Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is looking for acquisitions. Ling Hai, CFO, said, "My focus is squarely on driving top line growth. Mastercard is a growth stock.
I want to make sure in terms of capital allocation, we continue to drive top line growth. And that is through both organic growth, but also inorganic through mergers and acquisitions. If I think about the organic growth, it is really about continue to allocate more investments in the front line.
Mastercard is a B2B company. We don't go to consumers directly, right? And so the ability to work with the banks and the issuers and acquirers, that requires engagement, people on the ground talking to our customers and also co-create things that really are relevant that address their pain points.
So that's really important. And then, of course, if we see the right opportunities out there in the market and we can make acquisitions to drive growth and speed to market or acquire new capabilities, we're going to do that as well. So that's really important in my mind.
Of course, the second order of priority is going to be about a strong balance sheet because without a strong balance sheet that we won't be able to do the M&A work we need to do, positive operating leverage, continue to make sure revenue growth outpaces expenses. And the last thing is whatever excess capital we have, we'll return to shareholders via buybacks and dividend." "We will make acquisitions when it's about capabilities. Like BVNK is a great example of buying capabilities.
It could also be about getting the right talent into the company. So for the right opportunities, we'll continue to make acquisitions to drive the growth algorithm".
