Meliá Hotels International, S.A. (BME:MEL)
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May 8, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q4 2023

Feb 29, 2024

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Meliá Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I am Stefan Maus, Head of Investor Relations. For the time being, all participants will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, anybody who is interested will have a chance to ask questions, so we can address any additional doubts. Please note, this event is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our discussion this afternoon will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today.

This afternoon, as usual, on the call with me today are Gabriel Escarrer, our President and Chief Executive Officer, André Gerondeau, our Chief Operating Officer, Ángel Luis Rodríguez, our Chief Financial Officer, Juan Ignacio Pardo, our Chief Real Estate Officer, and myself. Our President and CEO will provide an overall overview for the company's performance. André will then review our fourth quarter onwards. Following these remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. In any case, the investor relations team will be available following this conference call to give you a chance to clarify anything else you may need. You can find our earnings release on our investor relation website at meliahotelsinternational.com. And now, I am pleased to turn the call over to Gabriel.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

Thank you, Stefan, and good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. 2023 has been a positive year, a year that went from good to better in almost all regions with a solid underlying demand. Thanks to our premium and luxury positioning with a quality mix of leisure and pleasure destinations, we have been able to capitalize on the strong momentum in all segments. The solid overall trend of the year is confirmed in the fourth quarter, where our year-on-year own and lease RevPAR increased by 10.6%, mainly driven overall by price, which is +6.3% compared to 2022. Occupancy was 2.5 percentage points above 2022, and our system-wide RevPAR increased by 6.6%, in this case, mainly driven by volume increase.

On a yearly basis, RevPAR for our own and leased hotels increased by 17.3%, driven by overall equal gains in average daily rate and occupancy. Our system-wide RevPAR increased by 10%, thanks to volume recovery. It should be noted that this RevPAR increase is affected by pricing decrease in Cuba, which is explained by the valuation of the local currency. Excluding this effect, our system-wide RevPAR increased by 16%, with both occupancy and average daily rate fostering this increase. In this context, turning to results for the full year and fourth quarter. From a year-on-year perspective, consolidated revenues, excluding capital gains, stood at EUR 1,929 million, representing an increase of 14.8%.

Comparing to 2019, the increase is of 7.3%, even though owned and leased available rooms are -8.7% compared to the same periods. This shows the positive contribution of RevPAR increase and the retention within our management systems of the hotels changing from owned and leased towards management contracts. Sales through melia.com direct channel strategy continued to show increases of 17.4% compared to last year, accounting for more than 46% of our centralized sales. Our digital and direct channels remain important drivers to increase demand at a more efficient cost to us and our owners. In 2024, we are celebrating our 30-year anniversary of our loyalty platform, Meliá Rewards, with more than 16 million registered customers.

Operating expenses increased by 12.6% with respect to the previous year, and by 7.5% compared to 2019. Despite wages and OpEx inflation, profit margins at EBITDA level are in line with pre-pandemic, thanks to the cost control implemented by the company without affecting our service quality while enhancing client satisfaction. Regarding EBITDA margins, these are not fully comparable due to the change in the equity portfolio rental agreements, switching from fully fixed amounts fully variable. We're glad to see that this change in strategy has surpassed bottom line contribution of this portfolio compared to 2019. As we anticipated in our annual shareholder meeting, I am glad to announce that our objective to reach at least EUR 475 million of EBITDA has been achieved, thanks to the strong demand and margin recovery.

Our strong top line, combined with cost control measures, allow us to post EBITDA excluding capital gains of EUR 486 million, an increase of 16.2% compared to 2022, and of 3.3% compared to 2019. Net financial result has been impacted by the higher financial interest rate during the year. In 2023, our average financial interest rate stood at 5.16%, compared to 3.13% in 2022. Interest rate increase for the year could be softened, thanks to our fixed interest rate debt exposure, which at the end of 2023, stands at 35.5%. It is worth noting that the outlook for the upcoming months suggests that rate hikes have reached their peak. This, together with debt reduction, should drive financial expenses down from now on.

