Edreams ODIGEO (Madrid:EDR) Q1 2027 Earnings Call

0:00 Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Sorry for the minor delay. We have a technical issue to review our financial and operational results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, covering the three-month period ending June 30th, 2026. I'm David de la Roz, Director of Investor Relations. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that all supporting materials, including today's presentation and our results report, are fully available on the Investor Relations section of our website. And now I pass you to our CEO, Dana Dunne, who will take you through the first part of today's presentation.

0:37 Thank you, David. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We have a compelling agenda today, and it's structured around the following key areas. First, I'm going to provide a high-level overview of our first quarter of FY27 performance. where we continue to deliver to plan and ahead of market expectations. Second, our CFO, Christoph Dieterle, will take you through a detailed view of our financial results for the quarter. Third, I will return to walk you through the mechanics of our long-term strategic roadmap, what we're building, why the returns are highly predictable, and how this quarter fits precisely into a trajectory we set out for you last November.

1:33 I'll then close on our capital returns and on the structurally stronger business this plan is delivering before we open the floor to your questions. With that, please turn to slide four. I'm now going to take you through the core pillars of today's announcement. This quarter confirms our strategic roadmap is on track. We are delivering on plan with continued prime momentum and profitability ahead of sell-side consensus. That's the key takeaway. But let me now be precise about why it matters. Q1, much like Q4, is one of our most important quarters seasonally because it's when customers search for and book their Easter and summer holidays.

2:29 It is therefore a highly efficient window in which to acquire members who will generate future profits. We invest into this window by design. Delivering to plan during one of the largest investment quarters of a guided investment year is the clearest signal we can give you. The plan is working and it is working on schedule. Looking at our core metric as a subscription business, i.e. prime numbers, we are exactly where we expected to be at this point in the year. Our subscriber base reached 8.1 million. That's an 8% increase year on year. That means 173 million net ads in the quarter and 611,000 over the last 12 months.

3:25 This is the base on which everything else in our model rests, and it is worth pausing on how dominant it has become. Our subscriber base now generates 77% of our last 12 months cash revenue margin. That's up from 75% at our full year-end results and 90% of our total cash marginal profit. Plainly speaking, 9 out of every 10 euros of marginal profit EDU generates Now comes from members who have chosen to subscribe to us. Our results confirm once again what we are, a subscription business.

4:14 That means recurring revenue, it means predictability, and it means a direct relationship with the travel. That is one of our real competitive advantages and is why we can invest through a quarter like this one with complete confidence in what these members will deliver across their lifetime. Our profitability, we delivered cash EBITDA of 23 million euros and adjusted EBITDA of 28.9 million euros. This performance aligns fully with our strategic plan. Q1 represents one of the largest investment windows for the year, where we deliberately deploy capital to capture high-margin member cohorts that compound over time.

5:08 This target investment in new products and new geographies keeps us firmly on track for our full-year commitments. Christoph will walk you through the details of this. We have continued to deliver a strong cash flow Reflecting the strength of our subscription model. We closed the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 73 million euros. That's net of bank overdrafts. That's against 51.3 million euros in the first quarter of the previous financial year, FY26. And this is due to having substantially reduced our year-on-year cash outflows. Thank you very much.

6:16 is unlocking higher customer lifetime value and funding accelerated growth in new geographies and products. We're simultaneously strengthening the business model by broadening our geographic footprint and scaling into high-growth verticals such as rail. We're executing this roadmap with precisely the same discipline that delivered the objectives of our two previous long-term plans. Our track record shows we are a team that delivers, and our results today confirm that we are delivering on our plan once again. And we're doing this while we're returning capital to shareholders, and the philosophy of that is worth noting.

7:04 Under our current 100 million euro share buyback program, we've executed 38 million to date. That means another 62 million still committed by September 2027. Against our market capitalization of 543 million euros as of June 30th, that pending amount alone targets a further 11% of the company. Between July 2025 and July 2026 alone, we've permanently canceled close to 15 million shares. That's 12.6% of our share capital. And our recent AGM authorized the board to cancel up to 9 million more shares in the next 12 months.

8:04 Both work in the same direction. We're guiding to an excess of $270 million in cash EBITDA by 2030 across a share base that gets smaller every year we execute. That is compounding on both sides of the per share equation. We're funding the accelerated growth and buying back our own equity at scale at the same time and out of our own cash generation. We are not choosing between the two. Looking at our outlook for FY27, we are on track to reach 8.5 million prime members with 600,000 net ads.

8:50 And we expect to deliver 167 million euros in adjusted EBITDA, pre-investments, and 115 million euros in cash EBITDA post-investments. Javier Pérez-Tenessa De Block, Christoph Dieterle, Our FY25 base.

