Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LIND) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LIND) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript April 30, 2024

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.1 EPS, expectations were $-0.04. LIND isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Lindblad Expeditions 2024 First Quarter Financial Results. My name is Angela, and I’ll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to your host Craig Felenstein, Chief Financial Officer to begin. Please go ahead .

Craig Felenstein: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad’s 2024 First Quarter Earnings Call. With me on the call today is Sven Lindblad, Lindblad’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Sven will begin with some opening comments and then I will follow-up with some details on our financial results, balance sheet and current 2024 expectations before we open the call for Q&A. You can find our latest earnings release in the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we get started, let me remind everyone that the company’s comments today may include forward-looking statements. Those expectations are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and performance to be materially different from these expectations.

The company cannot guarantee the accuracy of forecasts or estimates, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. If you would like more information on the risks involved in forward-looking statements, please see the company’s SEC filings. In addition, our comments may reference non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures are contained in the company’s earnings release. And with that, let me turn the call over to Sven.

Sven-Olof Lindblad: Thank you, Craig, and good morning and thank you all for joining us today. If I sound a little odd periodically, I’ve been hit hard by allergies, so I might cough now and then. I’m sure that’s true for many of you with all of the flowering trees around. In any case, Lindblad’s first quarter results set the stage for another year of double-digit growth and record results in 2024. Craig will provide additional color on our performance this past quarter, but before he does, let me take a few minutes to discuss some of the drivers of the continued growth this year as well as some of the steps we are taking to sustain that momentum in the years ahead. First and foremost, the booking strength we experienced throughout 2023 has continued into this year as more and more guests want to explore the remarkable destinations we visit.

The goal to connect authentically with nature and culture is continually growing, and there’s no other company in this segment with our track record or with our commitment to providing authentic and immersive travel itineraries. Bookings this year to date for future travel were up 20% versus the same period in 2023, and we expanded our overall India bookings growth to 4% ahead of where we were at the same point in 2023. Now it’s worth reminding that 2023 benefited from significant carryover business from cancellations during COVID. Excluding these carryover bookings, the reservations for 2024 travel would be well over 20% of that a year ago. These carryover bookings were also one of the primary reasons for occupancies below the first quarter a year ago.

Excluding carryover bookings, the occupancy would have increased versus first quarter of 2023. The majority of the carryover bookings for 2023 were early in the year, so the impact of these guests on occupancy growth will diminish as the year progresses. Lastly, it is important to remember, as I discussed last quarter, that a key contributor to current occupancy levels is a two-year loss of generating new guests during COVID, drying up the pipeline of the key past guest constituency. This effect is diminishing by the day and occupancies will move higher as the pipeline again refills. At the same time, there are a couple of external headwinds that we continue to deal with. The first is geopolitical events across the globe. Reality is that they’ve always played a role ebbing and flowing through the years, and we are currently dealing with two specific events that certainly depressed revenue and occupancy in the first quarter.

The Israeli Hamas war, events in Ecuador in early January both caused cancellations and short-term softening of future business. These kinds of events can also affect costs fuel, for example, the increase significantly, hopefully temporarily due to the instability in the Middle East. Periodic disruptions may have a distorting effect on quarters, but as we continue to scale our business, they will have less and less impact on overall results. The other headwind is the discounting taking place with our competition in the expedition space. As 2023 evolved in the summer and fall, we started seeing more and more dramatic price actions, sometimes even two for one offerings for prime seasons in places like Antarctica. Clearly, the relationship of inventory and demand is out of balance for some of our peers, as well as some desperation coming out of COVID.

Rather than joining the fray, given the potential long-term ramifications to the value proposition we deliver, we have remained committed not to buy occupancy and maintain price integrity, which you can see with our net yield up slightly versus the first quarter a year ago. There is little to no benefit in adding occupancy if yield decreases proportionately. So price integrity is key. It’s a key long-term metric and essential to preserve even if occupancies move ahead of it slower in the short term. Given the opportunity in experiential travel, our thesis is that brand is now and will become even more important than ever. That is why we are so excited about the recent extension and expansion of our brand partnership with National Geographic until 2040.

With the power of both our brands now combined with the distribution cloud of Disney, we believe we can leverage our collective strengths to really take advantage of the increased demand while distinguishing ourselves from competition. We just came off that 5 day off-site on one of our expedition ships with high level participation from all three entities. The purpose was to build understanding and to surface meaningful ideas that will propel us all into the future with a core theme being the power of three. This was just another step towards maximizing the opportunity ahead. Since the day the new agreement was signed in November, our team along with their marketing and sales teams have been deepened into strategy and tactical plans on a regular basis to energize collective goals and build specific initiatives to drive business.

