Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. Reports 2024 Third Quarter Financial Results
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2024
Third Quarter 2024 Highlights:
-- Total revenues increased 17% to $206.0 million
-- Net income available to stockholders increased $16.8 million
-- Adjusted EBITDA increased 35% to $45.8 million
-- Lindblad segment Available Guest Nights increased 6%
-- Net Yield per Available Guest Night increased 9% to $1,205 and Occupancy
was 82%
-- Bookings to date for future travel increased 26% vs the same period in
2023
-- Further expanded land-based portfolio with the closing of the acquisition
of Wineland-Thompson Adventures
NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIND; the "Company" or "Lindblad"), a global provider of expedition cruises and adventure travel experiences, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.
Sven Lindblad, Chief Executive Officer, said "Lindblad delivered a record third quarter as we continue to generate strong operating results across both our fleet and expanded land experiences portfolio. Looking ahead, this strong growth is poised to continue as current year bookings for future travel have reached record levels. Our focus continues to be on providing high quality travel experiences and strategically expanding our travel platform to capture this demand. We believe we are well positioned to deliver meaningful shareholder value in the years to come."
THIRD QUARTER RESULTS
Tour Revenues
Third quarter tour revenues of $206.0 million increased $30.0 million, or 17%, as compared to the same period in 2023. The increase was driven by a $12.5 million increase at the Lindblad segment and a $17.5 million increase at the Land Experiences segment.
Lindblad segment tour revenues of $121.3 million increased $12.5 million, or 12%, compared to the third quarter a year ago. The increase was driven by a 6% increase in available guest nights due to greater fleet utilization, a 9% increase in net yield per available guest night to $1,205 due to higher pricing and an increase in occupancy to 82% from 81% as compared to the third quarter a year ago.
Land Experiences tour revenues of $84.7 million increased $17.5 million, or 26%, compared to the third quarter a year ago primarily due to an increase in guests traveled, higher pricing and the addition of Wineland-Thompson Adventures.
Net Income
Net income available to stockholders for the third quarter was $21.3 million, $0.36 per diluted share, as compared with net income available to stockholders of $4.5 million, $0.08 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2023. The $16.8 million increase primarily reflects higher operating results, a $6.8 million tax benefit, $0.4 million of lower stock-based compensation expense and $0.2 million in foreign currency gains as compared with $0.5 million in foreign currency losses in the third quarter of 2023 partially offset by $2.2 million of higher depreciation and amortization driven by digital transformation projects implemented in 2023 and $1.1 million in transaction-related costs driven by the acquisition of Wineland-Thomson Adventures.
Adjusted EBITDA
Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $45.8 million increased $11.9 million as compared to the same period in 2023 driven by a $6.1 million increase at the Lindblad segment and a $5.7 million increase at the Land Experiences segment.
Lindblad segment Adjusted EBITDA of $26.2 million increased $6.1 million as compared to the same period in 2023, primarily due to increased tour revenues, partially offset by increased marketing spend to drive long-term growth initiatives, higher general and administrative costs primarily due to increased personnel costs and increased royalties associated with the expanded National Geographic agreement.
Land Experiences segment Adjusted EBITDA of $19.6 million increased $5.7 million as compared to the same period in 2023, due to increased tour revenues and the addition of Wineland-Thomson Adventures partially offset by increased operating and personnel costs, higher marketing spend to drive future growth, credit card fees and commission expense.
