ACI Worldwide, Inc. Reports Financial Results for the Quarter and Full Year Ended December 31, 2016

HIGHLIGHTS

• Revenue up 21% in Q4 and 4% for the year*
• Total bookings up 50% in Q4 and 16% for the year*
• New bookings up 3% in Q4 and 6% for the year*
• 60-month backlog up $126 million in 2016 to $4.0 billion*
• Signed Universal Payments contract representing the largest in history
• Providing 2017 guidance

            *Adjusted for FX, the Community Financial Services (CFS) divestiture and PAY.ON acquisition

NAPLES, Fla., March 02, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2016. 

“We delivered our strongest revenue growth of the year in Q4 and set another bookings record.  We signed three new UP BASE24-eps deals, one new UP Immediate Payments deal and our largest ever Universal Payments contract,” commented Phil Heasley, President and CEO, ACI Worldwide.  “Entering 2017, we are signing some of the largest contracts in our history and we are very optimistic about ACI’s growing opportunity in the rapidly changing payments landscape.”

Q4 2016 FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Net new bookings grew 3% and overall bookings, including term extensions, grew 50% after adjusting for foreign currency fluctuations and the CFS divestiture.  Term extension growth was particularly strong, rebounding from earlier in 2016. 

Revenue in Q4 was $343 million, up 11% from last year.  Adjusting for the CFS divestiture, incremental contribution from the PAY.ON acquisition, and foreign currency fluctuations, Q4 revenue increased 21% from the same quarter last year. 

Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 grew $50 million to $160 million, an increase of 46%, from $110 million in Q4 2015 excluding the CFS contribution and related costs.  After adjusting for pass through interchange revenues of $39 million and $33 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively, net adjusted EBITDA margin in Q4 was 52% in 2016 versus 44% in Q4 of 2015.

Net income in Q4 was $67 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, versus $44 million, or $0.36 per diluted share in Q4 2015.

FULL YEAR 2016 FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Full year new bookings grew 6% and overall bookings, including term extensions, grew 16% to $1.3 billion, after adjusting for foreign currency fluctuations and the CFS divestiture.  

We ended the year with a 60-month backlog of $4 billion and a 12-month backlog of $816 million. Excluding the impact of the CFS divestiture and foreign currency movements, our 60-month backlog grew $126 million during 2016.

Full year revenue was $1.006 billion, up $39 million, or 4% over 2015, after adjusting for the CFS divestiture, the PAY.ON acquisition, and foreign currency fluctuations.

Adjusted EBITDA was $241 million, down $6 million compared to 2015, after adjusting for the CFS divestiture and related costs.  After adjusting for pass through interchange revenues of $144 million and $129 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively, net adjusted EBITDA margin was 28% in 2016 versus 30% in 2015.

Net income for the year was $130 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, versus $85 million, or $0.72 per diluted share in 2015.  Operating free cash flow for the year was $72 million, down from $143 million in 2015. Operating free cash flow was impacted by the timing of renewal events resulting in a $61 million higher accounts receivable balance compared to the prior year. Subsequent to year end, accounts receivable has declined $77 million. As of December 31, 2016, we had $76 million in cash on hand, a debt balance of $753 million, and $78 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization.

2017 GUIDANCE

In 2017, we expect to generate revenue in a range of $1.0 billion to $1.025 billion, which represents 2-5% organic growth after adjusting for foreign currency fluctuations and the CFS divestiture.  Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in a range of $250 million to $255 million, which excludes approximately $14 million in one-time integration related expenses for PAY.ON, the CFS divestiture, and data center and facilities consolidation.  We expect to generate between $215 million and $220 million of revenue in the first quarter, which represents 3-5% organic growth after adjusting for foreign currency fluctuations and the CFS divestiture.  We expect full year 2017 new bookings to grow in the upper single digit range. 

CONFERENCE CALL TO DISCUSS FINANCIAL RESULTS AND OUTLOOK

Management will host a conference call at 8:30 am ET to discuss these results as well as 2017 guidance.  Interested persons may access a real-time audio broadcast of the teleconference at http://investor.aciworldwide.com/ or use the following numbers for dial-in participation:  US/Canada: (866) 914-7436, international:  +1 (817) 385-9117.   Please provide your name, the conference name ACI Worldwide, Inc. and conference code 66612410. There will be a replay of the call available for two weeks on (855) 859-2056 for US/Canada callers and +1 (404) 537-3406 for international participants.

About ACI Worldwide

ACI Worldwide, the Universal Payments (UP) company, powers electronic payments for more than 5,100 organizations around the world. More than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and intermediaries as well as thousands of global merchants rely on ACI to execute $14 trillion each day in payments and securities. In addition, myriad organizations utilize our electronic bill presentment and payment services. Through our comprehensive suite of software and SaaS-based solutions, we deliver real-time, immediate payments capabilities and enable the industry’s most complete omni-channel payments experience. To learn more about ACI, please visit www.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us on Twitter @ACI_Worldwide.

© Copyright ACI Worldwide, Inc. 2017.

