Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Global Payments 4th Quarter and Full Year 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will open the lines for questions and answers. And as a reminder, today's conference will be recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Winnie Smith.
Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to Global Payments' 4th quarter and Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the comments made by management during today's conference call contain forward looking statements Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our most recent 10 ks and subsequent filings. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements. Forward looking statements during this call speak only as of the date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Some of the comments made refer to non GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted net revenue, Adjusted operating margin and adjusted earnings per share, which we believe are more reflective of our ongoing performance. For a full reconciliation of these and other non GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure in accordance with SEC regulation, Please see our press release furnished as an exhibit to our Form 8 ks filed this morning and our intended financial highlights, both of which are available in the Investor Relations area of our website at www.globalpaymentsinc.com.
Joining me on the call are Jeff Sloan, CEO Cameron Brady, President and COO and Paul Todd, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jeff.
Thanks, Winnie. We delivered 4th quarter and full year results that Our 4th quarter results demonstrated continued sequential improvement despite the impact of a more challenging macroeconomic environment in a number of our markets for much of the period. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our exceptional team members during this difficult time. And we thank them for their commitment to our customers, to each other and to our communities. We are very pleased to have delivered substantial margin improvement for the 4th quarter, while also setting aside funds to pay partial cash bonuses to our non executive team members.
Because of the actions we took early in the pandemic and our consistency and execution, we were able to deliver double digit earnings per share growth in the 4th quarter, positioning us well heading into 2021. We believe that we exited 2020 in a better position than we entered. We also accomplished a great deal Over the last 12 months, specifically, we signed Truist Financial Corporation, the 6th largest commercial bank in the United States, A competitive win twice over entered a new collaboration with AWS, our preferred provider of issuer cloud services to launch a unique go to market distribution strategy coupled with transformative cloud native technologies, Expanded and extended our partnership with Caixabank by increasing ownership of our joint venture and executing a new referral agreement through 2,040. Renewed agreements with a number of the most complex and sophisticated financial institutions globally, including TD Bank in North America, HSBC in Europe and CIBC in Canada assisted in the rapid distribution of more than $2,500,000,000 in stimulus For our NetSpend customers days faster than other financial technology participants and announced today a new partnership with Google to deliver innovative and seamless digital services to all manner of merchants worldwide.
Our collaboration with Google substantially advances our merchant business by driving incremental revenue and lowering operating costs through a worldwide go to market distribution relationship and co innovation agreement focused on transformative cloud native technologies. Together, we will bring new best in class digital products to market on a global basis more quickly, and we will further catalyze our culture of market leading innovation. Cameron will provide more detail on Google in a minute, but it's worth noting that in the last 6 months, we have struck And we did this in the midst of a once in a century pandemic, while delivering adjusted earnings per share growth and gaining market share. These collaborations also are consistent with our long held distinctive strategies to drive digital penetration. Our business is a combination of 2 head outs, distinctive distribution and cutting edge technologies.
AWS and Google Enhance both parts of the equation. Together, we will leapfrog legacy analog means of distribution and redefine how payment solutions and services are sold and consumed in the digital age for our issuing and merchant businesses. We already have reached the threshold of 60% of our business coming from technology enablement, a goal we set in March 2018 for year end 2020 and achieved early last July. And roughly 25% of our business is now related to our e commerce and omni channel initiatives. But together with AWS and Google, we expect to do more by driving further technology enablement and omni channel penetration as legs of this tool for future growth.
I cannot think of 2 better partners to catalyze further migration of our issuing and merchant businesses to These partnerships provide proof points of the momentum we have entering 2021 and will accelerate the transformation of our businesses for years to come. Just a reminder of the composition of the businesses driving our growth. Starting with our merchant business, which is 2 thirds of our company, our technology enabled portfolio consists of 3 roughly equally sized channels. Our omni channel, partnered software and owned software vertical markets businesses collectively represent nearly 60% of merchant adjusted net revenue. Our relationship led businesses make up the remaining portion and continue to differentiate themselves in the markets we serve based on the strength of our technologies.
Our omnichannel businesses delivered accelerated sequential growth for the Q4 of 2020, again excluding travel and entertainment. As we said at the beginning of the pandemic, we continue to see and expect ongoing sustained share shifts toward omni channel acceptance for upward 3 to 5 years by COVID-nineteen. We launched our Unified Commerce or UCP Cloud POS solution this quarter, which connects any commerce software to our wireless payment terminals through our API to help merchants more easily unify their in person and online payment experiences. Our Citi partnership also continues to expand worldwide and we expect new Citi customers on UCP to include 1 of the leading global food companies, 1 of the preeminent global beverage brands and 1 of the largest multinational auto manufacturing companies across multiple And of course, with today's announcement, we also expect Google to become a UCP partner. Additionally, we signed an agreement with Texas Instruments across Taiwan, the Philippines and India, and we expect to expand our relationship to additional geographies later this We also reached an agreement with Wolverine to consolidate their UK and European acquiring across 32 countries.
