Remittances - Western Union sees 4% revenue drop in 2009

Money transfer services provider Western Union has seen its Q4 2009 revenue rise 2 percent to USD 1.3 billion compared to the same interval of 2008, with constant currency earnings per share (EPS) of USD 0.32, compared to USD 0.34 in the fourth quarter of 2008.

For the full 2009 year, Western Union has seen its revenue drop by 4 percent compared to 2008 to USD 5.1 billion, with EPS worth USD 1.21, compared to 2008 EPS of USD 1.24. The company also saw its volume of cash provided by operating activities reach USD 1.2 billion for the whole of 2009.

In 2009, Western Union’s cross-border consumer-to-consumer (C2C) money transfer market share rose from 17 percent in 2008 to an estimated 18 percent in 2009, while its number of agent locations has grown to over 410,000.

For 2009, the C2C segment represented 85 percent of Western Union’s revenue at USD 4.3 billion, a decrease of 4 percent from 2008. Operating income was down 4 percent and operating income margin was 27 percent, which compared to an operating income margin of 27 percent in 2008.
The EMEASA (Europe, Middle East Africa and South Asia) region, which represented 45 percent of Western Union revenue, reported a revenue decline of 1 percent and transaction growth of 10 percent compared to 2008. India revenue grew 11 percent and transactions increased 22 percent for the year.

The Americas region, which represented 32 percent of Western Union revenue, reported a revenue decline of 9 percent and a transaction decrease of 3 percent for the entire 2009. In the domestic money transfer business, revenue declined 14 percent and transactions declined 5 percent. Mexico, which was 6 percent of Western Union revenue for the year, had a revenue decline of 15 percent and a transaction decline of 12 percent.
The APAC (Asia-Pacific) region, which represented 8 percent of Western Union revenue, increased revenue by 5 percent on transaction growth of 18 percent during the year. China revenue increased 1 percent and transactions increased 4 percent compared to 2008.