PART  I

operate Cardtronics Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (“Cardtronics Mexico”) and partner with Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A. de C.V. (“Banorte”) and Scotiabank to place their brands on our ATMs in exchange for certain services provided by them. As of December 31, 2016, approximately 22,000 of our ATMs were under contract with approximately 500 financial institutions to place their logos on our ATMs and to provide convenient surcharge-free access for their banking customers.

We also own and operate the Allpoint network (“Allpoint”), the largest surcharge-free ATM network (based on the number of participating ATMs). Allpoint, with approximately 55,000 participating ATMs, provides surcharge-free ATM access to over 1,300 participating banks, credit unions, and stored-value debit card issuers. For participants, Allpoint provides scale, density, and convenience of surcharge-free ATMs that surpasses the largest banks in the U.S. In exchange, Allpoint earns either a fixed monthly fee per cardholder or a fixed fee per transaction that is paid by participants. The Allpoint network includes a majority of our Company-owned ATMs in the U.S. and a portion of our ATMs in the U.K., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Allpoint also works with financial institutions that manage stored-value debit card programs on behalf of corporate entities and governmental agencies, including general purpose, payroll, and electronic benefits transfer (“EBT”) cards. Under these programs, the issuing financial institutions pay Allpoint a fee per issued stored-value debit card or per transaction in return for allowing the users of those cards surcharge-free access to Allpoint’s participating ATM network.

Our revenues are recurring in nature, and historically have been derived primarily from convenience transaction fees, which are paid by cardholders, and other transaction-based fees, including interchange fees, which are paid by the cardholder’s financial institution for the use of the ATMs serving their customers and the connectivity to the applicable EFT network that transmits data between the ATM and the cardholder’s financial institution. Other revenue sources include: (i) branding our ATMs with the logos of leading national and regional financial institutions, (ii) providing managed services (including transaction processing services) solutions to retailers and financial institutions, (iii) collecting fees from financial institutions that participate in our Allpoint surcharge-free network, (iv) fees earned from foreign currency exchange transactions at the ATM, known as Dynamic Currency Conversion (“DCC”), and (v) selling ATMs and ATM-related equipment and other ancillary services.

Organizational and Operational History

We were formed as a Texas corporation in 1993 and originally operated under the name of Cardpro, Inc. In June 2001, Cardtronics Group, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware and became the parent company for the existing business. In January 2004, Cardtronics Group, Inc. changed its name to Cardtronics, Inc. (“Cardtronics Delaware”). In December 2007, we completed an initial public offering of 12,000,000 common shares.

On July 1, 2016, the location of incorporation of the parent company of the Cardtronics group of companies was changed from Delaware to the U.K., whereby Cardtronics plc, a public limited company organized under English law (“Cardtronics plc”), became the new publicly traded corporate parent of the Cardtronics group of companies following the completion of the merger between Cardtronics Delaware and one of its subsidiaries (the “Merger”). The Merger was completed pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated April 27, 2016, the adoption of which was approved by Cardtronics Delaware’s shareholders on June 28, 2016 (collectively, the “Redomicile Transaction”). Pursuant to the Redomicile Transaction, each issued and outstanding common share of Cardtronics Delaware held immediately prior to the Merger was effectively converted into one Class A Ordinary Share, nominal value $0.01 per share, of Cardtronics plc (collectively, “common shares”). Upon completion, the common shares were listed and began trading on The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC under the symbol “CATM,” the same symbol under which common shares of Cardtronics Delaware were formerly listed and traded. The Redomicile Transaction was accounted for as an internal reorganization of entities under common control, and therefore, Cardtronics Delaware’s assets and liabilities have been accounted for at their historical cost basis and not revalued in the transaction.

A large portion of our growth throughout our operating history has been driven by acquisitions as we have expanded our operations in the U.S. and into several other new geographic markets in North America and Europe. Our largest markets are currently the U.S. and the U.K., which on a combined basis, accounted for over 90% of our revenues and profits during 2016. On January 6, 2017, we completed the acquisition of DirectCash Payments Inc. (“DCPayments”), a publicly listed (Toronto Stock Exchange), leading operator of approximately 25,000 ATMs with primary operations in Canada, Australia,

New Zealand, the U.K., and Mexico. On January 31, 2017, we completed the acquisition of Spark ATM Systems (“Spark”), an independent ATM deployer in South Africa, with a growing network of approximately 2,600 ATMs.

From 2001 to 2016, the total number of annual transactions processed within our network of ATMs increased from approximately 19.9 million to approximately 2.1 billion.

Additional Company Information

General information about us can be found on our website at http://www.cardtronics.com . We file annual, quarterly, and current reports as well as other information electronically with the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) under the Exchange Act. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports are filed or furnished electronically with the SEC. You may read and copy any materials that we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov . You may also request an electronic or paper copy of our SEC filings at no cost by writing or telephoning us at the following: Cardtronics plc, Attention: Chief Financial Officer, 3250 Briarpark Drive, Suite 400, Houston, Texas 77042; (832) 308-4000. Information on our website is not incorporated into this 2016 Form 10-K or our other securities filings.

Our Strategy

Our strategy is to leverage the expertise and scale we have built in our largest markets and to continue to expand in those markets. Additionally, we seek to grow in our other markets and expand into new international markets to enhance our position as a leading global provider of automated consumer financial services. We plan to continue partnering with leading financial institutions and retailers to expand our network of conveniently located ATMs. We also intend to expand our capabilities and service offerings to financial institutions, particularly in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia where we have established businesses and where we are seeing increasing demand from financial institutions for outsourcing of ATM-related services, including, in some cases, management of in-branch ATMs. Additional demand for our products and services in these markets is being driven by the banks reducing the number of physical branches they operate. Additionally, we seek to deploy additional products and services that will further incentivize consumers to utilize our network of ATMs. In the future, we may seek to diversify our revenues beyond services provided by our ATMs. In order to execute our strategy, we endeavor to:

Increase our number of deployed ATMs with existing and new merchant relationships. Certain of our retail customers continue to expand their number of active store locations, either through acquisitions or through new store openings, thus providing us with additional ATM deployment opportunities. Additionally, we seek opportunities to deploy ATMs with new retailers, including retailers that currently do not have ATMs, as well as those that have existing ATM programs, but that are looking for a new ATM provider. We believe our expertise, broad geographic footprint, strong record of customer service, and significant scale positions us to successfully market to and enter into long-term contracts with additional leading merchants. In addition, we believe our existing relationships with leading U.S.- and U.K.-based retailers positions us to expand into international locations where these partners have operations.

Expand our relationships with leading financial institutions. Through our merchant relationships as well as our diverse product and service offerings, we believe we can provide our existing financial institution customers with convenient solutions to fulfill their growing ATM and automated consumer financial services requirements. Further, we believe we can leverage our product offerings to attract additional financial institutions as customers. Services currently offered to financial institutions include branding our ATMs with their logos, on-screen advertising and content management, providing image remote deposit capture, providing surcharge-free access to their cardholders, and providing managed services for their ATM portfolios. Our EFT transaction processing platforms enable us to provide customized control over the content of the information appearing on the screens of our ATMs and ATMs we process for financial institutions, which increases the types of products and services we are able to offer to financial institutions. We also plan to continue growing the number of ATMs and financial institutions participating in our Allpoint network, which drives higher

transaction counts and profitability on our existing ATMs and increases our value to the retailers where our ATMs are located through increased foot traffic. As discussed above, we are seeing increasing demand from financial institutions for outsourcing of ATM-related services, as recent industry trends have caused banks to want to reduce their physical footprint and transform their existing branches to focus less on human tellers and increasingly utilize automation, primarily through ATMs, for serving their customers. While outsourcing of ATM-related services for financial institutions is not a significant driver of our revenues today, we believe we currently possess the capabilities to deliver value to financial institutions and plan to focus additional resources to drive growth in this area.

Work with non - traditional financial institutions and card issuers to further leverage our extensive ATM network. We believe there are opportunities to develop or expand relationships with non-traditional financial institutions and card issuers, such as reloadable stored-value debit card issuers and alternative payment networks, which are seeking an extensive and convenient ATM network to complement their card offerings and electronic-based accounts. Additionally, we believe that many of the stored-value debit card issuers in the U.S. can benefit by providing their cardholders with access to our ATM network on a discounted or fee-free basis. For example, through our Allpoint network, we have sold access to our ATM network to issuers of stored-value debit cards to provide their cardholders with convenient, surcharge-free access to cash.

Increase transaction levels at our existing locations. We believe there are opportunities to increase the number of transactions that are occurring today at our existing ATM locations. On average, only a small fraction of the individuals that enter our retail customers’ locations utilize our ATMs. In addition to our existing initiatives that tend to drive additional transaction volumes to our ATMs, such as bank-branding and network-branding, we have developed and are continuing to develop new initiatives to drive incremental transactions to our existing ATM locations. We also operate and continue to develop programs to steer cardholders of our existing financial institution partners and members of our Allpoint network to visit our ATMs in convenient retail locations. These programs may include incentives to cardholders such as coupons and rewards that influence customers to visit our ATMs within our existing retail footprint. While we are in various stages of developing and implementing many of these programs, we believe that these programs, when properly structured, can benefit multiple constituents (i.e., retailers, financial institutions, and cardholders) in addition to driving increased transaction volumes to our ATMs.

Develop and provide additional services at our existing ATMs. Service offerings at ATMs continue to evolve. Certain ATM models are capable of, and currently provide, numerous automated consumer financial services, including bill payments, check cashing, remote deposit capture, money transfers, and stored-value debit card reload services. We believe these additional automated consumer financial services offered by our ATMs, and other machines that we or others may develop, could provide a compelling and cost-effective solution for financial institutions and stored-value debit card issuers looking to provide convenient broader financial services to their customers at well-known retail locations. We also allow advertisers to place their messages on our ATMs equipped with on-screen advertising software in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Offering additional services at our ATMs, such as advertising, allows us to create new revenue streams from assets that have already been deployed, in addition to providing value to our customers through beneficial offers and convenient services. We plan to develop additional products and services that can be delivered through our existing ATM network.

Pursue additional managed services opportunities. Over the last several years, we significantly expanded the number of ATMs that are operated under managed services arrangements. Under these arrangements, retailers and financial institutions generally pay us a fixed management fee per ATM and/or a fixed fee per transaction in exchange for handling some or all of the operational aspects associated with operating and maintaining their own ATMs. Surcharge and interchange fees under these arrangements are generally earned by the retailer or the financial institution rather than by us. As a result, in this arrangement type, our revenues are partially protected from fluctuations in transaction levels of these ATMs and changes in network interchange rates. We plan to continue pursuing additional managed services opportunities with leading merchants and financial institutions in the markets in which we operate.

Pursue international growth opportunities. We plan to continue to grow our business in our existing markets and also expect to expand our operations into other international markets where we believe we can leverage our operational expertise, EFT transaction processing platforms, and scale advantages. Our future international expansion, if any, will

depend on a number of factors, including the estimated economic opportunity for us, the business and regulatory environment in the international market, our ability to identify suitable business partners in the market and other factors.

Pursue acquisition opportunities. We have historically produced a large part of our growth through acquisitions, and expect to continue to pursue select acquisition opportunities in the future. Over the course of our operating history, we have acquired both full business operations as well as asset acquisitions of ATMs and service contracts in several geographic locations. In January 2017, we completed the acquisition of DCPayments , our largest acquisition to date, in terms of both purchase consideration paid and its projected contribution to revenues and operating profits. During 2017 we plan to integrate this business into our existing operations and realize certain anticipated economic benefits as a result of certain expected revenue and cost synergies.

For additional information related to items that may impact our strategy, see Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Developing Trends in the ATM and Financial Services Industry .

Our Products and Services

Under our Company-owned arrangement type, we typically provide our merchant customers with all of the services required to operate ATMs, which include monitoring, maintenance, cash management, customer service, and transaction processing. We believe our merchant customers value our high level of service and our 24 hour per day monitoring and accessibility. In connection with the operation of our ATMs under our traditional ATM services model, we earn revenue on a per transaction basis from the surcharge fees charged to cardholders for the convenience of using our ATMs and from interchange fees charged to cardholders’ financial institutions for processing the transactions conducted on our ATMs. As further described below, we also earn revenues on these ATMs based on our relationships with certain financial institutions and our Allpoint network.

Under our merchant-owned arrangement type, we typically provide transaction processing services, certain customer support functions, and settlement services. We generally earn interchange revenue on a per transaction basis in this arrangement. In some cases, the surcharge is earned completely by the merchant, in which case our revenues are derived solely from interchange revenues. In other arrangements, we also share a portion of the surcharge revenues.

