The Western Union Company
Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 27 Jul 2010

[Operator:]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Second Quarter 2010 Western Union Earnings Conference Call. My name is Carissa, and I will be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's call, Mr. Mike Salop, Senior VP of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

[Michael Salop:]

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, we will have comments from Christina Gold, Western Union's President and Chief Executive Officer; Hikmet Ersek, our Chief Operating Officer and CEO select; and Scott Scheirman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After the comments, we will have time for your questions. As we indicated in our press release, we have prepared slides to accompany this call and webcast. These slides can be found at westernunion.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call. Consistent with the first quarter, additional operational statistics have been provided in a supplemental table with our press release. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and our comments include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release and in Western Union's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the 2009 Form 10-K for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. During the call, we will also discuss some items that do not conform to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. We have reconciled those items to the most comparable GAAP measures on our website, westernunion.com, under the Investor Relations section. All statements made by Western Union officers on this call are the property of the Western Union Company and subject to copyright protection. Other than the replay, Western Union has not authorized and disclaims responsibility for any recording, replay or distribution of any transcription of this call. Before I turn the call over to Christina, I'd like to mention that Western Union will be hosting an Investor Day in New York on the morning of September 30. You can now register for the event on our Investor Relations section of our website and the meeting will also be webcast. Now I'd like turn the call over to Christina Gold.

[Christina Gold:]

Thank you, Mike, and welcome to everyone on the call. We are pleased with the quarter's results as the positive momentum we experienced in our C2C business at the beginning of the year has continued in the second quarter. Thanks to the diversified nature of our portfolio, global transaction growth increased to 9% led by improvement in the Americas region. Our operating margin, excluding restructuring expenses, was 27%, 150 basis point improvement from the first quarter, and earnings per share, excluding restructuring, increased 16% from the second quarter of last year. We grew our agent locations to almost 430,000 in the quarter and we purchased $217 million of stock and paid $40 million of dividends. So on many fronts, it was a good quarter and our business is on track as we enter the second half of the year. Longer-term, we continue to have global opportunities to increase our market share in money transfer through network growth, focus marketing and consumer segment expansion. We can enhance our growth by offering new products like Prepaid to existing consumers and building our position in new consumer segments such as small and medium enterprise business-to-business payments. As most of you are aware, I will be retiring on September 1, so this is my last earnings call with you. Although there have been challenges, I believe the foundation is strong and the company is well positioned for future growth. Today, Western Union has a strong global brand, an unmatched network, the right strategies of solid financial position and an energized management team under Hikmet Ersek's leadership ready to move forward. At this time, I would like to turn the rest of the call over to Hikmet and Scott who will give you more perspective on the quarter, as well as take your questions. Hikmet?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. I would like to take a moment to once again thank Christina for her leadership and contributions to Western Union over the years and wish her the best. I agree with her that the foundation of the company is strong and the opportunities are big and Mike's team is excited about leading Western Union into its next stage. This morning, I would like to give you some more color on the second quarter results. Many markets contributed to the performance in the quarter. The Americas delivered further improvements with double-digit transaction gain and its first revenue increase since the second quarter of 2008. Our international markets also had solid growth even with economic challenges in some parts of the world. Although our U.S. bill payment business declined as expected in the quarter on the other side, customers deliver good results with $28 million in revenues, up from $26 million in the first quarter. We continue to make advances and retro [ph] (11

[Scott Scheirman:]