9:37 The year our previous roadmap concluded with 13 million members and generating in excess of 270 million in cash EBITDA. Now that's a 33% compound annual growth rate from FY2017. I'll now hand it over to Christoph to take you through the detailed review of our first quarter FY27 financial results. For those of you who are joining us today for the first time, Christoph has been part of our EDU leadership for over eight years. And he brings a proven executive track record as CFO and CEO across the travel and accommodation industries.

10:24 Christoph, over to you.

10:28 Thank you, Dana, and good afternoon, everyone. These are a really good set of results to start with. We are looking at a quarter that delivers exactly what we said it would. But before I go into the numbers, I want to frame the quarter for a moment because seasonality really matters here. As Dana just said, Q1 and Q4 are our two big seasonal quarters, and with that many travelers planning, it is also a very efficient window to reach new members with our expanded prime proposition. And so we invest accordingly. So with that in mind, please turn with me to slide six to dive right into the numbers. And here, let me first walk you through the cash EBITDA bridge on this page.

11:18 We moved from 39 million euros in the first quarter of FY26 to 23 million euros, a variation of 16 million euros, and more than 80% of that is investment we choose to make. The largest piece, 13.3 million euros, is acquisition spent behind our new geographies and our new products concentrated into the peak booking window together with a stronger tech workforce funded through efficiency gains across our cost base, including also from AI. And I want to highlight that we invest against the 24-month LTV to CAC of two to three times. In general, we have run at scale for years and tested market by market. So basically, the spend lands now in this quarter. The revenue margin follows over the next 12 to 24 months.

12:18 The second piece is cash revenue margin, down 2.7 million euros. And inside that, our prime revenues are actually up. In particular, our recurring subscription revenue, offset by our non-prime revenue coming down as we deliberately deprioritize it, and air content access was intermittent year on year. I will take you through the full composition on the next slide. And within this line, you also have a smaller prime deferred revenue unwind of 5.8 million euros against 10.2 million euros last year. So the timing was 4.4 million euros positive year on year. So basically in one sentence, more than 80% of the movement is investment with a measured return, timing work in our favor, and Recurring Prime Revenue Group.

13:14 And this is in line with the plan we set out in November, and we expect the inflection to positive cash EBITDA growth from the fourth quarter, the January to March quarter onwards. If you could please turn to slide seven, where we set out the P&L with a variation of prime deferred revenue. Prime members reached 8.1 million at the end of first quarter FY27, and that is an 8% increase versus Q1 FY26 with 173,000 net ads in the quarter. And let me remind you again that this is the quarter ending on the 30th of June, Thank you very much.

14:18 On net additions, our full year guidance of 600,000 is unchanged, but the phasing is worth setting out because it is not even across the year. Our comparison base is at its highest in the first half. So in H1 fiscal year 26, we added 457,000 members, and that was before the limitations on our access to Ryanair content took effect. Our first half of this year, and Q2 in particular, is measured against an unusually high base. From the second half, that comparison normalizes because in the second half of last year, already reflects the intermittent excess that continues today.

15:08 So from there onwards, we will be comparing like for like. Combine that with accelerating traction from monthly installments, rail, and our new geographies, and that is what underpins a stronger second half, keeping us firmly on track for the full year. Our decision to expand into high-growth verticals like rail and new geographies was a deliberate strategic choice to capture more touchpoints in our prime members' travel lives. So prime revenue margin grew 1% in the quarter and the composition is what really matters here. So let me double click on it. That 1% growth was delivered on the back of a 5% growth in gradual prime revenue margin. And that's basically mainly our recurring subscription revenue recognized evenly across the 12 months of each membership.

16:07 Recurring subscription revenue compounding at 5% while funding these new expansion initiatives is a clear proof that our diversification strategy is working precisely as planned, driving higher engagement and expanding our addressable market. So overall cash revenue margin was 2% lower year-on-year, and what sits behind that number is a value proposition that continues to hold. Member retention and acquisition offset the intermittent access to Ryanair, with the remainder coming from the non-member business we are deliberately running down. I took you through the timing effect on the bridge earlier, so let me remind you here why we are making that shift at all. We are intentionally moving from a single upfront payment to monthly installments.

17:00 Lowering that barrier to joining Prime Unlocks higher customer lifetime value, it drives higher customer satisfaction, and it enables higher growth in the new geographies and product verticals that we are opening. But one thing I really want to stress, the subscription itself has not changed. It is still a 12-month contractual commitment. We simply capture that revenue across the full membership cycle rather than up front on day one. The economics are identical, only the timing of when we recognize the revenue moves. Now on the cost lines, I have already covered both on the bridge, so very briefly. Variable costs increased 13% year-on-year to €110.4 million from €97.3 million and that is fully planned and driven by the launch of our new products and geographies.