For ATMs under managed services arrangements (including transaction processing arrangements), we typically receive a fixed monthly management fee and/or fixed fee per transaction in return for providing the agreed-upon service or suite of services. We do not generally receive surcharge and interchange fees in these arrangements, but rather those amounts are earned by our customer.

We also earn revenues from other services at our ATMs, such as DCC fees, on-screen advertising, and other transaction-based fees, across our various arrangement types.

The following table summarizes the number of ATMs under our various arrangement types as of December 31, 2016:

We have found that the primary factor affecting transaction volumes at a given ATM is its location. Therefore, our strategy in deploying ATMs, particularly those placed under Company-owned arrangements, is to identify and deploy ATMs at locations that provide high visibility and high retail transaction volume. Our experience has demonstrated that the following locations often meet these criteria: convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, drug stores, transportation hubs (e.g., airports and train stations), and other major regional and national retail outlets. We have entered into multi-year agreements with many well-known merchants, including Bi-Lo Holdings, LLC, CST Brands (“Corner Store”), Cumberland Farms, Inc., CVS Caremark Corporation (“CVS”), HEB Grocery Company, L.P., The Kroger Co., The Pantry,

Inc. (“Pantry”), Rite Aid Corporation, Safeway, Inc., Speedway LLC (“Speedway”), Sunoco, Inc., Target Corporation, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (“Walgreens”) in the U.S.; Bank of Ireland Group, BP p.l.c., BT Group plc, Co-operative Food (“Co-op Food”), Martin McColl Ltd., Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Southern Railway Ltd., Tates Ltd., Waitrose Ltd., and Welcome Break Holdings Ltd. in the U.K.; Cadena Comercial OXXO S.A. de C.V. in Mexico; and 7-Eleven, Inc. (“7-Eleven”) as well as Suncor Energy’s retail and wholesale marketing brand (“Petro-Canada”) in Canada.

We generally operate our ATMs under multi-year contracts that provide a recurring and stable source of revenue and typically have an initial term of five to seven years. As of January 31, 2017, our contracts with our top four merchant customers, excluding 7-Eleven in the U.S. which accounts for approximately 18% of our revenues, accounted for approximately 21% of our total revenues and had a weighted average remaining life of approximately 4 years . For additional information related to the risks associated with our customer mix, see Item 1A. Risk Factors - We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from ATMs placed with a small number of merchants. The expiration, termination or renegotiation of any of these contracts with our top merchants, or if one or more of our top merchants were to cease doing business with us, or substantially reduce its dealings with us, could cause our revenues to decline significantly and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted .

Additionally, we enter into arrangements with financial institutions to brand selected Company-owned ATMs with their logos. These bank-branding arrangements allow a financial institution to expand its geographic presence for less than the cost of building a branch location or placing one of its own ATMs at that location and rapidly increase its number of bank-branded ATM sites and improve its competitive position. Under these arrangements, the financial institution’s customers have access to use the bank-branded ATMs without paying a surcharge fee to us. In return, we receive a fixed management fee per ATM from the financial institution, while retaining our standard fee schedule for other cardholders using the bank-branded ATMs. In addition, our bank-branded ATMs typically earn higher interchange revenue as a result of the increased usage of our ATMs by the branding financial institution’s customers and others who prefer to use a bank-branded ATM. In some instances, we have branded an ATM with more than one financial institution. We intend to continue pursuing additional bank-branding arrangements as part of our growth strategy. As of December 31, 2016, we had bank-branding on approximately 22,000 ATMs with approximately 500 financial institutions including BBVA , Citibank, Citizens, Cullen/Frost, Chase, Discover, Santander, TD Bank, and PNC Bank in the U.S., Scotiabank and Santander in Puerto Rico, and Scotiabank, TD Bank, and CIBC in Canada, In Mexico, we partner with Banorte and Scotiabank to place their brands on our ATMs in exchange for certain services provided by them.  

In addition to our bank-branding arrangements, we offer financial institutions another type of surcharge-free solution to their cardholders through our Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network. Under the Allpoint network, participating financial institutions pay us either a fixed monthly fee per cardholder or a fixed fee per transaction in exchange for us providing their cardholders with surcharge-free ATM access to approximately 55,000 participating ATMs in our Allpoint network, which includes ATMs throughout the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. We believe our Allpoint network offers an attractive alternative for financial institutions that lack their own extensive and convenient ATM network, including the issuers of stored-value debit cards.

For additional information related to the amount of revenue contributed by our various service offerings, see Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Components of Revenues, Costs of Revenues, and Expenses - Revenues .

Segment and Geographic Information

As of December 31, 2016, our operations consisted of our North America, Europe, and Corporate & Other segments. Our North America segment includes ATM operations in all 50 states in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico, and accounted for 69.1% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2016. Our Europe segment includes our ATM operations in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Poland, Spain, and i-design group plc (“i-design”), Europe accounted for 29.0% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2016. Our Corporate & Other segment includes our transaction processing operations and our corporate general and administrative functions and accounted for 1.9% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2016.

In the first quarter of 2016, we reorganized and created the Corporate & Other segment to separately present transaction processing operations from our primary ATM operations and to present our corporate general and administrative functions separately from the North America segment. Additionally, i-design was previously included within the North America segment and due to organizational changes, is now a part of the Europe segment. While both regional reporting segments provide similar kiosk-based and/or ATM-related services, each of the regional segments have been managed separately and require different marketing and business strategies. Similarly, the transaction processing operations and corporate general and administrative functions were also managed separately.

For financial information including revenues, earnings, and total assets of our reporting segments, see Part II. Item 8.   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 20. Segment Information. For additional information related to the risks associated with our international operations, see Item 1A. Risk Factors - We operate in many sovereign jurisdictions across the globe and expect to continue to grow our business in new regions. Operating in different countries involves special risks and our geographic expansion may not be successful, which would result in a reduction of our gross and net profits.

Sales and Marketing

In the U.S., our sales and marketing teams are organized by customer type across retail and financial industries. We have teams focused on developing new relationships with national, regional, and local merchants as well as building and maintaining relationships with our existing merchants and ATM distributors. In addition, we have sales and marketing teams focused on developing and managing our bank-branding and Allpoint relationships with financial institutions and stored-value debit card issuers, as we look to expand the types of services that we offer to such institutions. Our sales and marketing teams also focus on identifying potential managed services opportunities with financial institutions and retailers alike. Additionally, we maintain sales teams in each of the other geographic markets in which we currently operate.

In addition to targeting new business opportunities, our sales and marketing teams support our customer retention and growth initiatives by building and maintaining relationships with our established and recently-acquired merchants. We seek to identify growth opportunities within merchant accounts by analyzing ATM cardholder patterns. We also analyze foot traffic and various demographic data to determine the best opportunities for new ATM placements, as well as the potential drivers for increasing same-store ATM transactions that will positively impact merchant store sales. Employees who focus on sales are typically compensated with a combination of incentive-based compensation and base salary.

Technology

Our technology and operations platforms consist of ATMs, central transaction processing systems, network infrastructure components (including hardware, software, and telecommunication circuits used to provide real-time ATM monitoring, software distribution, and transaction processing services), cash management and forecasting software tools, customer service, and ATM management infrastructure.

Equipment. We purchase our ATMs from global manufacturers, including, but not limited to, NCR Corporation (“NCR”), Nautilus Hyosung, Inc. (“Hyosung”), Diebold Incorporated (“Diebold”), and Triton Systems (“Triton”) and place them in our customers’ locations. The wide range of advanced technology available from these ATM manufacturers provides our customers with advanced features and reliability through sophisticated diagnostics and self-testing routines. All of the ATMs perform basic functions, such as dispensing cash and enabling bank account balance inquiries. Additionally, some of our ATMs provide enhanced financial services transactions, including bill payments, check cashing, remote deposit capture, and money transfers.

Transaction processing. We place significant emphasis on providing quality service with a high level of security and minimal interruption. We have carefully selected support vendors and systems, as well as developed internal professional staff to optimize the performance of our network. Since 2006, we have operated our own EFT transaction processing platforms, which were further expanded with our acquisition of Columbus Data Services, L.L.C. (“CDS”) in 2015. EFT transaction processing enables us to process and monitor transactions on our ATMs and to control the flow and content of information appearing on the screens of such ATMs. We have also implemented new products and services such as foreign currency exchange services, such as DCC, and have introduced targeted marketing campaigns through on-screen advertising.

Internal systems. Our internal systems, including our EFT transaction processing platforms, include multiple layers of security to help protect the systems from unauthorized access. Protection from external sources is provided by the use of hardware- and software- based security features that work to prevent and report unauthorized access attempts. We employ user authentication and security measures at multiple levels. These systems are protected by detailed security rules to only allow appropriate access to information based on the employee’s job responsibilities. Changes to systems are controlled by policies and procedures, with automatic prevention and reporting controls that are placed within our processes. Our real-time connections to the various financial institutions’ authorization systems that allow withdrawals, balance inquiries, transfers, and advanced functionality transactions are accomplished through gateway relationships or direct connections. We use commercially-available and proprietary software that monitors the performance of the ATMs in our network, including details of transactions at each ATM and expenses relating to the ATMs, further allowing us to monitor our on-line availability and financial profitability at each location. We analyze transaction volume and profitability data to determine whether to continue operating at a given site, to determine how to price various operating arrangements with merchants and bank-branding partners, and to create a profile of successful locations to assist us in deciding the best locations for additional deployments.

Product development . In recent years we have made investments to develop new technology which we anticipate will drive transaction volume at our ATMs. In March 2013, we acquired i-design, a Scotland-based company providing technology and marketing services for ATM operators to enable custom screens, graphical receipt content, and advertising and marketing data capture on the ATM. We expect to continue to grow and leverage the products and services of this business within our own network of ATMs and with select external parties. A number of products are in various stages of development, pilot, and rollout.

ATM cash management.  Our ATM cash management function uses commercially-available software and proprietary analytical models to determine the necessary fill frequency and cash load amount for each ATM. We project vault cash requirements for our Company-owned and cash-serviced ATMs, taking into consideration its location, the day of the week, the timing of holidays, and other factors such as specific events occurring in the vicinity of the ATM. After receiving a cash order from us, the vault cash provider forwards the request to its vault location nearest to the applicable ATM. Personnel at the vault location then arrange for the requested amount of cash to be set aside and made available for the designated armored courier to access and subsequently transport to the ATM. Our ATM cash management department utilizes data from the vault cash providers, internally-produced data, and a proprietary methodology to confirm daily orders, audit delivery of cash to armored couriers and ATMs, monitor cash balances for cash shortages, coordinate and manage emergency cash orders, and audit costs from both armored couriers and vault cash providers.

In the U.K., we operate our own armored courier operation which we significantly expanded through the acquisition of Sunwin Services Group (“Sunwin”) in November 2014. As of December 31, 2016, this operation was servicing approximately 13,500 of our ATMs in the U.K.

Customer service. We believe one of the factors that differentiates us from our competitors is our customer service responsiveness and proactive approach to managing any downtime experienced by our ATMs. We use an advanced software and highly skilled technicians that monitor our ATMs 24 hours a day for service interruptions and notify our maintenance engineers and vendors for prompt dispatch of necessary service calls.

Finally, we use proprietary software systems to maintain a database of transactions and performance metrics for our ATMs. This data is aggregated into individual merchant and financial institution customer profiles that are accessible by our customer service representatives and managers. We believe our proprietary databases enable us to provide superior quality and reliable customer support, together with information on trends that is valuable to our retail and financial institution partners.

Primary Vendor Relationships

To maintain an efficient and flexible operating structure, we outsource certain aspects of our operations, including cash supply and cash delivery, maintenance , and certain transaction processing services. Due to the large number of ATMs we operate, we believe we have obtained favorable pricing terms from most of our major vendors. We contract for the provision of the services described below in connection with our operations.

Transaction processing. We own and operate EFT transaction processing platforms that utilize proprietary as well as commercially-available software. Historically, our processing efforts have been primarily focused on controlling the flow and content of information on the ATM screen, and we have largely relied on third-party service providers to handle our connections to the EFT networks and to perform certain funds settlement and reconciliation procedures on our behalf. The third-party transaction processors communicate with the cardholder’s financial institution through various EFT networks in order to obtain transaction authorizations and to provide us with the information we need to ensure that the related funds are properly settled. In addition, we have developed a capability to connect to major financial institutions and certain networks on a direct or virtually-direct basis, and we expanded this direct model with our CDS acquisition in 2015. As a result of our past acquisitions, a portion of our withdrawal transactions are currently processed through other third-party processors, with whom the acquired businesses had existing contractual relationships. We plan to c onvert transaction processing services to our internal EFT transaction processing platforms when economically advantageous to us or as these contracts expire or are terminated.

