VIK Q1 2024 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Viking Holdings Q1 2024 Earnings Call
• Date: May 29, 2024 at 12:00 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Carola Mengolini (Vice President of Investor Relations)
  • Torstein Hagen (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)
  • Leah Talactac (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Linh Banh (Executive Vice President of Finance)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Total revenue grew 14.2% year over year to $718 million in Q1 2024.
• Capacity passenger cruise days (PCDs) increased by 14.5% in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023.
• Occupancy in Q1 2024 was 94.0%, an improvement of 120 basis points versus the prior-year quarter.
• Adjusted gross margin for the quarter increased 19.1% year over year to $495 million.
• Net yield in Q1 2024 was 508, which represents a 2.8% increase versus Q1 2023 and is the highest Q1 net yield on record for the company.
• Net loss for the quarter was $494 million, which includes a $330.5 million loss related to the private placement derivative and Series C preference share interest.
• Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2024 was a loss of $4 million compared to a loss of $51 million in Q1 2023, reflecting an improvement of more than $46 million year over year.
• Adjusted EBITDA for the 12 months ended March 31, 2024 was $1.14 billion versus full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA of $1.09 billion, with a trailing adjusted EBITDA margin of 36.1%.

Demand & Booking Trends

• The company reported 91% of capacity PCDs for core products booked for 2024, representing $4.6 billion of advanced bookings and a 15% increase versus the comparable point in the 2023 season.
• For the 2025 season the company was 39% booked with $2.5 billion of advanced bookings, which is 27% higher than the comparable point in the 2024 season.
• As of May 19, Viking had sold 91% and 47% of capacity PCDs for ocean for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, respectively, with advanced ocean bookings 16% and 30% higher versus prior comparable seasons.
• As of May 19, Viking had sold 92% and 30% of capacity PCDs for river for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, respectively, with advanced river bookings 13% and 19% higher versus prior comparable seasons.
• The remaining inventory for 2024 is concentrated in the fourth quarter, which management identified as generally a lower-demand season.
• The company emphasized continuing to publish booking curves quarterly as factual, non-speculative disclosure of forward demand.