Greetings. Welcome to FLEETCOR Technologies Inc. 2nd Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Formal presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded.
I will now turn the conference over to Jim Eglsetter, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q2 2021 Earnings Call. With me today are Ron Clark, our Chairman and CEO and Charles Freund, our CFO. Following the prepared comments, the operator will announce that the queue will open for the Q and A session. It is only then that you can get in the line for questions. Please note that our earnings release and supplement can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at fleetcor.com.
Now throughout this call, appears in today's press release and on our website as previously described. I do need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today may include forward looking statements. These statements reflect the best information we as of today. All statements about our recovery, outlook, new products and acquisitions, expectations regarding business development and future acquisitions are based on that information. They are not guarantees of future performance and you should not put undue reliance upon them.
We do not undertake any obligation to update any of these statements. These expected results are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Some of those risks are mentioned in today's press release on Form 8 ks and in our annual report on Form 10 ks, both filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on our website and atsec.gov. Now with
that out of the way,
I will turn the call over to Ron Clark, our Chairman and CEO. Ron?
Okay, Jim. Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining our Q2 Earnings Call. Upfront here, I'll plan to cover 3 subjects. First, I'll share my perspective on our Q2 results along with the rest of your outlook.
2nd, I'll provide an update on our 2 newest acquisitions. And then lastly, I'll talk about our fuel car business, including our latest view on EV,
along with
a couple of innovative developments underway in that business. Okay, let me turn to our Q2 results. So very pleased to report outstanding Q2 financial results, meaningfully above our internal expectations. We reported Q2 revenue of $667,000,000 that's up 27% and cash EPS of $3.15 up 38%. Both our Q2 '21 Revenue and Cash EPS Exceeded Our Q2 2019 Results, so finally moving past Our pre pandemic baseline.
Organic revenue growth came in at 23% for the quarter. Our full AP Outsourcing Platform segment up 53% versus Q2 last year. The trends in the quarter are really quite good. Our same store sales metric improved to plus 18%, so hardness of 18%. Many of the sectors in our client base recovering.
Retention, record level, we reached nearly 94%, an all time high since we've been reporting the metric. And interestingly, our global fuel card business Reached 92% retention, also an all time high. Credit losses remained very good, running at historic levels and sales outstanding in the quarter finishing up Almost 2 times last year's Q2 and up 6% against 2019. Okay. Let me transition to our view of the rest of the year.
So today, we're guidance to $2,765,000,000 at the midpoint for full year revenue, Raising cash EPS at the midpoint to $12.90 That's driven by our Q2 beat, The AFIX close and really the momentum that we have running into the second half. I do want to remind everyone, we had previously Guided to a pretty substantial second half sequential step up already. As a reminder, cash EPS guidance up nearly $0.60 from the start of the year. So we opened the year at 12.30, today 12.90, so obviously Better than we outlooked. The second half guidance implies a few things.
So first, the revenue growth will run about 20% ahead of last year and high single digits really above the second half twenty nineteen baseline. So we are expecting the business to reach all time highs again in both revenues and profits. Our Q4 EPS profit guidance implies nearly a $14 annualized cash EPS exit rate. Okay. Let me transition now to an update on our recent acquisitions.
So as a reminder, we closed AFEX, That's the add on cross border deal on June 1. And then last week, we signed definitive documents to acquire ALE, which is a lodging provider to the insurance vertical. So let me start with ALE. Really a highly complementary add on to our existing lodging business. And that company brings a whole set of specialized capabilities designed just to serve the insurance vertical.
So we've got a pretty interesting synergy plan for that business and expect accelerated revenue and profit growth next year. We're also well underway on our Apex integration. We've already exited about $10,000,000 of run rate payroll expense. We've implemented 1 unified cross border management organization and we've designed an IT consolidation plan To move to a single system, that will significantly reduce run rate IT and operations expense. So look, both of these acquisitions, classic fleet wheelhouse deals, we paid reasonable prices, They're extensions of our existing business, so we know them well and both have very rich synergy opportunities.
We're expecting the businesses to grow about 20% on the top on a pro form a basis next year And together deliver incremental cash EPS in 2022 in the $0.50 to $0.70 range, so big upside. So obviously, we are quite enthusiastic about the transactions. All right. Let me shift gears now and talk a bit about our fuel card business, which we continue to love in which we think has a bright future. So I'll talk a bit about EV, the latest and greatest, and then talk about innovation and specifically 2 new things that we're doing to improve the growth prospects of our fuel card business.
So starting out with EV, I mentioned last time we're really embracing EV as an opportunity And in no way you see it putting an end to our fuel card business. Employers are going to need to reimburse Employees for recharging electric vehicles much like they reimburse employees for refueling combustion engines. And I think you may find that it costs more to operate EV than people think. We also think there'll be some new economics We've got an opportunity to achieve very similar economics from EV measuring and reimbursing as we do from We've included a couple of EV exhibits in our Q2 earnings supplement. You'll see some comparisons of Spend where the cost of public charging is about 70% of Fossil Fuel Charging.