Thank you, Hikmet. Consolidated GAAP revenue increased 2% or 3%, excluding the impact of unfavorable currency translation. On a constant currency basis, revenue growth rates have increased 200 basis points sequentially over each of the past two quarters. C2C transactions grew 9%, which translated to 1% revenue growth in the segment, or 2% constant currency growth. In Global Business Payments, 9% reported revenue growth resulted from the addition of Custom House partially offset by the anticipated decline in the U.S. bill payment business. Total Western Union transaction fee revenue represented 78% of company revenue and was flat from the prior year. Foreign exchange revenue represented 20% of total company revenue and increased 15% in the quarter benefiting from the acquisition of Custom House. C2C transaction growth further accelerated our third straight quarter of increased growth and up 600 basis points from the 3% levels experienced in the second and third quarters of 2009. Revenue in the international C2C business grew 2% in the quarter or 4% constant currency on transaction growth of 7%. Performance was driven by continued strong trends in the U.S. outbound business, as well as growth in Europe and Asia Pacific, partially offset by modest transaction declines in the Gulf States. The company's C2C cross-border principle volume increased 6% in the quarter or 7% constant currency, and we believe we continue to gain global market share. C2C principal per transaction decreased 2% compared to the same period a year ago. The constant currency principle per transaction decline has moderated over each of the past two quarters. The spread between C2C transaction and revenue growth in the quarter was eight percentage points or seven points excluding the impact of currency. Similar to the first quarter, the factors affecting the currency-adjusted spread included the domestic money transfer repositioning, international pricing and mix. The success of the U.S. domestic repositioning and specifically strong growth in the 50 and under principle band continued in the quarter. Domestic money transfer contributed four points of the transaction-to-revenue spread as a result of both pricing and mix. Excluding currency and the impact from domestic money transfer, the other factors impacting the transaction in revenue spread were generally consistent with prior quarters. Second quarter operating margin of 24% was impacted by $35 million of pre-tax restructuring expenses. Excluding these charges, the consolidated operating margin was 27%, consistent with the second quarter of last year, and up 150 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2010. To provide an understanding of the factors driving profitability, I will focus the remainder of my margin commentary to exclude the impact of restructuring expenses, but I will provide additional color on these charges in a moment. Compared to the second quarter of 2009, margins benefited primarily from lower marketing expense, offset by Custom House investment spending and amortization. The negative impact from the assumption of the retail money order portfolio was 40 basis points. Marketing expense was slightly below 4% of revenue in the first half of the year. We expect the second half to be slightly above this level, resulting in a full year expense of approximately 4%. Earnings per share for the quarter were $0.33 or $0.36, excluding restructuring expenses. On a constant currency basis, EPS was $0.01 higher or $0.37, excluding restructuring expenses. This compares to GAAP EPS of $0.31 in the second quarter last year. The 2010 second quarter EPS benefited by approximately $0.01 from the favorable resolution of some tax matters with the IRS that relate to the 2002 to 2004 tax years. As Hikmet mentioned, we're undertaking some restructuring actions as described in our May 27 press release, designed to better align the organization for long-term growth and operating efficiencies. These actions are expected to result in charge of approximately $80 million through 2011 with the majority to occur in 2010. In the second quarter, the company recorded $35 million of restructuring expenses or $22 million after tax. Of the pre-tax expenses, approximately $10 million is reflected in cost of services and $25 million in SG&A. Restructuring charges are not included in segment operating results. We expect to achieve an annualized pre-tax savings of $50 million when the plan is full implemented beginning in 2012. Interim savings are estimated at $10 million in 2010 and between $30 million and $40 million in 2011. Turning to segment operating margins. Our C2C segment operating margin was 29%, an increase of 150 basis points over the same period last year, primarily due to lower marketing expenses and operational efficiencies. Segment margin increased 170 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2010. For the full year, we continue to expect 2010 C2C margins to be higher than last year. Global Business Payment operating margin of 19% included the Custom House intangible amortization expense and investment spending for future growth. Excluding Custom House, segment margin of 25% was down 130 basis points of last year. Reduced volumes in the U.S. bill payment business were responsible for the declines. As we integrate this business into the Americas region, we're exploring opportunities to drive growth, as well as leverage existing infrastructure to run the business more efficiently. The Custom House core business remains profitable but as previous discussed, overall contributions to earnings is expected to be slightly diluted this year due to incremental investments stand [ph] (30

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of James Kissane of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

[James Kissane:]

Scott, just a quick clarification in terms of the resolution of the tax matters. Is that all resolved now? Or do you still have some issues to resolve?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Jim, we still have some issues to resolve. The items that we did resolve this quarter were, I would say, smaller items. The item that we're still working through is the international restructuring we did back in 2003 that relates to that $250 million refundable tax deposit. But we were able to favor resolve several items that had some help to the tax rate this quarter and for the full year.

