All right. Good morning, and thanks for being here at the DB Tech Conference. I'm Bryan Keane. I cover the payments, processors, and IT services here at Deutsche Bank, and we're excited to have Global Payments. With us is Josh Whipple, who's SEVP and CFO. I think we will go through a Q&A and a fireside chat. We're missing the fire, but we do have a nice table up here to ask, and Josh, an update on GPN's business. With that, Josh, thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks, Bryan. Great to be here. I guess the first question, you know, is an obligatory one about looking at, at volumes. We saw stronger than expected retail sales in July. How would you- how would you characterize GPN volumes in the U.S. in July and August versus kind of 2Q23 overall? Yeah, you know, you know, thanks, Bryan, and thanks again for having us today. Regarding volume trends, you know, as we said on our August call, in July, we saw stability in both our issuer and our merchant business relative to our second quarter results. And that, you know, trend has largely continued into August. So overall, I think broadly speaking, we see a relatively, you know, stable consumer. Additionally, we highlighted that our base case outlook today presumes spending trends and a macroeconomic backdrop that is largely consistent with the environment leading up to our second quarter call. And as I just noted, you know, that trend has largely, you know, continued in August thus far, Got it. And then when I always think of Global Payments, you know, U.S. is just a piece of the business, and you guys are spread all across the globe. So maybe you could comment, Josh, just on growth rates, kind of maybe accelerating, decelerating in some of the major geographies. I'm thinking about Central Europe, Spain, Asia Pacific, Mexico, and then I know there was a little bit of a decel in U.K. and Canada. So maybe just an update on some of the major markets. Yeah, sure. So, you know, 75% of our business is in the U.S., and, you know, as I just mentioned, you know, that trend has remained, you know, relatively stable. The other 25% is in international, and, it's largely comprised of, you know, faster growth markets, which has been a focus area for us, and it's one of our strategic pillars. And this includes, you know, markets like Spain, Asia Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe. And, you know, those businesses have continued to grow consistently, you know, in the double digits and have largely benefited from the strong secular trends that we've been seeing in the market, and the shift from cash to card and other forms of digital payments. Now with EVO, you know, we've been able to add, you know, additional faster growth markets, you know, to our overall portfolio, which include, you know, Poland, Greece, Germany. Then we've also been able to go ahead and enhance the scale of some of our existing geographies in the faster growth markets like Spain and Mexico. So we feel pretty good about how that overall portfolio, you know, has shaped. As it relates to like the U.K. and Canada. Look, we have seen some weakness in those markets. We've. We talked about it on our Q2 call, that that's largely due to the overall, you know, macro headwinds that we've been seeing in that market. But what I would say is, you know, those markets each, you know, represent, you know, less than 5% of our total Merchant Solutions business. And, you know, look, those businesses generate attractive margin and cash flow profiles, which, you know, helps, you know, invest in the broader business to help support our overall growth of our business. Got it. I thought you guys did a nice job talking about the kind of the industry and breaking down the acquiring business. So, you know, the market continues to analyze gains and losses, and you guys, GPN, has gained volume share versus the traditional competitors out there. So even better volume, I think, last quarter than some of the network data that we saw from Visa, Mastercard. So thinking higher level, why has GPN's volume been consistently here over the last couple of quarters at least, been above kind of the industry peers? Yeah. So, you know, Bryan, you know, as it relates to competition, we talked extensively about this at our September 2021 Analyst Day. Look, our business has always been, you know, highly competitive, and we have a lot of, you know, great competitors out there in the market, and that environment really hasn't changed. And what I would say is that, you know, we're not all focused on the same things. We're not all focused on the same customers, we're not all focused, you know, on the same areas. And additionally, it's not a zero-sum game. And what I mean by that is, you know, with the trends around digitization, that has created a market that is massive in size and scope, and that continues to go ahead and get larger. In the markets that we choose to go ahead and compete, we provide differentiated product, differentiated services and differentiated technology, coupled with distinctive distribution. I think that has really gone ahead and contributed to the growth that we're seeing in the overall