EFT network services. Our transactions are routed over various EFT networks to obtain authorization for cash disbursements and to provide account balances. EFT networks set the interchange fees that they charge to the financial institutions, as well as the amount paid to us. We attempt to maximize the utility of our ATMs to cardholders by participating in as many EFT networks as practical. Additionally, we own and operate the Allpoint network, the largest surcharge-free network in the U.S. Having this network further enhances our ATM utility by providing certain cardholders surcharge-free access to our ATMs, as well as allowing us to receive network-related economic benefits such as receiving additional transaction-based revenue and setting interchange rates on transactions over this network.

Equipment. We purchase substantially all of our ATMs from a number of global ATM manufacturers, including, but not limited to, NCR, Hyosung, Triton, and Diebold. The large quantity of ATMs that we purchase from these manufacturers enables us to receive favorable pricing and terms. In addition, we maintain close working relationships with these manufacturers in the course of our business, allowing us to stay informed about product updates and to receive prompt attention for any technical problems with purchased ATM equipment. The favorable pricing we receive from these manufacturers also allows us to offer certain of our customers an affordable solution to replace their ATMs to be compliant with new regulatory requirements as they arise.

Although we have historically purchased the majority of our ATMs from NCR, we regularly purchase ATMs from other suppliers. In the event of an ATM supply shortage from one supplier, we can shift purchases to another supplier.

Maintenance. We generally contract with third-party service providers for on-site maintenance services in most of our markets. In the U.K., maintenance services are mostly performed by our in-house technicians.

ATM cash management. We obtain cash to fill our Company-owned ATMs, and in some cases merchant-owned and managed services ATMs, under arrangements with various vault cash providers. We pay a monthly fee based on the average outstanding vault cash balances to our primary vault cash providers under a floating rate formula, which is generally based on various benchmark interest rates such as London Interbank Offered Rates (“LIBOR”). In virtually all cases, beneficial ownership of the cash is retained by the vault cash providers, and we have no right to the cash and no access except for the ATMs that are serviced by our wholly-owned armored courier operations in the U.K. While our U.K. armored courier operations have physical access to the cash loaded in the ATMs, beneficial ownership of that cash remains with the vault cash provider at all times. We also contract with third-parties to provide us with certain cash management services, which varies by geography, which may include reporting, armored courier coordination, cash ordering, cash insurance, reconciliation of ATM cash balances, and claims processing with armored couriers, financial institutions, and processors.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, we had an average outstanding vault cash balance of approximately $2.3 billion in cash in our North America ATMs under these arrangements with Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank of America”), Wells Fargo, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”), Elan Financial Services (“Elan”) (a division of U.S. Bancorp) , and Capital One Financial Corp. (“Capital One”). In Europe, the average outstanding vault cash balance was approximately $1.2 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, which was primarily supplied by Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”), HSBC Holdings plc (“HSBC”), and Barclays PLC (“Barclays”). For additional information related to our vault cash

agreements and the related risks, see Item 1A. Risk Factors - We rely on third-parties to provide us with the cash we require to operate many of our ATMs. If these third-parties were unable or unwilling to provide us with the necessary cash to operate our ATMs, we would need to locate alternative sources of cash to operate our ATMs or we would not be able to operate our business.

The vault cash that we are contractually responsible for in all of the jurisdictions in which we operate is insured up to certain per location loss limits and subject to per incident and annual aggregate deductibles through a syndicate of multiple Lloyd’s of London and U.S.-based underwriters.

Cash replenishment. We contract with armored courier services to transport and transfer most of the cash to our ATMs. We use leading third-party armored couriers in all of our jurisdictions except for in the U.K., where we primarily utilize our own armored courier operations. Under these arrangements, the armored couriers pick up the cash in bulk, and using instructions received from us and our vault cash providers, prepare the cash for delivery to each ATM on the designated fill day. Following a predetermined schedule, the armored couriers visit each location on the designated fill day, load cash into each ATM, and then balance each machine and provide cash reporting to the applicable vault cash provider.

Merchant Customers

In each of our markets, we typically deploy our Company-owned ATMs under long-term contracts with major national and regional merchants, including convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, drug stores, and other high-traffic locations. Our merchant-owned ATMs are typically deployed under arrangements with smaller independent merchants.

The terms of our merchant contracts vary as a result of negotiations at the time of execution. In the case of Company-owned ATMs, the contract terms vary, but typically include the following:

Our contracts under merchant-owned arrangements typically include similar terms, as well as the following additional terms:

Finally, our managed services contracts are tailored to the needs of the merchant and therefore vary in scope and terms. Under these types of arrangements, our customers determine the location, the surcharge fee, and the services offered while we typically receive a fixed management fee per ATM and/or a fixed fee per transaction.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we derived approximately 39.2% of our total revenues from ATMs placed at the locations of our top five merchant customers. 7-Eleven in the U.S. is currently the largest merchant customer in our portfolio, representing approximately 18% of our total revenues for the year. The next four largest merchant customers together comprised approximately 21% of our total revenues for the year. 7-Eleven in the U.S. did not renew its ATM placement agreement with us, which expires in July 2017, but has instead entered into a new ATM placement agreement with a related entity of 7-Eleven’s parent company. After 7-Eleven, our next four largest merchant customers were Co-op Food (in the U.K.), Walgreens, CVS, and Speedway, none of which individually contributed more than 6% of our total revenues for the year. In January 2017, Walgreens extended its ATM services agreement with us. Inclusive of the Walgreens extension, the weighted average remaining life of the four largest merchant customers (excluding 7-Eleven in the U.S.) is approximately 4 years. For additional information related to the risks associated with our customer mix, see Item 1A. Risk Factors - We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from ATMs placed with a small number of

merchants. The expiration, termination or renegotiation of any of these contracts with our top merchants, or if one or more of our top merchants were to cease doing business with us, or substantially reduce its dealings with us, could cause our revenues to decline significantly and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

Seasonality

Our overall business is somewhat seasonal in nature, with generally fewer transactions occurring in the first quarter of the year. Transaction volumes at our ATMs located in regions affected by strong winter weather patterns typically experience declines in volume during winter months as a result of decreases in the amount of consumer traffic through such locations. We usually see an increase in transactions in the warmer summer months, which are also aided by increased vacation and holiday travel. We expect these fluctuations in transaction volumes to continue in the future.

Competition

Historically, we have competed with financial institutions and other independent ATM deployers (commonly referred to as “IADs”) for ATM placements, new merchant accounts, bank-branding, and acquisitions. In 2015 a related entity of 7-Eleven’s parent company entered into an agreement to operate all of the ATMs at the 7-Eleven locations in the U.S. upon the expiration of our ATM placement agreement in July 2017. IADs continue to compete with us for placement rights at merchant locations. Our ATMs compete with the ATMs owned and operated by financial institutions and other IADs for underlying consumer transactions. In certain merchant location types with very high foot traffic, such as airports or major train stations, large arenas or stadiums, we often see competition from large financial institutions as they may contemplate utilizing such locations for marketing and advertising purposes, and in some cases are willing to subsidize the operations of the ATM. Recently, we have seen somewhat less competition from financial institutions seeking to place ATMs directly at merchant locations.

We have established relationships with leading national and regional financial institutions through our bank-branding program and our Allpoint network. Both of these programs can be cost-efficient alternatives to financial institutions in lieu of operating branches and owning and operating extensive ATM networks. We believe the scale of our extensive network, our EFT transaction processing services, and our focus on customer service provide us with competitive advantages for providing services to leading financial institutions.

Through our Allpoint surcharge-free network, we have significantly expanded our relationships with local, regional, and national financial institutions as well as large issuers of stored-value debit card programs. With regard to our Allpoint network, we encounter competition from other organizations’ surcharge-free networks that are seeking to sell their network to retail locations and offer surcharge-free ATM access to issuers of stored-value debit cards, as well as financial institutions that lack large ATM footprints.

We work to continually develop the types of services we provide to financial institutions and merchants, including management of their ATMs. With respect to our managed services offering, we believe we are well-positioned to offer a comprehensive ATM outsourcing solution with our breadth of services, in-house expertise, and network of existing locations that can leverage the economies of scale required to operate an ATM portfolio. There are several large financial services companies, ATM equipment manufacturers, and service providers that currently offer some of the services we provide, with whom we expect to compete directly in this area. In spite of this, we believe that we have unique advantages that will allow us to offer a compelling solution to financial institutions and retailers alike.

We regularly compete for acquisition opportunities in each of the markets in which we operate. Acquisitions have been a consistent part of our strategy and we expect to continue to seek acquisition opportunities in our existing markets and new markets. Typically, competition for acquisitions is from other IADs, financial service or payments businesses, and/or private equity sponsors of ATM portfolios.

Finally, we face indirect competition from alternative payment mechanisms, such as card-based payments or other electronic forms of payment. While we have not been able to detect material direct effects from alternative payment sources on our transaction volumes to date, cash-based payments have declined as a percentage of total payments in our primary

geographic markets in recent years. Further expansion in electronic payment forms and the entry of new and less traditional competitors could reduce demand for cash at merchant locations. We expect to continue to face competition from emerging payments technology in the future. See Item 1A. Risk Factors - The proliferation of payment options other than cash, including credit cards, debit cards, stored-value debit cards, and mobile payments options could result in a reduced need for cash in the marketplace and a resulting decline in the usage of our ATMs.

Government and Industry Regulation

Our principal business, ATM network ownership and operation, is subject to government (federal, state, or local) and industry regulations. Our failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could result in restrictions on our ability to provide our products and services in such jurisdictions, as well as the imposition of civil fines. For additional information related to recent regulatory matters that have impacted our operations or are expected to impact us in the future, see Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Recent Events and Trends .  

Risk Management

We have adopted a formalized Enterprise Risk Management program that seeks to identify and manage the major risks we face. The major risks are prioritized and assigned to a member of the management team who develops mitigation plans, monitors the risk activity, and is responsible for implementation of the mitigation plan, if necessary. The risks, plans, and activities are monitored by our management team and Board of Directors on a regular basis.

Employees

As of December 31, 2016, we had 1,734 employees , 139 of which were represented by a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We currently believe our relationships with employees represented by unions are good, and we have not experienced any work stoppages.

transaction volumes in the future. The proliferation of payment options and changes in consumer preferences and usage behavior could reduce the need for cash and have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Interchange fees, which comprise a substantial portion of our transaction revenues, may be lowered in some cases at the discretion of the various EFT networks through which our transactions are routed, or through potential regulatory changes, thus reducing our future revenues.

Interchange fees, which represented 37.3 % of our total ATM operating revenues for the year ended December 31, 2016, are set by the various EFT networks and major interbank networks through which the transactions conducted on our ATMs are routed. These fees vary from one network to the next. As of December 31, 2016, approximately 4% of our total ATM operating revenues were subject to pricing changes by U.S. networks over which we currently have limited influence or where we have no ability to offset pricing changes through lower payments to merchants. During the year ended December 31, 2016, 21% of our total ATM operating revenues were derived from interchange revenues in the U.K., where the significant majority of the interchange revenues we earn are based on rates set by LINK, the major interbank network in that market, based on an annual cost-based study performed by an independent third-party organization. The remainder of reported interchange revenue reflects transaction-based revenues where we have contractually agreed to the rate with a financial institution or network. Accordingly, if some of the networks through which our ATM transactions are routed were to reduce the interchange rates paid to us or increase their transaction fees charged to us for routing transactions across their network, our future transaction revenues could decline.

In past years, certain networks have reduced the net interchange rates paid to ATM deployers for ATM transactions in the U.S. routed across their debit networks through a combination of reducing the transaction rates charged to financial institutions and higher per transaction fees charged by the networks to ATM operators. In addition to the impact of the net interchange rate decrease, we saw certain financial institutions migrate their volume away from some networks to take advantage of the lower pricing offered by other networks, resulting in lower net interchange rates per transaction to us.

Additionally, some consumer groups in the U.S. have expressed concern that consumers using an ATM may not be aware that, in addition to paying the surcharge fee that is disclosed to them at the ATM, their financial institution may also assess an additional fee with regard to that consumer’s transaction. These fees are sometimes referred to as “foreign bank fees” or “out of network fees.” While there are currently no pending legislative actions calling for limits on the amount of interchange fees that can be charged by the EFT networks to financial institutions for ATM transactions or the amount of fees that financial institutions can charge to their customers to offset their interchange expense, there can be no assurance that such legislative actions will not occur in the future. Any potential future network or legislative actions that affect the amount of interchange fees that can be assessed on a transaction may adversely affect our revenues.

