International Money Express Inc (IMXI) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to International Money Express Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Gallentine, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早上好，歡迎參加 International Money Express Inc. 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Mike Gallentine。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to our quarterly earnings call. I would like to remind everyone that today's call includes forward-looking statements, including our second quarter and full year 2023 guidance, and actual results may differ materially from expectations. For additional information on International Money Express, which we refer to as Intermex or the company, please see our SEC filings, including the risk factors described therein. All forward-looking statements on this call are based on assumptions and beliefs as of today. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Please refer to Slide 2 of our presentation for a description of certain forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update such information, except as required by applicable law. On this conference call, we discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information required by Regulation G under the Securities and Exchange Act for such non-GAAP financial measures is included in the presentation slide, our earnings press release and our annual report on Form 10-K, including reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures to the appropriate GAAP measures. These can be obtained in the Investors section of our website at intermexonline.com. (inaudible) on today's call is our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Bob Lisy; and Chief Financial Officer, Andras Bende. Also on the call today are Chris Hunt, Chief Operating Officer; Joseph Aguilar, President, Latin America; Randy Nilsen, Chief Revenue Officer; and Marcelo Theodoro, Chief Digital Officer. Let me now turn the call over to Bob.

早上好，歡迎參加我們的季度收益電話會議。我想提醒大家，今天的電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，包括我們的第二季度和 2023 年全年指引，實際結果可能與預期存在重大差異。有關 International Money Express（我們稱為 Intermex 或該公司）的更多信息，請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，包括其中描述的風險因素。本次電話會議的所有前瞻性陳述均基於截至目前的假設和信念。您不應依賴我們的前瞻性陳述作為對未來事件的預測。請參閱我們演示文稿的幻燈片 2，了解某些前瞻性陳述的描述。除適用法律要求外，公司不承擔更新此類信息的義務。在本次電話會議上，我們討論了某些非公認會計準則財務指標。演示幻燈片、我們的收益新聞稿和 10-K 表格年度報告中均包含《證券交易法》G 條例要求的此類非 GAAP 財務指標的信息，包括某些非 GAAP 財務指標與適當的公認會計準則措施。這些可以在我們網站 intermexonline.com 的投資者部分獲得。 （聽不清）出席今天電話會議的是我們的董事長、首席執行官兼總裁 Bob Lisy；首席財務官安德拉斯·本德 (Andras Bende)。今天參加電話會議的還有首席運營官 Chris Hunt；約瑟夫·阿吉拉爾（Joseph Aguilar），拉丁美洲地區總裁；蘭迪·尼爾森，首席營收官；和首席數字官 Marcelo Theodoro。現在讓我把電話轉給鮑勃。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As always, we appreciate your interest in Intermex. We had another strong quarter building upon the company's sustained track record of healthy growth. On Slide 3, Intermex grew revenue and EBITDA in double digits once again. Additionally, the key fundamentals that drive our superior operating performance quarter after quarter are trending in the right direction. Our CFO, Andras Bende will review the numbers in greater detail during his portion of our prepared remarks. Without question, our core business is strong, and we are on track to meet our full year expectations. As a public company's fastest-growing omnichannel remittance company, Intermex is positioned to excel well into the foreseeable future. As you know, the business we have built in the U.S. provides a differentiated value proposition to the Latin American corridor that is unparalleled in the industry. Because of our unique value-added model, an increasing number of consumers from Latin American community turn to Intermex to send money home. Powered by our state-of-the-art proprietary technology, we deliver value-added service to our consumers and thousands of highly productive retail agents who partner with us nationwide. Our customer-focused omnichannel business is powered by superior technology that is difficult to replicate. The rock solid foundation the company has been built upon drives our sustained growth and creates uncommon value for our shareholders. With all the elements of the La Nacional acquisition now closed, the integration of Land's U.S. business is well underway, and we're well into the process of assessing the significant opportunity that exists for our business in Europe. While we acquired (inaudible) primarily for its geographical complement and superior brand to the Dominican Republic, the La Nacional's European eye transfer business presents an attractive growth opportunity for Intermex. The (inaudible) transfer division is currently profitable, and we see an opportunity to grow revenues and income many times over. For our digital business in the U.S. is demonstrating strong growth, the digital opportunity is likely larger and a near-term target for us in Europe. The (inaudible) transfer business represents a significant digital opportunity with minimal risk of channel conflict. The consumer base of senders is more likely to be banked in Europe. This will present the perfect landscape for us to thoughtfully execute our omnichannel strategy. Across Europe, we can selectively focus on retail and/or digital when and where it makes the most sense, an advantage that few retail providers and no digital players have today. Currently, (inaudible) transfer operates in Spain, Italy and 1 company-owned location in Germany, representing a tremendous outbound remittance opportunity. We think (inaudible) transfer's current presence Ulster with Intermex's strategy and capital creates a powerful combination. We're excited about the growth ahead. As we have stated previously, there are a number of components of the La Nacional investment that will become much more efficient over time, driving higher margins. Simultaneously to seizing the opportunity in Europe, which is underway, we have made great progress ramping up the full-scale integration and rightsizing of (inaudible) La Nacional's U.S.-based business. The upside potential for (inaudible) La Nacional in the U.S. is more about rightsizing the retail network and maximizing efficiencies and margins. Growth opportunities will exist, but they will be driven by careful profitable growth. We are also instituting our disciplined operating rigor and efficiency to the U.S. operations. By that, I mean our focus will be enhancing margins by capturing synergies and eliminating waste wherever possible. While La Nacional's U.S. footprint actively has been reduced by some 500 unprofitable retail agents under our management with some additional reductions planned. Shortly after closing, we also rightsized the sales organization to match the reduced service area footprint. Our formalized restructuring plan is in place, and we will be at a run rate of 9% to 11% EBITDA margin by late 2023 or early 2024. The La Nacional is proving to be a great asset for Intermex, and we're just getting started. On Slide 4, including the La Nacional, prompts us to rethink how we discuss market share in the U.S. and Latin America. Adding the La Nacional substantial presence in the Dominican Republic changes the equation. Instead of tracking our share versus the market at 4 largest countries in Latin America, now makes sense for us to expand that to the top 5 countries, of which the Dominican Republic is parked. These countries amount to 82% of the money spent from the U.S. to Latin America and the Caribbean. We estimate our 2022 market share in these 5 key Latin American receiving countries was just over 20% when adding La Nacional. It further solidifies our position as one of the leading remittance providers in that market. Additionally, if you look at Slide 5, showing the top 8 countries, which represent 92% of the money transferred from the U.S. to the region, you see that Intermex has steadily grown our market share to almost 20% for 2022. Our priority continues to be expanding our footprint in the most important ZIP codes for our spending consumers with a differentiated value proposition for both our consumers and our agent partners. The majority of transaction growth is -- coming from new agents. When we recruit a new agent retailer, it provides incremental transactions in year 1, but that same retailer will grow by larger percentages in years 2 and 3, a continued pipeline of quality new agents is critical to new store performance, but even more important to same-store growth over time. Based on Intermex's superior service for both the consumer and the agent retailer, our share of the remittances within the store will grow as we become the preferred provider over time. To accelerate our 2023 growth, we have added more than a dozen regional sales executives, whose job is strategically add a high-performance new retail locations. -- especially in the West, where the unfilled market opportunity is greatest for us. The potential for growth in the region is significant, and we are confident that our investment will prove to have an excellent return in terms of building our business in the Western states. In summary, it has been another strong quarter for Intermex. Our best-in-class retail core business continues to perform at a high level. The addition of the La Nacional's U.S. business and the (inaudible) transfer business in Europe has provided significant growth opportunity. We're excited about the top and bottom line potential contributions of these 2 business units as they are rightsized and instilled with the Intermex approach to the market. With that, I'll turn the call over to Andras, who will drill down into the numbers and offer perspective on our first quarter operating performance. Andras?