To supplement our financial results presented on a GAAP basis, we use the non-GAAP measures indicated in the tables, which exclude certain business combination accounting entries, significant transaction-related expenses, as well as other significant non-cash expenses such as depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation, that we believe are helpful in understanding our past financial performance and our future results.  The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to our GAAP results and are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Management generally compensates for limitations in the use of non-GAAP financial measures by relying on comparable GAAP financial measures and providing investors with a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures only in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect an additional way to view aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business.  Certain non-GAAP measures include:  

• Non-GAAP revenue: revenue plus deferred revenue that would have been recognized in the normal course of business if not for GAAP purchase accounting requirements.  Non-GAAP revenue should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, revenue.
• Non-GAAP operating income: operating income plus deferred revenue that would have been recognized in the normal course of business if not for GAAP purchase accounting requirements and significant transaction-related expenses.  Non-GAAP operating income should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, operating income.
• Adjusted EBITDA: net income plus income tax expense (benefit), net interest income (expense), net other income (expense), depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation, as well as deferred revenue that would have been recognized in the normal course of business if not for GAAP purchase accounting requirements and significant transaction-related expenses.  Adjusted EBITDA should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, operating income.

ACI is also presenting operating free cash flow, which is defined as net cash provided by operating activities, net after-tax payments associated with employee-related actions and facility closures, net after-tax payments associated with significant transaction-related expenses, and less capital expenditures plus European data center and cybersecurity capital expenditures.  Operating free cash flow is considered a non-GAAP financial measure as defined by SEC Regulation G.  We utilize this non-GAAP financial measure, and believe it is useful to investors, as an indicator of cash flow available for debt repayment and other investing activities, such as capital investments and acquisitions. We utilize operating free cash flow as a further indicator of operating performance and for planning investing activities.  Operating free cash flow should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, net cash provided by operating activities.  A limitation of operating free cash flow is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance for the period. This measure also does not exclude mandatory debt service obligations and, therefore, does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures. We believe that operating free cash flow is useful to investors to provide disclosures of our operating results on the same basis as that used by our management. 

ACI also includes backlog estimates, which include all license, maintenance, and services specified in executed contracts, as well as revenues from assumed contract renewals to the extent that we believe recognition of the related revenue will occur within the corresponding backlog period.  We have historically included assumed renewals in backlog estimates based upon automatic renewal provisions in the executed contract and our historic experience with customer renewal rates. 

Backlog is considered a non-GAAP financial measure as defined by SEC Regulation G.  Our 60-month backlog estimate represents expected revenues from existing customers using the following key assumptions:

• Maintenance fees are assumed to exist for the duration of the license term for those contracts in which the committed maintenance term is less than the committed license term.
• License, facilities management, and software hosting arrangements are assumed to renew at the end of their committed term at a rate consistent with our historical experiences.
• Non-recurring license arrangements are assumed to renew as recurring revenue streams.
• Foreign currency exchange rates are assumed to remain constant over the 60-month backlog period for those contracts stated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
• Our pricing policies and practices are assumed to remain constant over the 60-month backlog period.

Estimates of future financial results are inherently unreliable. Our backlog estimates require substantial judgment and are based on a number of assumptions as described above. These assumptions may turn out to be inaccurate or wrong, including, but not limited to, reasons outside of management’s control. For example, our customers may attempt to renegotiate or terminate their contracts for a number of reasons, including mergers, changes in their financial condition, or general changes in economic conditions in the customer’s industry or geographic location, or we may experience delays in the development or delivery of products or services specified in customer contracts which may cause the actual renewal rates and amounts to differ from historical experiences.  Changes in foreign currency exchange rates may also impact the amount of revenue actually recognized in future periods.  Accordingly, there can be no assurance that contracts included in backlog estimates will actually generate the specified revenues or that the actual revenues will be generated within the corresponding 60-month period.

Backlog should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, reported revenue and deferred revenue.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Generally, forward-looking statements do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and may include words or phrases such as “believes,” “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” and words and phrases of similar impact.  The forward-looking statements are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: (i) expectations that we are signing some of the largest contracts in our history; (ii) our optimism about ACI’s growing opportunity in the rapidly changing payments landscape; (iii) expectations regarding revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and new bookings growth in 2017; and (iv) expectations regarding revenue in the first quarter of 2017.

All of the foregoing forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by the risk factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors include, but are not limited to, increased competition, the success of our Universal Payments strategy, demand for our products, restrictions and other financial covenants in our credit facility, consolidations and failures in the financial services industry, customer reluctance to switch to a new vendor, the accuracy of management’s backlog estimates, the maturity of certain products, our strategy to migrate customers to our next generation products, ratable or deferred recognition of certain revenue associated with customer migrations and the maturity of certain of our products, failure to obtain renewals of customer contracts or to obtain such renewals on favorable terms, delay or cancellation of customer projects or inaccurate project completion estimates, volatility and disruption of the capital and credit markets and adverse changes in the global economy, our existing levels of debt, impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets, litigation, future acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments, risks related to the expected benefits to be achieved in the transaction with PAY.ON, the complexity of our products and services and the risk that they may contain hidden defects or be subjected to security breaches or viruses, compliance of our products with applicable legislation, governmental regulations and industry standards, our ability to protect customer information from security breaches or attacks, our compliance with privacy regulations, the protection of our intellectual property in intellectual property litigation, exposure to credit or operating risks arising from certain payment funding methods, the cyclical nature of our revenue and earnings and the accuracy of forecasts due to the concentration of revenue-generating activity during the final weeks of each quarter, business interruptions or failure of our information technology and communication systems, our offshore software development activities, risks from operating internationally, including fluctuations in currency exchange rates, exposure to unknown tax liabilities, volatility in our stock price, our pending appeal of the $43 million judgement, plus $2.7 million of attorney fees and costs awarded against us in the BHMI litigation, and potential claims associated with our sale and transition of our CFS assets and liabilities.  For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, parties that are relying on the forward-looking statements should review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.