Our U.K.-based revenues are also impacted by interchange rates, with the majority of our interchange revenues in that market being earned through the LINK network. LINK sets interchange rates for its participants using a cost-based methodology that incorporates ATM service costs, generally from two years back (i.e., operating costs from 2014 are considered for determining the 2016 interchange rate) and, as a result, the interchange rate   can vary year-to-year based on the output of the cost-based study. We have seen the LINK interchange rate move both up and down based on the results of the cost study . While over time, we think this methodology generally enables us to recover our costs and earn a reasonable profit margin, large spikes in costs within a particular time period could adversely impact our profitability in this market as the interchange rates are currently fixed on a calendar year basis. In addition to LINK transactions, certain card issuers in the U.K. have issued cards that are not affiliated with the LINK network, and instead carry the Visa or MasterCard network brands. Transactions conducted on our ATMs from these cards, which currently represent 2% of our annual withdrawal transactions in the U.K., receive interchange fees that are set by Visa or MasterCard, respectively. The interchange rates set by Visa and MasterCard have historically been less than the rates that have been established by LINK. Accordingly, if any major financial institutions in the U.K. were to decide to leave the LINK network in favor of Visa, MasterCard, or another network, and we elected to continue to accept the transactions of their cardholders, such a move could reduce the interchange revenues that we currently receive from the related withdrawal transactions conducted on our ATMs in that market. Additionally, should LINK change its interchange-setting mechanism or should there be a significant change in the LINK scheme or its membership, our U.K. interchange revenues and profits could be adversely impacted. Currently, the LINK interchange rate-setting mechanism is under review with certain members of LINK taking positions arguing for a significantly lower interchange rate. To the extent the LINK interchange rate is lowered, financial institution

participation within the network changes, or other changes occur that impact our ATM operations, our revenues and profits may be materially adversely impacted.

Future changes in interchange rates, some of which we have minimal or no control over, could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

We operate in a changing and unpredictable regulatory environment, which may harm our business. If we are subject to new regulations or legislation regarding the operation of our ATMs, we could be required to make substantial expenditures to comply with that regulation or legislation, which may reduce our net income and our profit margins.

With its initial roots in the banking industry, the U.S. ATM industry is regulated by the rules and regulations of the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, which establishes the rights, liabilities, and responsibilities of participants in EFT systems. The vast majority of states have few, if any, licensing requirements. However, legislation related to the U.S. ATM industry is periodically proposed at the state and local level. In past years, certain members of the U.S. Congress called for a re-examination of fees that are charged for an ATM transaction, although no legislation was passed relative to these matters. As a part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created, and it is possible that this governmental agency could enact new or modify existing regulations that could have a direct or indirect impact on our business. For additional information related to this topic, see the risk factor entitled The passage of legislation banning or limiting the fees we receive for transactions conducted on our ATMs would severely impact our revenues and our operations below.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) requires that ATMs be accessible to and independently usable by individuals with disabilities, such as visually-impaired or wheel-chair bound persons. The U.S. Department of Justice issued accessibility regulations under the ADA that became effective in March 2012. Leading up to this deadline, we took measures to achieve compliance with the ADA for our ATMs, which required us to upgrade and replace a portion of our ATMs. It is possible that future similar regulations may require us to make more substantial expenditures and we may be forced to replace and or stop operating such ATMs until such time as compliance has been achieved.

Additionally, we have been subject to litigation in the past claiming discrimination against certain groups. For example, the National Federation of the Blind (the “NFB”) sought to require us to ensure that all of our ATMs are voice-guided. Effective May 2015, we entered into an amended and restated settlement agreement (the “New Agreement”) with the NFB and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to resolve outstanding issues arising out of an earlier settlement agreement that pre-dated the issuance of the 2012 ADA accessibility regulations. This New Agreement provides for a process utilizing a court-appointed special master to certify compliance with accessibility features, such as voice guidance and braille stickers, as set forth in either the 2012 ADA regulations or the New Agreement. The New Agreement also calls for monitoring our compliance in the deployment and maintenance of such features on our ATMs and imposes prescribed liquidated damages if we fail to meet any specific requirement. Should we fail to meet the terms of the New Agreement, we could incur significant liquidated damages.

In the U.K., the ATM industry has historically been largely self-regulating. Most ATMs in the U.K. are part of the LINK network and must operate under the network rules set forth by LINK, which operates under the oversight of the Bank of England and its regulatory capacity. However, in March 2013, the U.K. Treasury department issued a formal recommendation to further regulate the U.K. payments industry, including LINK, the nation’s primary ATM scheme. In October 2013, the U.K. government responded by establishing the new Payment Systems Regulator (“PSR”) to oversee any payment system operating in the U.K. and its participants. The new PSR became active in 2015. The PSR commissioned a review of LINK, which has caused several outcomes, including a separation of the processing component of LINK which required us to separately enter into new agreements for certain operational services and other areas under review that could potentially impact our operations.

We are also subject to various regulations in other jurisdictions that we operate in, including Germany, Poland, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, and Canada, and more recently, with the completion of the DCPayments and Spark acquisitions in January 2017, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Due to the numerous regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate, there is substantial risk to ensuring consistent compliance with the existing regulatory requirements in those jurisdictions. To the extent we are not successful in complying with the existing regulations, it may have an impact on our

ability to continue operating in such jurisdictions or adversely impact our profits. In addition, new legislation proposed in any of the jurisdictions that we operate in, or adverse changes in the laws that we are subject to, may materially affect our business through the requirement of additional expenditures to comply with that legislation or other direct or indirect impacts on our business. If regulatory legislation is passed in any of the jurisdictions in which we operate, we could be required to incur substantial expenditures or suffer adverse changes in our business which would reduce our net income.

If we fail to adapt our products and services to changes in technology or in the marketplace, or if our ongoing efforts to upgrade our technology are not successful, we could lose customers or have difficulty attracting new customers, which would adversely impact our revenues and our operations.

The markets for our products and services are characterized by constant technological changes, frequent introductions of new products and services and evolving industry standards. Due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to security features, compatibility between systems and software and hardware components, consumer preferences, industry standards, and other factors, we regularly update the technology components, including software, on our ATMs. These technology upgrade efforts, in some cases, may result in downtime to our ATMs, and as a result, loss of transactions and revenues. Additionally, our ability to enhance our current products and services and to develop and introduce innovative products and services that address the increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers will significantly affect our future success. Our ability to take advantage of opportunities in the market may require us to invest considerable resources adapting our organization and capabilities to support development of products and systems that can support new services or be integrated with new technologies and incur other expenses in advance of our ability to generate revenue from these products and services. These developmental efforts may divert resources from other potential investments in our businesses, management time and attention from other matters, and these efforts may not lead to the development of new products or services on a timely basis. We may not be successful in developing, marketing or selling new products and services that meet these changing demands. In addition, we may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, introduction or marketing of these products and services, or our new products and services and enhancements may not adequately meet the demands of the marketplace or achieve market acceptance. If we are unsuccessful in offering products or services that gain market acceptance, it could have an adverse impact on our ability to retain existing customers or attract new ones, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and our operations.

Security breaches, including the occurrence of a cyber-incident or a deficiency in our cybersecurity,   could harm our business by compromising merchant and cardholder information and disrupting our transaction processing services, thus damaging our relationships with our merchant customers, business partners, and generally exposing us to liability.

As part of our transaction processing services, we electronically process and transmit cardholder information. If a cyber-incident (including accidental or intentional computer or network issues (such as phishing attacks, viruses, malware installation, server malfunction, software or hardware failures, impairment of data integrity, loss of data or other computer assets, adware, or other similar issues)) impairs or shuts down one or more of our computing systems or our IT network, we may suffer harm from our customers, our business partners, the press, and the public at large. Furthermore, companies that process and transmit cardholder information have been specifically and increasingly targeted in recent years by sophisticated criminal organizations in an effort to obtain information and utilize it for fraudulent transactions. The technical and procedural controls we and our partners use to provide security for storage, processing and transmission of confidential customer and other information may not be effective to protect against data security breaches or other cyber incidents. The risk of unauthorized circumvention of our security measures has been heightened by advances in computer capabilities and the increasing sophistication of hackers. Unauthorized access to our computer systems, or those of our third-party service providers, could result in the theft or publication of the information or the deletion or modification of sensitive records, and could cause interruptions in our operations. Any inability to prevent security breaches could damage our relationships with our merchant and financial institution customers, cause a decrease in transactions by individual cardholders, expose us to liability including claims from merchants, financial institutions, and cardholders , and subject us to network fines. Further, we could be forced to expend significant resources in response to a security breach, including repairing system damage and increasing cyber security protection costs by deploying additional personnel, each of which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. These claims also could result in protracted and costly litigation. If unsuccessful in defending that litigation, we might be forced to pay

damages and/or change our business practices. We maintain insurance intended to cover some of these risks. However, this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses from any future breaches of our systems. As a global company, we could be impacted by existing and proposed laws and regulations, as well as government policies and practices related to cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection across the various jurisdictions in which we operate. An actual security breach or cyber-incident could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Computer viruses or unauthorized software (malware) could harm our business by disrupting our transaction processing services, causing noncompliance with network rules, damaging our relationships with our merchant and financial institution customers, and damaging our reputation causing a decrease in transactions by individual cardholders.

Computer viruses or malware have rapidly spread over the Internet and could infiltrate our systems, thus disrupting our delivery of services, causing delays or loss of data or public releases of confidential data or making our applications unavailable, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and our operations and cash flows. Although we utilize several preventative and detective security controls in our network, they may be ineffective in preventing computer viruses or malware that could damage our relationships with our merchant and financial institution customers, cause a decrease in transactions by individual cardholders, cause our reputation to be damaged, require us to make significant expenditures to repair or replace equipment, or cause us to be in non-compliance with applicable network rules and regulations.

Regulatory, legislative or self-regulatory/standard developments regarding privacy and data security matters could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.

We, along with our partners and customers in the financial services area, are subject to a number of laws and regulations. These laws, rules and regulations address a range of issues including data privacy and cyber security, and restrictions or technological requirements regarding the collection, use, storage, protection, retention or transfer of data.

In the U.S., the rules and regulations to which we (directly or contractually through our banking partners or our marketers) may be subject include those promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Gramm Leach Bliley Act and state cybersecurity and breach notification laws, as well as regulator enforcement positions and expectations.

The European Union (“E.U.”) courts determined in late 2015 that the Safe Harbor mechanism which facilitated data sharing between the E.U. and the U.S. was not in fact compliant with the E.U. data protection regulations, requiring a new robust mechanism, the Privacy Shield. The E.U. authorities agreed to new General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) in 2016. The GDPR provides heightened rights for individuals and increased sanctions for non-compliance with regulations. Additionally, the GDPR further introduces measures that will make data processing and sharing between our European-based businesses and our other businesses more difficult. As required by the GDPR, in 2016 we appointed a Data Protection Officer to oversee and supervise our compliance with European data protection regulations.

Such government regulation (together with applicable industry standards) may increase the costs of doing business. Federal, state, municipal and foreign governments and agencies have adopted and could in the future adopt, modify, apply or enforce laws, policies, regulations, and standards covering user privacy, data security, technologies such as cookies that are used to collect, store and/or process data, marketing online, the use of data to inform marketing, the taxation of products and services, unfair and deceptive practices, and the collection (including the collection of information), use, processing, transfer, storage and/or disclosure of data associated with unique individual internet users. New regulation or legislative actions regarding data privacy and security could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

The ATM industry is highly competitive and such competition may increase, which may adversely affect our profit margins.

The ATM business is and can be expected to remain highly competitive. Our principal competition comes from independent ATM companies and financial institutions in all of the countries in which we operate. Our competitors could prevent us from obtaining or maintaining desirable locations for our ATMs, cause us to reduce the revenue generated by

transactions at our ATMs, or cause us to pay higher merchant fees, thereby reducing our profits. In addition to our current competitors, new and less traditional competitors may enter the market or we may face additional competition associated with alternative payment mechanisms and emerging payment technologies. Increased competition could result in transaction fee reductions, reduced gross margins, and loss of market share. As a result, the failure to effectively adapt our organization, products, and services to the market could significantly reduce our offerings to gain market acceptance, could significantly reduce our revenue, increase our operating costs, or otherwise adversely impact our operations and cash flows.

The passage of legislation banning or limiting the fees we receive for transactions conducted on our ATMs would severely impact our revenues and our operations.

Despite the nationwide acceptance of surcharge fees at ATMs in the U.S. since their introduction in 1996, consumer activists have from time to time attempted to impose local bans or limits on surcharge fees. Even in the few instances where these efforts have passed the local governing body (such as with an ordinance adopted by the city of Santa Monica, California), U.S. federal courts have overturned these local laws on federal preemption grounds. Although Section 1044 of the Dodd-Frank Act contains a provision that will limit the application of federal preemption with respect to state laws that do not discriminate against national banks, federal preemption will not be affected by local municipal laws, where such proposed bans or limits often arise. Additionally, some U.S. federal officials have expressed concern in previous years that surcharge fees charged by banks and non-bank ATM operators are unfair to consumers. For example, in 2010, an amendment proposing limits on the fees that ATM operators, including financial institutions, can charge consumers was introduced in the U.S. Senate, but was not ultimately included in the final version of the Dodd-Frank Act that was signed into law. We rely on transaction-based revenues in each of our markets and any regulatory fee limits that could be imposed on our transactions may have an adverse impact on our revenues and profits. If legislation were to be enacted in the future in any of our markets, and the amount we were able to charge consumers to use our ATMs was reduced, our revenues and related profitability would be negatively impacted. Furthermore, if such limits were set at levels that are below our current or future costs to operate our ATMs, it would have a material adverse impact on our ability to continue to operate under our current business model and adversely impact our revenues and cash flows.