大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。一如既往，我們感謝您對 Intermex 的興趣。在公司持續健康增長的基礎上，我們又迎來了一個強勁的季度。在幻燈片 3 上，Intermex 的收入和 EBITDA 再次實現兩位數增長。此外，推動我們逐季實現卓越運營業績的關鍵基本面正朝著正確的方向發展。我們的首席財務官 Andras Bende 將在我們準備好的發言部分中更詳細地審查這些數字。毫無疑問，我們的核心業務非常強勁，並且有望實現全年預期。作為一家上市公司中發展最快的全渠道匯款公司，Intermex 有望在可預見的未來表現出色。如您所知，我們在美國建立的業務為拉丁美洲走廊提供了業內無與倫比的差異化價值主張。由於我們獨特的增值模式，越來越多的拉丁美洲社區消費者轉向 Intermex 匯款回家。在我們最先進的專有技術的支持下，我們為消費者以及全國范圍內與我們合作的數千名高生產力零售代理商提供增值服務。我們以客戶為中心的全渠道業務由難以復制的卓越技術提供支持。公司所建立的堅如磐石的基礎推動了我們的持續增長，並為我們的股東創造了非凡的價值。隨著 La Nacional 收購的所有要素現已完成，Land 的美國業務整合工作正在順利進行，我們正在積極評估我們在歐洲業務存在的重大機會。雖然我們收購（聽不清）主要是因為其與多米尼加共和國的地理互補性和卓越品牌，但 La Nacional 的歐洲眼球轉移業務為 Intermex 提供了極具吸引力的增長機會。 （聽不清）轉會部門目前正在盈利，我們看到了收入和收入成倍增長的機會。由於我們在美國的數字業務正在表現出強勁的增長，因此數字機會可能更大，並且是我們在歐洲的近期目標。 （聽不清）傳輸業務代表著重要的數字機會，且渠道沖突的風險最小。發送者的消費者群更有可能在歐洲進行銀行存款。這將為我們深思熟慮地執行我們的全渠道戰略提供完美的環境。在整個歐洲，我們可以在最有意義的時間和地點選擇性地專注於零售和/或數字化，這是當今很少有零售提供商和數字化參與者擁有的優勢。目前，（聽不清）轉賬在西班牙、意大利和德國 1 個公司自有地點運營，代表著巨大的境外匯款機會。我們認為（聽不清）阿爾斯特目前的轉會與 Intermex 的戰略和資本形成了強大的結合。我們對未來的增長感到興奮。正如我們之前所說，隨著時間的推移，La Nacional 投資的許多組成部分將變得更加高效，從而帶來更高的利潤。在抓住歐洲正在發生的機遇的同時，我們在加強（聽不清）La Nacional 美國業務的全面整合和規模調整方面取得了巨大進展。 （聽不清）美國 La Nacional 的上行潛力更多地在於調整零售網絡規模並最大限度地提高效率和利潤。增長機會將會存在，但它們將由謹慎的盈利增長驅動。我們還在美國業務中體現了嚴格的運營紀律和高效的運作方式。我的意思是，我們的重點將是通過發揮協同效應並儘可能消除浪費來提高利潤。 La Nacional 在美國的業務已積極減少了我們管理下的約 500 家無利可圖的零售代理商，併計劃進一步減少。交易結束後不久，我們還對銷售組織進行了調整，以適應服務區域面積的減少。我們正式的重組計劃已經到位，到 2023 年底或 2024 年初，我們的 EBITDA 利潤率將達到 9% 至 11%。事實證明，La Nacional 是 Intermex 的一筆巨大資產，我們剛剛開始開始了。在幻燈片 4 上，包括 La Nacional，促使我們重新思考如何討論美國和拉丁美洲的市場份額。國民黨在多米尼加共和國的大量存在改變了這一局面。現在，我們不再跟踪拉丁美洲 4 個最大國家的市場份額，而是將其擴大到多米尼加共和國所在的前 5 個國家。這些國家占美國向拉丁美洲和加勒比地區支出的 82%。我們估計，如果加上 La Nacional，我們在 2022 年在這 5 個主要拉丁美洲接收國的市場份額將略高於 20%。它進一步鞏固了我們作為該市場領先匯款提供商之一的地位。此外，如果您查看幻燈片 5，其中顯示了排名前 8 位的國家/地區，這些國家/地區佔從美國轉移到該地區的資金的 92%，您會發現 Intermex 已將我們的市場份額穩步增長到 2022 年的近 20%。我們的首要任務仍然是為我們的消費消費者擴大我們在最重要郵政編碼的足跡，為我們的消費者和代理合作夥伴提供差異化的價值主張。大部分交易增長來自新代理商。當我們招募新的代理零售商時，它會在第一年提供增量交易，但同一零售商將在第二年和第三年以更大的百分比增長，持續不斷的優質新代理渠道對於新店業績至關重要，但更重要的是同店隨著時間的推移而增長。基於 Intermex 為消費者和代理零售商提供的優質服務，隨著我們逐漸成為首選供應商，我們在商店內的匯款份額將會增長。為了加速我們 2023 年的增長，我們增加了十多名區域銷售主管，他們的工作是戰略性地增加高性能的新零售地點。 ——尤其是在西方，那裡未填補的市場機會對我們來說是最大的。該地區的增長潛力巨大，我們相信，我們的投資將在西部各州建立業務方面獲得豐厚的回報。總而言之，對於 Intermex 來說，這是又一個強勁的季度。我們一流的零售核心業務繼續保持高水平表現。 La Nacional 的美國業務和歐洲（聽不清）轉會業務的增加提供了重大的增長機會。我們對這兩個業務部門的頂線和底線潛在貢獻感到興奮，因為它們經過了規模調整併融入了 Intermex 的市場方法。接下來，我將把電話轉給安德拉斯，他將深入研究數據並提供有關我們第一季度運營業績的看法。安德拉斯？

