EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE:EVTC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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James Faucette : Got it. Got it. Got it. And then when you think about next year, I think you kind of really appreciate you calling out the grow-over challenges from this year into next year, et cetera. But what are the things that you’re watching from a macro perspective besides just like inflation rates coming down probably a little bit faster at least in Puerto Rico than I had anticipated? And anything else that we should be aware of that could move things around?

Joaquin Castrillo: James, this is Joaquin. I mean, look, as I said, I think that for what it’s worth in Puerto Rico, we continue to expect a stable backdrop as we said in 1 of the other questions that we got, I think we’ve all been surprised by the strength of the consumer and how that’s got reflected in, let’s say, sales volume and transactions, even though we’re kind of way past some of these very specific funds that were hitting people’s bank accounts. It seems like reconstruction is starting to have, let’s say, an undertone in the performance of the Puerto Rico economy, not hugely significant to the point where we can kind of pinpoint, but there’s certainly more activity and that’s why we feel that on a go-forward basis, it will be stable in Puerto Rico.

And in Latin America, obviously, we have multiple countries that we’re tracking in terms of potential effects. But given the type of services that we’re providing outside of Puerto Rico, it is really more driven by the pipeline and being able to execute and deliver on time for those clients. So I’d say that at a high level, that’s kind of our macro what we’re always considering.

Operator: And the next question comes from Jamie Friedman with Susquehanna.

James Friedman : Let me echo the congratulations. Joaquin, when I do the math on the implications for the Q4 though, I’m getting a decel down to the low single digits. And I think you made some comments specifically about September in your prepared remarks. I was just hoping you could kind of help unpack if the slowdown is of that magnitude, why it would be? And if you could repeat what you said about September.

Joaquin Castrillo: Yes. So September of last year, the second half of September was impacted by Hurricane Fiona. We had a hurricane that came through. And we saw — and actually, we called out when we had the Q3 call, and there was slowdown in the last 2 weeks of last year. And that certainly was a positive in the rollover this year, both in Merchant Acquiring and in Payments Puerto Rico. So as we go into Q4, obviously, we won’t have that benefit, number one. Also, when you look at the growth rate in this quarter, we have Santander, which is big in the Latin America segment. And then in Business Solutions, we have the grow-over from last year, given the CPI effect, which was another $6 million in the previous year. So the Business Solutions segment, once we get into the next quarter will be in the low single digit, which is what we’ve expected, right?

So those are the main drivers. And then obviously, just a little bit of a slowdown in the overall trending payments just given what we’re coming off of.

James Friedman : Okay. And then, Mac, I think that you or Joaquin had alluded to some pricing opportunities in Merchants. I was wondering if you could kind of elaborate on that. What if you could share the magnitude or how you’re thinking at least strategically of that price?

Joaquin Castrillo: Actually, Jamie, what we called out is that we’re going to be lapping a lot of those now going into Q4, which is actually another driver that’s going into how we’re looking at the fourth quarter. So Q3 also benefited from some of those pricing initiatives that we actually put in place last year, and that has been a tailwind. As we’ve said previously, pricing initiatives in a broader sense where we’re kind of impacting the whole portfolio. It’s something that we don’t do all the time. That’s what we’ve called this one out. We are, however, always looking at different segments of the portfolio, different verticals within the portfolio where the different dynamics or types of cards or mix is impacting profitability and we’ll go in and adjust.

And those are a lot more subtle to the overall results, but it’s something that we’re always doing. In this case, what we’re calling out is we’re going to lap an effect of pricing initiatives that impacted pretty much the whole portfolio last year, and we benefited from that throughout.

Operator: And this does conclude the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call to Mac Schuessler for any closing comments.

Mac Schuessler: Again, we’d like everyone — to thank everyone for joining us tonight for the call. And we look forward to seeing you in upcoming conferences. Goodbye.

Operator: Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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