Western Union Reports First Quarter Results

Strong digital growth continues
Over $260 million returned to shareholders through dividends and repurchases
Sale of Speedpay business for approximately $750 million expected to be completed in May

The Western Union Company WU, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, today reported first quarter financial results and its updated financial outlook for 2019.

In the first quarter, the Company generated revenue of $1.3 billion, a decline of 4% on a reported basis or an increase of 2% in adjusted constant currency terms, compared to the prior year period. Adjusted constant currency revenue excludes the Speedpay U.S. domestic bill payments business, which is expected to be divested in May, for both the current and prior year periods. The strengthening of the dollar against the Argentine peso negatively impacted reported revenue by 4 percentage points in the quarter, while the effects of inflation on the Company's Argentina-based businesses are estimated to have positively impacted both reported and constant currency revenue by approximately 2 percentage points.

Consumer money transfer revenues declined 3% in the quarter due to the impact of foreign exchange; however, revenue was flat on a constant currency basis.

President and CEO Hikmet Ersek said, "We expect revenue growth and profit margins to improve over the course of the year, as we gain traction with new opportunities and face less-challenging comparisons."

Ersek added, "We remain committed to our strategies to deliver strong digital expansion, offer our cross-border platform to new business areas, and generate additional operating efficiencies. Divesting the Speedpay domestic bill payments business is the first step in streamlining our operating model and cost structure, and we are evaluating other initiatives to drive stronger profitability in the future."

The Company plans to hold an investor day in the third quarter to discuss strategies, growth plans, and efficiency opportunities.

GAAP earnings per share in the first quarter was $0.39 compared to $0.46 in the prior year period, or $0.45 in the prior year period on an adjusted basis (refer to Adjustment Items section). The decrease in earnings per share was primarily due to lower revenues, an increase in acquisition and divestiture related expenses, and a higher effective tax rate, partially offset by fewer shares outstanding.

Executive vice president and CFO Raj Agrawal stated, "We generated strong operating cash flow in the quarter, and we returned over $260 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases."

Q1 Business Unit Highlights

• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) revenues, which represented 79% of total Company revenue in the quarter, declined 3% on a reported basis, or were flat constant currency, while transactions grew 2%. Geographically, growth in the U.S. outbound business and sends originated in Latin America were offset by declines in U.S. domestic money transfer and sends originated in the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
  
  Westernunion.com C2C revenues increased 17%, or 19% constant currency, and transactions increased 19%. Westernunion.com revenues represented 13% of total C2C revenue in the quarter and the service is available in approximately 70 countries, plus additional territories.
• Western Union Business Solutions revenues declined 1% on a reported basis, or increased 4% constant currency, with constant currency growth driven by strong performance in Asia Pacific and Europe. Business Solutions represented 7% of total Company revenues in the quarter.
• Other revenues, which primarily consist of bill payments businesses in the U.S. and Argentina, declined 9%. The strengthening of the dollar against the Argentine peso negatively impacted Other reported revenue by 20 percentage points in the quarter, while the effects of inflation on the Argentina Pago Facil bill payments business are estimated to have positively impacted revenue by approximately 11 percentage points. Other revenues represented 14% of total Company revenues in the quarter, with approximately half of the revenues related to the Speedpay business.

Additional Q1 Financial Highlights

• GAAP operating margin in the quarter was 18.8% compared to 19.1% in the prior year period, with the decline primarily attributable to higher acquisition and divestiture related expenses.
• The GAAP effective tax rate in the quarter was 19.9% compared to 8.9% in the prior year period, or 11.4% in the prior year period on an adjusted basis. The prior year period benefited from certain discrete items.
• Cash flow from operating activities for the quarter totaled $240 million. The Company returned $262 million to shareholders in the first quarter, consisting of $175 million in share repurchases and $87 million of dividends.

Speedpay Transaction

The Company expects to complete the sale of its Speedpay U.S. domestic bill payments business for approximately $750 million in cash in May. Speedpay revenues were approximately $350 million in 2018 and carve-out operating income, excluding corporate allocations, was approximately $100 million. The Company also completed a separate sale of its Paymap mortgage payments services in May. Paymap revenue was approximately $15 million in 2018. The sale of these businesses is consistent with the Company's strategic focus on cross-border, cross-currency money movement.

The sale of the Speedpay business is expected to generate a pre-tax gain of approximately $530 million in the second quarter. The taxes on the net Speedpay and Paymap gain are estimated at approximately $150 million based on U.S. statutory rates (the Speedpay tax gain is significantly larger than the book gain). The gain on the Speedpay sale is also expected to favorably affect the Company's U.S. tax position in 2019 with respect to the U.S. Tax Act Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision, resulting in a separate tax benefit of $40 million this year compared to the Company's previous outlook.

The Company expects to utilize the approximately $600 million in cash proceeds available from the transactions for a combination of share repurchase and net debt reduction over the next 12 months, with slightly more than half of the total currently planned for share repurchase.