And then because there's more attractive MDR rates, We believe that we can achieve pretty interesting revenue there as well. In a nutshell, We expect the at home software subscription fees to be pretty significant and augment a number of the other fees that we get in the revenue mix. We are out looking the commercial transition to EV to be slow, particularly here in the U. S, Giving us ample time to build out our public charging network and implement recharging at home. We expect mix Fleets, to be how things start out.
So our incumbent position should give us quite an advantage in consolidating activity and data for our clients. So look, in conclusion, we're out looking EV to really just be a different way To serve commercial fleets, but one in which we think can still be attractive. All right, let me leave EV and cut over to Couple of innovations that we're working in the fuel card business. So first is digital, and particularly digital selling, Which now, in Q2 has reached about 60% of all our new fuel card sales globally coming to us digitally. So lots of improvements in our digital selling capabilities.
We've got automated keyword bidding now. We've redesigned our websites To maximize sales conversion and we're beginning investments at the top of the funnel, in the formed digital TV, radio, Facebook advertising, which is driving about 50% more visitors to our websites, So obviously leading to incremental sales. The last innovation I'd like to touch on is our effort to transform our fuel card UI, which is used by over 100,000 clients Really into a broader payment platform. So we're combining our newest cloud based SMB bill pay platform With our fuel card UI, so that clients go on to pay us, the fuel card bill That they'd have the option then of paying additional vendors, with the same software platform. So This idea is really aimed at accelerating the number of active bill pay clients we can add to our platform And again, beginning the transformation of the fuel card business into a corporate payments business.
So we'll keep you updated there as we go. So look, in closing, three thoughts for you. So one on 2021, again, we're pleased With Q2, particularly the record retention and record sales levels. And again, our second half outlook calls for new all time highs again in revenue and profits. 2nd, on the fuel car business, again, we think the prospects are bright for the business.
We do have a plan to monetize EV adoption by providing some new services and particularly Measuring and reimbursing at home recharging. We've got an opportunity to keep stepping up digital Sales and digital advertising at the top of the funnel. We think we can drive incremental visitors and incremental sales. And we're launching a bill pay cross sell opportunity to our fuel card clients, Again, by turning our existing fuel UI into a broader payment platform. And lastly, Although early, we're quite encouraged by our 2022 setup.
Our second half guidance calls for nearly $7 in cash EPS for the second half or approximately $14 annualized. Again, forecasting record sales for the full year, which will flow revenue into next year. We'll roll off $1,000,000,000 in interest rate hedges in January. That'll free up about $0.20 of incremental cash EPS. And lastly, our 2 newest acquisitions hoping to contribute in the $0.50 to $0.70 range of incremental cash EPS.
So look, taken together, a lot to like about our 2022 setup. So with that, let me turn the call back over to Chuck. He'll provide some additional details on the quarter. Chuck?
Thanks, Ron. I'm delighted to share with you the results of a very good quarter. For Q2 of 2021, we reported revenue of 6 $67,000,000 up 27 percent GAAP net income up 24 percent to $196,000,000 And GAAP net income per diluted share up 26 percent to $2.30 Adjusted net income for the quarter or ANI increased 36 percent to $268,000,000 and ANI per diluted share increased 38% to $3.15 As we finally lapped the worst of COVID. Organic revenue growth improved 29 points sequentially to up 23% on a year over year basis, driven by strong sales, record retention levels and same store sales recovery. Looking at organic growth across the categories, corporate payments was up 32% in the 2nd quarter, led by our full AP solutions.
We are seeing very good success leading with our full AP and selling a more complete package versus just a standalone virtual card offering. Full AP is clearly what we prefer to sell, so we've reoriented our combined sales force with this focus and it's paying off. T and E card revenue was up 58% year over year, rebounding significantly as business activity and travel began to resume. This T and E description is a bit of a misnomer as it's really a multipurpose card that can be used as either a purchasing card or as walk around plastic, depending on how the customer wants to use it. And while spending within T and E related categories Has rebounded, it's still below historical levels.
So there's clearly room for further improvement there. Cross border revenue was up 25%. These results do include 1 month of FX with pro form a results for Q2 last year, so it's as if we owned it in both periods. And finally, virtual card revenue was up 13%. Both of these areas are still affected by COVID in industries that we've discussed before like airlines, cruise operators, hotels and restaurants, International Trade and Commercial Construction to a lesser extent.
We do believe much of this softness is recoverable, but the timing is hard to predict. Fuel was up organically 19% year over year with strong retention trends and record digital sales helping to drive the performance. We still see opportunities for further softness recoveries in fuel once the labor shortage affecting our large trucking fleet customers subsides And offices reopen more broadly, so our white collar commuters can return to normal activity levels. Toll was up 9% compared with last year and showed impressive performance in light of the lockdowns in place for much of the quarter. This growth was driven by record first half tag sales demonstrating the value proposition and attractiveness of our offerings Even when many folks aren't driving on the roads.
