The Walmart contract has always been a drag on Green Dot Corp.’s future. Would Walmart renew this year? What would the company do if the deal fell through?
Green Dot put those fears to rest for a while today with news that it had renewed its deal to serve as program manager and issuing bank for the Walmart MoneyCard for five — count ’em, five — years. Green Dot stock (GDOT) jumped over 25% in value on the news. The term is effective May 1, 2015, and replaces the existing five-year deal, set to expire next year.
In recent earnings calls, CEO Steve Streit had backed off the importance of the deal, and de-emphasized the importance of Walmart to Green Dot’s business. Green Dot’s Walmart business accounted for 40% of revenue, according to CEO Steve Streit on the company’s first quarter earnings call, and the majority of this — 29% of total — was from Moneycard.
On a call to investors today, Green Dot indicated it would no longer break out information about Walmart’s share of Green Dot’s business, due to its sensitivity.
In other words, Green Dot is trying to put the Walmart boogeyman to bed.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Streit described the deal as, “unusual in its simplicity,” did not deny a 6% increase in revenue sharing with Walmart, and said the “waters had calmed” for Green Dot, and that the company was now more comfortable today. Revenue sharing will be steady throughout the deal, which did not seem to be the case with the previous deal, when Walmart moved the goalposts several times. The two companies agreed to extend the previous contract by a year in 2014, but another extension, let alone outright renewal, looked unlikely, casting uncertainty over Green Dot’s future.
The company also announced a $150 million stock buyback today. Repurchasing activity will begin as soon as Green Dot receives regulatory approval.