17:58 Fixed costs remain tightly controlled up just €0.2 million to €26.3 million as we keep strengthening our tech workforce, hardly offset by operational savings. And that brings us to the cash EBITDA of 23 million euros in line with our plan and ahead of consensus. The bridge behind it is the one I walked you through on the previous slide. So now let's turn to slide eight from the consolidated income statement. Total revenue margin was €165.5 million, down from €172.6 million, and that's a 4% lower year on year.

18:44 And that is our deliberate shift in mix. To be precise, non-prime revenue reduced 19%, partly offset by the 1% growth in prime I walked you through earlier. and we have been consistent for several years that we are deprioritizing transactional non-member volumes in favor of higher lifetime value subscribers. This is what that strategy looks like in the accounts and it is working exactly as intended. Adjusted EBITDA was 28.9 million euros and the adjusted items we exclude from that metric reduced by 0.7 million euros year on year, reflecting lower long-term incentive expenses and lower adjusted operating expenses.

19:32 Reported EBITDA was 24.4 million euros against 44.1 million euros last year. And again, due to the same guided investment reason I just described. Now, below the operating line, our financing position improved materially. The financial result improved by 7.3 million euro to a net expense of 5.8 million euro. And there are a few things that drove that. Last year, we had early redemption costs on the 2027 notes, and this year, we don't. We also get better terms on our 2030 notes, and that was partly offset by lower foreign exchange gains this year. And also, those improved terms on the 2030 notes, they don't just help this quarter, they lower our cost of debt on an ongoing basis.

20:26 Income tax was 4.5 million euros, down by 1 million euro year on year. And so on the bottom line, adjusted net income for the quarter was 4.7 million euro. And we believe it is the measure that better reflects the real ongoing operational performance of the business. Net income was 0.2 million euros against 13.6 million euros in the first quarter of FY26. And again, that's reflecting the same deliberate evolution of revenue and cost choices I just explained earlier. So now let's move to slide 9 to review our cash flow performance. Here, actually, it's another reason a subscription model is a structurally stronger business and it shows up right here. Our members commit for 12 months and they come back to us directly and that gives us a recurring, highly predictable cash phase that a transactional business simply does not have.

21:31 Net cash from operating activities increased by 1.1 million euros to 25 million euros. And we had a working capital inflow of 2.5 million euros against an outflow of 15.3 million euros in the same period last year. And that's a swing of nearly 18 million euros. And that's mostly driven by our increased hotel bookings and the year-on-year movement in prime deferred revenue. The hotel contribution is worth pausing on. It shows our expansion beyond flight is already converting into meaningful cash today and not just in future projections.

22:16 Income tax paid fell 7.2 million euros from 11.6 million euros to 4.3 million euros. and we invested 18 million euros in CAPEX, mostly software capitalization, to support our platform's growth and scaling and we are funding this growth entirely from our own cash generation. Net financial debt is down 14.6 million euros and we closed the quarter with a higher cash balance than a year ago. Cash used in financing was 16.1 million euros, a substantial improvement on the 33 million euros used in the first quarter of FY26.

23:02 And that variation of roughly 17 million euros comes mostly from the absence of the heavy refinancing costs we absorbed last year, plus ongoing lower interest payments as a result of the refinancing. And now within that figure, we deployed 5.3 million euros into the acquisition of treasury shares. And so we closed the quarter with a strong cash and cash equivalence balance of 73 million euros, net of bank overdrafts up from 51.3 million euros a year ago. And that's backed by a solid total liquidity position of 237.1 million euros. To sum up, in a single quarter, we funded our expansion, we invested in the platform behind it, we reduced our net financial debt, we returned capital to shareholders, and we still closed with more cash than we held a year ago. And that is what a subscription balance sheet allows you to do.

24:13 I will now hand it back to Dana to conclude.

24:19 Thanks, Chris. Before we turn to our closing section, let me do what I promised at the start and explain the mechanics of this year so you can see clearly why we are confident in our guidance. We're one quarter into a deliberate structured investment cycle, and FY27 is its peak phase. Our margins are tracking precisely where we said they would be, Before expanding as the cohorts we have been acquiring now mature, our long-term shareholders have seen this exact pattern before. In the early years of FY22, the FY25 plan, our margins were in the teens. And that's because a large portion of our base were year one members.

25:15 As those members became year two and beyond, margins expanded year after year and we met the guidance we had set out for that plan. This mechanism is simple. It's arithmetic, not judgmental. A first-year member costs money to acquire and a renewing member doesn't. When you grow the base with a significant share of first-year members, The reported margin obviously compresses. When that base matures, margins obviously expand. Every member we acquire in this quarter is a margin tailwind in the quarters that follow.

