First Data Corp. said it earned $57.9 million, or 49 cents a share, in the second quarter, on revenues of $502.6 million.
The transaction processing giant's net income was up 25%, and 17% on a per-share basis, from the second quarter of 1994, while revenues rose 23%.
The revenue gain would have been 34% if discontinued operations - cable services and hotel reservations - were excluded from 1994 results.
Fueled by robust growth in the credit card industry, for which it is the largest processor of MasterCard and Visa accounts, First Data is thus hitting its target of 20% year-to-year earnings increases.
The Hackensack, N.J., company said its card accounts on file jumped 38% in the year ended June 30, to 104.8 million. Its volume of card and merchant transactions rose 44%, to 2.2 million; about one-third of the increase of 658,000 was accounted for by the acquisition earlier this year of Card Establishment Services, a leading merchant processor.
First Data's merchant processing business would get even bigger after the planned merger with First Financial Management Corp. of Atlanta, parent of Nabanco, the No. 1 merchant processor.
Even though First Data and FFMC have been responding to information requests from antitrust authorities, Ric Duques, First Data's chairman, said he still anticipates closing the deal late this year or early next.
For the first six months, revenues and income rose 20%, to $940.1 million and $185.5 million, respectively.
Other business lines have also been growing. Payment instrument transactions - including the Moneygram service - rose 18% in the second quarter, and mutual fund assets serviced rose 28%.