Effective income tax rate for the year is 12.9%, lower than the rates of around 25% at which the group has historically stood. Essentially, this reduction is a consequence of the impact of the Constitutional Court declaring certain precepts of Royal Decree-Law 3/2016 void, and in particular, regarding the reassessment upwards of the application of tax losses against future profits and the corresponding recognition of deferred tax assets. Therefore, consolidated net profit of the parent company reached a positive EUR 117.7 million, improving by EUR 7 million compared to the previous year, and also surpassing 2019 figures. Turning to the balance sheet.

With regards to debt, a decrease of EUR 59.9 million was registered during the course of the year, ending with EUR 2,613 million of net debt. Pre-IFRS 16 financial net debt decreased by EUR 46.7 million, closing the year with an amount of EUR 1,163 million, showing our progress towards debt reduction. Regarding asset rotation, in 2023, progress has been made. We have received advance payment amounting to $30 million related to the sale of a minority stake in a subsidiary, which owns a hotel in Mexico, pending to be approved by Mexican competent authorities. This transaction will generate capital gains in 2024, once the approval from the competent authorities has been issued. I would like to briefly discuss one of our most recent announcements.

On February 19, this year, we announced the signing of an agreement with an investment vehicle from Banco Santander for the subscription of new shares in a subsidiary owned by Meliá. By means of this transaction, the investment vehicle takes a participation of 38.2% stake in that subsidiary, which will own three premium hotel assets location, located in premium locations. This transaction amounts to a total of EUR 300 million, which will be received during the month of April. This transaction is part of our strategy to continue to strengthen our balance sheet. The value of the transaction is in line with the asset appraisal we published in July 2022, allowing us to crystallize asset valuation.

Apart from this, an additional asset rotation operating, operation is currently on the way, which we expect to complete during the course of the following months in the Caribbean and another one in the Canary Islands. These transactions will be made through a sale of a minority stake. Regarding our investments, it should be noted that in 2023, the company made key money agreements payments of EUR 31 million, of ensuring long-term management contract of various hotels, including the Equity Inmuebles portfolio. The situation amounts to EUR 330 million. It should be noted that before year-end, we have been able to refine part of our 2024 and 2025 debt commitments in order to smooth debt commitments for the nearest future.

We remind that Meliá does not have any debt with financial covenants, while mortgage debt stands at approximately EUR 250 million. This implies a loan-to-value of 27.4% of mortgage assets. I would like to reiterate our commitment to continue to strengthen our balance sheet. As of today, I would like to commit to return to our pre-COVID net debt to EBITDA multiples by the end of 2024. That is 2.5x net debt to EBITDA pre-IFRS multiple. With this, we are anticipating one year our objective. I will now turn the call over to André to talk about our operational performance during the fourth quarter and forwards in more detail. André.

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

Thank you, Gabriel, and good afternoon, everyone. Complementing previous remarks, after a solid summer season, the fourth quarter continued with the upward trend. We have seen a strong performance in all regions, with a year-on-year system-wide RevPAR increase of 6.7%, driven by strong domestic and international demand for both our resorts and leisure hotels. Going into regions, European cities have seen a surge in volumes compared to 2022, with occupancy unlocking RevPAR increase for the area. This increase is supported by our pricing strategy, which remains strong. In America, our hotels in Dominican Republic stand out with a RevPAR increase year-on-year, surpassing 10%, purely driven by price increases. It is worth noting the repositioning of Paradisus Palma Real, which also allowed us to increase occupied rooms.

Our hotels in Spain have delivered a really strong fourth quarter, with RevPAR increases year-on-year of 20.9%. The positive combination of winter season in both cities and the Canary Islands have been key on achieving a 12.5% increase in prices and 4.7 percentage points in increased occupancy. The Asia region is capitalizing on demand pace increase during the final stages of the year. The continent has been the latest to definitely leave the pandemic restrictions demand, and therefore is benefiting from still an unconsumed ramp-up demand. As a sign of tangible recovery, RevPAR in the region is up 31.7% year-on-year, but still below pre-pandemic levels. This remains a key lever going forward, not only for the region itself, but as an outbound source of tourists traveling abroad.