And approximately 1 quarter of all consumer tags sold year to date Are signed up to urban plans, which allow purchases beyond tolls, such as for parking, fueling and fast food. We also added 25% more fuel stations to our tag acceptance network during the first half with plans to add another 50% during the second half. The combination of urban tag sales and non toll network expansion should produce beyond toll volume growth as lockdowns ease And consumer activity increases. Lodging was up 39% with workforce up 36%. The pace of improvement in workforce lodging has leveled off some as customers are being held back by the labor shortage, But we feel this volume will come back over time as the labor market normalizes.
Airline lodging was up 49% As domestic air travel recovered faster than expected, but still remains below historical norms. International airline lodging Should come back as international air travel recovers. So despite the sizable recovery in lodging, we still see upside potential here. Gift organic growth was 22% year over year, benefiting from continued retailer embrace of the online sales channel. We expect this trend to continue as we are experiencing success with gift clients using our proprietary platform to sell both digital and physical cards online.
In fact, we expect to double the number of clients utilizing this platform by year end. Momentum in mobile wallet services and B2B sales, where 3rd parties sell gift cards to companies for use as employee incentives and rewards, are also contributing to the improvement. Looking further down the income statement, our operating expenses were up 18% to $370,000,000 totaling 55 percent of revenue. The increase was primarily due to higher levels of business activity, in digital sales and top of funnel marketing efforts and incurred some non recurring integration related expenses for AFEX such as severance and Platform Migration Costs. Operating margins improved 4 points from last year to 45% due to recovering volumes that have higher margins, higher fuel prices and a solid expense control.
In the quarter, bad debt was $6,000,000 or 2 basis points. Credit performance continues to be strong, although we do expect our bad debt to normalize as our new sales improve and grow. Interest expense increased 7% to $34,700,000 Due to a $6,200,000 charge associated with our debt refinance, a higher balance on the new term B note, Partially offset by lower borrowings on our revolver and lower LIBOR rates on the unhedged portion of our debt. Our effective tax rate for the Q2 was 25.2 percent similar to last year and reflects a $6,500,000 adjustment to our deferred tax position due to a rate change in the UK. In our guidance, we are increasing our expected tax rate for the year given this adjustment and an assumed lower level of excess tax benefits on stock option exercises in the second half.
Now turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $1,300,000,000 of unrestricted cash. We also had approximately $1,200,000,000 of undrawn availability on our revolver. In total, We had $4,100,000,000 outstanding on our credit facilities and $1,000,000,000 borrowed on our securitization facility. As of June 30, our leverage ratio was 2.62 times trailing 12 month adjusted EBITDA as calculated in accordance with our credit agreement.
We repurchased approximately 926,000 shares during the quarter for $246,000,000 at an average price of 2 $66 per share. The board increased our share repurchase authorization by $1,000,000,000 on July 27, Which now gives us $1,600,000,000 of share buyback capacity. Now even including the recent buybacks, The Apex closing and the pending ALE deal, we still have low leverage and ample liquidity for additional deals and or buybacks. Our high margin, high cash flow business, which generated $268,000,000 of ANI this quarter, quickly replenishes capital, Allowing us to pursue attractive buying opportunities as they present themselves. Now let me share some thoughts on our We are raising our full year revenue guidance to between $2,740,000,000 $2,790,000,000 which is up over $100,000,000 at the midpoint.
We are also raising our adjusted net income per diluted share guidance to between $12.80 $13 or $12.90 at the midpoint. AFIX is a big contributor as is a better macro environment in addition to volumes that improved faster than we expected in the first half of the year. We continue to be encouraged by our strong sales and retention trends and currently expect COVID volume recovery to continue through the second half of the year. We are being mindful of the potential impact from the Delta variant and we'll adjust our outlook and operations as necessary. We are expecting Q3, 2021 adjusted net income per diluted share to be in the range of $3.35 to $3.55 You can see our full updated guidance and assumptions in our press release, so I won't reiterate them here.
I would note that our guidance does not include the impact of the ALE acquisition that we just announced. We'll update for that when we actually close the transaction. In closing, I'd like to thank my 8,000 plus FLEETCOR colleagues around the world who persevered through the pandemic, helped us return to growth this quarter and have positioned our company for a strong second half and beyond. With that said, operator, we'll open it up for questions.
Thank
Our first question is from Sanjay Sakharini with KBW. Please proceed.
Ron, I'm curious what surprised you in the Q2 in terms of sort of relative to your expectation as You looked at the strength and I know Charles you just mentioned, you guys are sort of anticipating the rebound to continue, But the second half guidance didn't go up a whole lot. Understandably, last quarter you guys took up guidance. So I'm just trying to reconcile all of that, if you could just walk us through that. Thanks.
We are having technical difficulties. Please be patient while we fix the difficulties. Just one moment please. Okay, you may proceed. Thank you.
Sanjay, it's Ron. I don't know if you can hear me now or not, but I'll
I can hear you now.
Okay. Great.
Hey. So what I was saying, I don't know where I cut out here is, most surprising sales, Right. So I think we've shown previously kind of the climb back, right, from a year ago where we were against the baseline. And so to basically post really a record number and really almost across the board, I'd say That's probably the most surprising, most positive thing. And then the second thing, I guess, I'd say is just The ratability obviously coming into this year, we were a little cautious, right?