26:00 That is also why the inflection back to positive year-on-year cash EBITDA growth lands in Q4 rather than earlier. Acquisition spend goes in when we capture the demand. The revenue from those members arrives across their 12-month contracts. These two curves start to cross from the fourth quarter, and from that point, the compounding runs in our favor. So let me be clear on one point. The near-term shape of our margin is front-loaded investment in expansion, and our unit economics, our retention, our value proposition are all intact underneath it.

26:51 And just to be super clear, this is not an untested experiment. We have presented and executed two consecutive multi-year roadmaps before from 2017 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2025. and we met our guides four times. Now there's a second question behind this quarter's numbers, which is not whether margins recover, but whether the money we are spending works. So let me tell you why we have such conviction. What makes this expansion secure is that the capability behind it is already built and already proven at scale. We are taking the same proprietary technology and leading AI, the same membership dynamics, the same data-driven insights that already made us highly successful in our core markets, and we're deploying them systematically into further territories and adjacent verticals.

27:53 We know how these economics behave because we already run them at scale across 8.1 Thank you for joining us. On geography, revenues from markets outside our core European base grew 5%, taking their share of the total to 27% from 24% a year ago.

28:44 On product, the most recent vertical EDUs entered is seeing early adoption in line with plan. In Spain, the company's most advanced rollout and one of Europe's most liberalized rail markets, rail already accounts for a double-digit share of new prime members, again, in Spain. Rollout in other markets will vary with regulation and maturity, and that's already reflected in our long-term guidance. But geography and product are telling us the same thing, and it is the thing that matters the most. Strategy, right? And it's delivering as planned.

29:35 With that, please now turn to slide 11, because I want to spend a moment talking about the pace of our capital returns, which is unusual. Up front, I gave you the headline figures. It was 38 million already repurchased since October 2025 and 62 million euros still committed by September 2027. At closing of the quarter, i.e. June 30th, this targets a further 11% of our market capitalization of 542 million euros. At the annual general shareholder meeting earlier this summer, Shareholders approved multi-stage capital reductions of up to 12 million shares.

30:29 That included the immediate amortization of 3 million shares, which we executed in July, and authorization for the board to reduce up to 9 million more in future tranches. That's 7.9% of shares outstanding. Thank you very much. And finally, turn to slide 12, which brings the whole plan together.

31:27 Looking at the KPIs, our business model evolution is generating a powerful financial and commercial delta. First, higher growth. We are targeting 15 to 20% prime membership TAGR between FY27 and FY30. Second, higher customer lifetime value. Members on the annual subscription with monthly installments deliver more than 13% higher lifetime value than those on single annual fees. Third, stronger loyalty. Those same members give us more than 10% higher net promoter scores. Fourth, more diversified business. By FY30, 66% of our volume will be driven by non-flight products and by flights outside our top five European markets. That's up from 43% in the first half of FY26.

32:21 And fifth, shareholder remuneration. With 100 million of committed share buyback through to September 2027. Taken together, With our long-term outlook, that is a structurally transformed business. We are confidently tracking towards record prime net additions of 1.5 to 2 million members a year for the next fiscal year in FY20, FY30. That takes us to 13 million prime members, which is almost double our FY25 base. and it takes us to more than 270 million euros in cash EBITDA, which is a 33% CAGR from FY27.

33:11 Let me finish where Christoph began. This was our peak seasonal quarter in a guided investment year and we delivered it to plan and ahead of consensus. Profitability is lower because we chose to put the money into growth exactly where and when we said we would, in new products and in new geographies. Members grew, prime revenue grew, our international markets grew, our net debt came down, and we closed the corridor with more cash than we held a year ago while continuing to buy back our own shares. We have the model, we have the technology, and we have the team that delivers.

34:05 I'll now hand the call back to Christoph to open a live Q&A session.

34:12 All right. Thank you, Dana. With that, we would now like to take your questions. We will answer the questions sent to us in writing in the webcast, and we will take questions on a first-come, first-served basis, but we will also try to group questions of similar nature. Should we not have time to respond to questions from the webcast, the investor relations team will make sure those are answered afterwards. Operator, if you could please open the conference for questions. Okay. Now, we have a set of questions here from Carlos Trevino from Santander.

34:58 Let me read out the first question. Could you provide any indication on which percentage of your net ads are coming from new prime markets and which one from your traditional markets? Any comment on ramping up trends by market would be helpful.