Lastly, our hotels in Cuba have continued with the trend seen along the year, with a positive evolution of international travelers, but with domestic demand negatively impacted due to the devaluation of the local currency. Turning to our yearly view, overall, the continued trend along the 12 months, where all quarters RevPAR outperformed year-over-year figures on a System-wide perspective. This trend shows the positive evolution of our pricing strategy based on our luxury and premium positioning, reflected in our strong product mix, our premium locations, and our brands. Regarding the segments, we are keen to see that there is a positive evolution in all of them. Important to note that melia.com and the rest of our direct channels continues to solidly deliver results, as previously explained. Tour operators have also performed well, and we celebrate the continuing positive trend with our most appreciated partners around the world.

A special mention should be made to MICE, which has seen a solid performance along the year. Our business generated through MICE in 2023 has exceeded both 2019 and 2022 levels, and our perspective for 2024 is encouraging. As far as development, in 2023, Meliá's growth is intricately tied to our brand strategy, featuring significant advancements such as the consolidation of our unique luxury hotels brand, Meliá Collection, with 8 hotels already in operation and eight more slated to open in the future. The ZEL brand, created in collaboration with Rafa Nadal, made its debut and continues to expand its pipeline for the coming years, with three openings in 2024. Additionally, we saw the much-anticipated arrival of the resort brand, Paradisus by Meliá in Europe, with Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote and Paradisus Gran Canaria, both on the Canary Islands.

2024 marks a pivotal year for the ME brand as well, with planned openings of the hotels, ME Malta, ME Sayulita, and ME Guadalajara in Mexico, and ME Lisbon in Portugal. Throughout 2023, the company signed agreements for a total of 26 new hotels, adding 4,465 new rooms, and opened another 12 hotels. Highlights include the Gran Meliá Palazzo Cordusio in Milan, the ZEL Mallorca Hotel, the Gran Meliá Nha Trang in Vietnam, our first Gran Meliá in Southeast Asia, and INNSiDE Bangkok in Thailand. The company emphasizes its growing destinations like Mexico, while also solidifying its presence in emerging holiday hotspots like Albania and Malta. The group's luxury strategy has a positive impact on the portfolio's evolution, with luxury brands already representing almost 15% of the operating hotels and 35% of expansion pipeline.

These brands contributed over 25% of total hotel revenues in 2023, and the luxury brands portfolio experienced strong RevPAR increase of +18.3% in 2023, and of 31% compared to 2019, with solid growth for 2024 expected. Thanks to this potential, combined with growing market demand and resilience to economic cycles, the luxury and premium strategy has solidified as a competitive strength, contributing to maintaining a more qualitative RevPAR. Important to note, a record year in customer satisfaction with a 53% Net Promoter Score system-wide, which validates our vision and brand strategy in terms of personalized service and tailored experiences for our guests. In terms of the outlook, demand is still strong, with both leisure and corporate clients presenting an encouraging outlook.

Our overbooked reservations are double-digit above last year, with pricing still showing mid-single-digit increases. Reservations are being increasingly anticipated, and even though last-minute bookings continue to be relevant, this is a positive factor since we are expecting to also extend the season in our resort hotels. Going into regions, America, Q1 2024, strategy focusing on maintaining a solid occupancy base while driving the average room rate in our superior categories and suites, allowing us to foster last-minute demand, which is predominant among local clientele. International demand into the region is again led by the U.S. and Canadian customers. So far, we're seeing revenue and price increases in the Caribbean region, driving a strong percentage of our RevPAR increase for 2024. Regarding MICE, our hotels in Dominican Republic are seeing a higher base of events scheduled for the near future.