Should we give guidance? How well can we plan this business, etcetera. And so I'd say both this quarter and the first half along with our outlook that we're that I'm surprised that Basically, things are tracking as well or better kind of than the plan that we built. So that those would be the couple of things for me.
And I guess I'm sorry, just If we think about the second half, you guys aren't necessarily expecting that strength Or that strength isn't outpacing your expectations. Is that because we're sort of putting into more conservatism or something else?
Yes, that's a good question. So I'd say a couple of things. So again, we have taken up the second half from 90 days ago. But more importantly, I think the sequential number was already up a lot, Sanjay, I think before we printed the number for Q2, I think I commented 90 days ago that our Full year number had our Q4 revenue up, I think, $100,000,000 from Q2. So that would be my second point that we we're all looking basically making $7 in the second half versus $6 off of a good quarter here.
So it's still up, but we had already basically forecast the thing to sequential to keep improving.
Got it. And then my final question, just I always ask this question, just M and A pipeline. I know you guys took up the share buyback. Is that a reflection of the M and A pipeline or there's opportunities to do both? Thanks.
Yes. So I think I said in the last call, we always start with, hey, pipeline, do we have attractive things in front of us? And yes, we do. That's what caused us to refi the thing and take up our liquidity. So yes, I know it sounds a bit like a broken record, but in front of me is our pipeline sheet.
We've got 2 or 3 things, close in that we're going side on and we've got another kind of 2 or 3 things that we may do before the year is over. So as always, We've got some interesting things. And then second, I think we've got enough liquidity.
I don't have it in front
of me, but circa $1,500,000,000 to 2,000,000,000 We're generating, what, dollars 250,000,000 a quarter, so that's another $500,000,000 in the second half. So we've really got, for once, kind of plenty of liquidity, Leverage ratio, I think, is in the mid-2s. So when you put it all together, I think we feel pretty able to do, Sanjay, virtually anything we want.
Perfect. Thank
you. Our next question is from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Thank you very much. And I appreciate the color and commentary on the capital allocation And that kind of thing. I want to dig in a little bit on the core
We have lost his line, so we'll just move on until he redial in. Our next question is from Tien Tsin Huang with JPMorgan. Please proceed.
Hey, thanks. I hope you can hear me okay. I think Maybe building on Sanjay's question around M and A, just Ron, should the deals look similar to the as you call it, the classic Two deals you guys closed here similar in terms of size and accretion or some of these things perhaps bigger or smaller? I'm just trying to get a better sense of What you're seeing and what might be different?
Hey, Tien Tsin, you can see if we don't like the questions, we just yank the guy off.
Great strategy. It's a great strategy.
Thanks for your question. So, I'd say looking at the thing in front of me, I think The difference is we've got kind of 2 flavors. We've got a couple of things that are similar To the Apex and ALE, they're kind of more of what we do where we like the prices and they're accretive. Then I'd say we've got a couple of things that are more adjacent. I think I called out a year ago this idea of kind of going up the value chain in corporate pay, like with AP Automation as an example, kind of do more for the client between his ERP and our payments.
So we've got a couple Things like that, that are not square in the categories, but nest pretty close to them.
Okay, good. It's fun. It'll be fun to see what it is. And then just on the new sales front, you said that was a nice surprise. How about the second half?
I mean, do you feel like there's some pent up demand? Let's hope everyone sort of getting back to more normal, order of business. Do you see that stepping up or maybe even more than a catch up?
Yes. I mean, that's also a good question. So yes, we did our kind of Nice green to 10 tee box review halfway through the year review and the sales forecasts are Absolute numbers always higher in the back half, so we have forecasts that are often up even more against the 2019 baseline. And I did try to I know there's a lot of chitchat in these opening scripts, but I did want to just double down on the comment around this digital thing. I try to call out, but I'd say it's the most hopeful, like for me that I've done.
I've taken this question 100 times of, hey, Ron, can you just spend more? Why don't you just invest more in sales and marketing, sell more and all that kind of stuff? And I've always said back, hey, we want to have good returns. We don't waste money and practically it's hard to hire 50% more people and you have turnover. So This time, Tien Tsin, it's a bit different with the digital because you can kind of turn the crank right in a way and generate more visitors.
On the call, I always say, as we did that and generated 50% More visitors in Q2 than we had in the trailing baseline quarters. So that's the one place I'd say There's a ray of light there, us being able maybe to really step up the digital sales even more.
Okay. I'm glad you found that. Thanks for the update guys.
Good to talk to you.
Our next question is from Peter Christiansen with Citigroup. Please proceed.
Good evening. Good evening. Nice trends, guys, really nice. Earlier in the year, I think there was this assumption that There was expectations that you'd make up roughly 2 thirds of hard hit accounts by year end. Clearly, you're running ahead of that schedule.
I was just wondering if you could Update us on your thinking there. And then just piggybacking on the last response, how are you thinking about The incremental outperformance so far, reinvesting versus dropping that to the bottom line, How are you thinking about the decisioning there? Thank you.
