Amadeus announces 2011 full year results

For 2011 the total dividend will amount to €165.6 million (equal to €0.37 per share). An interim dividend of €0.175 per share was paid on 30 January 2012, and the balance will be paid in July 2012. The total dividend represents a pay-out of 36% of the reported 2011 profit for the year from continuing operations, excluding extraordinary items related to the IPO. 



Both the Distribution and IT Solutions businesses were significant contributors to the company’s performance during 2011. Like-for-like Revenue in the Distribution area increased by 5.2%2, rising to €2,079.4 million. Total bookings, including both air travel agency and non air bookings, increased by 5.0%, up from 441.6 million to 463.8 million. Amadeus also increased its global market share of travel agency air bookings by 1.0 percentage point, maintaining its leadership position with 37.7%. IT Solutions continued its growth record with an increase in like-for-like Revenue of 7.8%2 during the full year to €628.0 million. Passengers Boarded (PB) increased by 17.9% in the year, rising from 372.3 million to 439.1 million – which was backed by the number of migrated Altéa customers increasing to 100. 



Year-on-year results for the fourth quarter were also strong: adjusted profit increased by 27.0%, up from €68.2 million to €86.6 million, like-for-like revenues were up by 6.6% from €607.5 million to €647.6 million, and EBITDA rose by 8.0% from €188.3 million to €203.4 million. 



Luis Maroto, President & CEO of Amadeus, commented:  “Amadeus continued to deliver further strong growth during 2011 with an increase in adjusted profit of 20.7% to total €487.2 million. This was backed by like-for-like revenue growth of 5.8% to total €2,712.0 million and an increase in EBITDA of 6.4% to total €1,039.0 million – whilst our total billable travel transactions processed rose by 11.5% to total 948 million. 



“Amadeus’ success is jointly attributable to growth in both businesses: in Distribution our global market share of travel agency air bookings increased by 1.0 percentage point and overall total bookings increased 5%; and in IT Solutions the Passengers Boarded total grew by 17.9% and further key airline contract signings for Altéa lifted our projected Passengers Boarded figure for 2014 to 735 million . 



“I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to our customers for their continued loyalty and partnership, along with our investors for their support of our financial evolution and growth. 



“Throughout this year we will be working hard to further consolidate our position as a global leader and to continue to deliver despite the economic uncertainties we are facing. We have a proven business model and we look forward to 2012 with cautious optimism. Revenue in both our business lines will continue to grow, and we will further deleverage our balance sheet, based on our cashflow generation.” 



Business Highlights Q4, 2011 



DISTRIBUTION 



Airlines 



Content agreements with eight airlines were signed during the fourth quarter, including United Airlines and American Airlines. The multi-year agreement with United Airlines guarantees Amadeus’ travel agencies access to the full range of content offered by United Airlines and Continental Airlines into 2013. Additionally, Amadeus and United Airlines agreed terms to integrate United’s Economy Plus® seating in mid-2012 and will continue to work on technology enhancements to meet the airline’s merchandising needs in the travel agency channel. Economy Plus® seating offers more legroom and a seat closer to the front of the economy cabin. The medium-term agreement with American Airlines gives Amadeus travel agencies continued access to the airline’s fares and inventory with no change from the previous agreement. 

Also included within the eight content agreements signed, are Eva Air, the Taiwanese carrier and Pluna, a low cost carrier with the biggest growth in Latin America. These agreements guarantee access to a comprehensive range of fares, schedules and availability for Amadeus’ travel agents. Airlines with which Amadeus has a content agreement represent around 80% of the total Amadeus bookings worldwide. 

Additionally, easyJet and Amadeus announced the renewal and extension of a distribution agreement which enables all travel agencies connected to Amadeus around the world to book easyJet flights, bags and speedy boarding in the Amadeus global distribution system. An Amadeus commissioned study which timed travel agencies making easyJet bookings found that making the booking in Amadeus was 75% faster and more efficient than booking on the airline’s website, principally because of the integration with the agency mid- and back-office, which means that agents can issue customer invoices automatically without re-entering trip details. Travel agencies will be able to book easyJet’s allocated seating in the Amadeus GDS when the airline rolls out the new service during spring 2012. 

Low-cost carriers continued to be an area of growth for Amadeus. Low-cost carrier bookings from travel agencies using Amadeus in the fourth quarter increased by 19.6% year-on-year. This growth rate supports the recent trend, with the bookings for the whole of 2011 increasing by 20.0% year-on-year. Currently 70 low-cost carriers are bookable in the Amadeus system. 



