Munich, Germany, 8 May 2019 – In the current financial year, HolidayCheck Group AG can look back on a modestly successful three-month period. Although first-quarter revenue was up year on year, the increase was quite small given the high baseline created by the 24 percent revenue growth achieved in the first three months of 2018. In line with our planning, first-quarter earnings were down on the same period in 2018, primarily as a result of investments in marketing and personnel.
Based on the company’s own assessment, first-quarter demand for bookings in the Central European package holiday market was down year on year after a subdued performance in the second half of 2018. This trend also affected providers in the online package holiday segment, albeit to a lesser extent.
Against this background, HolidayCheck Group AG achieved a 1.9 percent (EUR 0.8 million) increase in first-quarter revenue from EUR 41.4 million in 2018 to EUR 42.2 million in the current financial year.
At EUR 4.1 million, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) ended the period 31.7 percent (EUR 1.9 million) lower compared with the first-quarter figure of EUR 6.0 million in 2018.
Operating EBITDA (operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) fell by 30.6 percent (EUR 1.9 million) from EUR 6.2 million in the first quarter of 2018 to EUR 4.3 million in the period under review.
EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) fell by 62.2 percent (EUR 2.8 million) from EUR 4.5 million in the first quarter of 2018 to EUR 1.7 million.
EBT (earnings before tax) fell by 63.6 percent (EUR 2.8 million) to EUR 1.6 million in the period under review. First-quarter EBT in 2018 was EUR 4.4 million.
At EUR 1.0 million, consolidated net profit/(loss) for the first quarter of 2019 was down EUR 2.4 million (70.1 percent) on the corresponding 2018 figure of EUR 3.4 million.
Basic and diluted earnings per share fell by EUR 0.04, from EUR 0.06 in the first quarter of 2018 to EUR 0.02 in the first quarter of 2019.
Outlook
The HolidayCheck Group’s vision is to become the most holidaymaker-friendly company in the world. To this end, we plan to steadily expand our offering by speeding up the further development of our existing products and services in the core package holiday, ‘hotel only’ and cruise segments. We are also investing in the development of new products and services in related areas. Our main focus here is on setting up our own tour operator business.
Our subsidiaries also intend to make further investments in marketing in the form of direct sales promotions and other measures designed to give a sustained boost to the profile of our various brands.
Looking ahead at financial 2019 as a whole, the Management Board anticipates a year-on-year increase of between 7 and 12 percent in consolidated sales revenue after adjusting for acquisitions, disposals and new company formations.
In view of its plans to increase investment in personnel and marketing, the Management Board expects operating EBITDA in financial 2019 to lie between EUR 8.5 million and EUR 13.5 million. These figures reflect our assessment that the first-time application of IFRS 16 will increase operating EBITDA by around EUR 2.5 million.
Note
The quarterly statement for the first quarter of 2019 will be published later today on the company’s website at www.holidaycheckgroup.com under the heading Investor Relations.
About HolidayCheck Group AG:
HolidayCheck Group AG (ISIN DE005495329), Munich, Germany, is one of Europe’s leading digital travel firms for holidaymakers. With a total workforce of around 450, HolidayCheck Group AG comprises HolidayCheck AG (which operates hotel review and travel booking portals by the same name), HC Touristik GmbH (which operates the travel agent HolidayCheck Reisen), Driveboo AG (which operates the car rental portal MietwagenCheck) and WebAssets B.V. (which operates the Zoover hotel review portals and the MeteoVista/WeerOnline weather portals). HolidayCheck Group’s vision is to become the world’s most holidaymaker-friendly company in the world.