And we have now successfully launched with both Uber Rides and Uber Eats in our Asia Pacific region. Moving to Global Payments Integrated, which drives another nearly 20% of our merchant adjusted net revenue, we generated growth for the Q4 and for the full year because of the unrivaled breadth of our partnership portfolio in the most attractive vertical markets. The strength of our combined integrated offerings allowed us versus 2019. Our own software businesses represent the remaining roughly 20% of our merchant adjusted net revenue and our leading SaaS Solutions in healthcare, higher education and quick service restaurants or QSRs have been more resilient in the current environment. To that end, our AdvancedMD business delivered a record performance in 2020, achieving double digit revenue and bookings growth.
And our higher education business produced one of its finest years to date. Lastly, our enterprise QSR business Continued its success with Xenial's cloud POS and omni solutions, nailing over 100,000,000 transactions and $1,500,000 in sales for the year. In addition to serving 26 of the top 50 QSR brands, we are also pleased to announce the signing of Denny's For cloud based SaaS solutions, extending our addressable market to the fast casual category. Today, we lead with technology and innovative solutions across all of our merchant businesses. This includes our relationship led channels, where we continue to see stronger sales performance fueled by our suite of differentiated products and For example, our U.
S. Business is seeing significant uptake of its SaaS point of sale solutions with adjusted net revenue and new sales both exceeding 20 One recent notable win is with the Milwaukee Bucks, where we'll be deploying our cloud based POS solution across merchandise stores and outlets in the arena. Issuer is the next largest segment of our business. In August 2020, we announced a transformational go to market collaboration with AWS to provide an industry leading cloud based issuer processing platform for customers with regards to size, location or processing preference. We currently have 1 LOI and 3 other mid to late stage opportunities together with AWS that we are actively working.
And we now believe that the win in Asia in a similar market from a legacy competitor We have already secured with AWS. We'll likely expand in several markets across Asia over time. We continue to capitalize on the broad and deep pipeline We have the good fortune to have in our Issuer business. We currently have 11 letters of intent with financial institutions worldwide, 6 of which are competitive takeaways. In the last 18 months, we have had 36 competitive wins across North America and international markets.
And our customers continue to win in the marketplace, a key element of our issuer strategy to align with market leaders. During the Q1 of 2021, we will complete the first phase of the conversion of over 4,000,000 accounts from a competitor for one of our largest customers. In Germany, we have successfully expanded our long standing and successful partnership with Deutsche Bank, our largest client in the DAS region. We are pleased to announce that TSYS has been selected in a competitive process as Deutsche Bank's partner of choice for their scheme branded card portfolios across all brands, including Deutsche Bank and Postbank. We are also proud to have signed a new multiyear agreement with Marlette Funding, owner and operator of the BetAg lending platform, for the processing of a new consumer credit card product, which will launch in the Q2 of this year.
We are pleased to have secured long Scotiabank in Central America, Bank of Ireland and Bank of Imves in Mexico. Finally, our Business and Consumer segment delivered another quarter of solid growth as we continue to pivot our strategic focus to digitization, international expansion and business to business opportunities. That shift is underway without any compromise in execution as we also achieved adjusted net revenue in excess I am proud that NetSpend has once again facilitated the rapid distribution of stimulus funds to customers and played an important role during this most challenging period. Since late December, we have processed more than 1,000,000,000 deposits, accounting over $1,000,000,000 in stimulus payments to American consumers dispersed by the IRS. And this was done days in advance of many of our traditional financial institution and financial technology peers.
In combination with the 2020 stimulus payments, We will have dispersed more than $2,500,000,000 in aid to customers through the Q1 of 2021. I think it's fair to ask how our business has been able to deliver results that are orders of magnitude better than our markets. Our strategic focus on the diversity of our business mix has enabled us to gain share. We are diverse across channels, geographies, software ownership We coupled that diversity with a long track record of execution consistency, years of sustained technology investment and the unmatched global experience of our long PINGR team. Now I'll turn the call over to Cameron to provide more detail on our new partnership with Google.
Cameron?
Thanks, Jeff. We are delighted to announce today our new multi year strategic partnership with Google that we expect will meaningfully enhance our ability to deliver new innovative cloud based products and capabilities, Advance our technology enabled distribution strategy and deliver significant operational efficiencies, while improving speed to market and the scalability of our Merchant Solutions business. This exciting partnership has a number of facets that collectively serve to further distinguish our digital capabilities worldwide. 1st, together we will collaborate on product development and innovation to enhance and differentiate the suite Cloud based solutions available to our merchant customers. These distinctive solutions will create stickier and longer term customer relationships, Building on our competitive advantages, as just one example of the types of enhanced capabilities we will offer together, Google's business services, including Google My Business, Workspace and Ads, will be integrated with Global Payments' leading value added software and payments ecosystem, Creating a single destination and seamless digital experience for the full spectrum of solutions that mergers need to run and grow their businesses globally.