Spain forecast for our city hotels are positive after a strong fourth quarter. We are expecting to continue to grow on prices and keep progressing in occupancy. Corporate travelers are also keeping up with the recovery. We expect 2024 corporate business in Spain to regain pre-COVID volumes. So far, Q1 is showing this trend. Resort hotels in Q1 is mainly focused on the Canary Islands, showing solid increase and positive last-minute demand for superior rooms and suites again. Our hotels have confirmed a stronger base for the beginning of the season. The U.K. and German markets continue to lead demand into the region, where also Spanish nationals are expecting to grow compared to 2023. EMEA region expects a higher volume compared to last year, with price increase and recovering occupancy versus last year, with corporate segment pushing demand.

Events scheduled in the near future, together with MICE, again, will also benefit from our hotels in our region. Asia region expects to consolidate and definitely leave behind the pandemic effects. The region will benefit from both, both from increased internal demand and also international travelers flowing into the region. According to recent statistics released from IATA, the International Air Transport Association, international flight seat capacity from and into Asia are still approximately minus 45% below pandemic. Even though forecasts do not expect a full recovery in 2024, there is definitely a shift on perspective, which we will try to capitalize. Cuba will continue, as in recent months, the positive outlook for international travels, which should provide a better occupancy base and pick up RevPAR increases year-over-year, thanks to an increased volume.

I will now turn back the call over to Gabriel to summarize the main messages of the call.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

Thank you, André. To end, I would like to highlight the following messages: We are expecting low double-digit increase in RevPAR for this year compared to last year. We have attained the objective set in the general shareholder meeting of generating at least EUR 475 million in EBITDA, a further commitment for year 2024 to generate at least EUR 500 million in EBITDA, excluding capital gains. The announcement of an agreement with Banco Santander not only proves the value of our hotels, but also the confidence in the hotel industry. With this transaction, I would also like to commit to end 2024 with a net debt EBITDA ratio of 2.5 x pre-IFRS. Regarding development, we expect to open not less than 4,500 rooms in 2024.

And thanks to the good performance and the work made to strengthen the balance sheet, the board of directors will propose to the general shareholder meeting to resume the dividend payment. Further details on our fourth quarter and full year can be found in the earnings release we issued early today. We will now be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please let me remind you that I'm here with André Gerondeau, Ángel Luis Rodríguez, Juan Ignacio Pardo, and Stefan Maus.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

As previously mentioned, those interested in asking questions will have the opportunity to do so now. To do so, please dial star five, so we can assign you a turn to ask questions. Also, please remember to keep your microphone mute while others are speaking. First question is, first person is going to be João from Santander. Please go ahead, João.

João Safara Silva
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Santander

Yes, hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I will start with two questions. The first, just to bridge the cash flow for 2024, and just taking into account what is your new target of net debt to EBITDA of 2.5 x. I mean, obviously with the transaction, the real estate transaction you're doing, you'll be very close to those levels already. But I wanted to understand what are you going to do on top of that, considering that you're also proposing a dividend? So basically, my question is more in terms of what is the guidance for CapEx, and also what is the amount that you expect to receive from the other asset rotation?

So that would be my first question. And then, the second one, just on the transaction you announced. I mean, I have just a couple of questions here. The first is if there is any preferred dividend that this vehicle will have to pay as part of the transaction? And the second, I understand there is a lease agreement between this vehicle and Meliá. What I wanted to understand here is the tenure of this lease agreement, for how long is the lease agreement? And that's basically my questions.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

I, yes.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah. Hi, Ángel speaking. Good to speak with you again. Look, with regard to cash flow, for 2024, and our objective to reduce the ratio to 2.5 x, as Gabriel has said, there will be three elements that will contribute to achieve that target. One is obviously the transaction that we recently signed. Secondly, is the generation of cash flow from the business. And, third, you know, the asset rotation, which is not gonna be particularly big, but we expect additional around EUR 50 million coming from that angle, this year. So that will take us to this objective. And, you know, we are fully committed to this goal. Concerning the CapEx, what we have decided this year is to be more strict.

