MasterCard Corporation (“MasterCard”) (NYSE: MA)
Market cap: $85.8 billion (as of 6/30/14)
Company overview:
MasterCard (MA) is a payment technology and network company, operating the world’s second largest payment network connecting banks, consumers, and merchants in over 210 countries. MasterCard was collectively owned by its member banks until it became a public, stand-alone company in 2006, from which point through 2012 it grew revenue 14% compounded annually and free cash flow per share over 34% compounded annually as operating margins expanded from 20% to over 53%.
Akre Focus Fund Investment:
Our investment in MasterCard began in February 2010 under the cloud of uncertainty presented by the Durbin Amendment (part of Dodd-Frank) and its potential impact on MasterCard’s debit business. Through appreciation and subsequent opportunistic purchases, as of June 2014 MasterCard represented 7.6% of the portfolio.
Investment thesis:
Approximately 85% of the world’s purchase transactions today are done using cash and checks. This presents an enormous market opportunity for MasterCard - perhaps the largest imaginable if one thinks of Gross Domestic Product as the summation of all the purchase transactions in an economy. In MasterCard, we believe we own a business with increasing odds of being involved and potentially profiting from the growth and secular movement of those purchase transactions to electronic means of payment, earning a small piece on the trillions of dollars transacted over its network. This ongoing shift continued to be aided by the growth of ecommerce, new acceptance locations/categories (taxis, toll roads), the increasing inclusion via prepaid cards of 2.5 billion unbanked consumers worldwide, mobile commerce (given the lack of wireline infrastructure in many countries), and governments moving payment disbursement programs (e.g. Social Security, Veterans benefits) from paper checks to electronic payments. Furthermore, MasterCard has no debt, a nearly 40% free cash flow margin, pricing power, and the company is able to repurchase billions of dollars annually of its stock while reinvesting in what it calls “the war on cash.”
The examples of specific discrete investments are included merely to illustrate Akre Capital Management’s investment process and strategy, and a portfolio will typically contain a much larger number of positions than the examples set forth herein. Accordingly, the examples are not intended to indicate overall portfolio performance that may be expected to be achieved.
From Chuck Akre (Trades, Portfolio)’s 2014 Q2 Fund Pitchbook .