portfolio, and the share gains that we're seeing. Then I would say, you know, if you take a step back and you think about our strategy more holistically, you know, we're focused on providing commerce enablement to our merchant customers, providing value-added services to go ahead and help them run their businesses more effectively and more efficiently. These include things like human capital management and payroll. We bring these things to the point of sale. We bring these things to the point of sale, and they're fully integrated. And, you know, this makes a difference in many verticals like retail, or restaurant. And I think where our competitive advantage is being able to go ahead and provide these commerce enablement solutions at scale to our customers globally. And that has, you know, made a difference, I think, with regard to the growth and the share gains that we're seeing. And then, you know, finally, I would say is, you know, I think we have a different mix than some of the names that you went ahead and mentioned. We're not overly exposed to travel. We're not overly exposed to enterprise e-com, which has seen some softer, you know, volume growth. In the markets that we choose to compete, we provide differentiated solutions. And again, that's, you know, helped contribute to the share gains that we're seeing. 40% of the merchant business is being driven by that vertically fluent solutions, which is the integrated business, the vertical software- Yep. And the point-of-sale software business. So just thinking about those three key segments that's driving a lot of the growth, how fast do those, those each, those businesses grow organically? Yeah, look, Bryan, you know, software sits, you know, at the heart of our Merchant Solutions business, and it's supported by the three components of our integrated, you know, payment strategy, which spans ISVs, as you said, vertical markets and our point of sale business, and that comprises about 40% of our overall Merchant Solutions, you know, revenue. You know, in our partner channel today, this is about a billion-dollar business, consistently growing in the teens. And again, in Q2, we achieved, you know, record sales. This business has about 7,000 partners and transcends about, you know, 70 different verticals. And on our Q2 call, you know, Bryan, we talked about, you know, why we continue to grow this business and how we win in the market with this business. And I think it really comes down to 3 elements. Number 1, we provide, you know, our ISVs with a more simplified and streamlined offering. Number 2, we provide, you know, 3 integrated models. We provide our direct model, our payment facilitation model, and our ProFac model. And our ProFac model is, we talked about extensively, you know, on our second quarter call, and this is a hybrid between our direct model and our payment facilitation model. We also number 3, we also provide a, you know, a higher level of service, you know, relative to our peers. And then, you know, finally, we provide, you know, we provide a comprehensive, you know, suite of products. As it relates to our vertical markets business, our vertical markets business is really what we characterize as our own software. And this is where we own the entirety of the technology stack. And the way we've shaped our vertical markets business is we focused on markets that are highly fragmented and where there's not a clear winner. And we focused on either the one, two, or three player, you know, in those markets as we built this business. And we focused on companies where there's a clear nexus between, you know, software and payments. And you may have heard us, you know, talk about when we talk about this market, talk about chasing, you know, GDP. And today, we feel we own assets that transcend approximately 50% of U.S. GDP. And then, you know, finally, we move over to our POS business. You know, this business is growing at 20%+. We continue to see, you know, strong demand, you know, for our POS solutions. And I think that this business has really benefited from, you know, the product enhancements that we continue to go ahead and bring to market. Things like email marketing, things like customer engagement, things like our mobile first, you know, ordering platform. And we expect to see, you know, continued momentum in this business when we go ahead and re-release our next generation, you know, POS, you know, software in the back half of this year. Yeah, I wanted to drill down on a couple of those, just on, on integrated. I think you mentioned on the last call that, that new merchant signings were up 33%. Mm-hmm. You know, how are you gaining momentum? You continue to have momentum there? You've seen some of the competitors falter there. Then maybe you can just explain the ProFac model and some of the success and differentiation. Yeah, sure. You know, let me start by saying, look, we're, we're very pleased with, you know, the performance of our, of our integrated business and what we've, what we've achieved there. Regarding our, our merchant base, as you highlighted, new sales grew, you know, 33% last quarter relative to the second quarter of 