Collaboratively, we have made significant progress, including a new brand strategy that incorporates a new co-branded logo with National Geographic, which we will begin rolling out later this year. The brand changes are subtle, but more fully harness the National Geographic brand to capitalize on one of the world’s largest social media followings and their extremely high awareness, trust, and credibility. As we focus on maximizing the brand opportunity, we are also updating our website on both National Geographic Expeditions and expeditions.com domains to create a seamless, unified booking experience. Last summer, we launched a completely redesigned online booking flow on the expeditions.com website and have since seen a near doubling of the percentage of our direct bookings made online.

We’re now actively working on the development needed to enable all those same digital features on the National Geographic Expeditions website, and we’ll launch those enhancements later in this year. A key component of the new arrangement is the ability to leverage the powerful Disney sales network. Our teams are focused and energized on developing coordinated sales strategies, B2B marketing tactics and events, and activating high potential Disney distribution channels. The expanded license agreement also gives us the ability to sell globally. Our consumer and trade sales efforts will launch in our first new market by the end of the summer and more will follow based on market opportunity. While we continue to lay these foundational blocks, we’re already leveraging the power of Disney synergy machine to execute high visibility on brand activations today.

Over the course of the last few months, Disney has leaned on their marketing engine to place the co-brand in some of their most valuable visible media assets, including the Wheel of Fortune, Good Morning America, Disney Plus, National Geographic, and even on the homepage of disney.com to celebrate Earth Month. Bookings in the year for travel in 2024 are up 35% versus 2023. And the Disney and National Geographic marketing efforts has contributed to that result. These are just a few highlights where we’re working together to create both the top of funnel demand and lower funnel performance for years to come. We anticipate really benefiting from this new arrangement starting in 2025 as we reach more citizen explorers than ever before by opening larger addressable markets through new worldwide audiences.

As we look to maximize the opportunity with National Geographic and Disney, we have become even more focused on itinerary development and innovating the ways we immerse our guests in parts of the world we have been visiting for years. We have made some major changes for this year and into the future, balancing our inventory to accommodate both past and new guests. Two of the most significant are focused on Iceland, which attracts a greater level of new guests and new itineraries in Antarctica that provide flights either one way or both ways from South America to the continent, avoiding either one or both crossings of the Drake Passage and allowing people with less available time to participate. These programs for November 2024 through February 2025 sold out faster than anything we have ever, ever offered.

And for the 2025-2026 season, we will add another ship, the National Geographic Orion fully dedicated to this approach, allowing us to connect with more travelers who wouldn’t have considered this type of expedition before. This also speaks to our ability to be nimble with regard to our product offerings. As we focus on driving higher returns across the fleet, we also continue to broaden and deepen our land-based portfolio with this morning’s announcement of our signing a deal to acquire Wineland-Thomson Adventures, which includes respected Tanzania safari specialist, Thomson Safaris with more than 40 years of experience in the country. Their portfolio also includes the historic award-winning Gibbs Farm lodge an 80-acres sanctuary that was my favorite lodge when I was a guide in East Africa.

Tanzania is one of the finest places in Africa for wildlife viewing, including famed national parks like the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, and African safaris have been have exploded in recent years as evidenced by natural habitats growth in the region. Similar to the acquisitions of Natural Habitat, DuVine Cycling, Off the Beaten Path Classic Journeys, Lindblad will leverage its experience and resources to further accelerate the growth of the Wineland-Thomson brands and capitalize on the growing demand for authentic and immersive adventure travel and safaris. We do, need regulatory approval in Tanzania and expect the transaction to close early in the second half of 2024. Once it done, Wineland-Thomson Adventures will create additional value for our guests and for our shareholders.

Before I finish up, I would be remiss not to mention this is Craig’s last earnings call with us. He has been our valued CFO for seven and a half years and has been a true partner to me, the board, and the entire organization. We will miss him a great deal and wish him well on his new noncompetitive opportunity. We are working on the transition and expect to have news on this front before Craig leaves at the end of the month. Many thanks for your time for the last time, Craig. And now I will turn the call back over to you.

Craig Felenstein: Thanks, Sven, and thanks so much for those kind words. Lindblad’s first quarter performance has the company well positioned deliver another year of record financial results as it further ramps ship operations with broader deployment of its expanded fleet and continued expansion of its diversified portfolio of land businesses. The year-on-year results are expected to ramp throughout the year as the company leverages the investments it has made in overall infrastructure and marketing and sales capabilities to capitalize on the strong demand for experiential travel. Turning to the first, total company revenue of $154 million increased $10 million or 7% versus the first quarter of 2023, as we continue to offer additional trips across both the Lindblad and Land Experience segments.