And for example, in terms of IT investments, what we're gonna do is we are doing now, like, take an inventory, hold a little bit, and then, you know, be more conservative in terms of that. And we'll be CapEx in about EUR 100 million this year, you know, on all aspects. With regard to the transaction itself, there is a preferred dividend to our partner, Santander, which is not obviously a guaranteed dividend, and it's a preferred, which is very, very reasonable, is arm's length.

With the business case we have for this vehicle, we expect that, you know, we'll always be in a situation to catch up that and so there's no big deal on that. In terms of the lease agreement, it is—I would say it's instrumental because sometimes there, you know, couldn't cope with having employees on the vehicle. So we decided to do this structure, which at the end of the day is eliminated on a consolidation basis. So we are running the hotels and we've set up the structure because it was a requirement from Santander. It made it very easy in terms of DD as well.

So, that is the optimized structure to make the deal go through the finish line.

João Safara Silva
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Santander

Okay, just a follow-up. There are just... If I understood correctly, you—I mean, two follow-ups, actually. The asset rotation, you mentioned EUR 50 million, so 50, and CapEx is EUR 100 million. And the question here is, does it include key money or not?

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all, yeah, all included.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

It's all the CapEx, João.

João Safara Silva
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Santander

Okay, clear. And the asset rotation is EUR 50 million, right?

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

That's correct.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah.

João Safara Silva
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Santander

Okay, thank you.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

I think Gabriel mentioned the this transaction that we that we are now negotiating in in Dominican Republic, and we're selling a minority stake in in in a vehicle. We've been negotiating now for months, and we expect to close that transaction in Q2.

João Safara Silva
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Santander

Great. Thank you.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Okay. Thank you, João. Then the following is going to be Jaina. Hi, Jaina from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Jaina Mistry
Equity Research Analyst of European Leisure and Hotels, Jefferies

Hi. Thank you very much for taking my questions, and congratulations on such a strong end to the year. I've got three questions as well. My first question is on 2024 and your guidance, the low double-digit RevPAR. I wondered how this breaks down by region in terms of what you're seeing. My second question is on what you're seeing for Q1 RevPAR so far, and how it compares versus your full year low double-digit guidance. Then lastly, I wanted to ask about your room openings. You're guiding to 4,500 new rooms in 2024. Is this net of terminations, or how many terminations should we expect this year? Thank you.

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

Jaina, this is André. Thank you again, and thank you for congratulating us. We are very excited. Listen, there are several drivers on the RevPAR guidance of the low double digit. The first one would be the Americas region, which is performing very strong, and we have Mexico and Dominican Republic with a strong base of business. And secondly, it's our premium and luxury strategy. So the combination of both elements, it's gonna contribute. So that's how I would like to break it. First, would be the Americas, second would be Spain, urban and leisure, and thirdly would be EMEA. First would be luxury brands, and then would be the premium brands. And of course, the fact that when we include managed hotels, Asia support will be very relevant.

Secondly, we-

Jaina Mistry
Equity Research Analyst of European Leisure and Hotels, Jefferies

Can I follow up on that? I was interested in your comments around EMEA, because EMEA RevPAR was probably flat in Q4. What drives an acceleration in 2024 in that region?

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

A couple of things, Jaina. Number one is we have the Olympic Games going into Paris, so France is gonna have quite a strong 2024 all over. Secondly, we have seen that fairs, congresses, and corporate business is coming back in Germany, and last year was challenging, and beginning of Q4, we saw how that was moving. Thirdly, we have a strong base of MICE and congresses in general in EMEA. So, that's what is driving our outlook. Italy is looking strong as well. I don't know if that answers your question, Jaina.

Jaina Mistry
Equity Research Analyst of European Leisure and Hotels, Jefferies

It does. It's very helpful.

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

Great. Now, when it comes to Q1, you will see that we have positive growth. So yes, definitely Q1 is already contributing to this double digits low RevPAR growth for 2024. We have a strong performance in the Canary Islands. We have a strong performance in leisure, secondary cities in Spain. And as I said, the Americas, please remember that for us, Q1 in the Caribbean is very strong. The 4,500 rooms are net of termination, so this is net increase on system-wide rooms.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Very clear. Thank you.