Hey, Peter, this is Charles. So on the softness recovery, I'd say The impact has basically tracked to our plan, but it's come in a little bit differently in that T and E spend Came roaring back faster as did domestic airline travel and lodging that's associated with it. A few of the other areas were a little bit slower. So some of the industries that we called out in terms of cruise operators or hotels and lodging Still haven't quite recovered where we thought they would. So mixed bag, the good news is it is Tracking the plan.
We do believe there's still further upside moving forward into the second half. So Still optimistic that we'll get to where we more or less planned, but it may just come in a little bit different.
Hey, Pete, it's Ron. Let me just jump on the back of Chuck's comment. Your Part B, yes, is the answer. Maybe not obvious from our Q2 results, but we actually spent some incremental money late in the quarter, both in kind of incremental digital investments that I spoke of along with IT. So I think the answer is to the extent that we're tracking Ahead of what we're committing to here, I think you would see us spend more money.
We've got some places where we think we can get returns now.
That's great. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.
Our next question is from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Thank you very much. And I'm not sure what happened there technically, but I apologize if I if you already answered this question in my absence, but I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the corporate payments growth. It seemed like it was
a source of better performance
at least versus our model and especially accounts payable. What are the kind of key drivers of strength this quarter? And as a quick follow-up, I'll just get it in now. How correlated is that segment right now with respect to fuel in particular and kind of the broader business more generally? Thanks a lot.
Yes, James. So this is Charles. The corporate payments business, as you said, kind of outpaced Number of the other businesses in terms of organic growth. And it was really driven by 2 areas. Our full AT Recovery or environmental recovery, I should say.
In terms of the full AP being up over 50 That's driven by strong sales. And so as we came through the pandemic, we actually continued to sell a lot of that product as Able to run processes. And during a lockdown, it's super helpful to outsource that process to us. So we had a lot of demand through COVID and that's into this year, so sales continue to be strong there and you're seeing the flow through on the revenue.
Got it. Got it. And just as a clarification then, so that flow through and benefit that you're seeing, is that Driven by general REIT, like just movement and acceleration in the business and how much of that is tied or is being benefited by fuel prices and little bit higher levels there?
Yes, we don't have a lot of fuel buying in the full AP area. So you have a little bit of it in T and E. And our T and E or multi card business fuel is about 7%, 8% maybe of the spend, but in terms of overall kind of what we call corporate payments, it's not a big factor.
Okay, great. Great to hear that. Thanks a lot guys.
Hey, James. Sorry, it is probably our technical thing to cut you off. But just to add to Chuck's thing Again, the retention in that business is all world. It's super duper high. And obviously, we had incremental Payments with clients we have.
So that obviously drives the growth that continues to inch up.
Yes, exciting to hear that. Thank you.
Our next question is from Trevor Williams with Jefferies. Please proceed.
Great. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just on the guide for the second half, if we back out the 2Q beat, the mid point of the revenue guide, at least for the second half, is a raise of about $80,000,000 from where you were. Could you just break out kind of how much That is the contribution from Apex.
Fuel is a little bit higher than what was in the prior guide, maybe a little bit Better FX versus just building in more organic revenue dollars in the second half? Thanks.
Yes. So the $80,000,000 lift, Apex It runs about $10,000,000 roughly per quarter sorry, per month. So that'll be a sizable contributor there. We are getting a little bit of macro love with fuel prices. We'll be coming FX seems to be kind of okay.
So I'd say that between APACs of, Call it 60 and then some of the macro and then we've got the rest would be organic lift versus where we thought.
Hey, Trevor. It's Ron. The macros kind of go in a couple of different ways, right? There's HAPIs, like fuel price that you called out, and then there's SADs, like for us, like COVID in Brazil, obviously, this came in worse than we thought. So there's kind of puts But to me, again, the thing I tried to say it earlier, I don't know if people heard me is, it's not just so much the incremental guide, hey, we're guiding to whatever 80 more at the midpoint.
Sequentially, even previously, we continue to believe there's an acceleration in the business. Again, and if you look at second half versus first half or even Q3 versus Q2, we're talking about revenue stepping up another, call it, 50,000,000 So I just don't want people to miss that, that we it's a business we can plan. And so we forecasted That roll rate, if you will, into the subsequent quarters.
Okay. No, that's helpful. And I mean, it's all moving in the right direction. And then just my follow-up on corporate pay. I mean, there was good acceleration on the year over year growth rate, but really no change from the Q1, just normalizing And I'm guessing just based on the numbers Charles ran through, I mean, it sounds like virtual card is where there's still probably the most softness Relative to 2019 levels at least, I mean how much of that is the timing lag with invoicing from when you guys get paid there versus the potential for there being something that could be more permanent with the underlying customers.
And then just as a clarification there, I mean, how much recapture from those soft virtual card customers do you have embedded in the second half guide? Thanks.
Yes. So Trevor, you're spot on in terms of where the softness lies, mostly in that virtual area where we would handle payments for cruise line operators, ticket operators, Hotels, restaurants, etcetera. Commercial construction continues to lag a bit as well.
There is still
Some softness we're seeing lingering softness in the cross border business too, which I'd call out there, particularly Australia. That market It's struggling. They've actually come back in a lockdown now. So I'd say you're spot on. We don't view this as structural, Meaning that we believe it can come back or at least most of it will come back.
