Christina Gold has overseen Western Union’s explosive growth in recent years.
Now, as the global money-transfer company prepares to spin off this month from parent First Data, Gold is facing her first test as its high-profile chief executive.
Gold launched the company’s road show Monday on Wall Street to tout its prospects, saying Western Union expects to grow revenue by 12 percent this year. Operating profit will be between $1.32 billion and $1.34 billion, up 6 percent this year – but below Wall Street’s expectations.
Gold cited “uncertainty caused by the immigration debate” as one reason for slower growth in the U.S.-to-Mexico money-transfer business. First Data’s stock tumbled 7.6 percent to $41.25 on Monday.
Western Union is “facing a number of challenges,” said Wayne Johnson, an analyst with Raymond James Financial in Atlanta. “The question is, will they be able to grow out of it?”
Gold has a plan.
“We have the network, and we have the brand,” said Gold, speaking Monday by phone from a conference room in New York at Merrill Lynch.
The spinoff will create one of Colorado’s largest public companies, with more than $4.4 billion in annual revenues – which would rank it among the Fortune 500. It has 5,000 employees, including 2,500 statewide.
Gold will join an elite group of women heading big public companies. She has previously been named one of the 50 most-powerful women in business by Forbes magazine.
Gold, 59, came to Western Union as its president in 2002 after heading Excel Communications, a Dallas-based phone company that relied on network marketing for sales. Excel was caught in the riptides of the telecommunications downturn, filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and re-emerged as Excel Telecom this year.
Before that, Gold spent more than 25 years at Avon Products, the New York-based cosmetics company. Her leadership revived the company’s North American division as she added new products and sales targets that motivated sales reps.
She was widely regarded as the company’s likely next CEO, but left in 1998 after being passed over.
“You learn from experiences like that, and you go forward,” said Gold, who was born in Holland, raised in Canada and graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Gold said Avon and Excel share much in common with Western Union, including a reliance on a far-flung network of salespeople. Western Union has more than doubled its agent locations to about 270,000 worldwide since Gold took charge in 2002.
Going forward, she cited the company’s strong reputation, market-leading position and recent push to open new outlets.
Crimping Western Union’s revenue growth is the U.S. immigration debate, which has caused legal and illegal immigrants to hold onto more cash to deal with fines, fees and other costs should the country tighten its immigration policies.
In addition, a possible economic slowdown could hurt Western Union’s revenues, as workers will have less money to send to friends and family.
“These issues should dissolve over time,” said Bo Brownstein, an analyst with Denver-based Cambiar Investors, which owns about 5 million shares of First Data.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
