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The Goliath of metro-area public companies just keeps getting bigger.
Once again, First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) tops the Denver Business Journal's ranking of the 100 largest Denver-based public companies. Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) comes in at a distant second.
During the past year, First Data extended its global reach by greatly growing its Western Union subsidiary and completing more than $7 billion in strategic acquisitions.
First Data offers electronic money transfers, credit card processing and other financial transaction services to banks, merchants and consumers.
First Data had a market capitalization of $32.93 billion as of Oct. 21. In September 2003, the financial services giant had a market cap of $30.35 billion. Today's market cap is more than $7 billion higher than its $25.8 billion market cap of two years ago.
Profit is rising, too. First Data's net income climbed to $460.6 million, or 54 cents a share, during the third quarter of 2004, up from $360.9 million, or 49 cents, during the third quarter a year earlier, Q3 revenue was $2.54 billion, compared with $2.1 billion a year ago.
In an Oct. 14 conference call with analysts, CEO Charlie Fote said international money transfers through its Western Union division contributed heavily to the quarterly profits.
"Western Union continues to be a strong company for us," he said. "It continues to contribute the majority of our cash flow."
During the third quarter, Western Union opened its 200,000th money transfer station. Today it has 202,000 locations worldwide, up from 180,000 one year ago. In 1992, Western Union had just 22,000 agents.
The growth of Western Union results from the growth of technology networks and immigration during the past decade, said David Banks,...