Digital Payments Strengths Help Adyen Weather the Pandemic

Executives at Adyen N.V. maintained an upbeat tone Thursday in the face of a global coronavirus pandemic that has shut down many businesses, thrown consumers out of work, and upended shopping habits. “Our business has proved itself resilient despite the impact of the pandemic,” said Pieter van der Does, chief executive of the Amsterdam-based company, while making remarks during a call with equity analysts to discuss Adyen’s first-half performance.

That resilience during the Covid-19 scourge comes in part from the company’s roots in e-commerce processing, which proved crucial as stay-at-home consumers shifted to online buying. “We helped merchants move online quickly even if they hadn’t been online before,” van der Does said. In North America, indeed, where Adyen this summer took over gateway processing for eBay Inc. merchants, “our merchant mix had limited impact by Covid,” he added.

Adyen will continue to benefit from the payment shifts Covid is causing, van der Does argued. “Covid is bringing forward trends that were already happening. It speeds up change,” he told the analysts. “That can work in our favor.” These trends, he said, include the move from cash-based to digital payments and growing cross-border activity.

But Adyen’s top executive had little to say about eBay, where the company now serves as the linchpin for the massive marketplace’s new managed-payments program. PayPal Holdings Inc. had for years processed transactions for eBay’s merchants but is now one of a number of processors to which the gateway can refer volume. “We’re very pleased with it,” van der Does said, referring to the eBay business. “EBay is a very important merchant to us. We try to avoid talking too much about individual merchants.”

Van der Does also warned that, while Adyen’s expertise in online processing has helped buoy the company during the Covid storm, the pandemic may not subside any time soon. “We’re still in the middle of the Covid wave,” he said.

For the six months through June, Adyen processed transaction volume totaling 129.1 billion euros ($153.2 billion), up 23% from 2019’s first half. Some 11 billion euros ($13 billion) of that volume stemmed from the physical point of sale, or about 9% of the total volume, down from 11% a year ago. “Our growth in point-of-sale was limited as a result of store closures,” van der Does said. Net revenue grew 27% to 279.9 million euros ($332.1 million).

Investors have been pleased with Adyen’s performance and prospects. Its stock closed at 1420.50 euros ($1685.35) Thursday, having nearly doubled since the start of the year. The company debuted/ on the Euronet Amsterdam exchange in June 2018.