35:19 Absolutely. So first of all, we don't disclose the exact split of net ads between new prime markets and traditional prime markets. However, let me just add a number of points here. First, on the geographic expansion, it is performing very well. And we've seen the revenue margin of rest of world, let me just pause here, rest of world is Mexico, Argentina, UAE, Poland, South Africa, et cetera, right? So our new geographies and all of that rest of world grew 5% to 43.9 million in court. And actually, We already start to see the shift from our top six markets to the rest of the world markets because the growth of those percentage of our revenues grew from 24% to 27% in this quarter.

36:22 David de la Roz, David de la Roz, David de la Roz, of the prime net ads that we have in Spain. Now we still have more to grow and Spain is still ramping up, absolutely. And then with Italy and France at earlier stages and following the same type of path as Spain will.

37:05 So let me read out the second question. How does the intermittent access to Ryanair's inventories continue to impact your business? How do you expect this to evolve moving forward?

37:19 Let me take that, Chris. So first of all, as we've said in the past, our access to Ryanair content remains intermittent. And this has not changed. I think from an investor point of view, what's really critical and important is that we have de-risked our plan for this. And we have factored into our guidance, not just this year, but for subsequent years, i.e. the FY30 targets, about de-risking the plan so that the Ryanair doesn't change our plan. and we are committed to absolutely deliver on it. I want to be clear, our results no longer depend upon Ryanair.

38:04 Our focus is on executing our growth plan and this is exactly what we're doing and you've seen already in this quarter results that.

38:15 Let me read out the third question from Carlos. How is business developing in the first two months of the current quarter? Have you seen any change from previous business trends?

38:27 I think the business first is developing in line with our strategic roadmap. I think since we announced it, we have not seen any significant changes in the trading. Thank you very much. I don't think we don't give a quarterly guidance, but we have given a yearly and we've given multiple years as well, which is very unusual on the market. And we see that we're exactly on track on both of those.

39:14 And so we feel firmly committed to both our FY27 guidance and the FY30 targets, obviously.

39:22 Okay. Okay. We're coming to the last question of Carlos, which is historically prime cash marginal profit margins have improved sequentially in Q2 versus Q1 with lower marketing costs driven by seasonality. Should this be also the case this year or additional marketing investments in your new markets could derail this historic trend? I think that one I will answer. So basically, for this special year of investment, I would in fact not apply the same historical seasonal pattern and let me explain that a little bit. The shape of FY27 will be mainly driven by our investment schedule, not by the normal seasonality in our marketing investment that you've seen in the past.

40:08 We are really investing into the significant growth in the new geographies, in the products such as Railis, also Dana just mentioned. And this is exactly in line with what we have planned and what we have communicated in the plan of last November. and so really it's the consequence of the investment plan and therefore our guidance remains which is our cash EBITDA margins will bottom out in Q3 27 and then we will turn into year-on-year growth in cash EBITDA in Q4 FY27. So I would say you shouldn't model a clean sequential margin recovery through the first half and also as a reminder the recovery drivers Q4 and onwards is really driven by basically the cohort maturity, as I also explained before, where we have the year one members are absorbing the CAC.

41:02 And as we're now starting in the later end of the year, getting year two members, those are coming in at a near zero rate. and above a 50% cash marginal profit. And that really starts to show in Q4. And so all of it is inside our 115 million full year guidance, which we reiterate and what also Dana just said. Okay, with that, we move on to questions from Bharat Nagaraj from Kantor. Let me read out the first question. Could you please provide some color on how your top six markets are performing in terms of cash EBITDA, excluding the investments you are making?

41:47 Okay, I think that one I'm going to take. And basically, in the top six markets, we really have to look at the components. So on the one side, You have the prime performance and that's performing well. We also saw overall our prime gradual revenue growing 5% and also the new product like rail is playing a role in here. And you're also seeing then that within the top six markets, we have another effect, which is the negative unwinding of our non-prime business, which is obviously a big portion of the top six. Thank you very much. Let me read out question two from Bart. That is, as to your guidance of 167 million of adjusted EBITDA pre-investment, could you confirm the level of investments you're making in FY27?

43:02 I remember it to be around 34 million or so. Well, actually, more or less, yes. This is a really front-loaded mid-30 million investment year. And the disclosed path is what I just mentioned, the cash EBITDA bottoming out in Q3 and then inflecting in Q4, where we are returning to growth levels and also the margins are coming back. This front-loaded capital investment is really to secure the future market share and really take benefits of the growth opportunities we're seeing. And so this is where we're investing into rail, we're investing into the new markets. Let me read out the third question from Barrett.

43:48 Has there been any impact from macro headwinds and would your results have been better if not for them? If the ROI from new customer acquisition turns out to be not high enough during the rest of the year, will you outperform on your cash EBITDA guidance for the year or will you return more cash back to shareholders?