2022, and it was another record quarter, you know, for us in the business. And look, you know, I think the success in our business is really a function, you know, of our approach. You know, across all the models, we provide a custom solution and different levels of support, you know, based on the needs of the ISV. The last question you asked me, I mean, Bryan, we talked a little bit about why we win in that market, and I think about to summarize it, it's really because, you know, we lead with technology. We have, you know, unrivaled distribution. We have a higher level of support, and then we have a comprehensive suite of products. As it relates to the ProFac model, again, we launched this in the second quarter. And, you know, this model is a hybrid between our direct model and our payment facilitation model, and it provides ISVs with many of the benefits of being a payment facilitator without the burden of becoming a PayFac and basically becoming a payments company. This offering is, you know, Bryan, unique to Global Payments. We have a very robust pipeline, and we'll look to go ahead and board, you know, some of those partners over the next, you know, several quarters. Got it. And then inside the vertical software business, can you just talk about the differentiation of Zego and Xenial and some of the School Solutions? Yeah. How you guys are... You know, what's the outlook for growth in that business? Yeah, sure. You know, as I just talked about, you know, look, our vertical software business, we've always, you know, targeted the largest segments of the U.S. economy. And as I mentioned, you know, in the last question... You know, today, you know, we think we own, you know, software that transcends, you know, 50% of U.S. GDP. And regarding the specific businesses that you mentioned, if we start with Zego, Zego is, you know, focuses in the real estate sector, and this is a market, you know, that we like. It's large, it's global in scale, it's fragmented, it's ripe for further penetration of software and payments. And this business provides a cloud-native SaaS platform, which enables property management and resident engagement. It's highly scalable, it has predictable recurring revenue, it has strong retention rates, and, you know, this business, it has been growing double-digit organically for us, you know, since we've owned it. And then I think some of the trends that we're seeing in that business is really where we've seen a lot of momentum is in the student housing area. And, you know, we've recently partnered with our TouchNet business, that's our higher education business, to try to capture more of the payments flow, in student housing. So we feel, you know, really, you know, good about how that business is, positioned. Regarding School Solutions, you know, this business provides, you know, commerce and cafeteria management solutions to the K through 12, to K through 12 schools. You know, this business was impacted, you know, during the pandemic, with the school closures, and the free lunches. We've actually, you know, this business has rebounded nicely, with the return of school lunches for pay. If you go back to our second quarter call, we talked about some of our key wins in that market. You know, we had a key win with a school district in Oklahoma City. We extended a couple partnerships, one in Baltimore County, Maryland, as well as with Chicago Public Schools. You know, as for our Xenial business in the restaurant vertical, you know, here we move into a more specialized areas, you know, focused in enterprise QSR, food service management, and you know, sporting events. You know, these you know solutions are more you know fit for purpose. You know, today we have something like 20 of the top 25 you know QSR brands in the U.S. that use our Xenial solutions. So we feel you know very good about how that business is positioned. Then also, you know, over the last six months or I'm sorry, over the last twelve months, we've announced some pretty big wins in the stadium area with Mercedes-Benz and the Braves at Truist Park. But I think if you were to take a step back and think about, you know, the trends, you know, more holistically and what we're seeing around our vertical software businesses is, you know, coming out of the pandemic, we saw this acceleration around digitization and the need for digital solutions. And so if you think about, you know, the verticals, which I just talked about, in the real estate vertical, for example, no one wants to write a check anymore and drop that off at their landlord's office. And if their air conditioning or heater is broken within their apartment, they don't want to go down to the superintendent's office and fill out a work order. And if they're, they're looking to go ahead and rent an apartment, they don't want to go to the leasing office, and fill out an application. They want to be able to do this on their phone digitally, and we provide all those solutions within our, our Zego business. And if we think about restaurant, you know, restaurant, same thing. You know, people want to go ahead and order with their, with their phone, whether they're, remote