[James Kissane:]

And Hikmet, can you maybe quantify or give us a sense of the halo effect, the U.S. pricing actions and the impact on the U.S. to Mexico business? And related to that, maybe your sense of share gains in domestic U.S. and U.S. to Mexico?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Sure. I think this U.S. domestic pricing action is one of our most successful actions, I mean we have 28% transaction growth this quarter compared to 18% transaction growth in first quarter. This obviously attracts customer to our retailers and this retail attracting customer have also halo effect to our South American customer, Mexican customer. We saw transactions grow in Mexico to 5% transaction growth and 4% revenue growth, which is a big thing here, right? And we are very attractive [ph] (38

[James Kissane:]

Hikmet, maybe a little bit more insight into Custom House's solid performance, 8% sequential revenue growth. What are the factors driving that? Is there any seasonality there?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Well, I think customers business as you know, in Q1 we had $26 million and now Q2 is $28 million. I think customers, the core business remains profitable. We do see good progress in our international, especially Canada and Australia business. And we also started to put our sales efforts in the U.S. We believe U.S. market is a big market here. We opened sales offices where our people are getting new customers and we opened one in New Jersey and one, I believe, in Atlanta. And we are also underway to opening one more in Chicago area. So I think we are targeting customers and expanding our business. So that has an impact and we really believe it's a huge business. And also we are, the use of PSD license, the European union, our PSD license in European union allows also to expand customers.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Darrin Peller of Barclays Capital.

[Darrin Peller:]

Can you just touch on a little more detail around what's actually driving the revenue guidance increase on a constant currency basis? And what assumptions you're including in your growth around the bill pay business for the rest of the year?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Sure, Darrin. On the constant currency guidance, we did increase at 1% compared to the prior outlook and now we're at a range of 0% to 3%. Broadly, we've seen a strong performance, and the Americas business would be the primary factor. If you look at domestic money transfer, we saw a 28% transaction growth, although revenue was down somewhat, we expect revenue to be positive as we get to the fourth quarter and have got 30% margin. But also within the Americas, Mexico was solid and U.S. outbound business continues to perform nicely given the backdrop of the global economy. If you go around the globe, there are some, if you will, puts and takes. Europe, we saw growth there, but we are keeping our eye on the Gulf. Our outlook for the Gulf is continued softness. Regarding the bill payment business and our outlook there, comments real similar to what we talked about in January is that we think 2010 will look a fair amount like 2009. Our opportunities with bill payments are continuing to consolidate that with the Americas region to look for revenue and expense synergies. And then look at product and geographic diversification. Clearly Custom House is a nice opportunity for us. It's a small business but just as we globalize the C2C business, our longer-term we want to globalize the B2B business.

[Darrin Peller:]

Then just a follow-up on the -- some of the newer initiatives. I mean the trends are pretty impressive, I think, across the board. I mean the payment services direct of you have mentioned. Can you just repeat some of the data points? You had mentioned growing at some substantial rate and adding about 1% of revenue there. And then also on the Prepaid business, the growth there -- I mean up to $500,000. I think you had previously guided towards ending the year at 750,000 cards. It seems like you're trending better than that already. Is that fair?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Yes, I think we do have a focus, obviously, on the new initiatives and the team is working very hard to launch the new initiative. On the PSD side, I think we recently signed new retailers and in Europe, you have the banking and postal preserve very strong agent relationship. The retailers we are signing new like OMV or Telecorp from Corte Ingles are new big retailers and I'm very excited, for instance, about the OMV signing, it's a gas station which offers 24 hour service, which we didn't have in the past in Europe. We had banking or limited banking opening hours, so we're going to serve new customers. We believe that activation takes a bit more longer time to activate these locations because for the retailers, financial services also new in Europe. However, we believe we're going to get 10,000 locations by mid-2011 and that reflects about 1% additional incremental revenue from total receiving revenue this new initiative will bring. On the Prepaid side, I'm also very excited this could be new big initiative for Western Union. I think we started -- not in the U.S., it's in early stages, but our first indications are quite impressive. We have 500,000 cards-in-force and we are well underway to reach our 750,000 cards by year-end. And I believe that could be also -- especially given our global retails international expansion rate, that could be a huge opportunity for the future.