Thanks, Bob. Intermex had another strong quarter, thanks to our competitive advantage in the marketplace and the highly efficient management of our growing lines of business. The intelligent thoughtful investments we make in people, innovative new products, scalable technologies and new markets continue to drive the company's double-digit growth. We're executing a differentiated omnichannel business strategy for expanding our ecosystem productive and profitable retail agents with a laser focus on efficiency, engaging in only the right partnerships in the right geographies. We're also rapidly growing and best-in-class digital offering and differentiating that focus on profitability as opposed to growth at any cost. On Slide 6, the strength of our underlying business, along with the addition of La Nacional has driven up the number of unique active customers by 37% during the first quarter to $3.6 million. These customers generated a record 1.9 million remittance transactions, 29% more than a year ago. On Slide 7, within the growth of the overall transaction, it was a 68% increase in digitally originated transaction as strong customer acceptance of our mobile app continues. 30% of our trends either sent or received digitally, up almost 5% from a year ago. These numbers reflect double-digit growth in our core business and the contribution of La Nacional U.S.-based business. The international entities of the La Nacional transaction didn't close until April 5, following a final approval from the Bank of Spain, which we received on March 22. The international entities did not impact the first quarter, but will be consolidated for the majority of Q2, in line with our expectations and our previous guidance. Adding to Bob's comments, we think adding La Nacional to our portfolio is an excellent use of capital, and we're excited about what we've achieved to date and what lies ahead for us. We're confident in our ability to capitalize on material opportunities the business presents to us in both the U.S. and Europe. Now that the business is entirely under our management, we're excited about enhancing profitability in the U.S. in providing capital and strategy to fuel growth for (inaudible) transfer in Europe. On Slide 8, total principal transfer grew 22% to $5.3 billion, driven by the strength of our core business, coupled with the addition of La Nacional. The average remittance amount was down 5% for the quarter year-over-year at $415 per transaction. So the decline is primarily due to lower average transaction amount to the Dominica Rxepublic, which are now a larger share of our business since the acquisition of La Nacional. Our core remittance trend continues to be down only slightly about 0.8%. For comparison purposes, the core Intermex average spend was $433 during the quarter compared with $301 per La Nacional. As Bob mentioned earlier, with La Nacional now fully consolidated, it now makes sense to look at the 5 largest markets in Latin America and the Caribbean, where we set and our market share is up 150 basis points from the first quarter of last year to over 21%. On Slide 9, looking at the top line, ages and customer growth contributed to the 27% year-over-year increase in revenue, reaching $145.4 million during the 3-month period. As for the contribution to revenue from our digital business, we continue to thoughtfully pace spending around our app and online offerings to match or stay ahead of consumer acceptance. We're successfully growing the digital business efficiently and profitably with the revenue contribution of our digitally originated transaction, up 79% year-on-year in the first quarter. We keep a tight pulse on consumer behavior, which positions us to intelligently invest in digital, always ensuring the unit economics are there to support it. It was a very good quarter, and growth in the business was strong. It's worth mentioning, however, that net income growth, while in line with our expectations, with areas, seasonality in 1Q in the La Nacional business, higher interest and depreciation expense and a higher effective tax rate in growth in Czech. Net income was up just under 1% at $11.8 million. GAAP EPS growth was better at about 3%, driven by our opportunistic stock buyback activity. Looking at Slide 10. Adjusted EBITDA increased more than 16% to $24.1 million, benefiting from strong revenue growth, partially offset by that same seasonality exhibited by La Nacional and an exceptionally strong February 2022, which made for a challenging (inaudible) in the quarter. Adjusted net income was up 6% during the first quarter to $14.2 million, impacted by the same underlying drivers of GAAP net income, but excludes items like share-based compensation, transaction-related expenses, amortization of certain intangibles and the tax impact related to those items. Turning to the balance sheet on Slide 11. Intermex continues to be an efficient operator and a strong generator of cash. The company ended the quarter on a Friday with a cash balance of $85.5 million. It's worth it to mention that Friday is the operational low point weekly for cash balance for the business. Net free cash generated is our internal measure, which excludes working capital cyclicality, and it remained strong during the quarter at almost $14 million, an increase of more than 37% from the first quarter of last year. From a buyback perspective, we continue to be active in the market during the 3-month period, purchasing 316,000 shares for just under $7.6 million at an average price of $23.95 per share. Additionally, we previously disclosed it in our fourth quarter call, but it's worth mentioning again the Board recently authorized an additional $100 million for share repurchases. The opportunistic buyback program as another excellent use of capital, we anticipate remaining active. The company has repurchased over 3.1 million shares for about $66.9 million. This includes the original $40 million authorization in 2021 and amounts we purchased directly from a significant shareholder in the third quarter of last year. Also worth mentioning is the recent April upsize of the revolving line within our credit facility, which now has a capacity of $220 million, up from $150 million. This additional capacity gives us more flexibility to grow organically and through M&A while also creating additional room for opportunistic buyback. On Slide #12, we're holding firm on our guidance for the full year based on our positive first quarter results. We'll go through it once again today. For the year, we expect the flow revenue to be in the $67 million to $88.5 million range, an increase of 22% to 26%. Net income of $66.5 million to $69 million, an increase of 16% to 20% and adjusted EBITDA of $120 million to $124.5 million range, an increase of 14% to 18%. For the second quarter, we expect the following revenue to be in the $168.6 million to $174.1 million range, an increase of 23% to 27%. Net income of $16.8 million to $17.1 million, an increase of 5% to 7% and adjusted EBITDA of $30.7 million to $31.4 million range, an increase of 11% to 14%. This guidance considers the full impact of La Nacional, the U.S. business that closed in the fourth quarter and the international business we just disclosed at the start of 2Q. We also want to highlight that starting with our Q2 earnings release, we'll start to communicate guidance in the following 3 metrics: revenue, EPS and adjusted EBITDA. In summary, we continue to execute and we feel well positioned to deliver another strong year for our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for questions.