or whether they're at the physical location, and they want to pay with their thumb or they want to pay with their face. And we enable, you know, those solutions within our, our restaurant vertical. And then finally, with, with school solutions, you know, Bryan, we're just talking about our kids. I can't think of the last time I gave my kids cash to go to school and to buy something in the cafeteria, or to buy something, you know, at the snack stand. That's all handled, you know, digitally, and we provide that within our school solutions business. You know, I want to ask about the restaurant and hospitality businesses in particular, because you guys seem to be, the growth rate seemed to be good there, and it's an opportunity for you guys. You know, the market is always worried that that's too competitive for GPN to compete in there, but your success there, can you just talk about why you guys have been able to compete successfully in that restaurant and hospitality side? Yeah, look, you know, I think we provide a solution that touches all parts of the restaurant and the hospitality solution, and it really goes back to our strategy, again, you know, focus on commerce enablement and providing differentiated products and services. And I think in the hospitality space, you know, we've had you know a lot of success in providing you know differentiated solutions and across the spectrum, you know, from a restaurant perspective, and that's why we're winning in that business. Got it. Want to ask you about EVO and that, that acquisition, and, and maybe give us an update on how synergies and cross-selling initiatives are going. Yeah, look, we couldn't be more pleased with the way the integration is going, and I'm happy to report that we successfully completed our first, you know, 100-day plan. We expect to realize, you know, $35 million of cost synergies in 2023. These largely consist of the elimination of public company costs, you know, facility rationalization, and the harmonization of duplicative vendor costs. I'm also, you know, pleased to announce that we have very defined and executable plans in place to achieve our $125 million of run rate cost synergies that we announced that we said we would do when we announced the transaction. On the cross-selling front, we've identified the three broad categories of revenue synergies.... Number one, you know, the first category, we think that we can cross-sell our product capabilities into EVO's existing, you know, customer base. Number two, we think that we can provide EVO's multinational customers with our e-commerce and omni-channel solutions across markets and geographies. And then number three, we think we can bring their B2B capabilities together with our B2B capabilities and provide one go-to-market offering. So look, you know, Bryan, you know, we think there's a lot of opportunities to go ahead and enhance our top line, you know, revenue growth. We think there's probably a point or two on top of EVO's existing run rate revenue of $600 million, which equates to about, you know, $10-$15 million in revenue synergies. And then I would just, you know, reiterate, Bryan, you know, look, you know, M&A is something that we do very, very well, you know, at Global Payments. And integrating companies within our Merchant Solutions business is something that we do, you know, very, very well. It's become a core competency of Global Payments with the number of acquisitions that we've done and the success that we've had in integrating those businesses. And then, you know, finally, I would say, you know, we have a great track record of achieving those synergies that we commit to publicly, and we couldn't be more pleased and delighted with regard to how the integration is going with EVO. Got it. Want to turn to the issuer business. It grew mid-single digits in the second quarter. I think you guys added 10 million accounts. How many accounts do the current 8 LOIs add to the potential pipeline? Yeah, sure. So let me start. You know, Bryan, you know, very pleased with how our issuer business is performing and we believe there are, you know, a number of tailwinds going forward. Regarding the 10 million accounts, which is an 8% increase in traditional accounts relative to the second quarter of 2022. You know, we have a... Let me start by saying, you know, we have a very strong position with some of the largest and the most well-capitalized, you know, financial institutions in the world. And these banks continue to go ahead and gain share, and we benefit from this share gain. This includes names like Bank of America, like Barclays, like TD, and Capital One, you know, just to name a few. But to answer your question, you know, more directly, you know, in addition to the healthy account growth that we've been seeing from these financial institutions, and the benefits that we've received from them, you know, the new customer pipeline currently today, you know, stands at approximately 60 million, and that 60 million includes the 8 LOIs that you mentioned. And this 60 million is near our record level, and this pipeline gives us a lot of comfort with regard to the future growth, you know, of our issuer business. Just to be clear, LOIs is typically the close rate on the LOIs is- Is very, very high. