Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Tim O’Leary: Yes. No, happy to, Matt. I appreciate you joining the call. So I think there’s a couple factors there that work against each other, right? So obviously, enterprise will continue to grow. We expect those margins to stay pretty consistent with where they finished out the year, I think that business had a lot of growth in the second half of last year compared to the first half of the year as a lot of the government stimulus monies were depleted from consumers’ accounts and they had to go into debt settlement processes that really expanded part of that effort. So, I think the growth there really accelerated in the second half of the year. So I think you’ll see some of that growth continue into 2023 but not maybe at the same rate you saw from first half to second half of last year.

And then offsetting that is some of the margin compression, we continue to expect within the SMB portfolio, right? So as the larger reseller partners continue to grow faster than the balance of the portfolio, you’ll see some of that compression there given they extract higher residuals. So those 2 offset. And then obviously, B2B Managed Services rolling off is a gross profit dollar impact but should help the margins in that business, albeit on a smaller dollar amount in that segment in ’23.

Matthew Howlett: I appreciate that. Maybe I’ll ask other one, where do you see the long-term margins of the company when you get really ramped with the banking-as-a-service product, the enterprise more merchants adopt it. What’s — how do investors look at it? It sounds like the 30 — high 30-plus percent is going to be held back a bit because of the SMB side of it. But looking longer term, is there any reason not to think that margin could be 40%, 50%?

Tom Priore: Yes. Look, we’re taking a judicious approach and your — kind of from your mouth to God’s ears, if you will, because we’ll have better clarity on the impact as we see the adoption within those 2 segments. But to your observation, right, that all just flows to the bottom line. So if we’re making, call it, an extra $10, $15 per month, per merchant because they’re using banking services where funds are making it to their Passport account and their spending on a debit card that generates interchange that we’re collecting as the issuer, right? That’s going to change the dynamic of the profitability per merchant. So we think there’s a lot of inherent operating leverage in the business. We’ve got the products to deliver on it.

Now, we have to drive adoption. And as that occurs, we’ll have a better, very analytically driven answer to your question because it will — we’ll have metrics. It will move beyond, I’ll say, a theoretical evaluation at this point. So that’s why we’re trying to be a bit judicious about representing what it is at this time.

Matthew Howlett: I appreciate that. Just — you sort of confirm that margins look like they just explode at some point when the Enterprise Payment really kicks in. And it sounds like you’re holding back a little bit with the guidance here in ’23 and maybe investors should be looking at ’24 instead but certainly impressive potential there. And then — is there an update on CFTPay? I’m sorry if I missed it, in terms of how people are on and would you look at signing up new card companies . I’m just any update on the CFTPay and where that’s going?