Visa Profit Rises, Changes Terms of Deal for Europe Business

Visa Inc.'s earnings for the latest quarter rose 10%, though the card company noted weak cross-border spending and said it hasn't seen material improvements in economic trends.

Its shares declined 4.6% after-hours as the company said it is amending its deal to buy European counterpart Visa Europe to eliminate an earn-out provision.

That deal, intended to bring Visa's global operations under one roof, was supposed to include up to €4.7 billion in payments, triggered by the achievement of revenue targets following the fourth anniversary of the deal's closing. Instead, the cash consideration of the deal will be increased by €1.75 billion. The deal was initially valued at up to €21.2 billion.

Visa also warned it sees weakness in China, Brazil, and oil based economies.

"The continued headwinds of the strong U.S. dollar, lower oil prices, and an uneven global economy are driving continued weak cross-border spend, but domestic spend continues at reasonably strong levels consistent with last quarter," Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said.

In all, he company reported a profit of $1.71 billion, or 71 cents a Class A share, for the quarter ended March 31, up from $1.55 billion, or 63 cents a Class A share, a year earlier.

Earnings, excluding one-time items, were 68 cents a Class A share.

Revenue rose to $3.63 billion from $3.41 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected earnings excluding items of 67 cents a share on revenue of $3.6 billion.

Spending on credit and debit cards has been strong as consumers migrate from cash and checks to electronic payments. Visa and competitor MasterCard Inc. don't issue cards or set interest rates, but they charge fees to financial institutions for transactions that travel over their networks.

Visa has focused more on digital efforts lately as consumers migrate to electronic payments. Visa and other have supported Apple Inc.'s Apple Pay service, and Visa invested in mobile-payments startup Square Inc.

Write to Josh Beckerman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 21, 2016 16:55 ET (20:55 GMT)

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