44:12 Absolutely, Chris, let me take that. So let me cover it into two parts. The first one is that the macro head wins. And on this one, I just want for all investors to really stress a couple of key points. One is that we are a point of origin model. Thank you very much. The second one is that we are a subscription-based model, right?

45:00 And therefore, we don't earn, our results are not driven really by, let's say, the amount of expenditure that a customer has on it, because we have a subscription-based model. So what we're really focused on is making sure that they They subscribe with us, that they're really delighted, and that they continue to travel, to travel, to travel, and then at the end of the 12 months that they renew with us. And that's really what drives our economics, unlike a transaction-based model business. Let me cover the second part, which is the ROI. A couple of very important points. One is we hold ourselves to the discipline of a 2-3x LTV to CAC, and that is on a 24-month basis at a group level.

45:53 And so that's really the gateway of every euro that we spend has to actually clear that hurdle. In addition, our cost base is roughly about 80% variable. And so again, this is a dial that we absolutely do control. We see that we are doing very well in both our core markets, our new markets, and also I would say our new product, i.e. rail, that's in our core markets as well for that. And we feel very comfortable with the track we're on, feel very comfortable with our guidance that's out there for both Prime members and for Kashibata for this year, and then obviously for the FY30 as well.

46:40 Okay, so that takes us to the last question of Bara. You've reiterated positive year-on-year cash EBITDA growth from fourth quarter FY27. What are the key building blocks behind that inflection? Low acquisition intensity, cohort maturity, revenue growth, or operating leverage? And which of those is doing most of the work? I guess I'll take that one. And it's a great question. Actually, there are basically two key drivers in here. and you mentioned them as well. Basically, you have the cohort maturity and the operating leverage. In here, as we now build up the cohorts, especially in the monthly models over the future quarters and as we are anniversary those where we are moving customers into the year two cohort, that's where we now are getting our superior margins exceeding the 50% on those cohorts with a year two plus membership. So that's the one key driver.

47:39 And then on a second driver that does play a role is that towards the end of the year, we are on a more normal like for like comparison basis, where if you remember in the first half year of FY26, we had full Reiner excess, while in the second half, The Intermittent X has already started, so we are anniversarying that in the second half and that is removing the year-on-year drag and that are the two catalysts of the Q4 results where we are turning into positive cash EBITDA growth. Okay, I will move on and take the next set of questions from Nisla from Deutsche Bank. We have first question. Can you please take us through the facing of net ads for the rest of the year?

48:33 This one I think we already partly answered earlier. So I think that question I would say we consider answered. Then let me read out the second question. What was the traction being in the new markets you've launched, such as the newly announced Polish market? Okay, let me take that, Chris.

48:59 So we see good traction in our new markets and all the key metrics and variables that we track, such as, for example, the percent of customers that actually take Prime, The LTV to CAC obviously, NPS is extremely important to us. And then there's a number of other underlying metrics as well. And all of them continue to track very well. For Poland in particular, I know that you mentioned that one, we see a strong appetite for Prime. Also with the Polish market in particular, there are a number of subscription programs out there outside of travel. It is a, if I can call it a very good subscription oriented market.

49:48 And so we find that our results are actually very good in this market.

49:54 All right. So that takes me to the third question, which is how would the phasing of investments be for the rest of the year? I think that one I will take. So basically, if you look at the rest of the year, we will continue to invest. Thank you very much. are starting to fully pay off where we bring in members from the monthly plan as well as members are transitioning into the year two plus membership where we then are getting the benefits of the higher margin and that's why in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year we are confident to return to positive cash EBITDA growth but the investment is happening throughout the year.

50:56 Let me move to another set of questions from Guillaume from CaixaBank. First question, could you provide more details regarding fixed costs evolution in Q1 and the facing expectations for the remainder of the year? Yeah, obviously, I think that one I will take as well. So basically, I think, as we mentioned, we are investing into our talent. And so we have a workforce expansion in the year. However, this was offset in this quarter by operational discipline, we generated some savings. And so you have the total personal expenses rose by 2 million. And that is mainly driven by the recruitment growth in the tech space. and that is really to support our FY30 roadmap and all the platform investments we are doing for the new geographies and the new products.

51:51 But the phasing, I think you can expect that to rise as the hiring is annualizing throughout the year. So the fixed costs we are anticipating to run higher than in the previous year as per our plan and our guidance. And again, we remain on track with that and manage our fixed costs. And so we stick to our guidance of the 115 million And Chris, let me just interject also about our AI.

52:20 Thank you very much. with the same amount of headcount, so to speak. So as we think about growing into new product categories, new geographies, etc., we need a lot less number of people to be able to do those new expansions than what we would have needed, let's just say, three or even five years ago in the past.