Potential new currency designs may require modifications to our ATMs that could impact our cash flows.  

In the action styled: American Council of the Blind, et. al., v. Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury (Case #1:02-cv-00864) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (the “Court”) an order was entered that found that U.S. currencies (as currently designed) violated the Rehabilitation Act, a law that prohibits discrimination in government programs on the basis of disability, as the paper currencies issued by the U.S. are identical in size and color, regardless of denomination. As a consequence of this ruling, the U.S. Treasury stated in its semi-annual status report filed with the Court in September 2012, that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (“BEP”) was making progress towards implementing the Secretary’s decision to provide meaningful access to paper currency by: “(i) adding a raised tactile feature to each Federal Reserve note that the BEP may lawfully redesign, (ii) continuing the BEP’s program of adding large high-contrast numerals and different colors to each denomination that it may lawfully redesign, and (iii) implementing a supplemental currency reader distribution program for blind and other visually impaired U.S. citizens and legal residents.” Of these three steps only the first materially affects the ATM industry. The BEP continues to research the raised tactile feature and is engaged in testing samples in conjunction with the Banknot Equipment Manufactures program; however, previous comments from the U.S. Treasury suggest that raised tactile features on currency are not expected to be in circulation prior to 2020. Until a selection is made and disclosed by the BEP, the impact, if any, this raised tactile feature on the notes will have on the ATM industry (including us), remains unknown. However, it is possible that such a change could require us to incur additional costs, which could be substantial, to modify our ATMs in order to store and dispense notes with raised tactile features.

Additionally, polymer notes were introduced by the Bank of England in 2016 and will be further circulated through 2020. The introduction of these new currency designs has required upgrades to software and physical ATM components on our ATMs in the U.K. Upgrades may result in incremental downtime and incremental capital investments for the affected ATMs. These upgrades will continue during 2017. To date, we have not experienced any material adverse financial or operational impact as a result of the new requirements to handle these new notes but we have not yet completed the upgrade of our ATMs. The Reserve Bank of Australia has also begun issuing redesigned banknotes beginning with the $5 Australian dollar banknote in September 2016, and it will continue issuing redesigned banknotes in additional

denominations in subsequent years. The redesigned banknotes include a raised tactile feature to help the blind and visually impaired community distinguish between different denominations of banknotes and a top-to-bottom clear window in which the banknote is transparent. The new banknotes may require upgrades to the software and physical ATM components on our ATMs in Australia, and until all denominations of the banknotes have been released and are available for testing, we may not be able to determine the full upgrade requirements and related costs. Any required upgrades to our ATM machines could require us to incur additional cost, which could be substantial and have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Risks associated with our business

We depend on ATM and financial services transaction fees for substantially all of our revenues, and our revenues and profits would be reduced by a decline in the usage of our ATMs or a decline in the number of ATMs that we operate, whether as a result of global economic conditions or otherwise.  

Transaction fees charged to cardholders and their financial institutions for transactions processed on our ATMs and multi-function financial services kiosks, including surcharge and interchange transaction fees, have historically accounted for most of our revenues. We expect that transaction fees, including fees we receive through our bank-branding and surcharge-free network offerings, will continue to account for a substantial majority of our revenues for the foreseeable future. Consequently, our future operating results will depend on many factors, including: (i) the market acceptance of our services in our target markets, (ii) the level of transaction fees we receive, (iii) our ability to install, acquire, operate, and retain ATMs, (iv) usage of our ATMs by cardholders, and (v) our ability to continue to expand our surcharge-free and other automated consumer financial services offerings. If alternative technologies to our services are successfully developed and implemented, we may experience a decline in the usage of our ATMs. Surcharge rates, which are largely market-driven and are negotiated between us and our merchant partners, could be reduced over time. Further, growth in surcharge-free ATM networks and widespread consumer bias toward these networks could adversely affect our revenues, even though we maintain our own surcharge-free offerings. Many of our ATMs are utilized by consumers that frequent the retail establishments in which our ATMs are located, including convenience stores, gas stations, malls, grocery stores, drug stores, airports, train stations, and other large retailers. If there is a significant slowdown in consumer spending, and the number of consumers that frequent the retail establishments in which we operate our ATMs declines significantly, the number of transactions conducted on those ATMs, and the corresponding transaction fees we earn, may also decline. Additionally, should banks increase the fees they charge to their customers when using an ATM outside of their network (i.e. out of network or foreign bank fees), this would effectively make transactions at our ATM more expensive to consumers and could adversely impact our transaction volumes and revenues. A decline in usage of our ATMs by cardholders or in the levels of fees received by us in connection with this usage, or a decline in the number of ATMs that we operate, would have a negative impact on our revenues and cash flows and would limit our future growth potential. For additional information related to interchange fees, see the risk factor entitled  Interchange fees, which comprise a substantial portion of our transaction revenues, may be lowered in some cases at the discretion of the various EFT networks through which our transactions are routed, or through potential regulatory changes, thus reducing our future revenues above.

We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from ATMs placed with a small number of merchants. The expiration, termination or renegotiation of any of these contracts with our top merchants, or if one or more of our top merchants were to cease doing business with us, or substantially reduce its dealings with us, could cause our revenues to decline significantly and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we derived approximately 39.2% of our total revenues from ATMs placed at the locations of our top five merchant customers. Our top five merchant customers were 7-Eleven, Co-op Food (in the U.K.), Walgreens, CVS, and Speedway. Our ATM placement agreement with 7-Eleven in the U.S., which is currently the largest merchant customer in our portfolio, comprised approximately 18% of our total revenues for the year. The next four largest merchant customers together comprised approximately 21% of our total revenues for the year. 7-Eleven did not renew its ATM placement agreement with us, which expires in July 2017. We are currently in the process of coordinating the transition of ATM operations at 7-Eleven locations in the U.S. to the new service provider. At this time, we expect the transition to begin in July 2017 and occur over the latter part of 2017. As a result, we expect that our revenues and operating profits associated with this relationship will begin to decline during our third quarter. We expect that the loss of 7-Eleven

will likely have a higher negative impact (in percentage terms) on our income from operations relative to the revenue impact, particularly as we transition to the new service provider and the infrastructure required to support the relationship adjusts during the transition period. As a result, we expect that the loss of this merchant will have a significant negative impact on our results from operations and cash flows in 2017 and 2018.

The deinstallation of the 7-Eleven ATMs in the U.S., which we expect to start in the third quarter of 2017, will have a significant impact on many elements of our business operations. In addition to the anticipated loss of revenues and profits associated with this relationship, we expect other impacts as we plan to restructure certain parts of our business to offset the loss of profits associated with this relationship. For example, we expect to eliminate certain positions, which will likely result in higher upfront costs from severance and transition. Additionally, the net book value of the U.S. 7-Eleven ATMs is approximately $19.8 million as of December 31, 2016, and while we expect to reuse the majority of the ATMs with significant carrying values, we could incur a write-off or increased depreciation expense in the future if we are unable to redeploy the ATMs. Furthermore, the timing of the deinstallation schedule is still uncertain as of the date of the filing of this 2016 Form 10-K, and a significant change in the anticipated deinstallation schedule could have a significant impact on our expected results from operations during 2017.

Because a significant percentage of our future revenues and operating income depends upon the successful continuation of our relationship with our top merchant customers the loss of any of our largest merchants, a decision by any one of them to reduce the number of our ATMs placed in their locations, or a decision to sell or close their locations could result in a decline in our revenues or otherwise adversely impact our business operations. Furthermore, if their financial conditions were to deteriorate in the future, and as a result, one or more of these merchants was required to close a significant number of their store locations, our revenues would be significantly impacted. Additionally, these merchants may elect not to renew their contracts when they expire. As of December 31, 2016, the contracts we have with our top five merchant customers, other than 7-Eleven in the U.S., had a weighted average remaining life of approximately 4 years, including the Walgreens contract extension announced in January 2017.

Even if our major contracts are extended or renewed, the renewal terms may be less favorable to us than the current contracts. If any of our largest merchants enters bankruptcy proceedings and rejects its contract with us, fails to renew its contract upon expiration, or if the renewal terms with any of them are less favorable to us than under our current contracts, it could result in a decline in our revenues and profits and have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Deterioration in global credit markets, as well as changes in legislative and regulatory requirements, could have a negative impact on financial institutions that we conduct business with.

We have a significant number of customer and vendor relationships with financial institutions in all of our key markets, including relationships in which those financial institutions pay us for the right to place their brands on our ATMs. Additionally, we rely on a small number of financial institution partners to provide us with the cash that we maintain in our Company-owned ATMs and some of our merchant-owned ATMs. Volatility in the global credit markets, such as that experienced in 2008 to 2009, may have a negative impact on those financial institutions and our relationships with them. In particular, if the liquidity positions of the financial institutions with which we conduct business deteriorate significantly, these institutions may be unable to perform under their existing agreements with us. If these defaults were to occur, we may not be successful in our efforts to identify new bank-branding partners and vault cash providers, and the underlying economics of any new arrangements may not be consistent with our current arrangements. Furthermore, if our existing bank-branding partners or vault cash providers are acquired by other institutions with assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), or placed into receivership by the FDIC, it is possible that our agreements may be rejected in part or in their entirety.

We rely on third-parties to provide us with the cash we require to operate many of our ATMs. If these third-parties were unable or unwilling to provide us with the necessary cash to operate our ATMs, we would need to locate alternative sources of cash to operate our ATMs or we would not be able to operate our business.

In North America, we rely primarily on Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Elan (a division of U.S. Bancorp), and Capital One to provide us with the vault cash that we use in approximately 44,000 of our ATMs where cash is not provided by the merchant. In Europe, we rely primarily on Santander, RBS, HSBC, and Barclays to provide us with the vault cash that we

use in approximately 16,000 of our ATMs. For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, we had an average outstanding vault cash balance of approximately $2.3 billion held in our North America ATMs and approximately $1.2 billion in our ATMs in Europe.

Our existing vault cash rental agreements expire at various times through March 2021. However, each provider has the right to demand the return of all or any portion of its cash at any time upon the occurrence of certain events, including certain bankruptcy events of us or our subsidiaries, or a breach of the terms of our vault cash provider agreements. Other key terms of our agreements include the requirement that the vault cash providers provide written notice of their intent not to renew. Such notice provisions typically require a minimum of 180 to 360 days’ notice prior to the actual termination date. If such notice is not received, then the contracts will typically automatically renew for an additional one-year period.

If our vault cash providers were to demand return of their cash or terminate their arrangements with us and remove their cash from our ATMs, or if they fail to provide us with cash as and when we need it for our operations, our ability to operate our ATMs would be jeopardized, and we would need to locate alternative sources of vault cash or potentially suffer significant downtime of our ATMs. In the event this was to happen, the terms and conditions of the new or renewed agreements could potentially be less favorable to us, which would negatively impact our results of operations. Furthermore, restrictions on access to cash to fill our ATMs could severely restrict our ability to keep our ATMs operating, and could subject us to performance penalties under our contracts with our customers. A significant reduction in access to the necessary cash to operate our ATMs could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

We rely on EFT network providers, transaction processors, armored courier providers, and maintenance providers to provide services to our ATMs. If some of these providers that service a significant number of our ATMs fail or otherwise cease or no longer agree to provide their services, we could suffer a temporary loss of transaction revenues, incur significant costs or suffer the permanent loss of any contract with a merchant or financial institution affected by such disruption in service.

We rely on EFT network providers and have agreements with various transaction processors, armored courier providers, and maintenance providers. These providers enable us to provide card authorization, data capture, settlement, cash management and delivery, and maintenance services to our ATMs. Typically, these agreements are for periods of two or three years each. If we are unable to secure the renewal or replacement of any expiring vendor contracts, or a key vendor fails or otherwise ceases to provide the services for which we have contracted and disruption of service to our ATMs occurs, our relationship with those merchants and financial institutions affected by the disrupted ATM service could suffer.