Merchant customers will be able to digitally access the industry's most robust value stack of SaaS offerings, including point of sale omni channel ordering and integrated Payments, advertising, data and analytics, email marketing, online presence and reputation management and loyalty and gift card solutions, as well as capital access and payroll and human capital management solutions. These products will be delivered through Global Payments acquisition opportunities for businesses of all sizes across our combined customer bases worldwide on an omnichannel basis. Specifically, Google Workspace serves as the cloud native operating backbone for small and medium sized businesses, as well as many of the most sophisticated enterprise organizations globally. While Global Payments provides payments technology solutions to roughly 3,500,000 merchant locations, In addition to some of the most complex multinational corporations across 60 countries, by leveraging our complementary customer bases, We will create attractive cross selling opportunities for our digital solutions and meaningfully expand our addressable market. Further, together we will be able to connect consumers with merchants via search in new and innovative ways, driving commerce and growth in a differentiated way for And of course, our ability to secure net new customers will be significantly enhanced through the strength of this partnership with Google.
3rd, Global Payments is pleased to be selected as the preferred payment provider for Google. Today, Google executes approximately 3,000,000,000 transactions annually by leveraging our unified commerce platform. We are humbled by the confidence our partners at Google have placed in us. Lastly, in addition to our commercial partnership, Google will become our preferred cloud provider for our merchant payment technologies. Over the next several years, we will migrate the vast majority of our merchant technology workloads to Google Cloud, significantly reducing our data center footprint and streamlining our operating environment to enhance performance and drive meaningful cost efficiencies.
By moving our acquiring applications and workload We are thrilled to have established this partnership with Google. Together, we are on a transformational journey that will further enhance With that, I'll turn the call over to Paul. Thanks, Cameron. Our performance in the Q4 and for the full year 2020 exceeded our post COVID-nineteen expectations and highlight Our outstanding execution and the resiliency of our business model. For the full year, we delivered adjusted net revenue of 6 point $75,000,000,000 down 5% compared to 2019 on a combined basis.
Importantly, our adjusted operating margin increased 210 basis points on a combined basis to 39.7 percent as we benefited from the broad expense actions we implemented to address the impact of the pandemic and the realization of cost synergies related to the merger, which continue to track ahead of plan. It is worth highlighting that our full year adjusted operating margin performance was largely consistent with the guidance we gave at the start of 2020 and prior to the pandemic. The net result was adjusted earnings per share of $6.40 an increase of 3% over 2019. We are extremely pleased that we were able to grow our bottom line in 2020, enabled by continued execution Moving to the Q4, adjusted net revenue was $1,750,000,000 a 3% decline relative to 20 As underlying trends in our business continued to recover from 3rd quarter levels, adjusted operating margin was 41.5%, a 320 basis point improvement from the Q4 of 2019. Adjusted earnings per share was $1.80 for the quarter, an increase of 11% Compared to the prior year period, an impressive outcome that highlights the durability of our model and momentum we have heading into 2021.
Taking a closer look at our performance by segment, merchant solutions achieved adjusted net revenue of $1,100,000,000 for the 4th Quarter, a 4% decline from the prior year, which marked a 200 basis point improvement from the 3rd quarter. Notably, we delivered an adjusted operating margin of 47.5 percent in this segment, an increase of 2 50 basis points from 2019 as our cost initiatives, expense synergies and the underlying strength of our business mix more than offset top line headwinds from the macro environment. Our technology enabled portfolio continues to prove relatively resilient with several of our businesses delivering year over year growth again this quarter. Specifically, worldwide omnichannel volume growth, excluding TME, accelerated to the high teens As our value proposition, including our unified commerce platform or UCP continues to resonate with customers. Additionally, Global Payments Integrated delivered adjusted net revenue growth for a 2nd consecutive quarter.
The leading scale and scope of our integrated ecosystem across more vertical markets and more geographies than our peers also enable another record year for new partner production. As far our own software portfolio, AdvancedMD remained a bright spot and once again produced Strong double digit adjusted net revenue growth for the quarter and achieved a record bookings year in 2020. Indeed, booking trends across our vertical markets portfolio remain solid, providing us with a positive tailwind heading into 2021. We are also pleased that our U. S.
Relationship led business saw adjusted net revenue return to slight growth for the 4th quarter, enabled by the innovative technology software solutions we are delivering in this channel. And despite a more challenging macroeconomic environment in several of our international markets this period, Demand for our differentiated capabilities outside of the U. S. Remains strong as our solutions are well aligned with shifting customer needs coming out of the pandemic. Moving to Issuer Solutions.
We delivered $457,000,000 in adjusted net revenue for the 4th quarter, which was essentially flat to the prior year period. Transaction volumes recovered further, while traditional accounts on Services also benefited performance. Excluding our commercial card business, which represents approximately 20% of our issuer portfolio and is being impacted by the slow recovery in corporate travel, this segment delivered low single digit growth for the quarter. Notably, this business achieved record adjusted operating income and adjusted segment operating margin expanded 450 basis points from the prior year also reaching a new record of 44.7% as we continue to benefit from our to drive efficiencies in the business. As Jeff highlighted, our issuer team successfully signed 5 long term contract extensions and one new contract in the quarter.
