Playa Hotels & Resorts Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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February 26, 2025

There are 2 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Playa Hotels and Resorts Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this call is also being recorded. I would now like to hand the call to Ryan Emael. Please go ahead.

Operator

Thanks very much, Andrea. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Playa Hotels and Resorts' fourth quarter twenty twenty four earnings conference call. Given the potential transaction with Hyatt, today's call will focus on the fourth quarter twenty twenty four results and will not include a Q and A session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind participants that many of our comments today will be considered forward looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from what has been communicated. Forward looking statements made today are effective only as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update forward looking statements.

Operator

For a discussion of some of the factors that would cause our actual results to differ, please review the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10 ks, which we filed last night with the SEC. We've updated our Investor Relations website at investors.fliersorts.com with the company's recent releases. In addition, reconciliations to GAAP of the non GAAP financial measures we discussed on this call were included in yesterday's press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce Wardynski.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks, Ryan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As you may have seen, we announced on 02/10/2025 that we entered into an agreement with Hyatt Hotels Corporation pursuant to which a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyatt will acquire all outstanding shares of Playa for $13.5 per share in cash. We will not be commenting on the potential transaction aside from what was already disclosed in press releases and regulatory documents, including the SEC filing we made this week, which our Board recommended in favor of the tender offer.

Speaker 1

Other than to reiterate that we believe the transaction is an outstanding result for shareholders that recognizes the value creation efforts of all Playa associates over the years as we change the all inclusive landscape. Turning to the fourth quarter, our results exceeded our expectations driven by strong demand across all segments and finished with a phenomenal holiday season as demand fully normalized post hurricane barrel. Reliance owned resource EBITDA of $67,100,000 in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four included a benefit from business interruption insurance proceeds of approximately $1,100,000 compared to $900,000 in Q4 twenty twenty three. Excluding Business Interruption Insurance, the upside compared to the expectations shared on our last earnings call was driven by better than expected close in demand across the portfolio and better than expected ADR growth in the Pacific Coast, Yucatan and Dominican Republic. One Point One Million Dollars lower corporate expense and a higher than anticipated foreign currency exchange tailwind of approximately $2,000,000 For Q4 twenty twenty four, we estimate that FX was a 200 basis points tailwind for our reported owned resort EBITDA margin.

Speaker 1

Business interruption proceeds received in Q4 twenty twenty four favorably impacted resort margins by approximately 50 basis points, but was a 10 basis points net tailwind on a year over year basis as the amount of business interruption proceeds received was only slightly higher in 2024. Adjusting for all of these factors, underlying owned resort EBITDA growth was down approximately 15% in the fourth quarter for the total portfolio and down approximately 17.5% for the legacy portfolio, both improving sequentially as the bulk of the disruption from Hurricane Barrel was first stage in the third quarter of twenty twenty four. The fourth quarter was still challenged by the construction disruption in the Pacific Coast, The U. S. State Department travel advisory on our Jamaican segment and the lingering impact of Hurricane Barrel.

Speaker 1

At the segment level, our teams in the Yucatan did an excellent job on the cost front despite the challenges presented by Hurricane Barrel. Occupancy declined 70 basis points year over year in the fourth quarter, driving currency neutral margins to decline by approximately two ten basis points year over year and underlying EBITDA growth of approximately negative 4%. The modest currency neutral EBITDA decline on flat year over year RevPAR reflects our ongoing efficiency efforts, which really began gaining traction in the second half of twenty twenty three. In The Pacific, our planned renovation work in this segment continued during the fourth quarter with the peak of the guest impacting construction work taking place during Q3, the year over year occupancy decline improved sequentially. The renovation work has remained on track and is expected to be completed in Q1 twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1

Turning to the Doctor, we completed the sale of the Jewel Punta Cana Resort in late December of twenty twenty three and the Jewel Palm Beach Resort was closed for a significant portion of Q1 twenty twenty three and sold in the third quarter of twenty twenty four. The remaining core resorts in this segment continue to perform well on an underlying basis with both occupancy and ADR increasing year over year in the fourth quarter driving approximately positive nine percent underlying profit growth after adjusting for business interruption proceeds in both periods. Finally, Jamaica's Fourth Quarter was largely as expected with the approximately 16% RevPAR decline improving compared to the negative 30% decline in the third quarter, resulting in a material 50% decline in resort EBITDA. As we outlined on our last earnings call, the segment was starting to regain its footing, especially for the fourth quarter, but the recovery was significantly disrupted by Hurricane Barrel in late June. Subsequent to the fourth quarter, we recently closed on the sale of the Jewel Paradise Cove Resort on 02/20/2025, for a gross consideration of $28,500,000 Fiscal year 2024 adjusted EBITDA of $258,000,000 was in line with the forecast shared with you at the beginning of the year, but the path was quite choppy.

Speaker 1

Compared to the guidance to start the year, we received $3,200,000 of business interruption proceeds. FX was a $9,000,000 to $10,000,000 expected tailwind. Construction disruption in the Pacific Coast was approximately $10,000,000 worse than expected, Hurricane Barrel had a significant impact on the second half of the year and the travel warning issued for Jamaica had an approximate $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 impact on the segment. Excluding business interruption in FX, underlying EBITDA grew 3.5% in the Yucatan and 8.4 at our legacy Dominican Republic Resorts. Underlying profits in the Pacific Coast fell by 19.6% and Jamaica experienced a 36.2% decline.

Speaker 1

Taking a look at our guest segmentation, during the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four, '40 '7 point '6 percent of Playa owned and managed transient revenues booked were booked direct, up 30 basis points year over year. While roughly 43.3% of Aplya owned and managed transient room nights stays in the quarter came from our direct channels, which was consistent with Q4 twenty twenty three. PlayaResource dot com accounted for approximately 13% of our total Playa owned and managed transient room night bookings continuing to be a critical factor in our customer sourcing and ADR gains. Our direct sourcing mix has improved by over 20 percentage points compared to 2018 and has been a critical competitive advantage driving client success in the post pandemic era. Geographically, our South American, European and Canadian guest mix all improved meaningfully year over year as our American sourced guest mix continues to normalize.

Speaker 1

The recovery of our Canadian guest segmentation versus pre pandemic remains near 80% and our American guest mix is roughly back to pre pandemic levels. Our European and South American guest mix remained the most elevated versus pre pandemic at 175%, while our Asian guest mix was largely unchanged and remains only approximately 25% recovered. Finally, on the capital allocation front, we repurchased approximately $25,000,000 worth of Playa stock during the fourth quarter, bringing our total repurchases since resuming our program in September 2022 to approximately $376,000,000 representing nearly 30% of the shares outstanding at the time. Capital expenditures in 2024 came in lower than anticipated at approximately $97,000,000 largely due to the timing of payments and slippage into 2025. We finished the year with a cash balance of $189,000,000 and total outstanding interest bearing debt of $1,080,000,000 Separately, we have implemented FX hedges on approximately 75% our Mexican peso exposure for 2025 at an exchange rate of approximately 19.5 compared to our average incurred exchange rate of approximately 18.3 in 2024, which should result in a favorable year over year FX benefit.

Speaker 1

Once again, I would like to thank all of our associates who have continued to deliver world class service and really redefine the all inclusive experience with their unwavering passion and dedication to service from the heart. Thank you very much for participating on today's call.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.

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Playa Hotels & Resorts Q4 2024
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