While we have more than one provider for each of the critical services that we rely on third-parties to perform, certain of these providers currently provide services to or for a significant number of our ATMs. Although we believe we would be able to transition these services to alternative service providers, this could be a time-consuming and costly process. In the event one of such service providers was unable to deliver services to us, we could suffer a significant disruption in our business, which could result in a material adverse impact to our financial results. Furthermore, any disruptions in service in any of our markets, whether caused by us or by third-party providers, may result in a loss of revenues under certain of our contractual arrangements that contain minimum service-level requirements and could result in a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

If we, our transaction processors, our EFT networks or other service providers experience system failures, the products and services we provide could be delayed or interrupted, which would harm our business.

Our ability to provide reliable service largely depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operations of our EFT transaction processing platforms, third-party transaction processors, telecommunications network systems, and other service providers. Accordingly, any significant interruptions could severely harm our business and reputation and result in a loss of revenues and profits. Additionally, if any interruption is caused by us, especially in those situations in which we serve as the primary transaction processor, such interruption could result in the loss of the affected merchants and financial institutions, or damage our relationships with them. Our systems and operations and those of our transaction processors and our EFT network and other service providers could be exposed to damage or interruption from fire, natural disaster, unlawful acts, terrorist attacks, power loss, telecommunications failure, unauthorized entry, and computer viruses, among other things. We cannot be certain that any measures we and our service providers have taken to prevent system failures

will be successful or that we will not experience service interruptions. Should a significant system failure occur, it could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Our armored transport business exposes us to additional risks beyond those currently experienced by us in the ownership and operation of ATMs.

Our armored courier operation in the U.K. delivers cash to and collects residual cash from our ATMs in that market. As of December 31, 2016, we were providing armored courier services to approximately 13,500 of our ATMs in that market and we currently intend to further expand that operation to service additional ATMs. The armored transport business exposes us to significant risks, including the potential for cash-in-transit losses, employee theft, as well as claims for personal injury, wrongful death, worker’s compensation, punitive damages, and general liability. While we seek to prevent the occurrence of these risks and we maintain appropriate levels of insurance to adequately protect us from these risks, there can be no assurance that we will avoid significant future claims or adverse publicity related thereto. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that our insurance coverage will be adequate to cover potential liabilities or that insurance coverage will remain available at costs that are acceptable to us. The availability of quality and reliable insurance coverage is an important factor in our ability to successfully operate this aspect of our operations. A loss claim for which insurance coverage is denied or that is in excess of our insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows.

Operational failures in our EFT transaction processing facilities could harm our business and our relationships with our merchant and financial institution customers.

An operational failure in our EFT transaction processing facilities could harm our business and damage our relationships with our merchant and financial institution customers. Damage or destruction that interrupts our transaction processing services could also cause us to incur substantial additional expense to repair or replace damaged equipment and could damage our relationship with our customers. We have installed back-up systems and procedures to prevent or react to such disruptions. However, a prolonged interruption of our services or network that extends for more than several hours (i.e., where our backup systems are not able to recover) could result in data loss or a reduction in revenues as our ATMs would be unable to process transactions. In addition, a significant interruption of service could have a negative impact on our reputation and could cause our present and potential merchant and financial institution customers to choose alternative service providers, as well as subject us to fines or penalties related to contractual service agreements and ultimately cause a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Errors or omissions in the settlement of merchant funds could damage our relationships with our merchant customers and expose us to liability.

We are responsible for maintaining accurate bank account information for certain of our merchant customers and accurate settlements of funds into these accounts based on the underlying transaction activity. This process relies on precise and authorized maintenance of electronic records. Although we have controls in place to help ensure the safety and accuracy of our records, errors or unauthorized changes to these records could result in the erroneous or fraudulent movement of funds, thus damaging our relationships with our merchant customers and exposing us to liability and potentially resulting in a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Changes in interest rates could increase our operating costs by increasing interest expense under our credit facilities and our vault cash rental costs.

Interest on amounts borrowed under our revolving credit facility is based on a floating interest rate, and our vault cash rental expense is based primarily on floating interest rates. As a result, our interest expense and cash management costs are sensitive to changes in interest rates. We pay a monthly fee on the average outstanding vault cash balances in our ATMs under floating rate formulas based on a spread above various LIBOR in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Spain. In Mexico, the rate is based on the Interbank Equilibrium Interest Rate (commonly referred to as the “TIIE”), in Canada, the rate is based on the Bank of Canada’s Bankers Acceptance Rate and the Canadian prime rate, and in Australia, the formula is based on the Bank Bill Swap Rates (“BBSY”). Although we currently hedge a portion of our vault cash interest rate risk related to our operations in the U.S. through December 31, 2022 by using interest rate swap

contracts, we may not be able to enter into similar arrangements for similar amounts in the future. We have also entered into interest rate swap contracts in the U.K. through December 31, 2022 to hedge a portion of our vault cash interest rate risk in that market. Any significant future increases in interest rates could have a negative impact on our earnings and cash flow by increasing our operating costs and expenses. For additional information, see Part II. Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk - Interest Rate Risk.

We maintain a significant amount of cash within our Company-owned ATMs, which is subject to potential loss due to theft or other events, including natural disasters.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, our average outstanding vault cash balance was approximately $3.5 billion in our ATMs. Any loss of cash from our ATMs is generally our responsibility. We typically require that our service providers, who either transport the vault cash or otherwise have access to the ATM safe, maintain adequate insurance coverage in the event cash losses occur as a result of theft, misconduct, or negligence on the part of such providers. Cash losses at the ATM occur in a variety of ways, such as natural disaster (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.), fires, vandalism, and physical removal of the entire ATM, defeating the interior safe or by compromising the ATM’s technology components. Because our ATMs are often installed at retail sites, they face exposure to attempts of theft and vandalism. Thefts of cash may be the result of an individual acting alone or as a part of a crime group. We have experienced theft of cash from our ATMs across the geographic regions in which we operate. During the fourth quarter of 2013, in response to increased physical ATM theft attempts and lower profitability on certain ATMs in Mexico, we removed a number of ATMs from service for a period of time to enhance some security features. While we maintain insurance policies to cover a significant portion of any losses that may occur that are not covered by the insurance policies maintained by our service providers, such insurance coverage is subject to deductibles, exclusions, and limitations that may leave us bearing some or all of those losses. Significant cash losses could result in a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

Any increase in the frequency and/or amounts of theft and other losses could negatively impact our operating results by causing higher deductible payments and increased insurance premiums. Additionally, any damage sustained to our merchant customers’ store locations in connection with any ATM-related thefts, if extensive and frequent enough in nature, could negatively impact our relationships with those merchants and impair our ability to deploy additional ATMs in those existing or new locations of those merchants. Certain merchants have requested, and could request in the future, that we remove ATMs from store locations that have suffered damage as a result of ATM-related thefts, thus negatively impacting our financial results. Finally, we have in the past, and may in the future, voluntarily remove cash from certain ATMs on a temporary or permanent basis to mitigate further losses arising from theft or vandalism. Depending on the magnitude and duration of any cash removal, our revenues and profits could be materially and adversely affected.

The election of our merchant customers to not participate in our surcharge-free network offerings could impact the effectiveness of our offerings, which would negatively impact our financial results.

Financial institutions that are members of the Allpoint network pay a fee in exchange for allowing their cardholders to use selected Company-owned and/or managed ATMs on a surcharge-free basis. The success of the Allpoint network is dependent upon the participation by our merchant customers in that network. In the event a significant number of our merchants elect not to participate in that network, the benefits and effectiveness of the network would be diminished, thus potentially causing some of the participating financial institutions to not renew their agreements with us, and thereby negatively impacting our financial results.

We may be unable to effectively integrate our future acquisitions, which could increase our cost of operations, reduce our profitability, or reduce our shareholder value.

We have been an active business acquirer and expect to continue to be active in the future. The acquisition and integration of businesses involves a number of risks. The core risks are in the areas of valuation (negotiating a fair price for the business based on inherently limited due diligence) and integration (managing the complex process of integrating the acquired company’s personnel, products, processes, technology, and other assets so as to realize the projected value of the acquired company and the synergies projected to be realized in connection with the acquisition).

The process of integrating operations is time consuming and could cause an interruption of, or loss of momentum in, the activities of one or more of our combined businesses and the possible loss of key personnel. The diversion of management’s attention from day-to-day operations, any delays or difficulties encountered in connection with acquisitions, and the integration of the companies’ operations could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or prospects. The difficulties of integration may be increased by the necessity of coordinating geographically dispersed organizations, integrating personnel with disparate business backgrounds, and combining different corporate cultures. Further, if we cannot successfully integrate an acquired company’s internal control over financial reporting, the reliability of our consolidated financial statements may be impaired and we may not be able to meet our reporting obligations under applicable law. Any such impairment or failure could cause investor confidence and, in turn, the market price of our common shares, to be materially adversely affected.

In addition, even if we are able to integrate acquired businesses successfully, we may not realize the full benefits of the cost efficiency or synergies, or other benefits that we anticipated when selecting our acquisition candidates or that these benefits will be achieved within a reasonable period of time. We may be required to invest significant capital and resources after an acquisition to maintain or grow the business that we acquire. Further, acquired businesses may not achieve anticipated revenues, earnings, or cash flows. Any shortfall in anticipated revenues, earnings, or cash flows could require us to write down the carrying value of the intangible assets associated with any acquired company, which would adversely affect our reported earnings.

Since May 2001, we have acquired numerous ATM businesses, a surcharge-free ATM network, a technology product offering that complements our surcharge-free offering, an ATM installation company in the U.K., a Scotland-based provider and developer of marketing and advertising software and services for ATM owners, a U.K.-based provider of secure cash logistics and ATM maintenance, and a transaction processor in the U.S. We have made acquisitions to obtain the assets of deployed ATM networks and the related businesses and their infrastructure, as well as for strategic reasons to enhance the capability of our ATMs and expand our service offerings. We currently anticipate that our future acquisitions, if any, will likely reflect a mix of asset acquisitions and acquisitions of businesses, with each acquisition having its own set of unique characteristics. In the future, we may acquire businesses outside of our traditional areas, which could introduce new risks and uncertainties. To the extent that we elect to acquire an existing company or the operations, technology, and the personnel of the company, we may assume some or all of the liabilities associated with the acquired company and face new and added challenges integrating such acquisition into our operations.

On January 6, 2017, we completed the acquisition of DCPayments with significant operations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. Due to the size of the acquisition, which is the largest in our history, and the complexity involved to manage and integrate the business across several geographic locations, there are special risks involved with this particular acquisition. To the extent that we are unable to successfully operate or integrate this business, we could incur additional costs or suffer an impairment in the valuation of the business.

We operate in many sovereign jurisdictions across the globe and expect to continue to grow our business in new regions. Operating in different countries involves special risks and our geographic expansion may not be successful, which would result in a reduction of our gross and net profits.

Upon completion of the DCPayments acquisition on January 6, 2017 and the Spark acquisition on January 31, 2017, we have operations in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Spain, Ireland, Poland, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. We expect to continue to expand in the countries in which we currently operate, and potentially into other countries as opportunities arise. We currently report our consolidated results in U.S. dollars and under generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (“U.S. GAAP”) and expect to do so for the foreseeable future. Operating in various distinct jurisdictions presents a number of risks, including:

Any of these factors could have a material adverse impact on us and reduce the revenues and profitability derived from our international operations and thereby adversely impact our consolidated operations and cash flows.

The U.K. referendum result in favor of exit from the European Union could adversely affect us and our shareholders.

In a referendum held on June 23, 2016, British citizens approved an exit of the U.K. from the E.U. As a significant portion of our operations are located in the U.K. and our parent company is incorporated in the U.K., we face potential risks associated with the exit process and effects and uncertainties around its implementation. The U.K. Government is currently progressing legislation that would result in it triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, notifying the European Council of the U.K.’s intention to leave. This notification will begin a two-year time period for the U.K. and the remaining E.U. member states to negotiate a withdrawal agreement. There can be no certainty as to the form or timing of any withdrawal agreement. In relation to our redomicile into the U.K., the exit process from the E.U. and implementation of the resulting changes could materially and adversely affect the tax, tax treaty, currency, operational, legal, and regulatory regime and macro-economic environment in which we operate. In relation to our other European operations and businesses, we face similar risks. The effect of any of these risks, were they to materialize, is difficult to quantify, but could materially increase our operating and compliance costs and materially affect our tax position or business, results of operations, and financial position. Further, uncertainty around the form and timing of any withdrawal agreement could lead to adverse effects on the economy of the U.K., other parts of Europe, and the rest of the world, which could have an adverse economic impact on our operations. The U.K.’s planned exit has recently impacted foreign currency exchange rates. As a substantial portion of our business is U.K.-based, if the British pound remains weak or further weakens, relative to the U.S. dollar, our reporting currency, it will adversely impact our reported results from operations.

We derive a significant portion of our revenues and profits from bank-branding relationships with financial institutions. A decline in these revenues as a result of changes in financial institution demand for this service may have a significant negative impact to our results.