Based on these factors, the Company currently expects the removal of Speedpay and Paymap income, net of the impact of additional share repurchases and lower net debt, to be approximately $0.10 dilutive to earnings per share for both 2019 and 2020 (the 2019 projection reflects a partial year of Speedpay and Paymap income through May, while 2020 reflects complete removal of the income from these businesses, with offsets from additional share repurchases and lower net interest expense). Including the after-tax gain on sale and additional BEAT tax benefit (approximately $0.96 per share impact combined) and an approximately ($0.02) impact from acquisition and divestiture costs, the full impact of divestiture related activities is expected to be approximately $0.84 accretive in 2019.

2019 Outlook

The Company updated its full year financial outlook, which was previously reported on February 7, 2019.

The Company expects the following outlook for 2019:

Revenue

• GAAP: mid-single digit decrease (previously low single-digit decrease to a low single-digit increase)
  • reduction from prior outlook due to expected divestiture of Speedpay business in mid-May
• Adjusted constant currency: low single-digit increase, excluding any benefit related to Argentina inflation (no change vs. prior outlook)

Operating Profit Margin

• GAAP operating margin of approximately 20% (no change vs. prior outlook)

Tax Rate

• GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 18% to 19% (previously 17% to 18%)
  • increase from prior outlook primarily due to the impact of tax on Speedpay sale gain, partially offset by favorable change in U.S. tax position relating to BEAT provision following the sale
  • The Company currently expects a mid-teens tax rate in 2020

Earnings per Share

• GAAP EPS in a range of $2.66 to $2.76 (previously $1.83 to $1.95)
  • increase from prior outlook reflects the approximately $0.84 net effect related to the Speedpay and Paymap transactions as noted above
  • the Company currently expects to spend between $500 million and $600 million on share repurchases in 2019, and a similar amount in 2020

Cash Flow

• GAAP cash flow from operating activities of approximately $850 million, which is net of approximately $150 million of taxes expected to be paid relating to the net gain on the Speedpay and Paymap sales and includes an approximately $40 million tax benefit related to BEAT compared to the Company's previous outlook
  • The cash proceeds from the sales are classified as investing activities, while the taxes on the net gain are classified as operating activities
• Cash flow from operating activities of approximately $950 million (previously approximately $1 billion), excluding the above-mentioned tax impacts
  • Change from prior outlook due to removal of partial year of Speedpay cash flow

Adjustment Items

Adjusted metrics for 2019 exclude Speedpay revenues.

Adjusted metrics for 2018 exclude Speedpay revenues and the impact of tax expense related to changes in estimates for the provisional accounting for the Tax Act. Speedpay revenues have been excluded to provide comparability with 2019 adjusted metrics.

Additional Statistics

Additional key statistics for the quarter and historical trends can be found in the supplemental tables included with this press release.

Segment operating margins have not been adjusted for the expected reallocation of corporate overhead expenses that is anticipated after the divestiture of our Speedpay business.

All amounts included in the supplemental tables to this press release are rounded to the nearest tenth of a million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, the percentage changes and margins disclosed herein may not recalculate precisely using the rounded amounts provided.

Non-GAAP Measures

Western Union presents a number of non-GAAP financial measures because management believes that these metrics provide meaningful supplemental information in addition to the GAAP metrics and provide comparability and consistency to prior periods. Constant currency results assume foreign revenues are translated from foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar, net of the effect of foreign currency hedges, at rates consistent with those in the prior year.

These non-GAAP financial measures include consolidated revenue change constant currency adjusted and excluding Speedpay; Consumer-to-Consumer segment revenue change constant currency adjusted; Consumer-to-Consumer segment westernunion.com revenue change constant currency adjusted; Business Solutions segment revenue change constant currency adjusted; diluted earnings per share excluding Tax Act; effective tax rate excluding Tax Act; operating cash flow outlook, excluding tax payments related to net gain on Speedpay and Paymap divestitures, net of lower BEAT payments; and additional measures found in the supplemental tables included with this press release.

Reconciliations of non-GAAP to comparable GAAP measures are available in the accompanying schedules and in the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's website at http://ir.westernunion.com.

Investor and Analyst Conference Call and Slide Presentation

The Company will host a conference call and webcast, including slides, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the conference call via telephone, dial +1 (888) 317-6003 (U.S.) or +1 (412) 317-6061 (outside the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the start of the call. The pass code is 9466573.

The conference call and accompanying slides will be available via webcast at http://ir.westernunion.com. Registration for the event is required, so please register at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

A webcast replay will be available at http://ir.westernunion.com.

Please note: All statements made by Western Union officers on this call are the property of Western Union 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.

Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, our forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "guides," "provides guidance," "provides outlook" and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," and "might" are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release of The Western Union Company (the "Company," "Western Union," "we," "our" or "us") should not rely solely on the forward-looking statements and should consider all uncertainties and risks discussed in the "Risk Factors" section and throughout the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. The statements are only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include the following: (i) events related to our business and industry, such as: changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions in the regions and industries in which we operate, including global economic downturns and trade disruptions, or significantly slower growth or declines in the money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions in migration patterns, or non-performance by our banks, lenders, insurers, or other financial services providers; failure to compete effectively in the money transfer and payment service industry, including among other things, with respect to price, with global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and other money transfer and payment service providers, including electronic, mobile and Internet-based services, card associations, and card-based payment providers, and with digital currencies and related protocols, and other innovations in technology and business models; political conditions and related actions, including trade restrictions and government sanctions, in the United States and abroad which may adversely affect our business and economic conditions as a whole, including interruptions of United States or other government relations with countries in which we have or are implementing significant business relationships with agents or clients; deterioration in customer confidence in our business, or in money transfer and payment service providers generally; our ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market acceptance of new and enhanced services in response to changing industry and consumer needs or trends; changes in, and failure to manage effectively, exposure to foreign exchange rates, including the impact of the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money transfers and payment transactions; any material breach of security, including cybersecurity, or safeguards of or interruptions in any of our systems or those of our vendors or other third parties; cessation of or defects in various services provided to us by third-party vendors; mergers, acquisitions, and the integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our Company, divestitures, and the failure to realize anticipated financial benefits from these transactions, and events requiring us to write down our goodwill; decisions to change our business mix; failure to manage credit and fraud risks presented by our agents, clients and consumers; failure to maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in place, including due to increased costs or loss of business as a result of increased compliance requirements or difficulty for us, our agents or their subagents in establishing or maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services; changes in tax laws, or their interpretation, including with respect to United States tax reform legislation enacted in December 2017 (the "Tax Act"), any subsequent regulation, and potential related state income tax impacts, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies; adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies; our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from business transformation, productivity and cost-savings, and other related initiatives, which may include decisions to downsize or to transition operating activities from one location to another, and to minimize any disruptions in our workforce that may result from those initiatives; our ability to protect our brands and our other intellectual property rights and to defend ourselves against potential intellectual property infringement claims; our ability to attract and retain qualified key employees and to manage our workforce successfully; material changes in the market value or liquidity of securities that we hold; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; (ii) events related to our regulatory and litigation environment, such as: liabilities or loss of business resulting from a failure by us, our agents or their subagents to comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and other illicit activity; increased costs or loss of business due to regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations and industry practices and standards, including changes in interpretations in the United States and abroad, affecting us, our agents or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services, including related to anti-money laundering regulations, anti-fraud measures, our licensing arrangements, customer due diligence, agent and subagent due diligence, registration and monitoring requirements, consumer protection requirements, remittances, and immigration; liabilities, increased costs or loss of business and unanticipated developments resulting from governmental investigations and consent agreements with or enforcement actions by regulators, including those associated with the settlement agreements with the United States Department of Justice, certain United States Attorney's Offices, the United States Federal Trade Commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the United States Department of Treasury, and various state attorneys general (the "Joint Settlement Agreements"), and those associated with the January 4, 2018 consent order which resolved a matter with the New York State Department of Financial Services (the "NYDFS Consent Order"); liabilities resulting from litigation, including class-action lawsuits and similar matters, and regulatory enforcement actions, including costs, expenses, settlements and judgments; failure to comply with regulations and evolving industry standards regarding consumer privacy and data use and security, including with respect to the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") approved by the European Union ("EU"); failure to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act"), as well as regulations issued pursuant to it and the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and regulations enacted by other governmental authorities in the United States and abroad related to consumer protection and derivative transactions; effects of unclaimed property laws or their interpretation or the enforcement thereof; failure to maintain sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital or other restrictions on the use of our working capital to meet the changing requirements of our regulators worldwide; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations or industry standards affecting our business; and (iii) other events, such as: catastrophic events; and management's ability to identify and manage these and other risks.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company WU is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments with speed, ease, and reliability. As of March 31, 2019, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering Western Union, Vigo or Orlandi Valuta branded services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2018, is available in approximately 70 countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the world. With our global reach, Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

WU-G

THE WESTERN UNION COMPANY
NOTES TO KEY STATISTICS
(in millions, unless indicated otherwise)
(Unaudited)

Western Union's management believes the non-GAAP financial measures presented provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating results to assist management, investors, analysts, and others in understanding our financial results and to better analyze trends in our underlying business because they provide consistency and comparability to prior periods. We have also included non-GAAP revenues below that remove the impact of Speedpay, in order to provide a more meaningful comparison of results from continuing operations.

A non-GAAP financial measure should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most comparable GAAP financial measure. A non-GAAP financial measure reflects an additional way of viewing aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results and the reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measure, provide a more complete understanding of our business. Users of the financial statements are encouraged to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included below. All adjusted year-over-year changes were calculated using prior year amounts.