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

Thank you.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Thank you, Diana. Then next is going to be André Juillard from Deutsche Bank. André,

André Juillard
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Good evening, and congratulations for these good results. My questions are first about the fears that you could have from the operating environment, because you're saying that more or less all your markets are very well oriented. You're guiding on loadability sheet. But what could negatively impact if we wanted to be a little bit more cautious? First question. Second question is about all the asset management deals you're planning to do or you have already announced. Could you give us slightly more detail about the breakdown between the Dominican Republic, sorry, Mexico, the Canary Islands? And I had a specific question about the Santander deal.

Do you have any call option or does Santander has put option on the respective participation, even if I perfectly understood that we were talking about a long-term deal. Last question, if I may, about refinancing. You've got EUR 280 million to refinance this year, if I'm right, and EUR 163 million next year. What is the plan for this refinancing? Are you thinking about traditional bonds, credit lines, or anything else? Thank you.

André Gerondeau
COO, Meliá Hotels International

Hello, André, this is André Gerondeau. Listen, to your first question, so far, and, you know, we knock on wood, but in terms of the pace of the reservations, the advance booking business, which is not only strong for Q1, but it's also showing a strong pace for summer, at levels of between 15% and 20% already for the summer. So there's an early booking window, which is very relevant, and that's gonna allow us to do a lot of yield management with direct channels in part of the strategy. There is nothing as we speak today that we are overcautious about. Obviously, there are some geopolitical issues that we do not control, but we have to say that given the situation, the unfortunate situation in Gaza or the situation in Ukraine, we have not seen really an impact.

I wouldn't say a positive impact, but please remember how resilient the distribution of our portfolio is between the Caribbean, primary cities and resorts. So there is nothing right now that we can share that we're overly cautious. Obviously, we are being sensitive, and we're taking it quarter by quarter. As well, the pace that we have for our group and MICE business is also very strong. Bear in mind that we manage two very large convention centers, one in Palma and another one recently in Barcelona, and that we have strong MICE operation in the Caribbean. So hopefully, there's nothing that is gonna make us change our mind, but as of today, it wouldn't be fair from us to say anything specific other than the overall situation.

Juan Ignacio Pardo
Chief Real Estate Officer, Meliá Hotels International

Juan Ignacio Pardo of the speaking now. As syndicated in today's session, real estate team's priority has been entirely driven by the asset rotation strategy. As we have mentioned already, we keep our focus on partial disposals, either directly or through joint ventures or introducing partners to assets for the upcoming period. The company, as the chairman has mentioned, has all the rotation operations plan, and they are being worked both in Spain and in the Caribbean. We hope that we can communicate and be able to communicate the results in the forthcoming months.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Ángel Luis speaking. Concerning your first question on the Santander deal, I think the most significant part of it is that we, Santander has no put on us whatsoever. And then, obviously, we are retaining majority control on this vehicle, and that will give us, you know, a lot of optionalities when, you know, if an exit comes. But, you know, the most significant part of it is that there's no put option on Santander against Meliá. And then, concerning the maturity profile, yeah, we have EUR 280 million maturing this year.

We already signed a reorganization with Santander on December last year, and so we moved EUR 50 million from 2024 and EUR 50 million from 2025 to 2026. Now in Q1, there will be maturities for EUR 60 million. We have, you know, cash enough to pay, and we are already speaking with all our lenders, and we are expecting to close a reorganization of our maturities along with the reduction, you know, in April, May at the latest. So, we are in constant dialogue with our lenders, and our objective would be to end up with a profile of around EUR 150 million of maturities each year.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Okay, André, okay?

André Juillard
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Perfectly clear. Thank you very much.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Merci, as well. Now, please go ahead, Íñigo Egusquiza from Kepler . Hello, Íñigo.

