Strong demand for business travel has resulted in record half-year financial results for Corporate Travel Management (CTM) with revenue and other income up 25 percent to $363.7 million.
While the global travel market recovery in the six months to December 2023 was minimal, the unprecedented CTM result was due to new clients’ travel activity and strong client retention, equating to a higher growth rate than the industry overall.
This translated to 96 percent EBITDA growth and 162 percent underlying NPAT growth.
CTM’s underlying EBITDA for the half year was $100.7 m, with no drawn debt and $131.3m in cash.
New clients are on track to exceed annual travel spend of $1b for this financial year, with $630 million in new clients wins secured during the first half and 97 percent of existing clients retained. Revenue per full-time equivalent employee (which reflects cost control and productivity gains from automation) is up 17 percent on the previous period.
CTM managing director Jamie Pherous said the underlying business was performing well.
“We are concentrating on the things we can control as demonstrated by continued market share gains and our ability to successfully convert revenue into profit growth,” Mr Pherous said.
Issues beyond the control of the business impacted performance late calendar year 2023, reducing the half yearly results EBITDA by $15m.
They include negative travel sentiment surrounding the Middle East conflict, American clients reaching their annual travel budgets early, and a slower China outbound recovery.
These issues have largely dissipated by January 2024 when the group experienced a strong rebound and CTM generated a half-yearly profit well above its target of $87m.
North America:
North America was the region most affected by macro impacts due to US corporate clients reaching their annual travel budgets by mid-September as a result of unsustainably high ticket prices.
Despite this, the region experienced a strong rebound in January, with EBITDA growth of 60 percent for the month, versus January 2023. This was a result of market share growth with new clients, and a double-digit decline in ticket prices.
The region continues to lead the group in new clients ($400 million year to date) and as a result CTM expects growth to accelerate for the rest of the financial year.
Europe:
The European region achieved a record financial result, led by new clients, and a high proportion of revenue converted to EBITDA.
A UK Government contract for asylum seeker accommodation that was awarded in the first half of 2023 is underperforming because of immigration issues and timing delays.
This is expected to have a negative $25m impact on full year results.
Despite this, the region expects to exceed $100m EBITDA for the full year – a first for any CTM region.
Australia and New Zealand:
Australia and New Zealand experienced the highest number of new clients since COVID, in the half-year.
While revenue growth in the period was stable and EBITDA declined because of investments in new systems and the global industry issues, revenue rebounded 11 percent in January 2024, compared to January 2023.
The region also saw the first introduction of Sleep Space, CTM’s proprietary online hotel content aggregation platform which will be rolled out across the globe in 2024.
Asia:
The first half was a record result for the Asia region, despite the Greater Bay Area of China recovering to only 50 percent of pre-COVID levels.
Revenue was up 63 percent and underlying EBITDA 168 percent.
The region continues to win market share and will benefit from further recovery in international corporate travel.
