。

And I'd say the second thing is really the international markets, as I highlighted. I do think those markets just as a competitive dynamic perspective are less intense than the U.S. market. I think we have great market positions, we have great partners. And we're bringing more and more product and capability to those markets that I think can drive more differentiation, and therefore, lead to better rates of growth for the business over time. So certainly, that's another area in the business where I continue to see good opportunities for us to grow and scale.

正如我所強調的，我想說的第二件事實際上是國際市場。我確實認為這些市場的競爭動態程度不如美國市場激烈。我認為我們擁有很好的市場地位，我們有很棒的合作夥伴。我們正在為這些市場帶來越來越多的產品和功能，我認為這些產品和功能可以推動更多的差異化，從而隨著時間的推移帶來更好的業務成長率。當然，這是業務的另一個領域，我繼續看到我們發展和擴大規模的良好機會。

And then third, obviously, the more embedded payment trends that sort of become tailwinds for the business, the more omnichannel continues to drive meaningful growth, I would say, in the business overall, I think we're poised to take advantage of those trends over a longer period of time. And obviously, I think those support clearly the rates of growth that we have in the business and hopefully would provide some tailwind to that over time.

第三，顯然，嵌入式支付趨勢越多，成為業務的順風，全通路就越能繼續推動有意義的成長，我想說，在整個業務中，我認為我們準備充分利用這些趨勢在較長一段時間內。顯然，我認為這些明顯支持了我們業務的成長率，並希望隨著時間的推移將提供一些推動力。

Okay. I appreciate that. That's helpful. And just a quick one as a follow-up. It looks like yields within the Issuer business have been pretty stable. Can you just comment on renewal terms? You called out a couple of big customer renewals. I just wonder if pricing is stable or what the trends are there?

好的。我很感激。這很有幫助。只是一個快速的後續行動。看起來發行人業務的收益率相當穩定。您能評論一下續約條款嗎？您宣布了幾個大客戶的續約。我只是想知道價格是否穩定或趨勢是什麼？

Yes, it's a good question. And obviously, not surprisingly, we don't get into specific conversations around pricing for any particular customer.

是的，這是一個好問題。顯然，毫不奇怪，我們不會針對任何特定客戶進行有關定價的具體對話。

I would say a couple of things. One is we're obviously delighted to renew 2 flagship customers, as I called out in my prepared remarks. Those are customers that have been with us for a very long period of time, we have very strong relationships with. And obviously, getting those renewals done, I think, was important. It's also reflected in the guide for the business. So as you can see, obviously, we're able to manage those in the context of still growing the Issuer businesses kind of at our targeted rate of growth heading into 2024.

我想說幾件事。一是我們顯然很高興續約 2 個旗艦客戶，正如我在準備好的演講中所說的那樣。這些客戶已經與我們合作了很長一段時間，我們與他們有著非常牢固的關係。顯然，我認為完成這些更新很重要。這也反映在業務指南中。因此，正如您所看到的，顯然，我們能夠在發行人業務仍以我們 2024 年的目標成長率成長的背景下管理這些業務。

I would say more broadly, as we continue to invest in modernization, we continue to invest in more enablement capability for our clients and building out more cloud native solutions and more microservices that allow our clients to be able to consume capabilities more easily, I think that's going to open up new channels and new avenues for growth for that business, which we think long term obviously helps to drive better growth prospects for the Issuer Solutions business.

我想說更廣泛地說，隨著我們繼續投資現代化，我們繼續投資為客戶提供更多支援能力，並建立更多雲端原生解決方案和更多微服務，使我們的客戶能夠更輕鬆地使用功能，我認為這將為該業務的成長開闢新的管道和新的途徑，我們認為從長遠來看，這顯然有助於推動發行人解決方案業務更好的成長前景。

So we've made a substantial amount of progress on our modernization efforts. We talked about what's in plan for 2024 as we're running a number of pilots across the business, different geographies, products and services and bundles that we sell into the market that obviously positions us to begin to start commercializing those solutions in the near term.

因此，我們的現代化工作取得了巨大進展。我們討論了 2024 年的計劃，因為我們正在整個業務、不同地區、產品和服務以及我們向市場銷售的捆綁產品中運行多個試點，這顯然使我們能夠在短期內開始將這些解決方案商業化。

So we're pleased with how that progress -- how that project is progressing. And we're pleased with how we've positioned that business, I think, to obviously sustain kind of current rates of growth. But obviously, the goal and the objective is to be able to accelerate those rates of growth over time by opening new markets and opening up new revenue channels for the Issuer business.

因此，我們對專案的進展感到滿意。我認為，我們對我們如何定位該業務以明顯維持當前的成長率感到滿意。但顯然，我們的目標是透過開闢新市場並為發行人業務開闢新的收入管道，能夠隨著時間的推移加快成長率。

And with that, I'd like to thank everyone for joining our call this morning. We appreciate your interest in Global Payments and all of your support. And I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. Have a great day.

在此，我要感謝大家今天早上加入我們的電話會議。感謝您對 Global Payments 的關注與支持。祝大家情人節快樂。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。