Mastercard cuts revenue outlook on virus impact

NEW YORK: Mastercard lowered its three-week-old forecast for quarterly revenue growth on Monday as the spreading coronavirus curbs international travel and even takes a bite out of e-commerce, a business executives had hoped would be immune.

The credit-card network is knocking 2-3 percentage points off the prediction it made on an earnings conference call Jan 29. That translates to growth of 9% to 10% on a currency-neutral basis, excluding acquisitions.

“Cross-border travel, and to a lesser extent cross-border e-commerce growth, is being impacted,” Mastercard said in a statement. “There are many unknowns as to the duration and severity of the situation and we are closely monitoring it.”

The short-lived forecast underscores how quickly the virus is altering consumer behavior as it moves beyond China.

Mastercard executives had previously taken comfort in the fact that much of the firm’s business into and out of China is e-commerce, which could potentially continue amid measures to contain the disease.

“It provides some level of a hedge,” chief financial officer Sachin Mehra had told analysts on Jan 29.

But even back then, chief executive officer Ajay Banga quickly cautioned that the firm would “take a look at those numbers once again” if the crisis worsened and affected more parts of the globe.

On Monday, United Airlines withdrew its 2020 profit forecast, also citing the virus.

“If the impact of the virus is limited to the first quarter, annual net revenue growth will probably be at the low end of the low-teens range,’’ Mastercard said, noting that it planned to give further updates on its next earnings call.

Visa Inc CEO Al Kelly told investors at his company’s investor day Feb 11 that it was “too early to tell” what impact the virus might have on results.

“But if planes are not flying in and out of China, if hotels are not being filled — which they’re not at the moment — and if the supply chains are being impacted — which I suspect they are — there is going to be some impact,” he said.