[Scott Scheirman:]

And, Darrin, a lot of the 500,000 Prepaid Cards came from direct mailing campaigns. And now as we switch to more retail distribution, we ramp up that distribution and it'll be a little bit of a different pace for the next couple of quarters.

[Darrin Peller:]

Okay. And you're at about 8,000 locations now?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Yes.

[Darrin Peller:]

Okay, and there's obviously more if it's about 50,000 in the U.S. overall?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Yes. We think there's tremendous opportunity in the U.S. not only in our existing network but other networks in the U.S. And then there's global opportunities, too -- we don't want to get too far ahead of our selves -- but we think globally, there's opportunities with Prepaid.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

We're going to share more information on that in our September investors meeting. So we're going to give more color on that.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Keane of Credit Suisse.

[Bryan Keane:]

I just wanted to clarify, the recovery in Mexico, is that mostly just due to the U.S. domestic pricing initiative? Or is that share gains that you're taking? I just want to be clear there.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think we see some stabilized economic trends in the U.S. I think it is, although the unemployment rate has not improved in U.S., we do see some stabilizing. The other thing we also see is that our reasons of defeat could around [ph] (45

[Bryan Keane:]

Okay, and just looking at the bigger picture, in the history of Western Union, is it typical that the Americas would recover first before Europe and the Middle East coming out of a recession?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I mean if you look at our business, we are really a global company in 200 countries, right? We do see improvements in parts of the world, we do see still challenges like in the Gulf States or in Spain. The unemployment rate in Spain is not a new story for you, but it's still challenging. However, that helps our portfolio, our diversified portfolio helps to respond to the trends but also to the opportunities globally and we are very fortunate to have that.

[Bryan Keane:]

But historically, do we usually see stronger U.S. markets, domestic markets, and then the Europe and Middle East will lag? Because that's kind of -- it looks like that's what we're seeing here.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Well, first of all I would say that in the U.S., we've been much more longer, right? And in the other countries, we been 15 to 20 years in Europe, right? So historically, and the recession we have two years ago never happened in the past, right? So it is a different situation, I would say. I wouldn't draw any trends out of this but I think we are very happy with the quarterly results in Q2.

[Bryan Keane:]

Okay. And then just finally, what are the expectations for Europe and the Gulf for the rest of 2010? Do you expect similar trends that you saw in Q2? Do you expect kind of a decrease in transaction volumes in those areas?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Bryan, this is Scott. The Gulf, our outlook considers continued softness, if you will, as we think about the next two quarters. And then with Europe, we saw a growth there. So we're still anticipating some growth there as we move through Europe. But I think what's good about our business is we're in 200 countries. Outside of the U.S., no one country's more than 6% of our top line. So it gives us some balance as we go around the globe and as economies enter different stages of stabilization or recovery.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Frisch of Morgan Stanley.

[Adam Frisch:]

Given some of the changes in the agent contracting practices, specifically with regard to either exclusivity or pricing, what can we expect with the delta between transaction and revenue growth in the next few quarters?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think generally, or obviously, depending really on the countries and depending on the regions, depending on the corridor, our agent contracts. I think we are in most of our countries we have exclusive long-term agent agreements and it's been positioned that the agents are very happy with our contract and we are very happy with our agent contracts, right? In countries where we the regulatory environment doesn't allow to have exclusivity, we don't have -- it depends on the agent relationship -- but most of them are exclusive to us and have a long-term relationship. And I think our commissions are favorable to the agent. So in this situation, if agents are happy, our consumers are happy and we are happy. So we are really have a pretty well agent relationship. On that, maybe Scott, do you...