Finally, our Business and Consumer Solutions segment delivered adjusted net revenue of $205,000,000 a record 4th quarter result, representing growth of 3% from the prior year. Gross dollar volume increased more than 5% for the quarter, a result including little impact from the late December incremental stimulus, which we expect to primarily benefit us in Q1. We are particularly pleased with trends with our DDA products, which includes an acceleration in active account growth of 29% compared to the prior year. Adjusted operating margin for this segment improved 260 basis points to 24.1% as we benefited from our efforts to drive greater operational efficiencies, as well as favorable revenue mix dynamics toward higher margin channels. The solid performance we delivered across our segments highlights the powerful combination of Global Payments and TSYS, which has provided us with multiple levers to mitigate the headwinds we have faced from the pandemic.
We made great progress on our integration during the crisis, which I mentioned continues to track ahead of plan. As a result, we are pleased to again raise our estimate For annual run rate expense synergies from the merger to at least $400,000,000 within 3 years, up from the previous estimate of $375,000,000 This marks the 4th time we have increased our cost synergy expectations. Additionally, our early success in leveraging our Complementary products and capabilities worldwide also gives us the confidence to increase our expectation For annual run rate synergies, again, to $150,000,000 up from our previous forecast of $125,000,000 From a cash Flow standpoint, we generated adjusted free cash flow of roughly $780,000,000 for the quarter and approximately $2,000,000,000 for the year. These are both records for us. This is after reinvesting $107,000,000 of CapEx for the quarter $436,000,000 for the year.
As you may recall, we indicated we expected to invest between $400,000,000 $500,000,000 of CapEx back into the business following the onset of the Consistent with our announcement on our last call, we are also pleased to have now returned to our traditional Capital allocation priorities and during the quarter, repurchased 1,200,000 of our shares for approximately 230,000,000 Our balance sheet is extremely healthy and we ended 2020 with roughly $3,000,000,000 of liquidity and a leverage position of roughly 2.6 times on a net debt basis. Further, our Board of Directors has again approved an increase to our share repurchase authorization to $1,500,000,000 As part of this program, we intend to execute an accelerated share repurchase program for $500,000,000 in the coming days. Turning to our outlook 2021, based on our current expectations for continued recovery from the COVID-nineteen pandemic worldwide, We expect adjusted net revenue to range from $7,500,000,000 to $7,600,000,000 reflecting growth of 11% to 13% over 2020. This outlook is consistent The high end of our long term target of high single digit to low double digit growth and it also reflects the benefit of the year on year comparisons due to the since due to the pandemic.
Considering this top line forecast, we would expect to deliver normalized adjusted operating margin expansion of up to 450 basis points given the natural operating leverage in our business and expense synergy actions related to the TSYS merger. However, this will be partially offset by the reinstatement of certain expenses that were expansion of up to 250 basis points compared to 2020 levels on a net basis. To provide some color at the segment level, we expect adjusted net revenue growth for our Emergent Solutions segment to be in the mid to high teens, which assumes the current pace of recovery continues worldwide. We expect underlying trends in our issuing 2 distinct and relatively equal sized headwinds. 1st, we are not anticipating a recovery in our commercial card business as we expect corporate travel to being depressed throughout 2021.
2nd, we will be absorbing the impact of a portfolio sale by one of our customers, which will impact us for the remainder of the year. Taking these two items into account, we are forecasting our issuing business to deliver adjusted net revenue growth in the low single digit range for the full year. Lastly, we expect underlying trends in our business and consumer segments to be consistent with our long term This outlook reflects the expected benefits of the recent stimulus announced at the end of December, but it does not assume any additional stimulus. Adjusting for the impact of the larger 2020 CARES Act stimulus On comparative results for 2021, we are forecasting adjusted net revenue growth to be in the mid single digits for this segment. Regarding segment margins, we expect up to 250 basis points of adjusted operating margin improvement for the total company to be driven largely by merchant solutions, while we expect Issuer and Business and Consumer to deliver normalized margin consistent with the underlying leverage profile of these businesses.
This follows the 5 From a quarterly phasing perspective, we will not lap the initial impact of the pandemic until mid March. Therefore, we will have before returning to more normalized rates of growth in the back half of the year. Our outlook is for adjusted net revenue growth, adjusted operating margin expansion and adjusted earnings per share growth for each quarter of 2021. Moving to a couple of non operating items, we currently expect net interest and expect our capital expenditures for 2021 to be in the $500,000,000 to $600,000,000 range. Putting it all together, we expect adjusted earnings per share for the full year in a range of $7.75 to 8.05 $0.05 reflecting growth of 21% to 26% over 2020.
This is consistent With the adjusted earnings per share target of roughly $8 that we provided on our Q3 call despite the incremental adverse impact additional lockdowns and social distancing protocols in a number of our markets since late October. In summary, our 2021 guidance This assumes an improving economy for the first half of the year and a stronger second half of the year with continued progress toward normalization. We are pleased with how well we are positioned as we enter 2021. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.
