Amadeus IT Holding, S.A., a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, reports year-on-year financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2015 (three months ended March 31, 2015). Adjusted profit for the period grew 9.7% to €209.9 million. This was driven by an increase in revenue of 14.0%, to €989.4 million, and EBITDA growth of 10.9%, to €389.6 million.
Luis Maroto, President & CEO of Amadeus, commented:
“Our consistent market share growth and successful entry into new areas, combined with organic growth and contributions from recent successful acquisitions, has allowed us to report further increases in revenue and profitability.
“Distribution remained a reliable source of strong growth with revenue rising 10.7%, thanks to a 2.4 p.p. expansion in global market share coming from increased US and South Korean bookings. IT Solutions ful-filled its strong growth potential with a significant increase in revenue of 24%, largely driven by Asia-Pacific with additional rises in Passengers Boarded and contracts such as China Airlines. Our geographical diversifi-cation beyond Western Europe has improved significantly, with the weighting of bookings and PBs from Western Europe now accounting for 40.7% and 40.5% respectively.
“In the New Businesses area, our ambition to build a hotel community model took a significant step forward as it was announced we are working with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to build its Guest Reservation System; and Airport IT has expanded further in the key North American market by acquiring Air-Transport IT Services, whose solutions are used by 30 of the busiest 50 US airports.
“We remain confident that our portfolio of innovative travel solutions and strong customer relationships will allow steady growth across our business throughout the remainder of 2015.”
Financial highlights for the first quarter
Consolidated net financial debt stood at €1,683.5 million at March 31, 2015, representing 1.25x the ratio of covenant net debt to the last twelve months’ covenant EBITDA.
An appreciation of the US dollar versus the Euro relative to 2014 contributed a positive foreign exchange impact on the Revenue and EBITDA of Amadeus during the first quarter of 2015; conversely, the same im-pact reduced the EBITDA margin (which was otherwise stable, relative to the same quarter last year).
As of March 31, 2015, we have invested €240.5 million in share repurchases through our announced share buy-back programme, initiated in December 2014. This followed the agreement of the Board of Directors of Amadeus, at the meeting of December 11, 2014, to undertake a share buy-back programme. The pro-gramme will remain in force until May 29, 2015 and the maximum investment will be €320 million, not ex-ceeding 2.79% of the share capital of the Company (or 12,500,000 shares).
During the period Amadeus also paid an interim dividend of a total amount of €141.3 million in respect of the 2014 profit. In June 2015, the Board of Directors will submit for approval at the General Shareholders Meeting a final gross dividend of €0.70 per share, representing an increase of 12% vs. the dividend paid on the profits for 2013. Based on this, the proposed appropriation of the 2014 results included in our 2014 audited consolidated financial statements of Amadeus IT Holding, S.A. and subsidiaries includes a total amount of €313.3 million, corresponding to dividends pertaining to the financial year 2014.
Source: Amadeus.