[Scott Scheirman:]

Just two points I would add, Adam, is that on agent commissions, if you will, specifically there that we continue to sign agents at lower commission rates, as we can renegotiate existing agents to lower commission rates strategically, not one-size-fits-all. And then as you're asking about transaction and revenue spread, as you saw from Q1 to Q2, that spread did come down specifically, we'll begin lapping the domestic money transfer price actions in the fourth quarter. So that should help some narrowing of that spread when we believe domestic revenue will grow in the fourth quarter.

[Adam Frisch:]

Just following up on the domestic side, I think Jim has some of the stuff but, obviously, when you lap it, we're now going to see a transaction growth. We've seen it's going to go lower, but we're also now going to see the negative revenue growth, if that's going to turn positive. Can you give us an idea of what we can expect in the domestic corridor going forward after we kind of get rid, or after we have or lap these four quarters, of some pretty nuance kind of trends?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think -- I'm just very proud of my team and Stewart, I think we did an excellent job here. It's more than a pricing action. It's really a promotion using all four Ps [ph](50

[Adam Frisch:]

Okay. Obviously, you mentioned the Analyst Day's coming up at the end of September. Not to steal your thunder, but what kind of information or agenda can we expect at that event? Just trying to gauge what kind of catalyst that may be.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think, first of all, we will definitely talk about our Global core business, core money transfer business, retail money transfer, global expansion, and we will also have a focus on the new initiatives like electronic channels, but also Prepaid Card, mobile, you will hear more color around that. Also we're going to talk about processes, our processes, speak to the market and productivity, give you a little bit strategy about Western Union going to looking forward.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Tien-Tsin Huang of JP Morgan.

[Tien-Tsin Huang:]

First, I want to ask about C2C margins; that was up quite nicely. It looks like it broke through 29%. Can you give us some detail on what's driving that, if it's sustainable? Because it sounds like aside from marketing, I would think that the mix towards domestic should help, as well as your restructuring, so I'm curious if that level is sustainable.

[Scott Scheirman:]

Well, we do believe that, Tien-Tsin. This is Scott. We do believe that the 2010 margins for C2C will be greater than the 2009 margins. So clearly, we think we've got a business model that can drive margin expansion on a long-term basis. 65% of the costs are variable, 35% are fixed. So as the market improves, as revenue re-accelerates, we believe there's opportunities to, if you will, push more dollars to the bottom line. Clearly balancing that with, what are the investment needs of the business to continue growing the top line. But we like what we saw there in the second quarter. And as I mentioned earlier, we do expect our C2C margins in 2010 to be a little bit higher than they were in 2009.

[Tien-Tsin Huang:]

Right. I mean, Scott, any beyond marketing in the FX? Are there any major drags that we should consider for the second half, maybe if I'd ask it that way?

[Scott Scheirman:]

For the second half, it's be, I'd say, just timing of expense spending. You mentioned marketing. Marketing was a little bit less than 4% first half. It'll be a little bit more than 4% second half. FX, hard to call for sure, but with this new outlook, we did increase, excluding restructuring expenses, Tien-Tsin, increase our outlook for our margins from say 26% to least a range of 26% to 26.5%.

[Tien-Tsin Huang:]

Right. Okay, good. The domestic transactions, I wanted to ask about that too. That was a large sequential increase and it seems to imply a pretty big uptick in the lower band products, the $5 for $50 that you've been talking about. Can you give us more statistics on that? And to what extent it's driving new revenues? How do you measure that?

