Western Union 2011 Annual Report Download - page 3

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I am very pleased to report that 2011 was a good year for Western
Union with many strong accomplishments, both in business
performance and positioning our company for future growth.
The Western Union you know is a company that moves cash
around the world quickly and reliably through nearly half a million
locations—from global banks to local corner stores—and
connects people and places that others cannot.
This business—consumer money transfer—is a great business.
It’s a growing and very profitable one and it will continue to be
an important business. However, the Western Union you know
is also evolving to capture additional market opportunities.
Our long-term aspiration—to be the premier financial service
provider for the underserved—means finding new products,
capabilities, technologies and partnerships to better serve not
only our current customers, but potentially two billion people with
unmet financial service needs. It also means meeting the evolving
needs of underserved businesses—mostly small and medium
enterprises—to make cross-border payments, allowing them to
grow, create jobs and better compete in the global economy.
Western Union is evolving and combining its existing assets—
including our preeminent brand and far and wide global network—
with the web, mobile infrastructure, stored value capabilities
and focused strategic partnerships to make life better for
consumers and better for businesses.
In order to make this vision become a reality, we have organized
our business around three key growth areas:
฀ •฀ ฀Global฀ Consumer฀ Financial฀ Services,฀ which฀ includes฀ our฀
consumer money transfer and bill payments businesses;
฀ •฀ ฀Western฀Union฀Business฀Solutions,฀our฀business-to-business฀
payments offering; and
฀ •฀ ฀Western฀ Union฀ Ventures,฀ which฀ includes฀ our฀ digital฀ and฀
stored value initiatives, with a focus on developing new
products, services and partnerships.
Highlights
In 2011, Western Union delivered its highest revenue growth rate
since 2008, generating revenue of $5.5 billion and $1.2 billion in
cash flow from operations. We continue to emphasize shareholder
value as we returned $1 billion to shareholders through dividends
and stock repurchases.
Despite some global economic challenges, we experienced solid
growth฀in฀each฀of฀our฀Global฀Financial฀Services฀regions฀in฀2011.฀
In Europe, specifically, we advanced our strategy of being
closer to the consumer and optimizing our operating model by
completing฀the฀Angelo฀Costa฀and฀Finint฀super-agent฀acquisitions.฀
Our focus is on accelerating network expansion to reach yet more
consumers by expanding our global sales force and continuing
to pursue new Agents and new Agent categories. Another
important฀ growth฀ area฀ is฀ Account฀ Based฀ Money฀ Transfer฀ and฀
expanding฀the฀availability฀of฀our฀services฀through฀ATMs,฀which฀
we are achieving through our existing and new relationships
with banks.
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