It's just more of a timing issue. So the potential is there. It just hasn't recovered yet. Hey, Charles, it's Ron again.
Let me just jump on the Chuck thing. The thing that's fascinating is it's super concentrated. I don't have the exhibit in front of me, but circa 75 clients account for half to 2 thirds of the softness in that particular line. And the good news is they're still alive because they haven't shown up in our losses. So It's not an across the board thing.
It's literally the small handful of super impact to clients That are still kind of down but not out. And so to Chuck's point, to the extent that they come back, we haven't planned a bunch in the second half But to the extent that they stay open and come back, that could be happy for us next year.
Okay, got it. And so there's not much from them that's embedded in the second half number?
Not much.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Our next question is from Ked Cichowski with Autonomous Research. Please proceed.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to ask about Beyond Tolls. I just wanted to get your appetite just wanted to ask about your appetite there to Kind of open up the credit lines and I think you mentioned that you expect Beyond Tolls to contribute to revenue growth and volume growth. So I mean, what's the expectation there in terms of contribution to revenue growth in the segment or to total company, Whether that's back half of this year or next year?
Thanks a lot.
Yes, Ken. Hey, it's Ron. It's a good question. So the first thing I'd say is it's been different than we planned because Brazil slid into COVID problem kind of in the February, March period. I believe it's starting to come out.
If you look at the curve, it's starting to kind of reopen. So that's the first comment is the activity and people driving obviously is less than we planned. But What I'd say for this particular thing is it's less credit because we do put some of the stuff on credit cards and we do have experience with Customers that we take money from their bank accounts. So we've got the credit out of control. It's a network issue for us.
So we spent a lot of time Optimizing the digits and the software that go in parking garages and fuel sites and fast food To get the right performance, to get super high performance and stuff. And so we put a ton of capital. I think Chuck is in the $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 range, To build out, so they're adding network like crazy now, which we see already even through this COVID lens, Volume going up because we've got obviously millions of consumers already that have the tag that just need a gas station or a parking garage near them. And so I'd say that it's the combo of those two things. 1, the rate at which we build out the network and then 2, the rate of recovery So I don't know when that thing will cross the curve, whether it's later this year or the beginning of next, But I'd say we're still based on the investment I just mentioned, we're super bullish on the idea.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Thanks for the time. I guess my follow-up question, just maybe we could touch on the Roger acquisition. I mean, how is That cross sell progressing, are customers receptive to adopting that solution?
And any comments there would be really helpful. Thanks guys.
Yes, another good question, Ken. So I'd say still early days. I guess we've owned it for, I think 6 months now. We've had a few 1,000. Last time I looked, I think 3,000 kind of active clients, S and B clients on the platform.
So it's working. It's out there. We're starting to market. Obviously, we had to do a lot of work to Get the digital selling machine and the tech built in and get it combined in and out of FLEETCOR assets and stuff. And literally this month, in August, we kind of launched the cross sell.
I think I mentioned it in the top My comments that we're taking the fuel card UI that almost a 100,000 Clients use to go in and pay their bills and basically putting in, the Roger payment platform to pay the FLEETCOR bill and offer to pay additional bills. So that thing is actually going live in this month. So We'll report back when I say again, we're the category is super hot. We've got a super good product. We're Selling a few thousand.
We're making sure the quality is good, and we're on the 1 yard line here to launch the cross sell. So early, but I'd say encouraging so far.
Great to hear. Thanks a lot.
Our next question is from Ramsey El Assal with Barclays. Please proceed.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question this evening. I wanted to ask you about EV and what are you seeing in the marketplace today? Are you sort of Planning for the future when it comes to thinking through this stuff? Or are you seeing fleets that are today moving in that direction?
In other words, is it sort of The demand side kind of pulling you in order to make these changes? Are you just sort of trying to see what's around the curve and prepare for it?
Hey, Rancy, it's Ron. That's another really super good question. I'd say, it's a mix. So the EV action, If you will, is super pocketed. So we really only see stuff in Europe.
So when we convene and we talk about EV and who's doing what, I'd say it's all quiet on the Western front here in Old USA. But We see it in certain markets. It's pretty active. For example, in the Netherlands, it's starting to become active in the UK. And interestingly, it's starting with the big accounts.
And so what we are seeing is the corporate accounts, which I guess Trying to be green or whatever and have more money and are willing to kind of dispose of the old fashioned combustion assets Our kind of early adopters of the thing. So we are seeing some exchange, some among our client base at that level, at the corporate level. And then Part B is what you said. We're trying to get the model clear, okay? What's spent?
I don't know if you had a chance to flip through the supplement we put out. But to me, it's just Almost shocking that to drive a van into a BP station In the U. K. Or to drive an EV van into a public charge point, it's the same cost to the guy. The guy spends or gal spends the same amount of money for those the fill up or the recharge.
Like I don't know if that would be what people would think. But when you look at it based on the efficiency of the vehicles and the markup that the charge point guys are charging, Right there you're like, oh, I didn't know that someone like FLEETCOR could actually get paid, because there's real spend. And then this idea that we have live now of actually putting software at the employee's home So he's not burdened with his own electricity costs and putting boxes and that stuff in. We're getting a bunch of money for that and a lot of demand for it. So it's a little of both.
