Travelport takes quarterly hit from Unister failure but maintains positive outlook

Travelport takes quarterly hit from Unister failure but maintains positive outlook

Travelport suffered a net loss of $14 million in the three months to June 30 as operating income fell by 40% to $38 million year-on-year. The second quarter decline was down purely to the failure of German online travel company Unister that filed for insolvency following the death of its founders in a plane crash … Continue reading Travelport takes quarterly hit from Unister failure but maintains positive outlook

Travelport suffered a net loss of $14 million in the three months to June 30 as operating income fell by 40% to $38 million year-on-year.

The second quarter decline was down purely to the failure of German online travel company Unister that filed for insolvency following the death of its founders in a plane crash last month.

Travelport had what president and chief executive Gordon Wilson described as an unique pre-payment and incentive deal with Unister which will now not reap the revenues that had been expected.

Adjusted earnings [EBITDA] edged up by 1% to $139 million over the same quarter last year, however excluding the impact of the Unister failure that figure would have been 9%.

Travelport’s second quarter figures included a provision of $11 million in relation to Unister’s insolvency.

Air revenue increased 6% to $426 million with non-air revenue growth of 22% to $148 million; the latter now contributing 26% of travel commerce platform revenue, up from 23%.

Despite the Unister impact, Travelport maintained its full year earnings guidance and was able to raise full year expectations for adjusted net income and adjusted free cash flow.

Wilson said; “Travelport’s performance this quarter was strong in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, which was up 9% year over year, before the impact of a full provision we have made relating to a long term contract with a travel agency.

“We continue to benefit from recent customer implementations and product innovations, driving revenue growth across our platform and in international regions where growth was 15%.

“We are excited about new business agreed with major travel agencies in key regions such as Expedia (Europe), Yatra.com (India), Travix (global) and Almundo.com (Latin America) which will support future growth.

“Within our ‘beyond air’ portfolio, our B2B payments business, eNett, delivered yet another excellent quarter with net revenue up 85%, driven by recent customer implementations as well as strong transaction growth at existing customers, particularly global OTAs.

“Assuming the continuation of current trends we anticipate eNett’s full year net revenue to be in the range of $145-$155 million – up 58%-68% year over year.

“Based on our performance to date, our known customer wins and despite the setback of the provision we have made, we’re pleased to reiterate our full year net revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance, in what is a more challenging economic and travel environment.

“In addition, following the successful repricing of our term loans, we are raising our expectations for full year adjusted net income and adjusted free cash flow.”