Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Meliá Hotels' Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference and Presentation. I am Stéphane Baos, Head of Investor Relations. For the time being, all participants will be in a 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, we would like to remind you that all discussions this morning will include forward-looking statements. Actual results will differ from those indicated in the forward-looking statement, and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today. We will otherwise state our respective occupancy, average daily rates, and P&L comments refer to year-over-year changes for the comparable periods.
This morning, 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; and Ignacio Pardo, our Chief Real Estate and Sustainability Officer. Our President and CEO will provide an overall picture of 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 these conference calls to give you a chance to clarify anything else you might need. You can find our earnings release on our Investor Relations website at meliáhotelsinternational.com. And now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Gabriel.
Thank you, Stéphane , and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. 2024 has been a year where the economic environment has evolved. Inflation has started to ease, but in some cases, remains steady. Monthly CPI measures continue to shape the narrative in the market, causing additional volatility. The recent changes after the different election processes that are taking place around the world pose risks and opportunities, while also increasing our certainty. In this environment, I'm pleased to present these results and to confirm that our main financial and operational objectives have been met. In 2024, Meliá capitalized on strong leisure and bleisure-consumer demand. Our strong brands, our premium location, and our focus on elevating our product portfolio through repositioning of hotels played an important role in achieving these results. In 2024, our system-wide RevPAR increased by just 10.7%, confirming the robust guidance we set a year ago.
This performance was mainly driven by price increases, which accounted for approximately 75% of the RevPAR growth, exceeding our initial expectations. 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 2,013 million, representing an increase of just 4.4%. Notably, owned and leased available rooms have likewise -4.3% compared to last year, still in part derived from the Equity Inmuebles portfolio changing from leased to management. Additionally, last year, we had two one-off impacts: EUR 11 million from the sale of a stake in a subsidiary and EUR 17 million from a positive conclusion of a trial in Brazil. Excluding all these aforementioned effects, the yearly increase of consolidated revenues, excluding capital gains, will be of just 10%. On a like-for-like basis, for the fourth quarter, consolidated revenues, excluding capital gains, increased by +8.8%.
I'd like to point out that management fees from third parties increased by + 12.9%, showing the strength of our asset-light expansion approach. Operating expenses increased by + 3%, being the most relevant increase, personnel expenses by + 4.7%. This is in part due to an overall extended season in our resort hotels, together with salaries' increase. On the other hand, our efficiency in cost management, together with the deceleration of inflation, reduced the increase in other costs, enhancing EBITDA flow-through, which stood at 56%. As anticipated last year, I'm glad to announce that our objective to reach at least EUR 525 million of EBITDA, excluding capital gains, has been surpassed, as we reached a total of EUR 533.6 million. For the fourth quarter, excluding the one-off in 2023, EBITDA has increased by 30.6%. Yearly margins stood at 26.5%, implying a 129 basis points improvement.
Turning into net financial result for the year, it worsened by EUR 3.5 million for the year. However, I'm pleased to report that we achieved a significant reduction in financial cost, decreasing by EUR 10.3 million. Even though reference rates were higher during the year, the acceleration of our deleveraging process, driven by strong cash flow generation and our proactive asset rotation strategy, has compensated for this increase. Additionally, you can see how our maturities have softened, having a more comfortable medium-term outlook. This process has also allowed us to reduce spreads of our reference rates, demonstrating our lenders' confidence in our future performance. After this process, currently, 51% of debt is in a fixed financing cost, while financial cost for the year stood at 5.53%.
Profit and loss from associates and JVs was - EUR 13.4 million, mainly due to the accrual of an impairment by amount of EUR 24.2 million. This impairment is related to a company that indirectly owns the operation rights from some hotels in Cuba. With all that, consolidated net profit increased by 24.5%, reaching a total of EUR 162 million, while net profit of the parent company reached a + EUR 140.6 million that represents an increase of 19.4%. Lastly, earnings per share for the year stands at EUR 0.64. Turning to the balance sheet, I'm pleased to share the relevant progress we made on deleverage, which has been one of the main priorities of the company over the last years. We reduced net financial debt by approximately EUR 400 million, reaching and surpassing the leverage ratio objective set in the annual shareholder meeting.