Thanks, Paul. I am very proud of what we accomplished in 2020. This would have been a remarkable year of milestones regardless of the macroeconomic environment, But it's all the more notable in the face of a 100 year pandemic. Competitively, 2020 was a year of firing on all cylinders for our company. Across our businesses, we took meaningful market share and advanced the ball further down the field despite all the challenges thrown at We don't need to wait to see a more benign macro to grow.
We didn't spend the past year waiting for a better day. Our resilience is self evident. The technology investments we made over the last 7 plus years, our distinctive strategy While hurdles undoubtedly remain, we would not trade positions with anyone heading into 2021. Whitney?
Thank you. Operator, we will now go to questions.
Thank you.
The first question comes from Bryan Keane of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Hi, guys. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the Google relationship. Does it change To the merchant and all, do they see different fees as a result of the partnership or do they get a lot of these benefits as part of the package? Hey, Brian, it's Cameron.
Good morning. I'll start with that and then ask Jeff or Paul to jump in if they'd like to. So basically, what we're really to do is create an even more differentiated portal offering to our customer base by enhancing our existing value added services with Google product and capabilities that exist in the market today. And then further, as we co develop and innovate new product with Google, we'll obviously look to layer those into The nice thing about portal environment, it's completely self select. Our customers can choose what products and solutions that they need to run and grow their business, And they'll be able to effectively determine the pricing outcome that they desire based on their need for products and services.
So Like anything else we do, there'll be different levels of availability to customers from lower end, very basic to mid market to higher end complete sets solutions they need to run and grow their businesses more effectively. And by working with Google, we expect to be able to innovate new products and capabilities that will be distinctive in the marketplace for them. Got it. Helpful. And then as a follow-up, I just wanted to ask on the merchant side, I think you talked about mid to high teens growth.
Can you give us any help kind of by segment thinking about relationship software? Obviously, that probably Yes, sure, Brian. It's Cameron. Maybe I'll start with just a little commentary about the expectations for the business, and I'll let Paul jump in with a few more of the details. So I would say if you look at the business overall, given that North America represents about 70% of the merchant business globally, obviously, it's going to I have the lion's share of the outcome for the entire segment for the full year.
And I would say, we are looking for pretty good Breeze, obviously, in the payments and payroll business as well as the integrated business in the U. S. So I would say both of those would be towards the higher end of that targeted expectation that we have for the merchant Business in aggregate. And as the vertical markets that we participate in continue to recover as well, we would Our vertical market business to be towards the higher end of that range also, just given obviously the impact on 2020 for that business as well as Strong new sales performance that we saw in 2020, giving us good momentum kind of heading into 2021 as we start to lap the impacts of the pandemic. I think Europe, our expectations are a little more modest.
They're probably in that kind of mid teens range, just given some of the incremental impacts of new shutdowns in the 1st part of the year in Europe and maybe just a slightly more benign expectation around the recovery environment in Europe, Particularly as it relates to cross border throughout the course of 2021. And then I would say Asia has recovered reasonably well heading into the year, and I think we have pretty good Expectations that Asia gets back to a fairly strong growth rate in the year towards again the high end of that guidance range overall for 2021. So I think when you put it all together, We feel good about the mix of businesses we have and the overall expectation for mid to high teens growth for the full year. I would tell you, Brian, that basically assumes kind of an ongoing gradual recovery from where we are today. We've seen results in January that are better than December, We expect the recovery to continue to grind higher through the balance of the year such that by the time we're exiting 'twenty one, we expect domestic volumes to be more normalized.
And obviously, we think cross border is going to continue to lag slightly kind of heading into 2022, and that's consistent with the commercial card commentary that Paul provided in his script. So We're not expecting a heroic recovery. As we think about the outlook for 2021, we expect a gradual recovery kind of throughout the year. We know it won't be linear. There'll be puts and takes as we Continue to progress throughout the year, but by and large expect to continue to grab the recovery and that's really what supports the overall merchant expectation for the year.
Paul, I don't know if you'd have anything to add? Yes. The only thing I would add, you covered it. It would just be the quarterly phasing of that, Brian. I kind of referenced that in the script, but obviously in the Q1, we have really a pre pandemic That comparison that kind of lends toward a more muted growth there in the second quarter shifts the opposite.
Those 2 kind of blend out to that Mid to high rate that we're talking about and then the last half of the year is pretty consistent with that mid to high rate. So I think that That gives a little more color on the quarterly pacing. Yes. And the only other thing I would add to that, Brian, is we don't need a heroic recovery or perfection to kind of get to the higher end of the range. So So obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty heading into the year, and I think our guidance accommodates that.
But we don't need perfection And some sort of heroic recovery where everything is kind of back to normal by mid year for us to get to the higher end of the range that we put forward today.