謝謝，鮑勃。得益於我們在市場上的競爭優勢以及對不斷增長的業務線的高效管理，Intermex 又取得了強勁的季度業績。我們對人才、創新新產品、可擴展技術和新市場進行的明智、深思熟慮的投資繼續推動公司實現兩位數增長。我們正在執行差異化的全渠道業務戰略，以擴大我們的生態系統生產力和盈利的零售代理商，重點關注效率，只在正確的地區建立正確的合作夥伴關係。我們還在快速增長和提供一流的數字產品，並實現差異化，重點關注盈利能力，而不是不惜一切代價的增長。在幻燈片 6 中，我們基礎業務的實力以及 La Nacional 的加入使第一季度的獨立活躍客戶數量增加了 37%，達到 360 萬美元。這些客戶產生了創紀錄的 190 萬筆匯款交易，比一年前增加了 29%。在幻燈片 7 中，隨著客戶對我們的移動應用程序的強烈接受，在整體交易的增長中，數字源交易增長了 68%。我們 30% 的趨勢以數字方式發送或接收，比一年前增加了近 5%。這些數字反映了我們核心業務的兩位數增長以及 La Nacional 美國業務的貢獻。 La Nacional 交易的國際實體直到 4 月 5 日才完成，我們於 3 月 22 日收到西班牙央行的最終批准。國際實體並未對第一季度產生影響，但大部分將被合併第二季度的業績，符合我們的預期和之前的指導。除了鮑勃的評論之外，我們認為將 La Nacional 添加到我們的投資組合中是對資本的絕佳利用，我們對迄今為止所取得的成就以及未來的發展感到興奮。我們對利用該業務在美國和歐洲為我們提供的物質機會的能力充滿信心。現在該業務完全由我們管理，我們很高興能夠提高美國的盈利能力，並提供資本和戰略來推動歐洲（聽不清）轉移的增長。在幻燈片 8 中，由於我們核心業務的實力以及 La Nacional 的加入，本金轉移總額增長了 22%，達到 53 億美元。本季度平均匯款金額同比下降 5%，為每筆交易 415 美元。因此，下降的主要原因是多米尼加 Rxepublic 的平均交易額較低，自從收購 La Nacional 以來，多米尼加 Rxepublic 現在在我們的業務中所佔的份額更大。我們的核心匯款趨勢繼續小幅下降約 0.8%。出於比較目的，本季度核心 Intermex 平均支出為 433 美元，而 La Nacional 平均支出為 301 美元。正如鮑勃之前提到的，隨著 La Nacional 現已完全整合，現在有必要關注拉丁美洲和加勒比地區的 5 個最大市場，我們在這兩個市場設定的市場份額比去年第一季度增長了 150 個基點超過21%。在幻燈片 9 中，從營收來看，年齡和客戶增長推動了收入同比增長 27%，在 3 個月期間達到 1.454 億美元。至於數字業務對收入的貢獻，我們繼續深思熟慮地調整我們的應用程序和在線產品的支出，以匹配或保持領先於消費者的接受度。我們成功地高效、盈利地發展了數字業務，數字化交易的收入貢獻在第一季度同比增長了 79%。我們密切關註消費者行為，這使我們能夠明智地投資數字化，始終確保單位經濟效益為其提供支持。這是一個非常好的季度，業務增長強勁。然而，值得一提的是，淨收入增長雖然符合我們的預期，但 La Nacional 業務一季度的地區、季節性、較高的利息和折舊費用以及捷克增長的較高有效稅率。淨利潤增長近 1%，達到 1,180 萬美元。受我們機會主義股票回購活動的推動，公認會計準則每股收益增長較好，約為 3%。查看幻燈片 10。調整後的 EBITDA 增長超過 16%，達到 2,410 萬美元，受益於強勁的收入增長，部分被 La Nacional 表現出的相同季節性和異常強勁的 2022 年 2 月所抵消，這使得該季度充滿挑戰（聽不清） 。第一季度調整後淨利潤增長 6%，達到 1,420 萬美元，受到 GAAP 淨利潤相同基本驅動因素的影響，但不包括股權激勵、交易相關費用、某些無形資產攤銷以及與那些物品。轉向幻燈片 11 上的資產負債表。Intermex 仍然是一家高效的運營商和強大的現金產生者。該公司於週五結束本季度，現金餘額為 8550 萬美元。值得一提的是，週五是該公司現金餘額的每週運營低點。產生的淨自由現金是我們的內部衡量標準，不包括營運資金周期性，該季度保持強勁，接近 1,400 萬美元，比去年第一季度增長超過 37%。從回購的角度來看，我們在這 3 個月期間繼續活躍在市場上，以略低於 760 萬美元的價格購買了 316,000 股，平均價格為每股 23.95 美元。此外，我們之前在第四季度電話會議中披露了這一點，但值得再次提及的是，董事會最近額外授權了 1 億美元用於股票回購。機會主義回購計劃作為資本的另一種出色運用，我們預計將保持活躍。該公司已回購超過 310 萬股股票，耗資約 6,690 萬美元。這包括 2021 年最初授權的 4000 萬美元，以及我們去年第三季度直接從一位大股東那裡購買的金額。另外值得一提的是，我們的信貸安排內的循環額度最近在 4 月份擴大，目前的容量從 1.5 億美元增加到 2.2 億美元。這種額外的產能使我們能夠更加靈活地通過併購實現有機增長，同時也為機會性回購創造了額外的空間。在幻燈片 #12 上，我們基於第一季度的積極業績，堅持全年的指導方針。今天我們將再次討論它。我們預計今年的流量收入將在 6700 萬美元至 8850 萬美元之間，增長 22% 至 26%。淨利潤為 6650 萬美元至 6900 萬美元，增長 16% 至 20%，調整後 EBITDA 為 1.2 億美元至 1.245 億美元，增長 14% 至 18%。對於第二季度，我們預計後續收入將在 1.686 億美元至 1.741 億美元範圍內，增長 23% 至 27%。淨利潤為 1680 萬美元至 1710 萬美元，增長 5% 至 7%，調整後 EBITDA 為 3070 萬美元至 3140 萬美元，增長 11% 至 14%。該指引考慮了 La Nacional、第四季度關閉的美國業務以及我們剛剛在第二季度初披露的國際業務的全面影響。我們還想強調，從第二季度收益發布開始，我們將開始傳達以下 3 個指標的指導：收入、每股收益和調整後的 EBITDA。總而言之，我們將繼續執行，並且我們有能力為股東帶來又一個強勁的一年。這樣，我會將其轉交給接線員詢問。

(Operator Instructions) I will proceed with our first question on the line from Mayank Tandon with Needham.

（操作員說明）我將繼續回答 Mayank Tandon 和 Needham 在線提出的第一個問題。

I wanted to first start, Bob, with the investments that you need to make in Europe to be able to capture the opportunity. And to that effect, could you talk about what other markets you would be targeting on the SEM side? And who are the recipient countries in this case when you start to expand into Europe beyond the current countries that you mentioned?

鮑勃，我想首先從您需要在歐洲進行的投資開始，以便能夠抓住機會。為此，您能談談您在 SEM 方面的其他目標市場嗎？在這種情況下，當您開始向歐洲擴張（超出您提到的當前國家/地區）時，受援國是哪些國家？

The last part of it was who were the countries that say that again?

最後一部分是哪些國家再次這麼說？

Just to be clear, I was wondering if you are also looking to expand beyond the countries that you mentioned that La Nacional already has a presence in Spain, Italy and Germany. And then also from a (inaudible) country, what are the corridors that we should be keeping...

需要澄清的是，我想知道您是否也希望將業務擴展到您提到的國家/地區之外，La Nacional 已經在西班牙、意大利和德國開展業務。然後也是來自一個（聽不清）的國家，我們應該保留哪些走廊......

That the question was pointed at the last part, Okay. So yes, there's a huge amount of opportunity as we've looked at it from first pass in Spain and in Italy. And right now, we've just really just cracked the seal in Germany. We only have 1 company-owned store. And so there's a lot to work through in those 3 countries. But in addition to that, France would be certainly a country would expand to in the longer run, possibly U.K. But the first piece is that there's room in those 3 countries to expand greatly. Actually, we do more business today in Spain than in Italy, at least actually a bigger outbound market. And Spain is not exactly a huge market share at this time. So it's a fledgling business. The good thing about it is, though, is that business as small as it is, has been able to grow with its own power so far, and it's growing profitably. For us, what it will be is a couple of things. One will be the sort of the efficiencies that we bring, a really targeted approach to who are the immigrants and where are they? How do we tap into them? How do we provide the value-added quality approach to drive wires. The second one will be investment, but we won't just invest -- we recognize today, our efforts are not 100% efficient. And so there's opportunities to reguide ourselves to expanding out Europe, the same we expanded out in the U.S. and create high-performing retailers that are capturing wires. So that's the first part of out. The second part is, there'll be some -- we already go to deliver from Europe to a different set of countries than we do necessarily out of the U.S. Some countries will still be important. There's still some decent amount of volume going to certain South American countries and some Caribbean countries. Obviously, Mexico won't pay as big a role in it. But for instance, in Germany, you wouldn't necessarily know, but one of the biggest partners, one of the biggest corridors would be Turkey. So we'll work to get a better relationship to send money back to Turkey. A lot of money going to sub-Saharan Africa, somebody going over to Asia, money going over to Eastern Europe. And we have some solid relationships in that area today right out of the (inaudible). But one of the things we'll be doing is building better connectivity with payers in those countries. It's very easy to get bank connectivity. There's big networks like Visa and Mastercard that can provide that for everybody. The key will be to layer on top of that, payers that will differentiate us as it differentiated us in the U.S. and payers that can do over-the-counter cash and can do various ways of disbursing cash, so that, again, we continue with the omnichannel model that we brought to bear in the U.S., and we carry that over to euro.