Bank-branding drives a significant portion of our revenues, and if this product offering were to become less attractive to financial institutions whereby we lost a significant amount of existing contracts, it could have a material impact on our revenues and profits. In addition, consolidations within the banking industry may impact our bank-branding relationships as existing bank-branding customers are acquired by other financial institutions, some of which may not be existing bank-branding customers. Our bank-branding contracts could be adversely affected by such consolidations.

If we experience impairments of our goodwill or other intangible assets, we will be required to record a charge to earnings, which may be significant.

We have a large amount of goodwill and other intangible assets and are required to perform periodic assessments for any possible impairment for accounting purposes. As of December 31, 2016, we had goodwill and other intangible assets of $654.3 million, or 47.9% of our total assets. Additionally, as a result of the acquisition of DCPayments , completed on

January 6, 2017, we expect to add a substantial amount of additional goodwill and other intangible assets. We periodically evaluate the recoverability and the amortization period of our intangible assets under U.S. GAAP. Some of the factors that we consider to be important in assessing whether or not impairment exists include the performance of the related assets relative to the expected historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner of our use of the assets or the strategy for our overall business, and significant negative industry or economic trends. These factors and assumptions, and any changes in them, could result in an impairment of our goodwill and other intangible assets. In the event we determine our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets are impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings in our consolidated financial statements, which would negatively impact our results of operations and that impact could be material.

We have a significant amount of indebtedness, which may adversely affect our cash flow and our ability to operate our business, remain in compliance with debt covenants, and make payments on our indebtedness.

As of December 31, 2016, our outstanding indebtedness was $502.5 million, which represents 52.4% of our total book capitalization of $959.5 million. Additionally, as a result of the acquisition of DCPayments, completed on January 6, 2017, we added a substantial amount of additional indebtedness to finance the purchase of this business. Our indebtedness could have important consequences. For example, it could:

Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and cash flows. We cannot assure shareholders that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings, including those under our credit facilities, will be available in an amount sufficient to pay our indebtedness. If we do not have sufficient earnings or capital resources to service our debt, we may be required to refinance all or part of our existing debt, sell assets, borrow more money, delay investment and capital expenditures, or sell equity or debt securities, none of which we can guarantee we will be able to do on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

The terms of our credit agreement and the indentures governing our senior notes may restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes in our business or to take certain actions.

Our credit agreement and the indentures governing our senior notes include a number of covenants that, among other items, restrict or limit our ability to:

In addition, we are required by our credit agreement to adhere to certain covenants and maintain specified financial ratios. While we currently have the ability to borrow the full amount available under our credit agreement, as a result of these ratios, we may be limited in the manner in which we conduct our business in the future and may be unable to engage in favorable business activities or finance our future operations or capital needs. Accordingly, these restrictions may limit our ability to successfully operate our business and prevent us from fulfilling our debt obligations. A failure to comply with the covenants or financial ratios could result in an event of default. In the event of a default under our credit agreement, the lenders could exercise a number of remedies, some of which could result in an event of default under the indentures governing the senior notes. An acceleration of indebtedness under our credit agreement would also likely result in an event of default under the terms of any other financing arrangement we have outstanding at the time. If any or all of our debt were to be accelerated, we cannot assure shareholders that our assets would be sufficient to repay our indebtedness in full. If we are unable to repay any amounts outstanding under our bank credit facility when due, the lenders will have the right to proceed against the collateral securing our indebtedness. Such actions could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows. For additional information related to our credit agreement and indentures, see Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Liquidity and Capital Resources - Financing Facilities.

The fundamental change and make-whole fundamental change provisions associated with our $250.0 million of 1.00% convertible senior notes due December 2020 (“Convertible Notes”) may delay or prevent an otherwise beneficial takeover attempt of us.

The fundamental change purchase rights, which will allow holders of our Convertible Notes to require us to purchase all or a portion of their notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change, and the provisions requiring an increase to the conversion rate for conversions in connection with certain other circumstances may delay or prevent a takeover of us or the removal of current management that might otherwise be beneficial to investors.

We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to pay the amount of cash due upon conversion of the Convertible Notes, if relevant, or upon the occurrence of a fundamental change as described in our convertible indentures, and our debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or required purchase of the Convertible Notes.

Upon the occurrence of a fundamental change, holders of our Convertible Notes may require us to purchase, for cash, all or a portion of their Convertible Notes at a fundamental change purchase consideration specified within the convertible note indentures. There can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial resources, or will be able to arrange financing, to pay the fundamental change purchase consideration if holders submit their Convertible Notes for purchase by us upon the occurrence of a fundamental change or to pay the amount of cash (if any) due if holders surrender their Convertible Notes for conversion. In addition, the occurrence of a fundamental change may cause an event of default under agreements governing us or our subsidiaries’ indebtedness. Agreements governing any future debt may also restrict our ability to make any of the required cash payments even if we have sufficient funds to make them. Furthermore, our ability to purchase the Convertible Notes or to pay cash (if any) due upon the conversion of the Convertible Notes may be limited by law or regulatory authority. In addition, if we fail to purchase the Convertible Notes or to pay the amount of cash (if any) due upon conversion of the Convertible Notes, we will be in default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing our other indebtedness, which in turn may result in the acceleration of other indebtedness we may then have. If the repayment of the other indebtedness were to be accelerated, we may not have sufficient funds to repay that indebtedness and to purchase the Convertible Notes or to pay the amount of cash (if any) due upon conversion.

Noncompliance with established EFT network rules and regulations could expose us to fines and penalties and could negatively impact our results of operations. Additionally, new EFT network rules and regulations could require us to expend significant amounts of capital to remain in compliance with such rules and regulations.

Our transactions are routed over various EFT networks to obtain authorization for cash disbursements and to provide account balances. These networks include Star, Pulse, NYCE, Cirrus (MasterCard), and Plus (Visa) in the U.S., and LINK in the U.K., among other networks. We utilize various other EFT networks in our other geographic locations. EFT networks

set the interchange fees that they charge to the financial institutions, as well as the amounts paid to us. Additionally, EFT networks, including MasterCard and Visa, establish rules and regulations that ATM providers, including ourselves, must comply with in order for member cardholders to use those ATMs. Failure to comply with such rules and regulations could expose us to penalties and/or fines, which could negatively impact our financial results. The p ayment networks rules and regulations are generally subject to change and they may modify their rules and regulations from time to time. Our inability to react to changes in the rules and regulations or the interruption or application thereof, may result in the substantial disruption of our business.

In October 2016, MasterCard commenced a liability shift for U.S. ATM transactions on EMV-issued cards used at non-EMV-compliant ATMs in the U.S. We are currently in the process of upgrading our U.S. Company-owned ATMs to enable the EMV standard and also deploy additional software to enhance our ATM functionality and security. Due to the significant operational challenges of enabling EMV and other hardware and software enhancements across the majority of our U.S. ATMs, which comprises many types and models of ATMs, together with potential compatibility issues with various processing platforms, we have recently and may continue to experience increased downtime in our U.S. ATMs in 2017. As a result of this potential downtime, we could suffer lost revenues or incur penalties with certain of our contracts. We also may incur increased charges from networks associated with actual or potentially fraudulent transactions and may also incur additional administrative overhead costs to support the handling of an increased volume of disputed transactions. We also may experience a higher rate of unit count or transaction attrition for our merchant-owned ATMs and ATMs for which we process transactions, as a result of this standard, as we may elect to entirely block certain ATMs or certain transaction types for merchant-owned ATMs that are not EMV-enabled in the future. Visa has also announced plans for a liability shift to occur starting in October 2017 for all transaction types on all EMV-issued cards in the U.S. Noncompliance with the EMV standard or other network rules could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

The majority of the electronic debit networks over which our transactions are conducted require sponsorship by a bank, and the loss of any of our sponsors and our inability to find a replacement may cause disruptions to our operations.

In each of the geographic segments in which we operate, bank sponsorship is required in order to process transactions over certain networks. In all of our markets, our ATMs are connected to financial transaction switching networks operated by organizations such as Visa and MasterCard. The rules governing these switching networks require any company sending transactions through these switches to be a bank or a technical service processor that is approved and monitored by a bank. As a result, the operation of our ATM network in all of our markets depends on our ability to secure these “sponsor” arrangements with financial institutions. In the U.S., our largest geographic segment by revenues, bank sponsorship is required on the significant majority of our transactions and we rely on our sponsor banks for access to the applicable networks. In the U.K., only international transactions require bank sponsorship. In Mexico, all ATM transactions require bank sponsorship, which is currently provided by our banking partners in the country. In Canada and Germany, bank sponsorships are also required and are obtained through our relationships with third-party processors. If our current sponsor banks decide to no longer provide this service, or are no longer financially capable of providing this service as may be determined by certain networks, it may be difficult to find an adequate replacement at a cost similar to what we incur today, or potentially, we could incur a temporary service disruption for certain transactions in the event we lose or do not retain bank sponsorship, which may negatively impact our profitability and may prevent us from doing business in that market.

If we lose key personnel or are unable to attract additional qualified personnel as we grow, our business could be adversely affected.

We are dependent upon the ability and experience of a number of key personnel who have substantial experience with our operations, the rapidly changing automated consumer financial services industry, and the geographical segments in which we operate. It is possible that the loss of the services of one or a combination of several of our senior executives would have an adverse effect on our operations, if we are not able to find suitable replacements for such persons in a timely manner. Unexpected turnover in key leadership positions within the Company may adversely impact our ability to manage the Company efficiently and effectively, could be disruptive and distracting to management and may lead to additional departures of existing personnel, any of which could adversely impact our business. Any adverse change in our reputation, whether as a result of decreases in revenue or a decline in the market price of our common shares, could affect our ability

to motivate and retain our existing employees and recruit new employees. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, manage, motivate and retain other qualified management, as well as technical and operational personnel as we grow. We may not be able to continue to attract and retain such personnel in the future, which could adversely impact our business.

We are subject to laws and regulations across many jurisdictions, changes to which could increase our costs and individually or in the aggregate adversely affect our business.

We conduct business in many countries. As a result, we are subject to laws and regulations which affect our operations in a number of areas. Laws and regulations affect our business in many ways including, but not limited to, areas of labor, advertising, consumer protection, real estate, billing, e-commerce, promotions, quality of services, intellectual property ownership and infringement, tax, import and export requirements, anti-corruption, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, data privacy requirements, anti-competition, environmental, health, and safety.

Compliance with these laws, regulations and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and they may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business. Any such costs, which may rise in the future as a result of changes in these laws and regulations or in their interpretation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures.

We operate in several jurisdictions and we could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other similar anti-corruption laws.

Our business operations in countries outside the U.S. are subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, including restrictions imposed by the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The FCPA and similar anti-corruption laws in other jurisdictions, such as the U.K. Bribery Act, generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from paying or promising to pay government officials, political parties, or political party officials for the purpose of obtaining, retaining, influencing, or directing business. We operate in parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree and, in certain circumstances, compliance with anti-corruption laws may conflict with local customs and practices.

Our employees and agents may interact with government officials on our behalf, including interactions necessary to obtain licenses and other regulatory approvals necessary to operate our business, import or export equipment and resolve tax disputes. These interactions create a risk that actions may occur that could violate the FCPA or other similar laws.

Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations as well as U.S. laws and regulations, including the FCPA, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, consultants, contractors and agents will abide by our policies. If we are found to be liable for violations of the FCPA or similar anti-corruption laws in international jurisdictions, either due to our own acts or out of inadvertence, or due to the acts or inadvertence of others, we could suffer from criminal or civil penalties which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows.

If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property, we may lose a valuable competitive advantage or be forced to incur costly litigation to protect our rights. Additionally, if we face claims of infringement we may be forced to incur costly litigation.

Our success depends, in part, on developing and protecting our intellectual property. We rely on copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws to protect our intellectual property. We also rely on other confidentiality and contractual agreements and arrangements with our employees, affiliates, business partners and customers to establish and protect our intellectual property and similar proprietary rights. While we expect these agreements and arrangements to be honored, we cannot assure shareholders that they will be and, despite our efforts, our trade secrets and proprietary know-how could become known to, or independently developed by, competitors. Agreements entered into for that purpose may not be enforceable or provide us with an adequate remedy. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our applications and services are made available. Any litigation

relating to the defense of our intellectual property, whether successful or unsuccessful, could result in substantial costs to us and potentially cause a diversion of our resources.