This relevant debt reduction was attained using the following levers. Firstly, we have generated a strong operational free cash flow of approximately EUR 100 million after paying EUR 20.6 million in dividends. Secondly, our well-known strategic asset rotation approach allowed us to generate approximately an additional EUR 300 million from projects of selling minority stakes in subsidiaries. The main transaction, as you already may know, was carried out by Banco Santander and the last transaction, which has been carried out in the fourth quarter with Banco Popular Dominicano. I'm confident of our long-term relationship with our partners, exploring additional projects together in the future. Turning to the value of our assets, together with the presentation of our annual accounts, we have published a new asset appraisal evaluation carried out by CBRE.
This new evaluation shows an increase in the total value of our assets by + 13.8%, reaching a total value of EUR 5,285 million of owned assets and JVs. This is a clear sign of the crystallization of our renovation and repositioning procedures in our strategy to address the upper and luxury segments. After this valuation, we registered a total amount of EUR 39.9 million as capital gains. In accordance with the applicable accounting standards, only the revaluation of assets classified under investment property is recorded. I will now turn the call over to André to talk about our operational performance during the fourth quarter and going forward in more detail. André, please.
Thanks, Gabriel, and good morning, everyone. Complementing previous remarks, after a solid summer season fueled by the celebration of major events like the Olympics in Paris and the Euro Cup in Germany, the fourth quarter continued with the upward trend seen throughout the year. On a yearly basis, we have seen a positive performance in all regions quarter by quarter, except for Cuba. Our premium locations, together with the strong repositioning process we made in the ups cale and luxury segments, allowed us to capitalize the strong market momentum, achieving a yearly growth in system-wide RevPAR of 10.7%, with a 75% increase coming through pricing strategy. In the fourth quarter alone, system-wide RevPAR increased was of 7.3%.
Going into more detail, our hotels located in Spain present once again a positive quarter, where our city hotels benefited from a positive leisure time during the festivities, combined with notable events such as sporting competitions and business fairs. Our resort hotels showed likewise a positive performance, with price increases running 9%, together with increase in occupancy. It is worth noting that the trend shown at the end of the year allowed us to once again extend the season in some of our hotels. Turning to EMEA, we see a positive end of the year overall. MICE, together with business transient and leisure time, have behaved well. We have nevertheless seen a double-speed behavior within countries. Since France and Germany are facing some political uncertainty causing some instability, thus showing a single-digit increase in RevPAR.
Other destinations, like the U.K. and Italy, perform better, showing a double-digit increase in RevPAR. In America, the fourth quarter was particularly affected by the uncertainty due to the U.S. presidential election, causing some price adjustments in order to maintain market share. The positive note overall comes from the fact that the reservations and occupancy figures surged after the U.S. election ended, showing a clear recovery. This can also be seen on the performance of our Black Friday campaign, which was very successful. This campaign, as a whole, generated an increase of around 26% in sales, with a 5% price increase compared to last year on a general basis. In Asia, China is still recovering from the weaker performance shown throughout the year. The market remains mainly domestic-driven, since the international influx has not yet recovered. Nevertheless, RevPAR decrease has stabilized in Q4.
Southeast Asia is seeing a greater performance of international clientele, with greater direct air connectivity, with high-profile markets, thanks to the positive evolution in RevPAR. Yearly management fees generated in the region increased by 18%. Lastly, operations in Cuba have been challenging, where power outages and the effects of adverse meteorological events affected demand. For the foreseeable future, trends in the country will depend on how the energy and overall supply chain availability evolves. Our general performance during the year has been strong. In terms of development, I'd like to close this chapter with our development and expansion strategy. This year, we opened 19 hotels, adding 3,000 rooms to our system. Net unit growth for the year reached over 2%. Regarding new projects added to the pipeline, we signed 34 new hotels, adding more than 5,000 rooms to our pipeline.
For 2025, we will continue to reinforce our strategy, focused on three pillars: consolidating our leadership in the luxury segment, expanding our presence in key vacation destinations, and entering new markets such as the Maldives, Seychelles, and Turkey. We remain committed to signing at least 25 new hotels yearly and open 20 properties during next year. Our midterm goal is to surpass the 100,000 rooms in our operative portfolio. Let us talk now about our 2025 expectations. While geopolitical risks and economic uncertainties present challenges in some countries, overall conditions for the global hospitality industry remain favorable for continued growth. This positive outlook is supported by stable labor markets, strong business activities, and economic growth, which have been benefited from easing inflationary pressures and the shift in the interest rate cycle over the past 12 months.