Hotel, rail and other travel providers  Amadeus continued to grow its hotel content to enable Amadeus subscribers to benefit from a wider range of hotel properties available. HRS, the worldwide leading hotel portal for corporate customers, announced that Amadeus will become the first ever global distribution system to distribute its hotel content. HRS has a database of around 250,000 hotel properties, including more than 50,000 independent hotel properties which were previously not available through a global distribution system channel. This strategic partnership forms part of Amadeus’ ‘Multisource’ hotel initiative to distribute hotel content from diverse sources.



Multisource hotel is part of the Amadeus Hotel Optimisation Package, an initiative launched during the quarter. The package is a complete set of services and technologies for large travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) to increase competitiveness, grant efficient access to all relevant hotel content and save valuable time for their travel advisers. The portfolio of solutions has two areas: Profit Optimisation, to help large travel agencies and TMCs save time and have more control over global hotel programmes; and Content Optimisation, converting Amadeus into a one-stop-shop for hotel content. 

Travelodge, the UK’s long-established and fastest growing budget hotel chain, announced a distribution deal to make its 490 properties in the UK, Ireland and Spain available to Amadeus subscribers, helping Travelodge to attract a wider range of customers including business travellers. 



Travel agencies 



Expedia has continued to expand its global footprint in Asia-Pacific and selected Amadeus as its global distribution partner in Thailand, with a target launch date for early in 2012. 



Within Europe Amadeus continued to maintain its position as a market leader with additional new contracts and renewals with key customers. eTRAVELi, which through 10 different brands has a combined market share of about 55% of the Nordic countries, signed a renewal agreement including the incorporation of Travelpartner, which was acquired by eTRAVELi in October 2010. In the UK Cosmos, the country’s largest independent tour operator, signed a deal with Amadeus; and Lotus Travel renewed its partnership for a further five years. Opodo (UK) (part of our previously owned subsidiary) and Amadeus launched an Online Cruise Partnership with a customised cruise business-to-consumer application on Opodo.co.uk. This joint initiative will target the rapid growth of cruise sales in the UK market by providing Opodo with direct access and distribution to cruise inventory from all major global cruise lines via the Amadeus System. And the largest online travel company in the Netherlands, Travix, signed a four-year agreement for content distribution and IT services worldwide; Amadeus began providing low fare search and full IT shopping solutions to CheapTickets in 2001 and today Amadeus provides expertise and global reach to all Travix brands. 



Cornerstone Information Systems, a leader in reservation management and business intelligence technology, has partnered with Amadeus to help business travel agents and corporate travel managers worldwide improve their overall operations. In the near future there are plans to extend the partnership and technology to leisure travel agents and online travel agencies. Amadeus will become an official global distributor of two of Cornerstone’s most effective solutions: Amadeus iBank (business intelligence reporting) and Amadeus iQCX (reservation management and agency process automation). 



IT SOLUTIONS 



Airline IT maintained its growth with three new leading airlines contracted to the full Amadeus Altéa Suite, the fully integrated customer management solution for airlines which includes Altéa Inventory, Altéa Reservation and Altéa Departure Control System. Asiana Airlines, winner of Skytrax’s 2010 airline of the year, will implement the full Altéa Suite to manage its domestic and international reservations, inventory and departure control operations. Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian), the second largest airline in Scandinavia carrying over 15 million passengers a year, also announced that it has signed up for the full Amadeus Altéa Suite. Pluna also signed up for the full Amadeus Altéa Suite. 



Further contracted airlines also completed the Amadeus Altéa Suite when they contracted Amadeus Altéa Departure Control, including Air Calin, the international airline of New Caledonia. 



Based upon signed Altéa contracts, Amadeus estimates that the number of Passengers Boarded (PB) will be more than 735 million by 2014 , which represents an increase of over 67% vs. the 439 million PB processed on the Altéa platform during 2011. Further contracts were also signed for the Stand Alone IT Solutions portfolio. Six airlines signed-up for Amadeus Ticket Changer (ATC), which simplifies the ticket re-issuing process by combining the state-of-the-art Amadeus Fares and Pricing engine with a powerful, multi-channel ticketing functionality. These included leading airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Pluna and Royal Air Brunei. Ten airlines also signed-up for the use of the electronic messaging standard, Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD). Included within these were leading airlines such as Middle East Airlines, Pluna, Royal Air Brunei, ASIANA Airlines, TAM Airlines and TAM Linhas Aereas. EMD enhances ticket services and enables airlines to distribute a wide range of products that help customise their journeys, through ancillary services such as excess baggage.