Positioning for China's expected credit card craze (FDC 2Q05 conf call)

First Data (ticker: FDC) a provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide reported Q2 2005 results today. Here are key quotes from Chairman, President and CEO Charlie Fote and CFO Kim Patmore updating investors on its China operations (from management's earnings results conference call):

On the quarter

....China and India both had another great quarter.

On Western Union and the China Post

....also in the quarter, Western Union (subsidiary) renewed a long-term agreement with the China Post, one of our key super agents in this extremely important country from a future growth standpoint.

....in western union, we are north of 60% growth again this quarter. So, that's what's going on.

....the post office, we renewed that business and will be close to 50,000 locations at the post office. Then Western Union and India will be about 50,000 locations. Let me rephrase that. On a combined basis, it will be 50,000.

....I want to make sure that you guys all heard 50,000 combined agents for India and China.

On an agreement with insurance company Ping An

....in China, we signed a two-year card processing agreement with Ping An; Ping An is one of China's largest insurance companies with 30 million customers.

On its new data center

....we have the data center up and running in Shanghai. We just hired a new country manager there. We sent Henry (interim country manager) over there to get it started, and that data center is up and running and now we have customers.

On its merchant business

....the Merchant business in China -- Pam has just signed some partners.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

Comment: For a press release detailing First Data's recent China expansion see here.

Another company involved in payment processing in China is Asia Payment Systems (ticker: APYM.ob).  APYM CEO Matt Mecke was once an executive at First Data in both the United States and Hong Kong. In his position with First Data in Asia, Mecke's responsibilities included strategic planning, new business development, e-commerce applications and pricing. See here. (See disclosure below)

FDC chart.

Disclosure: I am LONG Asia Payment Systems (ticker: APYM.ob).

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