OneSpaWorld Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:OSW) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Stephen Lazarus: Steve, good morning. I’ll start off and Leonard can add if he wanted to obviously. So, as I mentioned, the first quarter saw very strong spend levels, which continued from prior year, and we have continued to see that here as we’ve started into the second quarter. Obviously, nobody has a crystal ball of certainty around what’s going to happen over the remainder of the year. We do think spend on board should remain strong. Bookings are very favorable, the booking trends that all the cruise lines have talked about and you’re keenly aware of to point in the right direction. However, having said that, in the latter part of the year, I think it’s not unlikely to expect maybe a slight softening in some of the spend, which we’ve accounted for, but we expect generally that onboard performance will remain strong.

Steve Wieczynski: Okay. Got you. Thanks a lot. And then maybe a bigger picture question, but based on your free cash flow generation, which remains obviously very strong. I mean, it’s pretty clear that your balance sheet could essentially be debt-free in the next year or so. So, I guess the question is, how are you guys balancing — obviously, you just announced the share repurchase program, how are you balancing a share repurchase versus a potential, initiating a dividend again versus some kind of acquisition? And if you thought about some acquisition or potential acquisitions down the road, what type of acquisitions would you guys be looking at? Or what is out there that would make sense for you guys?

Stephen Lazarus: Let me touch quickly on the cash use, and then I’ll let Leonard talk about the acquisition side of things. So, as it relates to the buyback, the feeling was that was the most appropriate near-term action to take and it aligns specifically with the $15 million of cash that came in from the warrants, which, as you know, historically, you accounting for those on a treasury basis, but because they were all converted — almost all of them are converted on a cash basis, it does increase the share count. And so, we felt it would be most appropriate to take that $50 million and reduce the share count back to where it would have been as if those shares were converted cashless, hence, the $50 million buyback, and it doesn’t really change any of our thinking overall around continuing to pay off debt at these interest rates, and potentially a subsequent introduction of a dividend.

So, all of those things remain on the table. We have exhibited that for the past two quarters. Not only able to do one thing where we have in the last two quarters, paid off debt and bought back shares. So, as we move forward, we’ll continue to evaluate what we feel are the most appropriate ways of returning cash to shareholders. And I will let Leonard answer the part on the acquisitions.

Leonard Fluxman : So, Steve, I mean, it’s interesting times. I mean, we haven’t found, although we’ve been prevented a lot of ideas by bankers, inbounds. And we’re always getting them. It’s not like there’s just a pickup in it. But certainly, people are always showing us ideas. We’ve discussed some of these ideas, but there’s nothing really compelling on the table right now. But if you look at what would make sense for us and the vision around what we would target to do is, we would want to do something that not only augments what we’re doing on board, but adds incremental value to our offering on board in any of the protocols that we can do, most likely, the best target for that is going to be in, I would call, the wellness mindful space where there’s a lot of new technologies, a lot of ways in which we can learn more about our bodies, et cetera.

And to the extent that there are diagnostic tools within the capabilities of that target that can enhance what we can do on board in our Medispa, and then transfer that to some kind of land-based, or e-commerce type experience where they can continue to help and service the guests that we’ve started the initial consultation with. I think that would make a lot of sense because we could certainly increase the offering of supplementation on board, continue with supplementation for guests who sign up with us and take some of the seminars and educational seminars that we do on board. So, not easy to find, but I’m sure we’ll find something like that. But I think that fits into the vision very, very well. So, A, helping us improve the offering on board, capture more guests because of interest in immunity, wellness, mindfulness, things that we can continue to do to serve our guests between cruises, or even if they don’t come back, they’ll be able to participate in some form of nutrition counseling, supplementation, et cetera.

Steve Wieczynski: Okay. Great. Thanks guys. That’s really good color. Appreciate it.

Leonard Fluxman : Yes. Sure.

Operator: And now we have a question from Sharon Zackfia from William Blair. Sharon, please go ahead.

Sharon Zackfia : Hi. Good morning.

Leonard Fluxman : Good morning.

Sharon Zackfia : It’s really a nice surprise to continue to hear about the resilience in our business. We’re not hearing that throughout the broader experience with space outside of cruise. I guess, when we think about a consumer that maybe is looking for more value, more broadly, I mean, how do you think you’re communicating that? Because you’re obviously doing that very well? Or do you think the consumer is just in a different mindset once they get on that ship and the wallets open up? I’m also curious on pre-booking, which is obviously a big positive for you. Does the pre-booking cadence for future cruises look as good as it has been? I’m just wondering if we’re seeing any reticence on that and that might come to play kind of further down the pike?

Leonard Fluxman : Thanks, Sharon. Yes, look, I mean, we’re extremely pleased with the resilience of the onboard spend. As I did mention on the call, we’ve made some simplifications of the offering menu services. The offering is much easier to navigate for our guests, and obviously, we’re trying to focus on how to get them to spend at the highest level of that service offering, which would then accompany that offering with the potential to do more retail, which is where we’re focused on right now. And as you saw, retail during the quarter was quite strong. So, we’re not seeing pushback on price on service or on retail. We’re moving into the second quarter where ships seasonally move to other geographies, but so far, so good, and we expect the second quarter to continue just as well.