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, is very, very high. Got it. Can you just talk about then, how do we think about when we think about the cycle guidance or the revenue growth and margins, of the issuer business in particular, just thinking about the moving away from managed services and promoting more cloud-native solutions? Yeah, look, what I would say is that, as it relates to managed services, you know, anytime that you can pivot to more technology enablement, that's a good thing, Brian. And that gives us, you know, as we continue to go ahead and pivot more and more towards technology enablement, that gives us a lot of confidence in our targeted growth. As a result of that move, I think managed services obviously is a lower margin business. Correct. Can you just talk a little bit about the margins inside of issuer? They had a big move last quarter, and kind of what the outlook is there. Yeah, look, like I said, we're very pleased with the performance of our issuer business and the margin expansion that we've been able to go ahead and achieve through that. You know, in Q2, our margin expansion was, you know, largely driven by our top line growth, and it's the continued shift to you know, technology enablement. And it was also... You know, our margin expansion in Q2 was also related to you know, the operating efficiencies that we've been able to go ahead and drive, you know, in the business. What I would say, you know, Bryan, you know, as we think about the back half of the year, it is a little bit of a, you know, it is a tougher comp, but with that said, you know, we still fully expect to go ahead and achieve our 60 basis points of margin expansion, you know, for the year. Got it. Last quarter, you guys reiterated that the overall margin guidance and the expectation for the 120 basis points of expansion, which is notably above the cycle guidance, which I think you guys have called out as 50-75- That's right ... basis points annually. Mm-hmm. Can you just talk about some of the key drivers when we think about the overall business for margin leverage? Yeah, sure. Just to clarify, on the call, our second quarter call, we set up to 100 basis points. But, you know, on margin expansion, you know, first and foremost, this is driven by our technology enabled businesses, which are growing more quickly than the whole and have a higher margin profile. And what I would say, you know, this year, our core merchant business and our issuer business are growing margins right in line with what we would expect... from our long-term targets. On top of that, we do expect to receive margin benefit, you know, as it relates to the divestiture of our Netspend business, you know, which is a lower margin profile business. But, you know, that will be, you know, slightly offset, you know, by the EVO acquisition until we go ahead and realize, you know, full synergies. And then going forward, you know, the two primary businesses, you know, that we have going forward, you know, both of those businesses have a very attractive, you know, growth and margin profile, which gives us a lot of comfort, you know, as it relates to margins going forward. Got it. And by the way, if you have a question, just raise your hand and we can call you out if there's any questions. I wanted to ask about the transition in CEO. Sure. Obviously, Jeff had been at Global Payments for so long and for so many years. Sure. And now, it's turned over to Cameron. So maybe you could just first talk about, has anything changed in the strategy, the culture of the firm now with Cameron in charge as CEO? And then, of course, you know, capital allocation priorities. Any kind of change in thinking around that? Yeah, sure. No, it's a great, great question, Bryan. So let me start with capital allocation. You know, you know, I think, you know, we've done a really good job in balancing, you know, reinvestment in the business, both organically and inorganically, and returning, you know, capital to shareholders while maintaining a, you know, a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity. As it relates to M&A, you know, look, we're... You know the history of this company. We're always looking at things, you know, in the marketplace, and we're always, you know, looking for ways to go ahead and accelerate our strategy. From an M&A perspective, you know, we're very focused, you know, on the four pillars of our strategy: software-driven payments, e-commerce and omni, faster growth markets, and B2B. You know, with that said, you know, I do think there are some things that are interesting out there, you know, from a strategic perspective. But, you know, the bar today is pretty high, just given the return profile of buying back, you know, our shares. But with that said, we talked about it on the Q2 call, we talked about it on our Q1 call, you know, we're from a capital allocation perspective, this year, we're very focused on paying down debt and getting back to our target, you know, leverage level. You know, as it relates to changing