[Scott Scheirman:]

Yes, it did have a nice effect. Transaction growth in the first quarter was 18% and, to your point, moved to 28% in the second quarter. And we're seeing some really nice success in the $5 for $50 and believe a number of those transactions are new customers or customers that we haven't seen for a while. And it seems the team's done a good job of almost creating a new category where you might give a $50 gift or one in your friends might be having few challenges and you wire him $50. I also think on a longer-term basis, as we talk about goCASH, I think that'll be another helpful product for our domestic and for our Global business where between Family Dollar and Murphy Oil, we'll have over 7,500 locations offering that product by the time we exit 2010.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

That's an exciting product, is goCASH.

[Tien-Tsin Huang:]

Okay. Just PSD, what's driving the push out in the PSD retails? I think you said now it's mid-'11 as opposed to year-end for the 10,000 locations?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think our strategy in Europe is working with PSD expanding tangent to retail. We have a huge pipeline, signing pipeline, as you know, recently announced also the OMV and TeleCorp is one of the examples of huge retailers. But it takes some time to activate them because it's also retail -- financial service for retailers in Europe is something new. And their system, all this activation takes some time to do that and that's why it's 2011, takes a little bit. But we are very, very optimistic and I believe that 1% driven incremental revenue for 2011. We are on track on that. So I think we are quite optimistic on that.

[Tien-Tsin Huang:]

All right. Just a regulatory question if I could. I guess anything in the financial reform bill that could have a direct or indirect impact on you or your agents that we should consider?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Well, I think first of all, the law just passed, right? It's really new and I believe maybe the disclosure part for the agent location will be impacted. But I think we are very well prepared to respond to that. But we are looking at it as just passed and we are watching it.

[Scott Scheirman:]

And Tien-Tsin, the other probably two things I would add that we're closely working with, and to Hikmet's point, it's early days now and there's a lot of rule maintenance probably going to have to happen, but in addition to see in FX disclosure requirements a point-of-sale, which we do. We print a receipt, we give disclosure today. There may have to be some pre-transaction disclosure that we'll have to look through, but we've got the systems, the automation to do that. But in the Prepaid area, it does look like general-purpose reloadable cards are exempt, so that's good news, if you will. And then finally, in the derivative area, Western Union, like many global companies, uses forwards for hedging. Within that, if you get some forwards that are underwater, you may have to post collateral. We've got ample cash to do that. And then specifically as relates to Custom House in the U.S., it looks like a majority of the Custom House business in the U.S. would be exempt from that. But we're closely monitoring that. And some of this is going to take some time with rule making over the next nine, 15, 18 months as we move forward.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of David Parker of Lazard Capital Markets.

[David Parker:]

Just a close follow-up to Tsin-Tien's question

[Scott Scheirman:]

Sure. Just broadly, we think comprehensive immigration reform would be good. It would provide certainty to a lot of, I'll use the word stakeholders, in all this consumers, everybody. So far, we have not seen any impact on our business in Arizona. And as a reminder, Arizona's one of 50 states; the U.S. is one of 200 countries. So it's relatively small; important, but small in the scheme of things.

[David Parker:]

Okay. And then just can you provide us an update on the strategy with the Vigo brand? We continue to see just lower advertising and marketing around that brand and understand that some of the restructuring impact did to that business, but are you continuing to invest in that brand going forward?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think Vigo is for us a very important brand. It's really a competitive -- we have a second brand especially for our Mexico and Latin America corridors, we do have the brand and I believe that it really helps to drive our transactions and to our growth.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Glenn Greene of Oppenheimer.

[Glenn Greene:]

Just want to get an update on sort of the bank distribution progress and strategy in the U.S. and just a little bit of color on the pipeline of potential future banks for distribution.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Sure. In the U.S., we have the U.S. Bank and Fifth Third Bank as active banks, and we have a pipeline. We are looking at it in the U.S. and people are working on the pipeline. I think it's important strategy to expand our network on the U.S. banking strategy because, as you know, in Europe, we have the banks and post offices, other financial services in our networks and where we start in Europe getting retail, we started to get it also in the U.S. Banks in the USA. So it is important strategy for us and we think -- it's also helping us for the future for our account-based money transfer will help us to reaching to our new customers, account holders. That will also help us to expand our transactions.