Your next question comes from Timothy Chiodo of Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
Thanks a lot for taking the question. So you mentioned this in the Google And then also Cameron in the prepared remarks around the distribution of not just payments acceptance, but also loyalty, gift card, Payroll, capital access was mentioned and other financial services. Maybe you could talk a little bit more broadly about not only the 4,000 other software platforms and partners within the Global Integrated Global Payments Integrated
Yes, it's a really good question. So there's really 2 elements of that. There's 1, obviously, the co sell relationship that we'll have with Google as it relates to our go to market strategy Going forward and obviously being able to work with Google Cloud, co sell solutions with them, having them refer business into us From a payment standpoint, creates a strong new technology enabled distribution stream that really, I think, augments and Our existing go to market strategies very nicely. So we're delighted about that and think there's a lot that we can do together with Google to drive new revenue growth in the business through this cross sell relationship. And then reflecting back a little bit on the comment that I made to Brian's question, If you think about the business, these solutions will all be delivered through our cloud based digital portal that is in operation today and running in Google Cloud today.
So the idea is that we continue to integrate new products and solutions and services into our digital portal, they'll be available to our entire merchant base Regardless of what distribution channel that merchant customer comes to us, so since it's all consolidated on the back end, Those merchant customers will have the ability to access all of those value added solutions and capabilities, whether or not they're a traditional relationship led customer coming through chip led customer coming through us through that channel or they're an integrated customer coming through us through an ISV relationship. And we think that's unique and distinctive to Global Payments, our ability to integrate those solutions and make them available through a digital portal to the entire suite of customers that we serve around the globe.
Your next question comes from Ashwin Shirvaikar of Citi. Your line is open.
Thank you. Hey, Jeff. Hey, Simon, Paul. You guys have been quite busy, a lot of investments and announcements to absorb here. It's good to see.
I guess, one question I had, obviously, heading into 'twenty one, a lot of moving parts that you addressed on the prepared remarks. But if you don't mind, Could you kind of in one place kind of go through the cadence of how you expect overall segment revenue and profit To perform over the course of the year by segment, particularly thinking of of comps, synergy, unwind of early pandemic cost, things like that?
Sure, Ashlyn. We kind of hit on it a little bit on the merchant side in the earlier question around kind of that phasing demand. And That same kind of concept kind of plays through to a large degree with other segments, particularly as it relates to the pre pandemic comp In 1Q and then the pandemic comp going the other way in the second quarter and then kind of more normalized in the back half of the year. So clearly that's the case In merchant and that mid to high teens growth rate, as I said, kind of averages out between the first two quarters with those two impacts and then is Pretty consistent for the back two quarters. On the issuing side, as we said, from a kind of organic Standpoint, we start kind of that mid to high growth rate, and then we're going to actually look to be at more of a low single digit As a reported matter, the only thing I would highlight there is we did not assume commercial card recovering throughout the year.
So that's a headwind That plays itself out throughout the whole year. I would say we also have some in addition to just the pre pandemic comps, we also have some headwind as it relates to just credit transaction volumes in the issuing business, year over year as and we're seeing Consistent with what the Visa numbers that they talked about for January and as Cameron mentioned earlier, we did see improvement from January to December, but we still Had some headwind on the transaction volume side and the issuing that will play itself through the Q1. And then on the business and consumer side, we kind We've got some tailwind as it relates to stimulus in the Q1 and then kind of more normalized kind of that mid single digit growth rate that we talked for the remaining three quarters. As it relates to expenses and margin, there isn't anything necessary on the expense side. Obviously, we've done a really good job over the last Two quarters of managing that expense rate to a pretty consistent year over year growth rate of roughly about 8%.
And there's nothing I would necessarily highlight other than the variable expenses that come with that revenue that I would call out On the expense side, so obviously, we're very pleased to be in a position to yet again have a on the merchant side than we did this last year, but we still expect to have nice margin expansion in both issuing and business and consumer. And there wouldn't be necessarily anything on a quarterly basis, I would call out there.
Got it. And then capital allocation, it's good to see the incremental buyback announcement. I mean, Can you speak to the M and A pipeline though from a capital allocation perspective? Has your traditional view on making accretive acquisitions Maybe change in favor of acquisitions that might help revenue growth a little bit more, but not be accretive to the bottom line?
Ashwin, it's Jeff. I'll start on your question. So the answer is no. Our view has not changed on capital allocation. Our M and A pipeline It is full.
As you usually point out, we did almost $780,000,000 of free cash flow just in the Q4 of over $2,000,000,000 during the course of 2020 in a pandemic caused depression. So we feel pretty good about our ability to generate Free cash flow. So I would say nothing has changed there. We are looking for revenue growth opportunities on our side, but we've got Our outlook for 'twenty one-two. So I don't think any of that's changed.
These things aren't mutually exclusive. We've got plenty of firepower at 2.6 times Net leverage and $2,000,000,000 of free cash flow from last year to continue to make concurrent investments in ourselves, which we think is a good idea to do right now just like we thought it was in October in our Q3 call. We've got the flexibility thankfully and the wherewithal to do both those things and that's what we'll continue doing.
Thank you. Good job, Teekup. Good luck. Thank you.
