FleetCor Reports Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results

FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT), a leading independent global provider of specialized payment products to businesses, today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2011.

"We are pleased to report another quarter ahead of our internal plan," said Ron Clarke, chairman, president and chief executive officer, FleetCor Technologies, Inc. "We also made progress on our acquisition strategy and announced a Mexico prepaid fuel card acquisition during the third quarter. The acquisition is consistent with our strategy to build a position in ‘emerging payment markets’ and establishes a beachhead in Latin America from which we expect to expand.”

Financial results for the third quarter of 2011:

GAAP Results

• Total revenues, net, in the third quarter of 2011 increased 20.2% to $134.2 million compared to $111.7 million in the third quarter of 2010
• Net income in the third quarter of 2011 increased 21.3% to $40.5 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, compared to $33.4 million, or $0.41 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2010

Non GAAP Results

• Adjusted revenues¹ (revenues, net less merchant commissions) in the third quarter of 2011 increased 23.4% to $120.9 million compared to $97.9 million in the third quarter of 2010
• Adjusted net income¹ in the third quarter of 2011 increased 37.5% to $47.3 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, compared to $34.4 million, or $0.41 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2010 on a pro forma basis (to reflect the impact of public company expenses, non-cash compensation expense, increase in the effective tax rate during the third quarter of 2011, and fully diluted shares effective in the third quarter of 2011, as if these changes had occurred during the third quarter of 2010)

"Given our strong results for the third quarter and year to date, our progress on our growth initiatives, and continued positive environmental factors, we are again raising our financial guidance for 2011,” said Eric Dey, chief financial officer FleetCor Technologies, Inc.

2011 Outlook

FleetCor Technologies, Inc. is raising its financial guidance for 2011 as follows:

• Revenues, net between $500 million and $510 million, up from our previous guidance range of $480 million to $490 million
• Adjusted Net Income between $173 million and $178 million, up from our previous guidance range of $168 million to $173 million; and
• Adjusted Net Income per diluted share between $2.08 and $2.12, up from our previous guidance range of $2.00 to $2.05

The Company's full-year 2011 guidance includes the following:

• Approximately $2 million of incremental cash operating costs in 2011 for public company costs that did not exist in 2010.
• A 2.3% increase in our effective tax rate from 28.7% of pretax profit in 2010 to 31.0% of pretax profit in 2011.
• An increase of 2.9 million diluted shares outstanding from 80.8 million shares in 2010 to 83.7 million shares in 2011.

The full year guidance produces a 16.4% full year 2011 revenue growth rate and 28% cash earnings per share growth rate at the midpoint of our guidance range versus 2010 on a pro-forma basis.

This guidance includes the anticipated impact of our Mexican prepaid fuel card acquisition, but does not reflect the impact of any future acquisitions or material new partnership agreements. In addition, our full year guidance assumes that there are no material changes in macroeconomic and business conditions in the fourth quarter as existed at the end of the third quarter.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss third quarter 2011 financial results today at 5:00pm ET. Hosting the call will be Ron Clarke, chief executive officer, and Eric Dey, chief financial officer. The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 877-941-1428, or for international callers 480-629-9665. A replay will be available one hour after the call and can be accessed by dialing 877-870-5176 or 858-384-5517 for international callers; the conference ID is 4482598. The replay will be available until Wednesday, November 16, 2011. The call will be webcast live from the Company's investor relations website at investor.fleetcor.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about FleetCor's beliefs, expectations and future performance, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "seek," "project" or "expect," "may," "will," "would," "could" or "should," the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include statements relating to revenue and earnings guidance, economic outlook, assumptions underlying financial guidance, expected expansion in Latin America, and management's plans for 2011 and confidence in prospects for growth. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, such as delays or failures associated with implementation; fuel price and spread volatility; changes in credit risk of customers and associated losses; the actions of regulators relating to payment cards; failure to maintain or renew key business relationships; failure to maintain competitive offerings; failure to maintain or renew sources of financing; failure to complete, or delays in completing, anticipated new partnership arrangements or acquisitions and the failure to successfully integrate or otherwise achieve anticipated benefits from such partnerships or acquired businesses; failure to successfully expand business internationally; the impact of foreign exchange rates on operations, revenue and income; the effects of general economic conditions on fueling patterns and the commercial activity of fleets, as well as the other risks and uncertainties identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in FleetCor's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 25, 2011. FleetCor believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and FleetCor does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of such statements to reflect future events or developments.