At the Lindblad segment, revenue of $118.3 million increased $2.8 million or 2% versus the first quarter a year ago, led by a 3% increase in available guest nights from broader utilization of the fleet and from 1% net yield growth to 1219 per available guest night, primarily due to higher pricing and increased other revenue, partially offset by a decrease in occupancy to 76% from 81% in the first quarter a year ago. The first quarter did include the impact of softness in the Middle East due to recent worldwide events and also included the cancellation of two voyages in the Galapagos as we discussed last quarter. As occupancy ramps, there will be significant operating leverage inherent in the marine platform as the company attracts more and more guests while maintaining strong pricing discipline across the expanded fleet.

At the Land Experiences segment, revenue of $35.3 million increased $7.4 million or 27% versus a year ago, led by additional guests and higher pricing across natural habitats trips to Africa and to the Northern Lights, DuVine Cycling tours across Latin America and Portugal, Classic Journeys walking tours in Cuba and Costa Rica and off the beaten path trips to U.S. National Parks. Total company revenue growth was more than offset by higher operating costs in the quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $21.6 million down $5.6 million versus the same period a year ago. Looking a little closer at the cost side of the business, operating expenses before depreciation and amortization, interest and taxes increased $15.8 million or 14% versus the first quarter of 2023 led by a $7.3 million or 10% increase in cost of tours versus a year ago.

This is primarily related to operating additional ship and land-based itineraries. The cost of tours increase also reflects expenses associated with the other revenue, the impact of foreign currency on operating expenses and higher fuel costs due to increased usage from operating additional trips and higher pricing versus a year ago. Fuel costs were 6% of revenue in the first quarter of 2024, which was in line with the first quarter a year ago. Fuel prices have continued to rise and are anticipated to be a bit of a headwind for the remainder of the year, but overall fuel remains a relatively small component of our operating costs. Sales and marketing costs increased $2.1 million or 10% versus a year ago, primarily due to increased royalties associated with the expanded National Geographic agreement and additional marketing spend to drive future bookings.

G&A expense during the quarter increased $6.4 million or 27% versus a year ago excluding stock-based compensation on one-time items, primarily due to higher personnel costs associated with the expanded operations as well as from increased credit card commissions related to final payments for upcoming itineraries and higher deposits on new reservations for future travel. It’s important to remember that credit card commissions are paid upon cash receipt with the expense recognized today and the trip revenue not recognized until the guest travels. With bookings up meaningfully in the first quarter versus the same period a year ago, the expense impact is significantly higher year on year with the revenue growth to be delivered in the periods ahead.

The increased operating expenses resulted in total company net loss available to stockholders of $5.1 million or $0.10 per diluted share versus $0.4 million or $0.01 per diluted share reported in the first quarter a year ago. The current quarter also included additional interest expense of $1.1 million net associated with higher rates and increased borrowings related to our debt refinancing in May 2023 as well as lower tax expense of $1.3 million and a $0.8 million decline in stock-based compensation. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the first quarter with $224 million in cash, an increase of $37 million versus the end of 2023. The growth was driven by free cash flow of $37 million with operating cash flow of $44 million primarily due to increased cash received for future travel, partially offset by $6 million of CapEx, mostly due to maintenance CapEx and some additional spending on our digital initiatives.

Please note that after the quarter, the company did acquire an additional 10% of Natural Habitat and an additional 5% of DuVine Cycling for $16 million in aggregate and now owns 90% and 75% of these growing businesses respectively. Moving forward, the company anticipates using approximately $24 million in cash in the acquisition of Wineland-Thomson that was announced this morning, with the transaction expected to close during the third quarter. The company will continue to explore additional growth opportunities in the year ahead, including further diversifying its products portfolio or opportunity expanding its fleet to capitalize on the continued growth in demand for experiential travel. Turning to the full year 2024, the company continues to anticipate significant growth driven by higher guest counts and increased net yield across the fleet as well as additional travels across the growing land businesses.

The Lindblad segment is in a strong booking position for the current year, having already booked over 94% of the Lindblad segment full year projected ticket revenues for 2024. Given the strong booking trends, the company still expects tour revenue in 2024 between $610 million and $630 million and adjusted EBITDA between $88 million and $98 million. Due to the uncertainty regarding the timing of closing the acquisition of Wineland-Thomson Adventures, there is minimal contributions included in our expectations for this year. Please note that as we mentioned last quarter, our second quarterly results will be impacted slightly by two voyage cancellations on the Explorer as we decided to transit around the Red Sea. Before I finish, I would like to take a quick moment to thank all the employees of Lindblad, including Sven and the leadership team in particular as well as the Lindblad board for their support over these past seven and a half years.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work for Lindblad Expeditions, and I know the company has a really bright future ahead as they take more and more guests to the remarkable destinations they have been visiting for decades. And lastly, thank you to all of you in the investment community who have supported the company and who I have had the pleasure of interacting with in my time here. I have really enjoyed sharing your business with you. Thank you for your interest. And now Sven and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

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Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you very much Craig. [Operator Instructions]. We have first question is from Steve Wieczynski from Stifel. Your line is open. Yeah. Hey, guys. Good morning.