Your next Question comes from Darrin Peller of Wolfe Research. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks guys. I want to go back to the follow-up on the capital allocation We ended the year last year with some headlines over consolidation with FIS in the news and you guys, and it was obviously at the time rumors. But Jeff, if you could just revisit for us your vision of the industry per minute in terms of the merits of consolidation Scale versus your view of what you're clearly doing now, which is investing in yourselves around omni channel and cloud and other initiatives. I would love to just hear your view on long term next few years, where you see the industry heading.
Thanks, Aaron. It's Jeff. So look, we're in a scale business. I think that's always been true. That continues to be true today.
That's going to be true tomorrow. So having more scale in a scale business is always a good idea. I think we've shown this with Heartland. I think we've TSYS partnership. So I don't think having scale in the technology business is really ever going to go out of favor.
I think the fruits in the pudding, you saw that in 2020, Right. Double digit earnings growth in the Q4 coming out of the depression while the networks are shrinking. I don't think you have to look further than that to realize that that was a good idea. So I think at the end of the day, those type of scale economies will drive further consolidation, but it's not just consolidation for I think the reasons in part that we look for further scale opportunities is to make more investments Back in our businesses, if you look at the areas that are growing most quickly for us during the pandemic, look at our omni channel business, which accelerated again The high teens in the Q4 of 2020, which by the way Google is going on too under our UCP product. Look at our integrated business, which showed Growth in the Q4 and for the year, those are businesses and of course our software businesses, which did as well in certain of the vertical markets like AdvancedMD, those are all businesses we may have made very substantial investments in over the last number of years.
We couldn't make those investments worldwide as we're doing if we didn't have the scale in the first place. So listen, my own view In the businesses, we need to continue to invest in those areas that we think are right for future growth. We never could have pivoted this quickly to omni channel, to safer commerce if we hadn't had those on the product development board in the 1st place and we didn't have the access to capital that we do from our own free cash flow, we'd like to continue to make those investments. So in those contexts, obviously, additional scale Makes sense. But very similar to the response, Darren, if you asked a very similar question to Ashland's, at the end of the day, none of that changes the strategy really that we've been running the company with over the last seven Which is to say, focus on the 3 prongs at the end of the day, software partnership and ownership, on omni channel acceptance and delivery and on the most attractive market.
So the nice thing about 2020 with all the challenges that suit every one of us Was that it really validated all things that we've been talking about. If we can find future transactions or partnerships that align with the three things that we've been talking about since 2013, that of course scale and the scale business is going to be a good idea. So I think We do 'twenty and the more recent events as it relates to validation of all the stuff that we've been talking about. If we can find further ways to accelerate those investments, then we will.
That's helpful. Just one quick follow-up, Jeff, is you guys outperformed our merchant business in the quarter. And I mean, it's pretty clear that it's a tough From a merchant standpoint, for revenue, they really read a lot into what's happening given mix. But if you can give us any more color on the actual bookings Trends in the sense of number of merchants you're adding, it seems like with all the initiatives you're holding up and you're actually gaining share, but it's easier to see that if we had So any more color on what happened there, so we know what could look like when it reopens? Thanks again, guys.
Yeah. Hey, Darren, it's Cameron. Maybe I'll jump in on that one and I'll ask Jeff Raghal to chime in as well if he'd like to add anything. So maybe if I just step back and look at it from standpoint in terms of overall net new sales performance for the year, I think it's pretty easy to say that we're delighted with the Particularly given the backdrop that we were executing again for the full year. So just a few highlights that I would share.
Heartland for the year had new sales growth year over year relative to 2019 despite the pandemic, which I think speaks volumes to our relationship led managers' ability to go out and generate new business even in a really difficult And obviously they've been very creative and nimble in terms of how they've been able to do that. So Heartland grew net sales in 2020 notwithstanding the pandemic Integrated exceeded our budgeted new sales forecast for the year by a pretty meaningful amount, An excellent new sales year for integrated business, new partner production was also about 140% of our budget. So not only did we see good strong new sales of merchants, we saw good new business development partner production in that channel as well. Then in some of the vertical market businesses, AdvancedMD grew bookings 15% year over year. Our Xenial SaaS solution was up 20% year over year.
Tutsnet New sales performance that was pretty consistent with 'nineteen. Again, notwithstanding the fact that many university and campuses were closed For much of the year, with the beginning of the pandemic. So that just gives you a few ideas. Canada was up 20% in new sales year over year. From a new sales execution standpoint, I think our performance was exemplary in 2020.
I'm really delighted with the teams and what they were able to Given the backdrop, I think the most important thing is we grew net mid count globally in 2020. So notwithstanding all the concerns around the SMB markets All the concerns about small business failure, we grew mid count year over year, which is a good accomplishment in any market, in any environment, but a particularly good in 2020 given the backdrop. So we feel very good about the health of the underlying portfolios that we are managing. We feel very good about The occasion of the businesses that we have, the vertical markets exposures we have, to Jeff's point in his script, we are diverse by design. Obviously, we've put a lot of effort into making sure that we have a merchant business in particular that has a good mix of credit exposure, That is not taking undue credit risk, it's well diversified across geographies, verticals, types of underlying merchant customers.