strategy and then the question that you had, you know, look, you know, Cameron is a veteran of Global Payments. He's been at Global Payments, you know, a long time. He worked, you know, very closely with Jeff, you know, on the strategy. And, you know, that strategy has been incredibly successful for us. So Bryan, you know, I don't see, you know, any change to the strategy going forward. Got it. Let's take a question or two. Yeah, just a quick one. Your comments on August sounded, you know, pretty positive. It's in line with July, stable. When you gave the guidance before, had you considered any macro weakness, or was there room for, you know, this impending macro weakness when, if it does come, in those in your thoughts then? Yeah, we did. On our second quarter call, we said that our guide can accommodate, you know, a moderation in spending and overall macroeconomic, you know, activity in the back half of the year. So we did comment on that in our guide. Right. And that still stands? That's right. Then just a quick follow-up, you know, on the EVO conversation. You know, Bryan and team model it very closely as we covered it. Anything to mention on the margins there relative to the rest of the company? For the rest of the Global Payments? Rest, yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah, look, we, we've said publicly that that's about a mid, you know, 30%—30, you know,% margin business. You know, we, we said that publicly before, so... I mean, do people have that? Do you think that's in the number? So the difference, that's what I'm- Yeah referring to. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thanks. B2B seems to be a larger focus within your overall business in recent quarters. Can you maybe talk more about overall B2B payment strategy, maybe across automation and money flows? Yeah, look, you know, I think Cameron did a really nice job in outlining that on our Q2 call. There's really kind of three components of our B2B strategy. We have our workplace - workflow, you know, automation, which is our AP/AR, which we talked about on the call, and we also have our money in and money outflow, which is more of our virtual card payments. You know, our virtual cards, I think we issued something like 80 million virtual cards in the last 12 months, and which controlled about $50 billion of spend. So we have one of the leading virtual card businesses in the market. And then the final component is, you know, our employer solutions, which includes our pay card, our earned wage access, and our payroll business. And look, you know, what I would say about B2B, you know, that market is still evolving, and there's still, you know, tremendous, you know, room to run in that business. We're still in the early innings of that business, and that business has a massive, you know, total addressable market. And so, you know, look, we feel like we're very well-positioned in B2B, especially with the EVO acquisition, to go ahead and acquire their accounts receivable automation. So now we have, you know, one complete offering from a workflow automation. So, we feel very good about how we're positioned in B2B and where that market is today. I want to just follow up on the question on the economic sensitivity. If we ever do get to an economic downturn, can you talk about, as CFO, some of the levers maybe you have on cost to protect the EPS? Yeah, sure. Look, you know, I think if we just talk about an economic, you know, downturn more generally, I think it's helpful to kind of think about our business in building blocks. And if you think about our merchant growth, you know, how we've talked about that, we expect merchant growth to be low double digits. And, you know, as it relates to merchant growth, about 300-400 basis points of that is about same store sales. And in an economic slowdown, you know, you could see that go to zero. If you go back to the great financial crisis in the 2007, 2008 time period, for Heartland, that actually went negative. And the other components, you know, of our growth are really driven by digitization, new products, new sales, new markets. You know, those businesses continue to perform very, very well. As I talked about, you know, earlier, we've seen record bookings, you know, in that business. So we feel, you know, very good about, you know, how the merchant business is positioned, if we were to encounter any kind of economic slowdown. If we move to issuer, and if you go back to the 2008 time period, our issuer business actually, you know, grew during this time period, if you eliminate two of the bank insolvency. So we feel pretty good, you know, about how, you know, that business is positioned in the event of an economic downturn. And then I would say, Bryan, if you go back to the pandemic in 2020, you know, we actually grew earnings during that time period, and we produced record free cash flow. So I think what we've proven as a management team is that we can continue to grow the business, you know, through any kind of economic event with the levers that we have within the business. Okay. With that, I think we'll keep it there. Thanks so much, Josh. All right. Thanks, Bryan.