In addition, we may face claims of infringement that could interfere with our ability to use technology or other intellectual property rights that are material to our business operations. We may expose ourselves to additional liability if we agree to indemnify our customers against third party infringement claims. If the owner of intellectual property establishes that we are, or a customer which we are obligated to indemnify is, infringing its intellectual property rights, we may be forced to change our products or services, and such changes may be expensive or impractical, or we may need to seek royalty or license agreements from the owner of such rights. In the event a claim of infringement against us is successful, we may be required to pay royalties to use technology or other intellectual property rights that we had been using, or we may be required to enter into a license agreement and pay license fees, or we may be required to stop using the technology or other intellectual property rights that we had been using. We may be unable to obtain necessary licenses from third parties at a reasonable cost or within a reasonable amount of time. Any litigation of this type, whether successful or unsuccessful, could result in substantial costs to us and potentially cause a diversion of our resources.

We are subject to business cycles, seasonality, and other outside factors that may negatively affect our business.

Our overall business is subject to seasonal variations. Transaction volumes at our ATMs located in regions affected by strong winter weather patterns typically experience declines in volume during those months as a result of decreases in the amount of consumer traffic through such locations. With the majority of our ATMs located in the northern hemisphere, we expect to see slightly higher transactions in the warmer summer months from May through August, which are also aided by increased vacation and holiday travel. As a result of these seasonal variations, our quarterly operating results may fluctuate and could lead to volatility in the price of our shares. In addition, a recessionary economic environment could reduce the level of transactions taking place on our networks, which could have a material adverse impact on our operations and cash flows.

U.K. regulatory approval of the DCPayments acquisition has not yet been obtained, delaying expected synergies in the U.K.; failure to obtain such approval could weaken the financial performance of the DCPayments acquisition under our ownership.

We are pursuing regulatory approval of the DCPayments acquisition with the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”). Our ability to extract expected synergies from the combined U.K. business is delayed until such approval is obtained. The CMA only has oversight over the U.K. portion of the acquisition, which accounted for approximately 17% of DCPayments’ consolidated revenues during the nine months ended September 30, 2016. In order to secure approval from the CMA, we may be required to divest certain ATMs or self-impose other conditions, and any such divestment or other conditions could negatively impact the performance of the acquisition.

Cardtronics plc may be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes and could be liable for substantial additional U.S. federal income taxes in the event our redomicile to the U.K. is successfully challenged by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”).

For U.S. federal income tax purposes, a corporation is generally considered a tax resident in the jurisdiction of its incorporation or organization. Because Cardtronics plc is incorporated under English law, it should be considered a U.K., and not a U.S., tax resident under these general rules. However, Section 7874 of the Code provides that a corporation organized outside the U.S. that acquires substantially all of the assets of a corporation organized in the U.S. (including through a merger) will be treated as a U.S. corporation (and, therefore, a U.S. tax resident) for U.S. federal income tax purposes if (i) the shareholders of the acquired U.S. corporation own at least 80% (of either the voting power or value) of the share of the acquiring foreign corporation after the acquisition and (ii) the acquiring foreign corporation’s “expanded affiliated group” does not have substantial business activities in the country in which the acquiring foreign corporation is organized relative to the expanded affiliated group’s worldwide activities (“substantial business activities” or the “SBA Test”). Pursuant to the Redomicile Transaction, Cardtronics plc indirectly acquired all of Cardtronics Delaware’s assets, and Cardtronics Delaware shareholders held 100% of the value of Cardtronics plc by virtue of their prior share ownership of Cardtronics Delaware immediately after the Redomicile Transaction. As a result, the Cardtronics plc expanded affiliated group (which includes Cardtronics Delaware and its subsidiaries) must have had substantial business activities in the U.K.

for Cardtronics plc to avoid being treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 7874 of the Code. In order for the Cardtronics plc expanded affiliated group to have satisfied the SBA Test, at least 25% of the employees (by headcount and compensation), assets, and gross income of such group must have been based, located, and derived, respectively, in the U.K. as of the dates and for relevant periods under the Code sections.

Cardtronics plc believes it fully satisfied the SBA Test and performed rigorous analysis to support this conclusion. However, the application of Section 7874 of the Code is not entirely clear in all situations, and while we believe the SBA Test was fully satisfied, there is no assurance that the IRS or a court will agree. Furthermore, there have been legislative proposals to expand the scope of U.S. corporate tax residence and there could be changes to the Code (including Section 7874 of the Code) or the U.S. Treasury Regulations that could result in Cardtronics plc being treated as a U.S. corporation or otherwise have adverse consequences. Such statutory or regulatory provisions could have retroactive application.

If it were determined that Cardtronics plc should be taxed as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, Cardtronics plc could be liable for substantial additional U.S. federal income taxes. Additionally, the U.K. could continue to tax Cardtronics plc as a U.K. tax resident for U.K. tax purposes, and thus Cardtronics plc and its shareholders could be subject to taxation in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Certain expected benefits of the Redomicile Transaction may not be realized.

U.S. Congress, the U.S. Treasury, and the IRS have aggressively objected to outbound redomiciliation transactions and have expressed a strong desire to prevent them with broad-based rules. Certain of these objections could limit our ability to efficiently engage in certain transactions after the Redomicile Transaction (including, potentially, entering into agreements and closing acquisitions of unrelated U.S. target companies in consideration for Ordinary Shares (as defined in Item 1. Business - Organizational and Operational History ) of Cardtronics plc for at least 36 months after the Redomicile Transaction). Additionally, future changes in English law, its tax rates, its territorial taxation system, its “controlled foreign corporation” rules, its tax treaties or otherwise, and changes in the U.S. tax system (including the scope, basis, and rate of taxation), could also adversely impact the benefits that we expect to achieve from having completed the Redomicile Transaction.

The Redomicile Transaction may not allow us to effectively manage our tax risks and costs.

We cannot provide any assurances as to what our ongoing tax costs and rate will be because of, among other things, uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of our business activities in any particular jurisdiction in the future and the tax laws of such jurisdictions, as well as changes in U.S. and other tax laws. Our actual effective tax costs and rate may vary from our expectation and that variance may be material. Additionally, the tax laws of the U.K. and other jurisdictions could change in the future, and such changes could cause a material change in our tax costs and our worldwide effective tax rate.

We also could be subject to audits conducted by tax authorities, and the resolution of such audits could significantly impact our tax costs and rate in future periods, as would any reclassification or other matter (such as changes in applicable accounting rules) that increases the amounts we have provided for income taxes in our consolidated financial statements. There can be no assurance that we would be successful in attempting to mitigate the adverse impacts resulting from any changes in law, audits and other matters. Our inability to mitigate the negative consequences of any changes in the law, audits, and other matters could cause our effective tax rate to increase and our results of operations to suffer.

Risks associated with our common shares

Our operating results have fluctuated historically and could continue to fluctuate in the future, which could affect our ability to maintain our current market position or expand.

Our operating results have fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate in the future as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the following:

Any of the foregoing factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Although we have experienced revenue growth in recent years, this growth rate is not necessarily indicative of future operating results. A relatively large portion of our expenses are fixed in the short-term, particularly with respect to personnel expenses, depreciation and amortization expenses, and interest expense. Therefore, our results of operations are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in revenues. Additionally, beginning in July 2017, the loss of our current largest customer, 7-Eleven in the U.S., will have a material adverse impact on our financial results. As such, comparisons to prior periods should not be relied upon as indications of our future performance.

We may issue additional common shares or instruments convertible into common shares, which may materially and adversely affect the market price of our common shares and the trading price of our Convertible Notes.

We may conduct future offerings of our common shares or other securities convertible into our common shares to fund acquisitions, finance operations or for general corporate purposes. In addition, we may elect to settle the conversion of our outstanding Convertible Notes in common shares, and we may also issue common shares under our equity awards programs. The market price of our common shares or the trading price of the Convertible Notes could decrease significantly if we conduct such future offerings, if any of our existing shareholders sells a substantial amount of our common shares or if the market perceives that such offerings or sales may occur. Moreover, any issuance of additional common shares will dilute the ownership interest of our existing common shareholders, and may adversely affect the ability of holders of our Convertible Notes to participate in any appreciation of our common shares.

The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash could have a material effect on our reported financial results.

Under U.S. GAAP, an entity must separately account for the debt component and the embedded conversion option of convertible debt instruments that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion, such as our Convertible Notes, in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of the accounting treatment for such instruments is that the value of such embedded conversion option is treated as an original issue discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the Convertible Notes, and that original issue discount is amortized into interest

expense over the term of the Convertible Notes using an effective yield method. As a result, we are required to record non-cash interest expense as a result of the amortization of the effective original issue discount to the Convertible Notes’ face amount over the term of the notes. Accordingly, we report lower net income in our financial results because of the recognition of both the current period’s amortization of the debt discount and the Convertible Notes’ coupon interest.

Under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments that may be settled entirely or partially in cash are evaluated for their impact on earnings per share utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of the notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of the notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the notes are accounted for as if the number of common shares that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be certain that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the notes, then our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected.

In addition, if the conditional conversion feature of the notes is triggered, even if holders do not elect to convert their notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.

Our articles of association include mandatory offer provisions that may be viewed as less favorable to shareholders, including with respect to takeover matters.

Although we are not currently subject to the U.K. Takeover Code, certain provisions similar to the mandatory offer provisions and certain other aspects of the U.K. Takeover Code were specifically approved and included in our articles of association that were adopted at the special meeting of shareholders of Cardtronics Delaware held in June 2016 in connection with the Redomicile Transaction. As a result, except as permitted by our articles of association, (including acquisitions with the consent of our Board of Directors or with prior approval by the independent shareholders at a general meeting) a shareholder, together with persons acting in concert, would be at risk of certain Board of Directors sanctions if they acquired 30% or more of our issued shares without making a voluntary offer for all of the issued and outstanding shares (not already held by the acquirer) that is in cash (or accompanied by a full cash alternative) and otherwise in accordance with the provisions of the U.K. Takeover Code (as if the U.K. Takeover Code applied to us). The ability of shareholders to retain their shares upon completion of an offer for our entire issued share capital may depend on whether the Board of Directors subsequently agrees to propose a court-approved scheme of arrangement that would, if approved by our shareholders, compel minority shareholders to transfer or surrender their shares in favor of the offeror or, if the offeror acquires at least 90% of the shares. In that case, the offeror can require minority shareholders to accept the offer under the ‘squeeze-out’ provisions in our articles of association. The mandatory offer provisions in our articles of association could have the effect of discouraging the acquisition and holding of interests of 30% or more of our issued shares and encouraging those shareholders who may be acting in concert with respect to the acquisition of shares to seek to obtain the recommendation of our Board of Directors before effecting any additional purchases. In addition, these provisions may adversely affect the market price of our shares or inhibit fluctuations in the market price of our shares that could otherwise result from actual or rumored takeover attempts.

English law generally provides for increased shareholder approval requirements with respect to certain aspects of capital management.

English law provides that a board of directors may generally only allot shares with the prior authorization of shareholders and such authorization must specify the maximum nominal value of the shares that can be allotted and can be granted for a maximum period of five years, each as specified in the articles of association or the relevant shareholder resolution. English law also generally provides shareholders with preemptive rights when new shares are issued for cash. It is possible, however, for the articles of association, or shareholders in a general meeting, to exclude preemptive rights, if coupled with a general authorization to allot shares. Such an exclusion of preemptive rights may be for a maximum period of up to five years from the date of adoption of the articles of association, or from the date of the shareholder resolution, as applicable.

English law also generally prohibits a company from repurchasing its own shares by way of “off market purchases” without the prior approval of shareholders by ordinary resolution (i.e., majority of votes cast). Such authority can be granted for a maximum period of up to five years. English law prohibits us from conducting “on market purchases” as our shares will not be traded on a recognized investment exchange in the U.K.

Prior to the Redomicile Transaction, resolutions were adopted to authorize the allotment of a certain amount of shares, exclude certain preemptive rights and permit off market purchases of up to 15% of our shares in issue immediately after the effective time of the Redomicile Transaction, but these authorizations will expire in 2021 unless renewed by our shareholders prior to the expiration date.

We cannot assure shareholders that situations will not arise where such shareholder approval requirements for any of these actions would deprive our shareholders of substantial capital management benefits.

English law requires that we meet certain additional financial requirements before we declare dividends and repurchase shares.

We do not currently have the ability to declare dividends in any material amount. Under English law, with limited exceptions, we will only be able to declare dividends or repurchase shares out of “distributable reserves” on Cardtronics plc’s stand-alone balance sheet, without regard to its consolidated financial statements. While we have no current plans for future dividend payments or share repurchases, in order to create distributable reserves we may at a future annual meeting of shareholders offer a resolution to approve a proposed reduction of capital and, upon approval, undertake a customary court-approved capital reduction procedure in the U.K. that would enable the payment of dividends or share repurchases if and when determined by our Board of Directors.

Our facilities are leased pursuant to operating leases for various terms and we believe they are adequate for our current use. We believe that our leases are at competitive or market rates and do not anticipate any difficulty in leasing suitable additional space upon expiration of our current lease terms.