53:07 And you're seeing that already in our guidance. You're seeing that in our numbers as well.

53:14 Yeah, absolutely. So we have a second question, which was around the prime member net at seasonality. But again, also here, we've answered that, I think, at the beginning. So we're not answering that or reading it out again. Let me move to another set of questions. Those are from Chad Garcia from Ave Maria Mutuo Funds. The first question from chat is your variable cost for Prime is 61% of revenue versus 47% last year. I would assume this is attributed to the investment in new markets and new products. Can you confirm and discuss the types of investment these new markets require and how long the elevated period should last?

53:59 I think this one I will also answer. Basically, Chad, yes, you're right. The primary of the costs as a percentage of prime revenue margin rose from the 47 to the 61. And as you point out, that's really driven almost entirely by the acquisition costs and our investments into the new geographies and into the new products. And as we've explained in the past as well, In those new markets or in new product verticals, we are lacking an organic base, so to speak, that's referrals, etc. And so we are relying much more heavily on paid acquisition than we do in our core markets for the traditional products. And this is therefore where most of our investment goes to really drive those new geographies and those new products, especially as we pointed out in a very strong seasonal booking and search window by the customers.

54:50 But let me also remind you, This investment is totally per plan and it does sit within our group level guidance of an LTV to CAC boundary where we are aiming at the 2 to 3 LTV to CAC. So it's highly profitable and value driving on the long term. And so we expect to continue investing along the period for the new plan. And as I mentioned earlier, as of 2-4-27, however, we will return into positive cash EBITDA growth. Okay, let me read out the question two from chat. I noticed Uber has entered the rail market in certain European markets. Can you compare and contrast the prime rail offering versus Uber?

55:38 Dana? Absolutely.

55:42 So let me just start by saying We are fundamentally a subscription-led business, so therefore our proposition to the customer is going to be within that limelight. It's not just a product offering. Javier Pérez-Tenessa De Block, For example, cancel for any reason or price freeze or a number of other things at either free as part of the package or at a very low cost that you don't find any place else.

56:35 And then lastly is on the customer satisfaction, sorry, customer servicing as well is entirely different also. And you see that Thank you very much. from a customer point of view and then also if I couple that from our unit economics and i.e. our LTV to CAC is extremely good and attractive particularly let's say in a rail type of market as well that the combination of the two is making it to be a very powerful winning model and that is why you see already that we're growing very very well in Spain extremely well and we're growing well in Italy and in France as well.

57:38 Okay, perfect. Dana, so we have a third question from chat, even though also this one we've already addressed. It was around the fixed cost growth and the headcount growth. I think we discussed that already. So I'll move on to the next set of questions. Those are coming from Terence T. from Mutzinich & Co. Ltd. Here, the first question. In the light of the recovery in your share price from the lows, can you comment on the pace of share buybacks going forward and thoughts on potentially redirecting focus towards deleveraging? I think I will take this one. First, on the pace here, nothing changed. Our capital allocation framework aligns with the buybacks and they are directly really related to our operations and our cash inflows.

58:28 And that's fully compliant with the regulatory limits. And at our just recent AGM on the 22nd of July, our shareholders overwhelmingly approved a capital reduction, and that was immediately amortizing 3 million shares and reducing the outstanding shares to 112.6 million. and that corporate action also clears the path to execute our remaining share buyback. And under the current 100 million program that is running through to September 2027, we have executed 38 million to date and still 62 million are committed. And the board also was authorized at the AGM to amortize up to an additional 9 million shares over the following 12 months.

59:14 And now about your question about the redirection, focus towards the deleveraging. Basically, from a capital efficiency perspective, our repurchasing the equity is structurally far more accredited than paying down the debt. As you know, our 375 million senior nodes are locked in at a highly attractive fixed coupon of 4.875. And we have no maturities until December 2030. So that is really where we think we are returning. and that's where we are focusing on. We are very comfortable with the leverage and also the increase that is planned given that it's a purely mathematical outcome of our cash EBITDA transition. As we invest, as we are investing and as we are returning back into cash EBITDA growth on the Q4-27, also the leverage will peak and then it will start coming down and we are very comfortable about that.

1:00:18 Maybe, Christoph, I can just interject and summarize. Look, we see our share prices significantly undervalued. We have the cash and cash generation that we do. We are very conservative in terms of the way in which we manage the company financially and from a capital structure point of view. And it clearly makes sense for as we generate cash to buy back our shares at these share prices.

1:00:43 Perfect. Thank you, Dana, for that. Let me continue with the second question here. Can you comment on your key customer demographics in existing and new markets and how AI use from these customers changes their perspective on what eDreams offers? Are you seeing any thematic churns towards or away from eDreams offering as the market evolves through AI? Let me take that, Chris.