It's starting to head this way and then us trying to get out ahead of it, So we can articulate what the model looks like.
Okay. That's super helpful. Thank you. Just a really quick follow-up. I Just wanted to make sure that I got your kind of preliminary 2022 EPS view.
It's effectively all About $14.70 to $14.90 is what you're seeing in terms of the base run rate in addition to the interest rate hedges rolling off M and A At this point, it looks like about $14.70 to $14.90
Yes. So let me be fair We're not trying to give guidance, so let me go on the record. It's really just trying to say, Chuck and I I'll provide guidance here in the back half of $7 so just helping everybody with the math. So kind of recurring business that's an exit rate of That's just what we provided. And then I just did want to comment on a couple of super happy things.
We work on deals and these are kind of fleet core wheelhouse deals and so they're rich with synergies. So our confidence my confidence is super high in that kind of 0 point $0.70 increment because obviously they're late coming into our company and the synergies are will roll as the year goes on. And the other thing is Something the treasurer took me through a couple of weeks ago that we made a bad edge or rolling off it. So I'm happy. So I just want to make sure people are clear that There's some happy setup things in our business, including the exit rate of the business and these couple of things that we can see.
But obviously, We're going to work hard to keep selling way more and buying way more. So I wouldn't in one second try to suggest that what I'm Saying is anywhere near what the guidance is going to be. We'll poke that as we run through the year.
All right. Fair enough. Appreciate it. Thanks.
Our next question is from David Koning with Baird. Please proceed.
Yes. Hey, guys. Thank you. And I guess my first question is just in the fuel segment, thinking about Q3, normally when we look back, it's kind of flat to up a little bit sequentially. I This quarter you talked about fuel will be a little bit of a sequential tailwind, which is nice.
But it seems like there's going to be more. It's going to be a nice sequential growth just the way you're guiding the year. What's all getting better like sequentially from Q2 to Q3? Like what's going to drive that higher than normal? Yes.
So Dave, this
is Charles. So one thing is we are seeing some higher fuel prices. So that's certainly helpful. As Ron mentioned, also great digital sales. So sales are and in that business, sales Are recognized and turn into revenue pretty quickly, pretty quick translation.
So that's helpful. Last year, as you know, sales were pretty awful. So that created a slightly different trajectory. So we're back on kind of where we want to be. So I'd say Those couple of things combined, with a little bit of COVID recovery still to go, but those things combined will help lift us A bit faster in Q3 versus Q2.
Yes. David, it's Ron.
Just the one add to Chuck's thing there is the retention, I think Someone, Sanjay, had asked me at the opening of the call, I should have called and said, hey, what's surprised us so far? Fuel car retention. I called out at the top of the call, we hit an all time high. I don't know if we break it out, Jim, or not, but we're showing off to 94% for the company. But inside of that, we hit 92% from the fuel car business.
So when you roll that through our sequential models, that creates lift in the second half So we're at an all time retention. We've had crazy good sales. To Chuck's point, hey, we're getting a little bit of macro happy From fuel and COVID recovery, so you put it all together, things climbed pretty good.
Yes, thanks for that. And then I guess just as a quick follow-up, The credit provisions have been really low. We can see that in the cash flow statement and you mentioned it early in the call too. Is your guidance the rest of the year assume that that stays low? And should we think of that changing much in 2022?
Should we like normalize it? Or what should we think about there?
Yes, Dave, it's Charles. So we are forecasting for credit to kind of normalize As we exit the year, so Q3 get up a little bit, Q4 get back to kind of what we would see more historically. As we're selling a lot more Now generally credit follows the sales. I sell someone, I try to underwrite really well. However, some people do get through and they go bad, Then they get weeded out and the base then performs better.
So as we have way more new sales now, we would expect that it's normalized. And so What I'd say is going into next year, I'd look for more kind of what we've done historically as a baseline.
Got you. All right. Thanks guys. Good job.
Thank you.
Our next question is from David Stugo with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon. The transformation of the fuel card UI into a broader bill payment platform seems intriguing and reminiscent of what you did on the fuel card side platform, mostly on the merchant acceptance side, because that would seem to be probably the heaviest lifting with this type of a payments project.
Yes. Hey, David. Good to hear your voice on it. Yes, it's I don't know. We think it's a pretty big Hi, Deere.
As I said, we're going live this month. And I think the trend It's coming to us, right, that more and more of our both U. S. And European fuel car clients Using a UI, using their phone and using the desktop and particularly going there to chaos, right, their invoices, right, whether they get an email reminder. And so we have all these clients showing up pretty frequently Inside our software UI.
And so what we've done, what we've been working on is taking the Roger billpay software and basically making it the bill payment system of record. So when you go And in the UI and click over to pay something, that platform is working. So we don't really have to rebuild The Bill Pay platform and the network is we got that already. And obviously, we have all those capabilities from our other businesses, merchant networks and from our other businesses, merchant networks and the deals we have with our friends at MasterCard. We have all that other stuff, vendors using the UI to do more than just pay us.