About Non GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted revenues are calculated as revenues less merchant commissions. Adjusted net income is calculated as net income, adjusted to eliminate (a) stock-based compensation expense related to share-based compensation awards, (b) amortization of deferred financing costs and intangible assets, (c) amortization of the premium recognized on the purchase of receivables and, (d) loss on the early extinguishment of debt. The company uses adjusted revenues as a basis to evaluate the company’s revenues net of the commissions that are paid to merchants to participate in our card programs. The commissions paid to merchants can vary when market spreads fluctuate in much the same way as revenues are impacted when market spreads fluctuate. The company believes this is a more effective way to evaluate the company’s revenue performance. We prepare adjusted net income to eliminate the effect of items that we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance. Adjusted revenues and adjusted net income are supplemental measures of operating performance that do not represent and should not be considered as an alternative to revenues, net, net income or cash flow from operations, as determined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP, and our calculation thereof may not be comparable to that reported by other companies. We believe it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation expense from adjusted net income because non-cash equity grants made at a certain price and point in time do not necessarily reflect how our business is performing at any particular time and stock-based compensation expense is not a key measure of our core operating performance. We also believe that amortization expenses can vary substantially from company to company and from period to period depending upon their financing and accounting methods, the fair value and average expected life of their acquired intangible assets, their capital structures and the method by which their assets were acquired; therefore, we have excluded amortization expense from our adjusted net income. We also exclude loss on the early extinguishment of debt from adjusted net income as this expense is non-cash and is one-time in nature and does not reflect the ongoing operations of the business.

Management uses adjusted revenues and adjusted net income:

• as measurements of operating performance because they assist us in comparing our operating performance on a consistent basis;
• for planning purposes, including the preparation of our internal annual operating budget;
• to allocate resources to enhance the financial performance of our business; and
• to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our operational strategies.

We believe adjusted revenues and adjusted net income are used by investors as supplemental measures to evaluate the overall operating performance of companies in our industry. By providing these non GAAP financial measures, together with reconciliations, we believe we are enhancing investors' understanding of our business and our results of operations, as well as assisting investors in evaluating how well we are executing strategic initiatives.

About FleetCor

FleetCor, The Global Fleet Card Company, is a leading independent global provider of specialized payment products to businesses. FleetCor's payment programs enable businesses to better manage and control employee spending and provide card-accepting merchants with a high volume customer base that can increase their sales and customer loyalty. FleetCor serves commercial accounts in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more information, please visit www.fleetcor.com.

¹ Reconciliations of GAAP results to non GAAP results and pro forma adjustments are provided in Exhibit 1 attached. Additional supplemental data is provided in Exhibit 2 and segment information is provided in Exhibit 3.

¹ Q3 QTD September 30, 2011 changes include approximately $0.5 million in incremental cash operating costs for public company expenses, $3.0 million of non-cash compensation expenses associated with our stock plan, and a 7.1% increase in our effective tax rate from 24.4% for the QTD ended September 30, 2010 to 31.5% for the QTD ended September 30, 2011. Additionally, QTD September 30, 2011 reflects an increase of 2.7 million diluted shares outstanding, from 80.9 million for the QTD September 30, 2010 to 83.6 million for the QTD September 30, 2011.

Q3 YTD September 30, 2011 changes include approximately $1.2 million in incremental cash operating costs for public company expenses, $2.7 million in losses on the extinguishment of debt, $13.4 million of non-cash compensation expenses associated with our stock plan, and a 0.5% increase in our effective tax rate from 31.1% for the YTD ended September 30, 2010 to 31.6% for the YTD ended September 30, 2011. Additionally, YTD September 30, 2011 reflects an increase of 2.8 million diluted shares outstanding, from 80.7 million for the YTD September 30, 2010 to 83.5 million for the YTD September 30, 2011.

² 2011 changes include approximately $1.8 million in incremental cash operating costs for public company expenses, $2.7 million in losses on the extinguishment of debt, $16.2 million of non-cash compensation expenses associated with our stock plan, $23.0 million of non-cash compensation expense associated with our IPO, and a 2.3% increase in our effective tax rate from 28.7% in 2010 to 31.0% in 2011. Additionally, 2011 reflects an increase of 2.9 million diluted shares outstanding, from 80.8 million at in 2010 to 83.7 million in 2011.

¹Calculation of revenue per transaction for our International segment and on a consolidated basis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 excludes the impact of a non-renewed partner contract in Europe, inherited from an acquisition, which we chose not to renew. This non-renewed contract contributed approximately 0.3 million transactions and $0.2 million in revenues, net to our International segment in the three months ended September 30, 2010; and approximately 3.6 million transactions and $0.8 million in revenues, net to our International segment in the nine months ended September 30, 2010. This contract had a high number of transactions and very little revenue and had a $0.09 and $0.36 negative impact on our International segment revenue per transaction in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, respectively. We believe that excluding the impact of this contract is a more effective measure for evaluating the Company's revenue performance of its continuing business. Revenues, net, excluding the impact of a non-renewed partner contract in Europe for our International segment and on a consolidated basis are supplemental non-GAAP financial measures of performance. The results from our Mexican prepaid fuel card and food voucher business acquired during the third quarter of 2011 are reported in our International segment.

²Adjusted revenues is a non-gaap financial measure defined as revenues, net less merchant commissions. The Company believes this measure is a more effective way to evaluate the Company's revenue performance. Refer to Exhibit 1 for a reconciliation of revenues, net to adjusted revenues.

³The presentation of prior quarters presented herein has been conformed to the current period presentation that eliminates certain intercompany transactions.

¹The results from our Mexican prepaid fuel card and food voucher business acquired during the third quarter of 2011 are reported in our International segment.