問題就在最後一部分，好吧。所以，是的，正如我們從西班牙和意大利的第一次經歷中看到的那樣，存在著巨大的機會。現在，我們剛剛在德國揭開了封印。我們只有 1 家公司直營店。因此，這三個國家還有很多工作要做。但除此之外，從長遠來看，法國肯定是一個會擴張的國家，可能是英國，但首先，這三個國家有大幅擴張的空間。事實上，我們今天在西班牙的業務比意大利多，至少實際上是一個更大的出境市場。而西班牙目前的市場份額並不大。所以這是一項新興業務。不過，它的好處是，儘管規模很小，但迄今為止已經能夠憑藉自己的力量實現增長，並且盈利不斷增長。對我們來說，這將是幾件事。其中之一就是我們帶來的效率，一種真正有針對性的方法來確定誰是移民以及他們在哪裡？我們如何利用它們？我們如何提供驅動線的增值質量方法。第二個是投資，但我們不會只是投資——我們今天認識到，我們的努力並不是100%有效的。因此，我們有機會重新引導自己向歐洲擴張，就像我們在美國擴張一樣，並創建正在佔領電線的高績效零售商。這就是out的第一部分。第二部分是，會有一些——我們已經從歐洲向不同的國家發貨，而不是從美國發貨。有些國家仍然很重要。仍有相當數量的貨物流向某些南美國家和一些加勒比國家。顯然，墨西哥不會在其中扮演如此重要的角色。但例如，在德國，你不一定知道，但最大的合作夥伴之一、最大的走廊之一將是土耳其。因此，我們將努力建立更好的關係，以便將錢匯回土耳其。很多錢流向撒哈拉以南非洲，有人流向亞洲，還有錢流向東歐。今天我們在該領域建立了一些牢固的關係（聽不清）。但我們要做的事情之一是與這些國家的付款人建立更好的連接。獲得銀行連接非常容易。 Visa 和 Mastercard 等大型網絡可以為每個人提供這種服務。關鍵是在此之上，讓我們與眾不同的付款人，就像我們在美國的與眾不同一樣，以及可以進行場外交易現金並可以以各種方式支付現金的付款人，這樣，我們再次繼續我們在美國採用的全渠道模式，並將其延續到歐元。

And just as a quick follow-up question. I wanted to ask on margins. You're already running ahead of the medium-term margin goal that you set last year. So just wanted to get any thoughts. Is there any reason to expect a step back in margins? Or have the dynamics changed so the medium-term target might be rendered too conservative?

就像一個快速的後續問題一樣。我想問一下邊緣。您已經超額完成了去年設定的中期利潤目標。所以只是想得到一些想法。是否有理由預期利潤率會下降？或者動態是否發生了變化，因此中期目標可能變得過於保守？

Yes. I think you're referring back to the Investor Day in 2022. I think we have an opportunity to do a bit better than what those margins would have guided to. I think as we increase the amount of business that we're doing in digital, you'll see a little bit of downward pressure, obviously, from bringing on La Nacional, which is a lower margin business by nature. They've gone down a bit. But I think we have the opportunity to do better than that.

是的。我想你指的是 2022 年的投資者日。我認為我們有機會做得比這些利潤率指導的更好一些。我認為，隨著我們增加數字業務量，您顯然會看到一點下行壓力，因為引入 La Nacional 本質上是利潤率較低的業務。他們已經下降了一點。但我認為我們有機會做得更好。

We'll get to our next question on the line from the line of David Scharf with JMP Securities.

我們將通過 JMP 證券的 David Scharf 來回答我們的下一個問題。

Bob, just to start, less a question on kind of the quarter (inaudible). I wanted to get maybe your updated thoughts on the slides regarding market share and how we ought to think about particularly for those top 5 Latin American received countries, how we ought to think about ultimately the TAM, the opportunity for you? I mean as you think about how this business can get -- do you look at it from a bottoms-up perspective, meaning here's all the underserved ZIP codes in the U.S. that are setting to these countries that we're not in and we can be in? Or do you look at it more top down in the sense that here's based on your experience, your sense for kind of what a natural feeling is for market share? Because at 21%, it's already pretty formidable. I mean, which way should investors think about the business as they try to assess how big Intermex's U.S. to those 5 countries can get?

鮑勃，首先，少問一個有關本季度類型的問題（聽不清）。我想了解您對幻燈片中有關市場份額的最新想法，以及我們應該如何考慮，特別是對於那些排名前 5 的拉丁美洲接收國家，我們最終應該如何考慮 TAM，您的機會？我的意思是，當你思考這項業務如何發展時，你是否從自下而上的角度看待它，這意味著這裡是美國所有服務不足的郵政編碼，這些郵政編碼正在設置為我們不在的這些國家/地區，我們可以在嗎？或者你是否更自上而下地看待它，因為這是基於你的經驗，你對市場份額的自然感覺？因為達到21%，已經相當可怕了。我的意思是，當投資者試圖評估 Intermex 的美國業務對這 5 個國家的影響力時，他們應該以哪種方式來考慮這項業務？

Well, it would be bottom up. We -- to me, a top down is a bit of a fantasy. It's a bit of an arbitrary number. And so we look at bottom up. And I think that my my support for that would be that a consumer that's sitting in Salinas, California doesn't care that we have a huge share in Atlanta, Georgia, we still have the same opportunity to gain share and get more wires from that consumer there. And so we look at what our performance looks like ZIP code by ZIP code. Frankly, some of these zip codes have more challenges than others, and we've talked about that for years. We're not as early as an entrant. There's some irrational exuberance of competitors that over discounts to gain what they think is share on unprofitable wires. But at the same time that we look at that, we see a huge opportunity of -- when we talk about our growth and the growth opportunity, we're not talking about attaining in the Western states or in California, anything close to the kind of margins we've never projected that to the market that we attain in certain states Southeast or even the same market share that we have. We do recognize there's a huge amount of headroom and a huge amount of open field for us to compete in, and that is -- that, I think, could still drive market share. Now there's 2 ways to think about that. One is Mexico and Guatemala, where we are clearly a market leader. Guatemala, we're the #1 brand, we believe in the world sending money to Guatemala any kind, digital or retail. Mexico, we're amongst probably the 2 largest brands sending money to. But there's also brand, there's also countries that are coming on with tremendous growth that have a huge upward opportunity. We've seen a lot of growth in countries like Nicaragua and Ecuador and Colombia. These don't have the same margins as Mexico, but there's a huge amount of growth there. So we have those core countries that still have a lot of open territory, a lot of ZIP codes that are either not fully built out or not built out at all. And then you have these other countries in Latin America that we purposefully built that way because we started with the foundation of Mexico and Guatemala for a number of reasons, largest markets, most profitable transaction. And this is just all part of that plan. So we believe there's still an opportunity to move our overall share to those big 5. And then the next group, which includes countries like Nicaragua Ecuador, Colombia, the 8, which is like 90-some-percent of the market. We think there's a tremendous opportunity still to gain share in those markets -- and by the way, those markets are also growing. So there's going to be growth by holding service, and then there's a growth that we think will grow faster than the market.

