Wright Express Corp. is reaping the benefits of continued growth in Expedia transaction volume.
The South Portland, Maine-based fleet card provider on Nov. 2 reported a 51.6% increase in total revenue for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, to $151.9 million from $100.2 million during the same period last year. Net income grew 133.5%, to $48.1 million from $20.6 million.
The company’s MasterCard corporate card program continues to fuel growth, with an 84.6% boost in purchase volume during the quarter, to $2.4 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier. Wright cites the addition of transactions from online travel site Expedia.com as the reason behind the growth.
New online business during the quarter included a prepaid card business in Australia, Wright Express Prepaid Cards Australia, Mike Dubyak, chairman, president and CEO, tells PaymentsSource.
Wright Express also experienced 7% payment-processing transaction growth in North America, which it attributes to more new business announced last quarter, including a contract extension with Conoco and a private-label card deal with the Wawa chain of 580 convenience stores, which went live during the third quarter, says Dubyak.
The price of gas also influenced the quarterly increases, he said. Domestic retail fuel prices increased 33.1%, to an average of $3.70 per gallon from $2.78 a year earlier. Wright Express processed 85.1 million fuel transactions during the quarter, up 23.3% from 69 million.
Fleet payment solutions total revenue was $117.1 million, up 40.2% from $83.5 million. Within that division, payment-processing revenue where Wright Express owns the receivables totaled $78.4 million, up 38.5% from $56.6 million. Transaction-processing revenue where Wright Express does not own the receivables totaled $4.3 million, up 2.3% from $4.2 million.
Processing of payment transactions where Wright Express owns the receivables increased 19%, to 65.2 million from 54.8 million. Transactions processed where Wright Express does not own the receivables increased 40.1%, to 19.9 million from 14.2 million.
The company’s other payment services operations, such as Wright Express’s new payroll card, generated revenue of $34.8 million, up 108% from $16.7 million.
These “expanding verticals,” though they may be small, are fueling earnings growth, Dubyak said. Under the other payment services segment, payment-processing revenue was $24 million, up 80.5% from $13.3 million. Transaction-processing revenue was $1.7 million. This segment did not report transaction-processing revenue in the third quarter of 2010.
The average number of vehicles Wright Express serviced worldwide was 6.5 million, up 35.4% from 4.8 million a year earlier.
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