For the three months ended For the nine months ended
September 30, September 30,
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
(In thousands) 2024 2023 Change % 2024 2023 Change %
-------- -------- ------- ---- -------- -------- ------- ----
Tour revenues:
Lindblad $121,268 $108,750 $12,518 12 % $332,624 $311,660 $20,964 7 %
Land Experiences 84,737 67,239 17,498 26 % 163,494 132,523 30,971 23 %
------- ------- ------ ---- ------- ------- ------ ----
Total tour
revenues $206,005 $175,989 $30,016 17 % $496,118 $444,183 $51,935 12 %
======= ======= ====== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====
Operating
(loss) income:
Lindblad $ 11,680 $ 7,501 $ 4,179 56 % $ 10,092 $ 8,576 $ 1,516 18 %
Land Experiences 17,801 12,975 4,826 37 % 19,032 15,868 3,164 20 %
------- ------- ------ ---- ------- ------- ------ ----
Operating income $ 29,481 $ 20,476 $ 9,005 44 % $ 29,124 $ 24,444 $ 4,680 19 %
======= ======= ====== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====
Adjusted
EBITDA:
Lindblad $ 26,238 $ 20,119 $ 6,119 30 % $ 53,429 $ 48,887 $ 4,542 9 %
Land Experiences 19,574 13,831 5,743 42 % 24,373 18,472 5,901 32 %
------- ------- ------ ---- ------- ------- ------ ----
Total adjusted
EBITDA $ 45,812 $ 33,950 $11,862 35 % $ 77,802 $ 67,359 $10,443 16 %
======= ======= ====== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====
Balance Sheet and Liquidity
The Company's cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash were $224.6 million as of September 30, 2024, as compared with $187.3 million as of December 31, 2023. The increase primarily reflects $90.7 million in cash from operations due primarily to increased bookings for future travel, which was partially offset by $23.7 used in purchasing property and equipment, as well as, $16.7 million in cash used in the acquisition of additional ownership in Natural Habitat and DuVine.
As of September 30, 2024, the Company had a total debt position of $635.0 million and was in compliance with all of its applicable debt covenants.
Strategic Growth Initiatives
The Company announced that it has added two purpose-built Galápagos expedition vessels to join the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic fleet. The first of the two new ships, the National Geographic Gemini, is a 48-guest configuration featuring two unique dining venues and 24 outward-facing cabins, including 13 balcony suites. Even more intimate, the second vessel, the National Geographic Delfina, is a 16-guest, eight-cabin catamaran perfect for family vacations, affinity groups, and private charters. Following the expected closing of the transaction in January 2025, the ships will undergo revitalizations. Once complete, the ships will embody the spirit of adventure and extreme comfort, both synonymous with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic, and will celebrate the Company's deep connection to the islands, Ecuador, and its people. The vessels will embark on their inaugural voyages on February 14, 2025, and March 14, 2025, respectively.
The Company continues to expand its land-based experiential travel offerings and increase the addressable market. On July 31, 2024, the Company completed the acquisition Wineland-Thomson Adventures, Inc., an adventure travel group that primarily operates African safaris. The aggregate purchase price was $30 million and was financed through $24.0 million and $6.0 million in Lindblad stock. During April 2024, the Company increased its ownership of Natural Habitat to 90.1% for $15.2 million, as Mr. Bressler, Founder and CEO of Natural Habitat Adventures, exercised a portion of his put option, and we exercised a portion of our call option on DuVine, increasing our ownership to 75% for $1.5 million.
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
The Company's current expectations for the full year 2024 are as follows:
-- Tour revenues of $610 - $630 million -- Adjusted EBITDA of $88 - $98 million
STOCK REPURCHASE PLAN
The Company currently has a $35.0 million stock repurchase plan in place. As of November 4, 2024, the Company had repurchased 875,218 shares and 6.0 million warrants under the plan for a total of $23.0 million and had $12.0 million remaining under the plan. As of November 4, 2024, there were 54.5 million shares common stock outstanding.
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
The Company uses a variety of operational and financial metrics, including non-GAAP financial measures such as Adjusted EBITDA, Occupancy, Net Yields and Net Cruise Costs, to enable it to analyze its performance and financial condition. The Company utilizes these financial measures to manage its business on a day-to-day basis and believes that they are the most relevant measures of performance. Some of these measures are commonly used in the cruise and tourism industry to evaluate performance. The Company believes these non-GAAP measures provide expanded insight to assess revenue and cost performance, in addition to the standard GAAP-based financial measures. There are no specific rules or regulations for determining non-GAAP measures, and as such, they may not be comparable to measures used by other companies within the industry.
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