嗯，這將是自下而上的。對我來說，自上而下是有點幻想。這有點隨意。所以我們從下往上看。我認為我對此的支持是，加利福尼亞州薩利納斯的消費者並不關心我們在佐治亞州亞特蘭大擁有巨大份額，我們仍然有同樣的機會獲得份額並從中獲得更多電匯那裡的消費者。因此，我們逐個郵政編碼地查看我們的表現。坦率地說，其中一些郵政編碼比其他郵政編碼面臨更多挑戰，我們已經討論了很多年。我們還沒有那麼早進入。競爭對手存在一些非理性的興奮，他們通過過度折扣來獲得他們認為在無利可圖的線路上的份額。但與此同時，我們看到了一個巨大的機會——當我們談論我們的增長和增長機會時，我們並不是在談論在西部各州或加利福尼亞州實現任何類似的目標我們從未預測過我們在東南部某些州獲得的市場利潤，甚至沒有預測過我們擁有的相同市場份額。我們確實認識到，我們有巨大的空間和廣闊的競爭空間，我認為這仍然可以推動市場份額。現在有兩種方法可以考慮這個問題。其中一個是墨西哥和危地馬拉，我們顯然是這兩個市場的領導者。危地馬拉，我們是第一品牌，我們相信世界上可以向危地馬拉匯款任何形式，無論是數字還是零售。墨西哥，我們可能是向其匯款的最大的兩個品牌之一。但還有品牌，也有一些國家正在實現巨大的增長，擁有巨大的上昇機會。我們看到尼加拉瓜、厄瓜多爾和哥倫比亞等國家出現了很大的增長。這些國家的利潤率與墨西哥不同，但增長幅度巨大。因此，我們的核心國家仍然擁有大量開放領土，許多郵政編碼要么沒有完全建成，要么根本沒有建成。然後是拉丁美洲的其他國家，我們有目的地以這種方式建立，因為我們從墨西哥和危地馬拉開始建立，原因有很多，最大的市場，最有利可圖的交易。這只是該計劃的一部分。因此，我們相信仍有機會將我們的整體份額轉移到這 5 個大國。然後是下一組國家，其中包括尼加拉瓜、厄瓜多爾、哥倫比亞等國家，8 國，大約佔市場的 90%。我們認為在這些市場中仍然有巨大的機會獲得份額——順便說一句，這些市場也在增長。因此，通過持有服務將會實現增長，然後我們認為增長速度將快於市場。

A couple of just quick follow-ups for Andras. Any input on the tax rate for the quarter we ought to about the year?

安德拉斯 (Andras) 的一些快速跟進。關於我們應該在今年的季度的稅率有什麼意見嗎？

Yes. No, that was -- that's a good one to note and talk about. With the acquisition of La Nacional, that is a lot of revenue driven in the New York, New Jersey area, so higher state tax jurisdictions. It's just apportionment it's attracting more of our bottom line and overall tax rate. So it's really additional La Nacional and the spillover from that concentration of business.

是的。不，那是——這是一個值得注意和談論的好問題。收購 La Nacional 後，將為紐約州、新澤西州等州稅較高的司法管轄區帶來大量收入。這只是分配，它吸引了更多我們的底線和總體稅率。因此，這確實是額外的 La Nacional 以及業務集中帶來的溢出效應。

Should we think about the full year effective rate then (inaudible) ...

我們是否應該考慮全年有效率（聽不清）......

Yes, I think closer to 29% versus the 27% that you would have seen in the past is probably a better way to look at it.

是的，我認為接近 29% 與您過去看到的 27% 可能是更好的看待方式。

And recognize on the cash side, obviously, ending on a Friday, I think -- I think as much as (inaudible) like half of your cash can get eaten up by prefunding for the weekend. But more broadly, can you update us on how we ought to think about sort of a conversion rate of EBITDA to free cash flow, what you're running at as we think about how much is ultimately left for...

顯然，在現金方面，我認為，在周五結束，我認為（聽不清）你的現金可能會因為周末的預籌款而被耗盡。但更廣泛地說，您能否向我們介紹一下我們應該如何考慮 EBITDA 到自由現金流的轉換率，以及當我們考慮最終剩下多少錢時您正在運行的內容……

It's about 60% to 65%.

大約是60%到65%。

And then lastly, somewhat related, as we think about buybacks, can you also remind me, are there any covenant restrictions? I mean, I know some companies might have a aggressive authorization, but they're limited by loan covenants that, for example, repurchasing only 50% of net income on a trailing basis. Is there anything restricting the level of buybacks in the period?

最後，有點相關的是，當我們考慮回購時，您能否提醒我，是否有任何契約限制？我的意思是，我知道有些公司可能有激進的授權，但它們受到貸款契約的限制，例如，只能在追踪基礎上回購淨收入的 50%。在此期間是否有任何因素限制回購水平？

Yes. We're unrestricted up to 2.25%, 2.25x leverage. And then beyond that, we do get a percentage allocation of trailing 12 every year, even if we're beyond that 2.25%. So if you look, we would -- it would be detailed in our past releases. And by the way, our covenant calculation isn't the straight up where you end on the quarter because we have that revolving factor, right, So you're taking about a 14-day average, which would suggest that, on average, our leverage is pretty low from a covenant perspective.

是的。我們的槓桿最高可達 2.25%、2.25 倍，不受限制。除此之外，我們每年都會獲得尾隨 12 的百分比分配，即使我們超出了 2.25%。所以如果你看的話，我們會——這將在我們過去的版本中詳細說明。順便說一句，我們的契約計算並不是直接計算您在本季度結束時的情況，因為我們有旋轉因子，對吧，所以您取的是大約 14 天的平均值，這表明，平均而言，我們的從契約的角度來看，槓桿率相當低。

We'll get to our next question on the line is Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities.

我們將回答下一個問題，是北國證券公司的邁克·格隆達爾 (Mike Grondahl)。

Could you guys break out revenue from La Nacional in 1Q? And what's embedded in 2Q, do you think we can understand the core revenue growth rate?

你們能透露一下 La Nacional 第一季度的收入嗎？第二季度包含了什麼，您認為我們可以理解核心收入增長率嗎？

Yes, no problem. Happy to do that. This is Andras. And 1Q on as now revenue was $17.5 million. And then for the year, and then that's all U.S., right? And then for the year, La Nacional U.S. is probably going to be around $75 million. And then 3/4 of (inaudible) transfer is going to be around $12 million to $13 million.

是沒有問題。很高興這樣做。這是安德拉斯。目前第一季度的收入為 1750 萬美元。然後是今年，然後就是美國了，對吧？那麼今年，La Nacional U.S. 的收入可能會達到 7500 萬美元左右。然後 3/4 的（聽不清）轉賬金額將約為 1200 萬至 1300 萬美元。

We can back into that 1Q core growth then.

然後我們就可以回到第一季度的核心增長。

1Q Core growth about 11.5% in terms of transaction revenue. I think 11 gets you 11.5% to (inaudible) in the core business.

第一季度核心交易收入增長約 11.5%。我認為 11 可以讓你在核心業務中獲得 11.5% 的收益（聽不清）。

And then kind of for Bob, I think, you talked about hiring 12 regional directors, 12 salespeople. 1, how recent did you hire those? And what triggered that? You've always had this very large outsized opportunity out West. So I'm kind of curious what triggered the hiring of those 12, especially if it was really recent -- and then I hate to tie on one more. But obviously, that's going to -- the goal is to drive some agent growth there. Can you talk about what new agent growth has been and sort of what your expectations are for it? I know you don't give us an exact number, but just how we should think about the growth rate (inaudible).