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Hola, Stefan. Hello, Gabriel. And the rest of the team, thanks for taking my two questions. The first one is a quick follow-up on the target, Gabriel, that you are mentioning to reduce the net debt to EBITDA to 2.5 x by 2024. I'm doing more or less the numbers, and if we assume that the cash inflow from the Santander transaction is EUR 230 million, on top there is EUR 50 million on new asset rotation. You are implicit assuming that the free cash flow, the annual free cash flow generation would be around EUR 100 million. The first question, is this number more or less okay?

The second question on your guidance for 2024, you are giving a top-line, low double-digit RevPAR guidance growth for 2024. But you are, which is, I don't know if it's optimistic, but at least it's a strong RevPAR expected for 2024. But on EBITDA, you are only assuming 3% growth over 2023 EBITDA. Why is, why is that the impact that is smaller at EBITDA level? Thank you.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Hi, Íñigo. Yeah, you're right, basically. And free cash flow of the company is gonna be hopefully higher than EUR 100 million this year. So, that is the third element of, you know, the ammunition that we're gonna have to reduce the debt. I think basically that was your question, right?

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Yeah.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah.

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Thank you.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Okay, and I will talk about the guidance response that Gabriel gave and also the EBITDA. It's true that you need to remember that we have, in 2024, we are not going to have for the full year, the Equity Inmuebles as a lease. And remember, only when you compare with the figures that we had in 2023, at the revenue levels, we're talking about EUR 75 million that we had in 2023, and we are not going to have in 2024. And also, I would like to include also that the EBITDA generated by these others along these eight months that we had on lease was around EUR 10 million. This is something that we had a one-off in 2023, and we are not going to have in 2024.

Also, I'd like to point that Gabriel said, at least, because we never know what is going to happen. But then the goal of the company, at least, is going to be EUR 500 million for 2024. It's okay, Íñigo?

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Yes, very clear. Thank you, Stéphane.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Okay.

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Just a small follow-up on the asset rotation. Gabriel, you mentioned that this EUR 50 million additional asset rotation will come from the sale of two minority stakes. You mentioned one in Dominican Republic and another one in the Canary Islands. Is this right?

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International

Yes, yeah, absolutely. Yes, you're right.

Íñigo Egusquiza
Equity Research Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux SA

Okay, thank you. Gracias.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Now, please, Fernando from Alantra, please go ahead. Fernando, [Foreign language]

Fernando Abril-Martorell
Analyst, Alantra

Hi, thank you. Sorry, but most of them have already been answered. Just a follow-up on CapEx, because you've mentioned that you expect to generate around EUR 100 million free cash flow generation this year. Just, I was wondering the breakdown in CapEx for 2024 between key money, maintenance CapEx, development CapEx, and investments in your JVs, if possible, please. Thank you.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah, it's around 50/50, 60/40,

Fernando Abril-Martorell
Analyst, Alantra

Thank you .

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Fernando, sorry. We can be more precise if you want. We can send you a note, but it's gonna be EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million in maintenance and the other one in-

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Between investment and key money.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

... investment and key money, basically, yeah.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

It's okay, Fernando?

Fernando Abril-Martorell
Analyst, Alantra

Yes. I thought that maintenance CapEx normally was higher than around EUR 50 million a year.

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fernando Abril-Martorell
Analyst, Alantra

It was-

Ángel Luis Rodríguez
CFO, Meliá Hotels International

It used to be. It used to be, and this year what we've decided is, as I explained before, also with the IT. Look, we've heavily CapEx our properties within the last years, and so, we don't think we're jeopardizing the status. We're gonna be very strict. We're gonna do an inventory of the real needs, and we're gonna break a little bit this year and then, take it from there next year.

Fernando Abril-Martorell
Analyst, Alantra

Oh, okay. Okay, thank you.

Stéphane Baos
Head of Investor Relations, Meliá Hotels International

Then, okay. Then thank you. I think that's all for today. That concludes our question and answer session. We hope that we have been helpful here. Please do not hesitate to contact us or to contact our investor relations department, any other question you might have. Thank you and good night.

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