1:01:13 So I think I've touched on this several times about our new markets and new products that we're doing very well in them. I've also touched on the AI in terms of our leadership, and it allows us to do features, functionality, and products at either a speedier pace or slightly different than what others do in the ingestion of massive amounts of, let's say, datas and and then turning that into a much more individualized experience for a consumer. So all of this plays towards our advantage. And I think, again, that's one of the many reasons why our net promoter score is so high on this. And that as, and in terms of our discoverability out on the market through, you know, agentic search and whatnot, again, this plays towards our advantage as being an AI first and AI led company. and it increasingly allows us to be more discoverable, coupled with a very good LTV to CAC.

1:02:19 Very good. Thank you. We're moving on to the next set of questions. These ones from Ricardo Chinchilla from Deutsche Bank. Here's the question one. Since the end of June, how have prime net additions, booking frequency, average basket value evolved? And are you seeing any change in consumer behavior across the core European markets? I think I will take that one. Let me first start with the consumer behavior in Europe. Basically, we're not really seeing any change in the underlying demand picture. Basically, yes, there are some destination shifts, but the demand doesn't really move. And our model is also structurally much more insulated, given that our profitability sits within the prime model, within the recurring fee.

1:03:11 So as consumer trading down or destination mix changes, that doesn't move our mechanics. Now, on your other part of the question on the prime net ads here, what I can tell you that we are reaffirming our full year guidance today for 600,000 net ads of the year. And we are very comfortable about that net ads guidance we're giving for this year. And lastly, your part around the average basket value. Here, you know, we're not disclosing the exact number, but yes, it's fair to say that it's slightly down, more in the lower single digits, and it's mostly driven by mix as we move into rail. Those tickets are naturally cheaper than long-haul flights, for example.

1:03:59 Okay, then we have another set of questions also here. Around the prime net additions, we've already answered that. We also here have another question that's variable costs increased 13% and $13.3 million increased. of the cash EBITDA decline reflected additional acquisition investment. How did CAC payback and 24-month LTV to CAC differ between established markets and new geographies or rail cohorts? Here I would say I'll take that one as well. But basically, the blended cut on the new categories is indeed higher. And that is also what I already just mentioned earlier, given that the vast majority of the traffic in those new geographies, in those new product verticals, is driven by paid search, given that we have less benefit of an organic base such as referrals or so. and hence our 24-month LTV2CAC still remains strong and remains within our boundaries that we are setting up. And as you know, the year one cohorts are running at a much lower margin.

1:05:15 And so as they move into year two and as they mature, we know that our profitability is following. Okay, the fourth question is, How are current trends in European airline capacity fair levels and the increasing preference for shorter haul travel influencing customer booking frequency and basket value? Additionally, what impact are these dynamics having on supplier economics, particularly around GDS incentive, NDC adoption, and airline overcommissions?

1:05:53 Let me take that, Chris. So the question's not exactly the same, but it's very similar, the concepts, to a couple of other questions here. I think it's worth covering some of the fundamentals of the line. The most important one is that we're a subscription business, not a transaction business. And that means that our engine is really what's driving us is a number of prime subscribers. And then it's their maturity, the lifetime value, and not... The Value of Any Individual Transactions, so i.e. what fare levels are happening, what short haul versus long haul, baskets size, et cetera, right? And in addition, it's whether the prime member flies from Barcelona to London, London to Sydney, Sydney to Istanbul, et cetera. That's not a really big driver of our economics.

1:06:54 Whereas if you're a transaction business, it absolutely is a big driver of your economics. And so what really matters to us is our long-term relationship with the customer. What matters is the recurring touch points we have with these customers. It really matters the value we provide them. And it really matters, ultimately, therefore, the number of subscribers that we have. and right now it's at 8.1 million. You can see the similar thing in terms of supplier economics, GDS incentives, et cetera, et cetera. This is not what our economics rest on. Our unit economics are not highly dependent upon this. They're on what we've been talking about it.

1:07:42 And so that's really what drives our results. We have a unique space in the travel ecosystem as being a leader in a subscription-based business That has a very healthy model and we're now getting towards the last part of our high investment phase before these recurring revenues start kicking in again. And so Q4 will be the start of this where we'll start to see the year-on-year cash EBITDA start to grow again. and our prime members are growing and are going to be growing at a much higher rate as well.

1:08:29 Let me just end there and pass this back to you, Chris.

1:08:34 Thank you, Dana. And it's actually also the end of our call here, given that we have no more incoming questions. And with this, I want to thank everybody for joining our webcast today. Thank you. and goodbye.