然後，我想，對於鮑勃來說，您談到了僱用 12 名區域總監和 12 名銷售人員。 1、您是最近才僱用這些人的？是什麼觸發了這一點？在西部你總是有這個非常大的機會。所以我有點好奇是什麼觸發了這 12 名員工的聘用，尤其是最近才聘用的——然後我討厭再聘用一名員工。但顯然，我們的目標是推動代理商的增長。您能談談新代理的增長情況以及您對此的期望嗎？我知道您沒有給我們一個確切的數字，但只是我們應該如何考慮增長率（聽不清）。

I'd like to start by saying we're never trying to deliver agent growth. We're trying to deliver transaction and revenue growth. So it's really easy to deliver agents. We could add -- we could double our agent network tomorrow. We probably have the smallest network of any company doing the kind of volume business we have in the market today. So this is about driving revenue. Agents are a vehicle, and they're our channel partner, and we really respect and value them. But it's not about adding -- it's about adding quality agents. So I want to just reemphasize important of how we target in the right places with prequalifying an agent that we know or believe will deliver a certain amount of transactions, not just putting up agents. The second part is, it's not necessarily just we've always had and they're called RSUs, their regional sales executives, and there are people that float. So what that means is they might not be in an exact just district. They might be in Southern Cal and there might be 4 districts in Southern Calender selling in 2 or 3 of them or they might be selling in one, and Randy will deploy them as necessary based on the open opportunities. Those open opportunities have been there. That's correct. There's no doubt about it, and we've been working against those. But this year, we felt that we needed to put a little bit more generation in new retailers that would be driving wires that would start to build the pipeline a little bit faster, particularly in the western states, and we're able to put them in the plan and still be able to be in line with consensus. So the opportunity was to do invest a little bit more in those areas. We also think that the marketplace has gotten a little tougher in the West. There's aggressiveness as we talked about, relative to particularly some of the private companies, but at least 1 or 2 of the public companies that have been discounting in a way that we need to be more assertive to continue to grow our market share in those states. So all of those things being considered, that's where the investment comes from.

首先我想說的是，我們從來沒有試圖實現代理商的增長。我們正在努力實現交易和收入增長。所以交付代理真的很容易。我們可以補充一下——明天我們可以將我們的代理網絡增加一倍。我們可能擁有當今市場上從事此類批量業務的公司中最小的網絡。所以這是為了增加收入。代理商是一個載體，他們是我們的渠道合作夥伴，我們非常尊重和重視他們。但這不是要增加——而是要增加優質代理。因此，我想再次強調重要的是，我們如何針對正確的地方，對我們知道或相信將交付一定數量交易的代理商進行資格預審，而不僅僅是設立代理商。第二部分是，這不一定只是我們一直以來的情況，他們被稱為 RSU，他們的區域銷售主管，還有一些浮動的人員。所以這意味著他們可能不在一個完全公正的地區。他們可能位於南加州，南日曆可能有 4 個地區出售其中的 2 或 3 個，或者他們可能出售其中的 1 個，蘭迪將根據開放機會根據需要部署它們。那些開放的機會一直存在。這是正確的。毫無疑問，我們一直在努力克服這些問題。但今年，我們認為我們需要在新零售商中投入更多的精力，這些零售商將推動電線建設，從而開始更快地建設管道，特別是在西部各州，我們能夠將它們投入並仍能與共識保持一致。因此，我們有機會在這些領域進行更多投資。我們還認為西方市場變得更加艱難。正如我們談到的，特別是相對於一些私營公司而言，存在侵略性，但至少有 1 或 2 家上市公司一直在以某種方式打折，我們需要更加自信，以繼續擴大我們在這些州的市場份額。因此，考慮到所有這些因素，這就是投資的來源。

And maybe just a follow-up. So the 12 were all added in '23, like really recently. And are most of them out west? Or can you say sort of what percentage of them are...

也許只是後續行動。所以這 12 個都是在 23 年添加的，就像最近一樣。他們大多數都在西部嗎？或者你能說一下他們的百分比是多少嗎？

They were not in '23, number one. Some of them are with us in fourth quarter. And they're not all west. There's a disproportionate share. If you think about West, as Texas and West, there's a bigger share, but we have some in some markets in the East as well, where we have opportunities to grow our market.

他們不在23年，排名第一。其中一些人在第四季度與我們在一起。而且他們並不都是西方的。所佔份額不成比例。如果你考慮一下西部地區，比如德克薩斯州和西部地區，就會有更大的份額，但我們在東部的一些市場也有一些份額，在那裡我們有機會發展我們的市場。

(Operator Instructions) And we'll get to our next question on the line from Chris Zhang with Credit Suisse.

（操作員說明）我們將回答瑞士信貸銀行克里斯·張 (Chris 張) 提出的下一個問題。

So I had one on the value-added services that you highlighted at your Investor Day that those include co-branded processing, the GPR card and additional incremental products, including in the international market. So maybe can you give us an update on the size of the value-added service in terms of what portion of contribution they have on your overall revenue? And what's the growth rate there? And also with the national acquisition? What are some of the opportunities on the value-added service that you're seeing?

因此，我有一個關於您在投資者日強調的增值服務的內容，其中包括聯合品牌處理、GPR 卡和其他增量產品，包括在國際市場上的產品。那麼，您能否向我們提供有關增值服務規模的最新信息，即增值服務對您總收入的貢獻比例？那裡的增長率是多少？還有國家收購？您看到的增值服務有哪些機會？

Well, we wouldn't consider them value-added. We consider them products on to their own. When we talk about value add, we talk about all the ingredients of our core products. But if we talk about the GPR card or we talk about our payroll card, those are fledgling products that are early stages. We think that over the course of the next several years, they can be significant contributors in revenue, but even more so in terms of EBITDA, they're really high-margin products. We think we're well positioned because no one is really delivering a card to the Latin American community the way that some folks have done through the Walmarts and the -- with the little hooks -- hooks and stuff like that. No one's really done that in our community of consumers. So we think there's a huge opportunity there, but it's really early on, and you're not going to see a significant impact from either card, that's our payroll card or our GPR card in terms of our revenue or EBITDA growth for a couple of years. It's going to be a nonmaterial, but it will grow. We're very satisfied with how we've been able to grow the payroll card. But at this point, it's a small business.

好吧，我們不會認為它們是增值的。我們將它們視為自己的產品。當我們談論增值時，我們談論的是我們核心產品的所有成分。但如果我們談論 GPR 卡或我們的工資卡，這些都是處於早期階段的新興產品。我們認為，在未來幾年中，它們可以成為收入的重要貢獻者，但就 EBITDA 而言，更是如此，它們確實是高利潤產品。我們認為我們處於有利位置，因為沒有人真正向拉丁美洲社區提供卡片，就像一些人通過沃爾瑪和 - 帶有小鉤子 - 鉤子和類似的東西所做的那樣。在我們的消費者社區中，沒有人真正做到過這一點。因此，我們認為那裡存在巨大的機會，但現在還處於早期階段，您不會看到任何一張卡（我們的工資卡或 GPR 卡）對我們的收入或 EBITDA 增長產生重大影響。年。它將是一種非物質，但它會增長。我們對工資卡的發展感到非常滿意。但目前來說，它只是一家小企業。

I appreciate all the color, Bob. And just a follow-up on the quarter in terms of the unique customers at the end of the quarter. This was a very slight decline from 3.7% to 3.6%. I understand there might be some rightsizing with the La Nacional acquisition or maybe some seasonal factors...

我很欣賞所有的顏色，鮑勃。這只是本季度末獨特客戶數量的後續情況。下降幅度非常小，從 3.7% 降至 3.6%。據我所知，收購 La Nacional 可能會進行一些規模調整，或者可能存在一些季節性因素......

Maybe unpack...

也許拆開包裝...

Yes. Can you maybe unpack the cost of the (inaudible) and I also understand that you're more focused on the transaction revenue growth where you delivered pretty robust growth in the first quarter. So -- but just trying to understand...

是的。您能否解釋一下（聽不清）的成本，我也了解您更關注交易收入的增長，您在第一季度實現了相當強勁的增長。所以——但只是想理解......

I just want to make sure, you're referring to the decline. Is that a year-over-year? Is that fourth quarter to first quarter you're referring to... Decline...

我只是想確定一下，你指的是下降。這是同比嗎？你指的是第四季度到第一季度嗎...下降...

Fourth quarter to first quarter, so from 3.7 Cost...

