Sabre is upping its prediction for its revenue and adjusted
EBITDA in 2024 on the heels of second quarter results that exceed its prior
guidance.
The Texas-based global travel technology company generated
$61 million in operating income between April 1 and June 30 this year, up $103
million compared with Q2 2023.
Revenue in the period totaled $767 million, up 4% year over
year, which the company attributed to positive performance in its Travel
Solutions and Hospitality Solutions segments. Travel Solutions serves travel
suppliers and buyers through a B2B marketplace and accounted for about 90% of
the company’s Q2 revenue - $695 million.
Hospitality Solutions provides software and solutions to more than 40,000
hoteliers around the world and brought in $83 million in the second quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was $129 million, up from $73 million
in the same period of 2023.
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In a statement to share the quarterly results, the company
said the adjusted EBITDA improvement “was driven by revenue growth due to
favorable rate impacts from travel supplier mix and an increase in global hotel
and other travel bookings, a decrease in labor and professional services
expenses driven by the cost reduction plan we began implementing in 2023 and
lower technology expenses due to cost savings related to our mainframe offloads
and data migrations.”
In the earnings statement, Sabre president and CEO Kurt
Ekert noted multiple achievements for the company in Q2, including the signing
of Korea’s largest online travel agency, Interpark Triple, and expanded and
renewed partnerships with customers such as Wyndham, Etihad and Spotnana. In May
the company also unveiled its offer and order retailing platform, SabreMosaic,
and in June it launched SynXis
Concierge.AI, a generative artificial intelligence tool to help hotels
improve customer service.
"Sabre reported second quarter results that exceeded
expectations, driven by solid revenue growth across both business segments,
continued margin expansion and our ongoing focus on cost management. We
achieved key commercial wins in the quarter, successfully delivered critical
technology implementations and hit key milestones to advance our six growth
strategies,” Ekert said in the statement.
On a call with financial analysts to discuss the results, Ekert also said the company has an upbeat outlook for corporate travel that will
“With respect to the business travel environment, what we’ve
seen and what I think we largely hear from TMCs [travel management companies] and
corporations and various supplier customers is that corporate travel is
expected to grow at relatively historic rates - that’s sort of 3-, 4-, 5% per
year on a unit basis - and we are pretty bullish that will be the case going forward,” Ekert said.
“In fact that’s largely what we’re seeing. So we feel very optimistic and good
about that. As you may know Sabre is very well positioned with our TMC and corporate footprint
to benefit from that growth.”
And when asked about the cost of revenue, in particular regarding NDC bookings, Ekert said, “Overall, from what we’ve seen so far. .. the unit economics are pretty similar
on NDC ... through most parts of the globe, with maybe a slightly lower
average booking fee and slighting lower incentive fee, with the exception being
EMEA which had a higher average booking fee there. Overall we would expect the
gross margin and therefore the cost of revenue to be roughly in similar ranges
from a percentage standpoint as we see today.”