And we'll have certainly a report for you back, but the numbers are just Staggeringly big, right? It's over 100,000 just here in the United States are paying a bill every month on these UIs. So we're hopeful, I don't know if you want to call it the super app, but the idea is more and more people are using these software apps with us. We Want them to be more useful and we've got another product that's ready to go. So it's going live.
Got it. And just as a follow-up, what is the unit pricing look like on this bill payment platform when you go beyond Kind of fuel card bill pay.
Yes. So it's kind of almost free at this point To the client, we're looking at whether we should get subscription money for the software, But really, as you know, we get paid on the back end mostly the stuff that we run through our cards. Obviously, cross border, call it 8% to 10% of the stuff that could be cross border. So, we'll probably make it super attractive to our client base Initially get paid on the backside and then look to feather in some software SaaS fees as we go.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Our next question is from John Caffray with Susquehanna Financial Group. Please proceed.
Great. Thank you very much for taking my call. My question is on the corporate payment segment. And I was actually looking at a company that's not traditionally a competitor of yours, Coupa. And one thing that they've been saying, they as a software company focusing procurement, They've been getting more involved in Coupa Pay.
And I think what they would say is procurement and payments or payments of the procured items are actually complementary services. And If I'm paraphrasing their position right, they say, why would you go if you're doing procurement with us, why would you go outside and do payment when these things Two things could be bundled. And I was wondering what you thought of that sentiment. I was wondering if you disagree with it, why? And If you agree with it, is there any thought you would have that you would get maybe more exposed to the software side of the universe, particularly the procurement side of the universe?
Yes. Hey, John, it's Ron. That's also a good question. So first, just FYI for you, Company we bought 2 years ago called Nvoicepay in Portland was the pay provider to Cooper Pay. So we're pretty Clear on what Coupa Bay is trying to do.
I don't think you could ask them that they've done a lot today of combining the with the software, but I know that that's their ambition. So what I'd say is, for a year or 2, we've studied and looked at a bunch of Companies that have software that's kind of up the value chain, right, AP Automation, scheduling approval, workflow software, On top of that kind of procurement contract compliance kind of software that you've mentioned. Our take on it is, It will be all of the above, which means some clients will just take that AP automation software like they do from Coupa And not to pay. Some people will just take pay like what we offer, and some people will take both. And I think I've repeated that we probably will offer that.
We probably will offer the both. I don't know if we'll offer the standalone AD Automation Software and OpEx. That's our take that based on the size of the company and the industry that they're in and the research Good idea. It's something that we'll look probably to offer. We do partner with people, where we offer the pay into their software.
So we're Studying how well they're doing it. I call it peanut butter and jelly. Is it going to be peanut butter and jelly? Or is it going to be not peanut butter So I think the jury is still out on it.
Great. Thank you very much.
And our final question is from George Melos with Cowen and Company. Please proceed.
Hey guys, thanks for squeezing me in. I guess, I'll ask 2 quick ones upfront. I guess, on the sales momentum, the 106% Of 2019 levels. Just curious, Ron and Charles, where from a segment perspective that seems to be outperforming where you feel You're doing better than expected and maybe sort of the pockets of any weakness, if there are any, from the new sales side. And then Separately, Ron, just curious at a high level out of Washington, any thoughts about the infrastructure bill and what that might mean for fleet?
Thanks guys.
Yes. Hey, George, it's Ron. On the first part of the sales thing, So yes, I think I mentioned we've been surprised to the upside against the plan that we built. And I'd say this I'm sure it will sound funny to everybody, but it's been fuel. We've actually sold more year to date in the Forecast for the second half is actually higher in fuel than the plan that we built.
So most of the Overperformance against our internal expectations is fuel and most of that overperformance is digital Selling. We keep growing the share of new digital accounts that we're And as I mentioned, we're investing more at the top to try to drive that. So that's the over performance. I'd say everything else is kind of mostly on plan. We're super pleased with it.
As you mentioned, the plan is up, Way, way up from last year and even up against 2019. So I'd say everybody else is kind of delivering what we hope for. On Part B, who knows on the infrastructure bill? I'd say, first, tell me what infrastructure is. And if it's like what it would be, What you think it would be, which is kind of fixed and stuff and construction centric, It could help us a lot.
I'd say it looks a lot to us like the stimulus from last year obviously helped us get paid and helped a lot of our clients Stay open and pay payroll. And so I'd say the same thing that if that comes to pass and gets funded, And it's regular old fashioned kind of infrastructure where stuff gets built. We're pretty weighted concentrated in that construction segment. So it's got to help us. If there's more money and more work for those sets of companies, that will flow through to us.
I'm not I'll start it, George, by the way, based on the political thing. But if it comes to be the old fashioned infrastructure, it's a happy for fleet.
Hey, George. Okay. Great. As Ron talked about the concentration in the construction vertical, That's not just in fleets, that also pertains to our lodging business and our AP, full AP and virtual card businesses. George, anything else?
No, I think we're set. That's great color. Really appreciate it. Hopefully, that's a point of upside.
And that does conclude our question and answer session. This concludes the conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you