第四季度到第一季度，所以從 3.7 成本...

We've cautioned all the analysts like a lot of times. I can do it again, that sequential quarters do not work in our industry. The weakest month of the year is January, the second weakest month of February, the strongest months of the year, 2 of those are in fourth quarter, October and December. So by design, you're going to have a lot more new customers. I'm pleased that we would be that close, really to -- to be honest, it shows that our business is doing better in the first quarter than in fourth quarter with holding the line that close with that less of a business relative to how things seasonally are slower in January and February.

我們已經多次警告所有分析師。我可以再說一遍，連續季度在我們的行業中不起作用。一年中最弱的月份是一月，第二弱的月份是二月，一年中最強的月份，其中兩個是第四季度、十月和十二月。因此，按照設計，您將擁有更多的新客戶。我很高興我們能夠如此接近——說實話，這表明我們的業務在第一季度的表現比第四季度更好，與業務相比，我們的業務保持著接近的水平。一月和二月的季節性變化較慢。

I do see that seasonality in the first quarter of '22, although in the first quarter '21 is flattish. I just want to make sure that's more seasonal, and that will answer my question.

我確實看到了 22 年第一季度的季節性，儘管 21 年第一季度表現平平。我只是想確保它更具季節性，這將回答我的問題。

Okay, Great.

好的，太好了。

I will now proceed with our final question for today is from the line of Alex Markgraff with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

我現在將繼續回答今天的最後一個問題，該問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Alex Markgraff。

Just a follow-up on the sales count commentary. I'm just curious after the 12 or so hires that you outlined, how you're thinking about it through the balance of the year. Is there more opportunity or desire to kind of continue to add at that pace? Just any comments there is the first question.

只是銷售計數評論的後續內容。我只是好奇在您概述的 12 名左右的員工之後，您在今年剩下的時間裡是如何考慮這個問題的。是否有更多的機會或願望繼續以這種速度增加？任何評論都是第一個問題。

Right now, we are on hold in terms of additional hires -- we want to make sure that we maximize the efforts. Now we'll have a significant upgrade in the number of people out in the marketplace. And the key will be to make sure that we're efficient in driving increased transactions on gross margins from each of those people's book of business. We could add more later, but there's not a plan at this point. We'll first make sure that these additional headcounts are driving and basically getting to a point where they're paying for themselves within the time period that we expect that to happen, which is kind of within 6, 7 months where they're bringing in enough business that they're -- they've exceeded their cost and then they're starting to be contributors...

目前，我們暫時擱置了額外招聘的事宜——我們希望確保盡最大努力。現在，我們市場上的人數將大幅增加。關鍵是要確保我們能夠有效地推動每個人的業務毛利率上的交易增加。我們可以稍後添加更多內容，但目前還沒有計劃。我們首先要確保這些額外的員工數量正在增長，並且基本上達到了他們在我們預期的時間內收回成本的程度，大約是在 6、7 個月內，他們帶來了在足夠多的業務中，他們已經超出了成本，然後他們開始成為貢獻者......

Very clear. And then maybe, Bob, just for you, I would love to just kind of revisit your perception of the competitive environment in some of the various end markets that you noted across Europe. -- maybe kind of -- I don't know if you can provide a similar analysis you did just see questions go around U.S. and (inaudible) that would be helpful.

非常清楚。然後，鮑勃，也許只是為了你，我很想重新審視你對你在歐洲提到的一些不同終端市場的競爭環境的看法。 - 也許有點 - 我不知道你是否可以提供類似的分析，你剛剛看到美國各地都有問題，（聽不清）這會有所幫助。

Yes. So the question is assessment of the competition in U.S. to Latin America?

是的。那麼問題是如何評估美國對拉丁美洲的競爭？

No, sorry, just around the various end markets that you noted across Europe that you're currently in and kind of are looking to (inaudible) ...

不，抱歉，就您目前在歐洲注意到的並且正在尋求的各個終端市場（聽不清）......

I don't know that we have all the data. I think some of the same players are there. Some of the public -- public companies that you know over there. There's another strong competitor that has some decent size by in a small world. And there's some small regional guys. It's equally -- I would say from my early quince with it, it's a market that's not unlike the U.S. and its fragmentation of some smaller players, regional guys. Think of the countries there almost like states and regions here in the U.S. Some people are in Italy, some people are in Spain. So there will be -- and they'll be the 3 public companies will be there, obviously, that you're familiar with. But the game will be a little bit different, but the process that we go under, which is really to how big is the market, who owns it, how do we get it? What do we get if we get it. We're, I think, different than almost any company in the industry that we don't aimlessly go out after opportunities just because they're big is can we get that business? What do we get if we get it? Is there a return on investment. And we'll go through analyzing the market and finding the key opportunities as we have in the U.S. that are the ones that can drive the business forward, the fastest. We it's really easy to go ahead and us to expand into 30 or 40 or at least 10 countries in Europe quickly. But the business will be driven by Spain, Italy, France, Germany, maybe another 1 or 2 countries. And so our focus will be similar that it's been to the U.S. -- from the U.S. We focus primarily on Mexico and Guatemala. We drove tremendous volumes, a high market share and high profitability in that foundation that he built from there. So it will -- for us, I don't want to sound like we're not concerned about the competition, but it's about execution, market analysis and awareness of the opportunities and return on investment, the same basic core competencies that we brought to the business in the U.S. played out in a little different marketplace. And so that's the way we'll approach it.

我不知道我們是否擁有所有數據。我認為那裡有一些相同的球員。一些你知道的上市公司。還有另一個強大的競爭對手，在這個小世界裡也有相當大的規模。還有一些地區性的小人物。同樣，我想說，從我早期的看法來看，這個市場與美國沒有什麼不同，它由一些較小的參與者、區域性參與者組成。想像一下那裡的國家幾乎就像美國的州和地區。有些人在意大利，有些人在西班牙。因此，顯然，您所熟悉的 3 家上市公司將會在那裡。但遊戲會有點不同，但我們所經歷的過程，實際上是市場有多大，誰擁有它，我們如何獲得它？如果我們得到它，我們會得到什麼。我認為，我們與業內幾乎所有公司不同，我們不會僅僅因為機會很大而漫無目的地去尋找機會，我們能得到這項業務嗎？如果我們得到了它，我們會得到什麼？有投資回報嗎？我們將分析市場並尋找我們在美國擁有的關鍵機會，這些機會可以最快地推動業務發展。我們真的很容易繼續前進，並且可以快速擴展到歐洲 30 或 40 或至少 10 個國家。但該業務將由西班牙、意大利、法國、德國，或許還有另外一兩個國家推動。因此，我們的重點將與美國相似——從美國我們主要關注墨西哥和危地馬拉。在他建立的基礎上，我們實現了巨大的銷量、高市場份額和高盈利能力。因此，對於我們來說，我不想听起來我們不關心競爭，但它涉及執行、市場分析以及對機會和投資回報的認識，以及我們帶來的相同的基本核心能力美國的業務在一個稍有不同的市場中展開。這就是我們處理這個問題的方式。

Mr. Lisy, we have no further questions on the line. I would like to turn the call back to you for any closing remarks.

Lisy 先生，我們沒有其他問題了。我想將電話轉回給您，請您發表結束語。

Well, thank you all for joining us. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to talking to you all soon. Have a great day.

好的，謝謝大家加入我們。感謝您抽出寶貴的時間，我們期待很快與大家交談。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. And that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation. Please disconnect your lines. Have a good day, everyone.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。請斷開您的線路。祝大家有美好的一天。