[Glenn Greene:]

Okay. And then I want to go back to the U.S. repositioning for a second. It looked like the transaction growth, obviously, the 28% was great, but the spread between the revenue decline and the transactions kind of widened. And I guess it's really due to the mix, which Tien-Tsin was getting at. But is there any way to sort of think about the average price decline per transaction? And I'm also trying to think about what revenue growth could look like in the fourth quarter as we anniversary sort of the repositioning initiatives.

[Scott Scheirman:]

Yes, it's hard to give you one simple answer on what is the revenue transaction decline because one of our challenges with the market, historically, is our pricing was a little bit all over the board. So one of our key strategies was to get to consistent price points, which allows you to do national advertising and marketing and clearer communication with customers. We do believe that as we get to the fourth quarter, we will have positive revenue growth, and that spread between transactions and revenue should narrow.

[Glenn Greene:]

And then finally, I know a lot of people are sort of worried about the European trends sort of inter-quarter. Is there any way you could sort of give us some help on what you saw monthly throughout the quarter, April, May, June? What the trends might have been in Europe?

[Scott Scheirman:]

I won't get into real specifics month-by-month, but let me give you some color on a couple of countries within Europe. I mean, the good news within the EU is we have a balanced portfolio. If you take countries such as the U.K. and Germany were solid. Countries such as Spain continues to be challenged. No surprises there, 20% employment in construction. But it speaks to the beauty of our business model that we have 200 countries around the globe and 25 to 27 countries in the EU, which provides that balance.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

The portfolio effect, I can't see that the EU -- is it [ph](1

[Operator:]

Your final question will come from the line of Ashwin Shirvaikar of Citigroup.

[Ashwin Shirvaikar:]

My question is on the Global Payments side of things. Do you look at Custom House as having a set level of revenue in the future? So that you can get adjusted margins in that segment to stabilize and perhaps even rise? And partly it would help if you gave sort of a split out for the restructuring between C2C and Global Payments.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Let me start with the general Custom House. I think with the acquisition of Custom House, we really added something very interesting, and we are entering some new customer-based B2B transactions here. And this is especially international strategy are very mutually important for us. I mean if you look at the customers, currently, they're in several countries, most of them are Anglo-Saxon countries. And given our 200 global -- being present in 200 countries on our global reach, if you combine with that, that could be an opportunity. And with the existing market, we elevated sales from $26 million to $28 million quarter-over-quarter increase. So I think we are very much, we believe in Custom House, that could be an opportunity for the future. But we have to think bigger of that -- I believe also that B2B generally could be besides the customers and opportunities where we are looking. The small business entities who have globally needs to transfer from country to country money, we believe we could be playing in a niche market there.

[Scott Scheirman:]

The only thing I would add is on the restructuring, that part of your question, if you will. What we did, we did or we will take about an $80 million charge, but it has a $50 million annual fit [ph](1

[Ashwin Shirvaikar:]

Okay. With regards to Hikmet's comments then on the B2B side, should we look for more M&A in the space? Following customers?

[Hikmet Ersek:]

I think what we are looking at is that we have now customers, we are in an integration phase of the customers. I think next year, it won't be diluted anymore. I believe that we have a good base here to expand our business. We start to hire sales people in the U.S., and I think our Australia and or Canada business playing pretty well. We are looking at that part and the customers currently.

[Christina Gold:]

Thank you very much for being on the call today. And, again, it's been a pleasure working with all of you but I also wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate our agents and our employees for a great quarter, again showing the strength of our company, our brand and our ability to really service our customers. So thank you, and I know that Hikmet's looking forward to great things in the future, and thank you again.

[Hikmet Ersek:]

Thank you, Christina. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.