And I think that has helped us to have a more relatively more resilient sort of performance over the course of 2020. And I think we exited the year at pretty good place and have a lot of confidence heading into 2021 that the expectations we've set forth today are achievable and we feel About delivering against those, as I said earlier, January was better than December for us in our merchant business and very much consistent with our expectations. It gives Confidence at least 1 month into the year that we're on a good trajectory to get to the outcomes we've provided today.
Your next question comes from Lisa Ellis of MoffettNathanson. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Can you just take a step back? I wanted a follow-up question on the Google partnership and just In light of the Amazon partnership also from earlier this year, can you just maybe give it a high level compare and contrast the 2 a little bit? I know obviously Google focused on merchant, Amazon focused on Issuer and just more strategically, I guess, what do you how do you see those impacting your business 2021, 2022 and beyond. Thank you.
Yes, Lisa, it's Jeff. I'll start and I'm sure Cameron will add. It's an excellent question. So Both businesses, both TSYS and Global Payments have had historical relationships with each of Amazon and Google for many years. So I think we've A first row seat as to what those companies look like.
We have a lot of respect For Farish, so why don't I start with AWS. Our Issuer folks have worked with them for a number of years as part of their modernization initiatives. We've been very, very happy with them. I think you have to realize that it's a slightly different proposition that we're undertaking in issuer versus merchant. So on the issuer side, it's technology modernization and transformation really at the same time, which is to say that code is going from more of a legacy code into cloud enabled where it probably is today and then into cloud native, ultimately, while it's being lifted and shifted over to a cloud hosted environment.
So in the case of Google, however, on the merchant side, we're really already there. Our businesses are really either cloud enabled or cloud native already in their own right. So the Google proposition is a little bit different on the technology side. It's more of a shift rather than a lift and shift in the case of the merchant business. I would say in the case of each, the go to market proposition though is very similar.
We think AWS has a very distinctive and strong proposition among financial institution issuers. You can look up a lot of folks that they've announced recently going to AWS Cloud. But we've had, as we said in our prepared remarks, we've had very good experience already With one announced win and I think 3 to 4 we said already mid to high probabilities in the pipeline and probably another 4 or 5 that are lower probabilities, but also in the pipeline on the co sell with AWS in the in the issuer environment. So we beat at AWS and I think it's been proven so far in our experience today as having fantastic Technologies, which we knew for a long time, but also having terrific distribution into the FI segment. Google, of course, has very many of the Same things that we view the Google co sell more on the merchant side here, which is what Cameron was talking about too.
And really there's 2 pieces there that are also unique. So in the case of AWS, that's a unique co sell in that buy land. In the case of Google, it's a unique co sell in some merchant land. And on the merchant side, it's really 2 pieces, as Cameron has articulated with Google. The first one really is embedding their products and services uniquely into our already live merchant portal, which by the way is already resonant for Global Payments and has been for years in the Google Cloud already, Right.
So we already have that. We're just letting their products into our merchant cloud environment more seamlessly. And then the second piece similar to AWS is a co sale, meaning There was actual quota at the Google level for Google sales reps to sell our products and services into the Google base, and we also have that ability of selling Google's products and services into our portal like environment, which Cameron described some time ago, very similar to what we're doing with AWS, right, FSS quota There are sales reps selling on the FI base. So while I would say that they're very similar in the sense of contract, they're a bit different When you think about where they're targeted, issuer versus merchant, and when you think about the nature of the lift and shift that's really going on in the case of the AWS side And the Google side is more of a shift.
And Lisa, it's Cameron. I would just add a couple of things on that, particularly as it relates to the Google partnership, Just building on Jeff's commentary. So first of all, as Jeff noted, we have a very long history with Google. We know them in the merchant business extraordinarily well. They've been a terrific partner to us and we I think what struck me most as we thought about the opportunity is just the shared vision that we both have as it relates particularly digitally that will help do that for merchant customers, particularly in an environment where they need that now more than ever.
And then secondly, delivering products and capabilities that help Businesses run more efficiently and more effectively. And I think we at Google Payments excuse me, at Global Payments and what Google has tried to accomplish are really geared towards those key elements So supporting merchant customers. And then lastly, we have very shared visions around innovation and those things that we can do again that are going to help drive more Customers through our customers' businesses, while at the same time, again, helping them to run their businesses more effectively. And although we're starting with Google My Business Workspace and Ads, integrating that Into our portal environment, we hope to add omni channel ordering in search, service appointment availability, inventory, those types of solutions as well. Again, trying to create a more distinctive holistic offering of value added services through our digital portal that we think will be, again, differentiated in the market for Global Payments.
But more importantly, we'll really help our customers again to run and grow their businesses effectively.
You were helpful. Great color. Thank you.
On behalf of Global Payments, thanks for your interest in us and joining us this morning.