Steve Wieczynski: Yeah. Hey, guys. Good morning. First of all, congrats, Craig, on the new opportunity. You obviously will be missed at Lindblad for sure. So, okay, so if we think about the rest of the year, it seems like the investment and the royalties that you guys are going to be paying out for this year for the revised Disney agreement might be a little bit more than we were expecting in terms of what we saw in the first quarter. So just kind of wondering how we should think about costs associated with that investment for the next three quarters. And on top of that, is the right thinking here that this year is all about the investment, in that new partnership? And then 2025 and beyond is really when you’ll start to see the benefits from teaming up with Disney. And I think Sven mentioned that in his prepared remarks. But just wanna make sure that’s, you know, that’s the way we should think about the next, call it, 12 to 24 months.

Craig Felenstein: Sure. So let me start with the National Geographic year-on-year payments. So, as you know, we are now with that agreement paying a flat royalty fee throughout the course of the year. A year ago, the payments to National Geographic obviously fluctuated depending on their individual performance because they were being paid a commission at the same time as well as the performance of the overall company. So the impact in every given quarter is gonna fluctuate. And the impact in Q1, when you look at it year on year, will be greater than it will be in some of the other quarters later in this year. So that’s kind of how the year-on-year growth in the National Geographic payments will play out for the next nine months.

When you look at the positive impact that they’re going to have and Sven could have some additional color here, given the booking window that we do have, which is about nine months still on average, you would anticipate the majority of the impact being in 2025 in earnest. Now there has been, as Sven mentioned, in this year, some one-offs that have been done to take advantage of their Disney distribution power and the National Geographic distribution power. And we do believe that’s contributing to some of the strong booking growth that we’re seeing today. But the real value and the real significant value will take place in 2025 and beyond.

Sven-Olof Lindblad: Steve, I could add a couple of things. So, if you think that — if you think about the, that we signed our agreement with National Geographic in November, right, last year. And prior to that, Disney was really not a factor in the equation. It was we had a you know, for since 2004, we had a relationship with National Geographic and whatever their machine was capable of providing, and it was it was actually significant. But now, for the you know — now since November, we’re adding Disney to the equation and, obviously, their channels for distribution in particular and many of their ideas are incredible. I mean, this is the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world. And so, we believe that there is going to be significant value as a consequence, but it is gonna take a bit of time to ramp up because, they don’t they don’t make decisions as it relates to something next month or a few weeks from now and implement in that way.

It’s much more of a long-term play. And but we will start seeing — we already have started seeing some results, but we will see, I think, significantly greater results starting in 2025.

Steve Wieczynski: Thanks for that guys. And then second question, I want to ask about the acquisition that was announced this morning. And I guess my question really isn’t about the acquisition, but around the use of capital for that acquisition. And I guess what I’m getting at is, look, I don’t think we can ignore where the share price is today. And in our opinion, to us, the underappreciated long-term opportunity here with Disney and National Geographic. So to us, the share price does seem undervalued here. So I guess the question is, how do you balance doing acquisitions like this versus taking that $30 million maybe not all that $30 million in terms of what you spent on the acquisition and essentially looking at buying back shares at these levels? Hopefully that makes sense.

Craig Felenstein: Yeah. Sure. Thanks, Steve, for the for the question. You know, we always have, balanced, what I would say, is long term growth and long-term capital deployment. When we look at the opportunities in front of us for an asset, an acquisition like Wineland, I’m not getting too specific in what opportunity is moving forward. But when you can buy it at the multiple that we acquired that asset at, which is significantly below, where the multiple of our existing company is trading at. And you see some significant growth in that asset moving forward, especially when you layer in some of the expertise that we have at the at the Lindblad and in Natural Habitat companies as well as some of the resources we have to continue to invest in those assets.

You weigh the opportunity versus the opportunity that you see investing in your own shares. And as you know, you can’t always help and identify when these assets become available, they become available when they become available. So, we are continuously weighing the future growth opportunity with an asset like this versus what we believe is obviously significant upside in our existing shares. And as we move forward and we look to allocate capital moving forward, we will balance those things still between investing in our existing business, investing in M&A or returning capital to shareholders either through buying back stock or through reducing our debt load in some capacity.