Market research and consumer surveys indicate a continued prioritization of spending on travel, while business surveys suggest increasing corporate travel budgets in 2025. With demand fully recovered, Oxford Economics estimates that global hotel room nights exceeded 2019 levels in 2023 and have continued to grow in 2024, forecasting a compound annual growth rate of 3.6% through 2034. Demand is showing signs of a positive and healthy stabilization, with both leisure and corporate clients still presenting positive on-the-books reservations, which are up by a high single digit compared to last year. We anticipate a positive first quarter, especially in the Canary Islands and Spanish City Hotels. By segments, all of them still show a positive performance, and even though this year some one-off events like the Olympics or the Euro Cup will not take place, this should not cause a significant effect.
Mature markets overall remain to be unchanged with historical records, and we see no signs of a slowdown so far for our top European clients. We also like to remind that in part thanks to our repositioning process, we are increasing market share contribution from nationalities like the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, who have one of the highest ADR contributions to the company. We understand that the strong U.S. dollar evolution should be a tailwind in terms of our operations and the future evolution of reservations, specifically in Europe. With all this, we are expecting that RevPAR for 2025 should increase in the mid-single digit range, with a balanced contribution from occupancy and price increases. I will now turn back the call over to Gabriel to summarize the main messages of the call.
Thank you, André, and to end, I would like to highlight the following messages. I am pleased to announce that the three main goals we set a year ago have been attained and surpassed. Yearly RevPAR increased by double-digit, reaching a +1 0.7% increase for our system-wide hotels and +1 1.2% for our own and leased portfolio. We reached an EBITDA, excluding capital gains, of EUR 533.6 million, surpassing our goal of at least EUR 525 million. The strong operational cash flow and the proceeds from the strategic asset rotation operations with long-term partners allow us to reduce net financial debt by EUR 400 million, reducing our debt by one-third compared to last year's figures. This allows us to return to pre-pandemic leverage ratios. We feel confident with these debt-level ratios, focusing now on a growth approach with regards to our capital allocation in this year.
Meliá will continue to extend its footprint in top leisure and bleisure destinations, and we expect to sign at least 25 hotels in 2025 and open not less than 20 properties. Into RevPAR guidance, we expect a mid-single digit increase in RevPAR, with an even contribution between prices and occupancy volumes. Lastly, and thanks to the positive evolution of our business and with the strengthened balance sheet, we are aiming to increase our dividend payout ratio for next year. Further details on our fourth quarter and full year can be found in the earnings release we issued early yesterday. 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 Stéphane Baos. Stéphane .
As previously mentioned, those interested in asking questions will have the opportunity to do so now. In order to raise your hand, please dial pound key then five so we can assign you a turn to ask questions. It is also possible to use the raise-your-hand functionality in the web player to enter the queue. Please allow us some time to listen to them.
Our first question comes from Jarrod of UBS. Please go ahead. Your time is now open. Jarrod.
Thank you. Thank you. And good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you. Just want to ask maybe three. I mean, obviously, the debt is coming down nicely. Would there be any plans to bring the debt down even more aggressively? Maybe through raising any capital to bring it down? Secondly, just the family's shareholding. Any thoughts on reducing the family stake? Point. And then just lastly, I mean, you slightly missed, I think, was 4,000 rooms that you wanted to do in 2024. I mean, you've talked about 20 hotels in 2025. Can you give us an idea, firstly, if any of those 20 hotels include any carryover from development of hotels in 2024 into 2025? And then also, based on the 20 hotels, what kind of room counts are we talking about in 2025? Thank you.
Hi, André. Good morning. I'm Ángel speaking. Look, on the question of CapEx, we have recently discussed the position of the company is that in the midterm, the leverage ratio will be between 2x and 2.5 x. So there is no plan of capital increase whatsoever. We're so comfortable now with the level of debt, and we'll be disciplined to maintain the continuous range. Okay?
Coming to the second question, Jarrod, the family has no intention at all to reduce our participation in the company. And on the contrary, myself, during the last two consecutive years, I bought some shares of the company taking advantage of what I thought it was a good opportunity in terms of valuation.
Hi, Jarrod, if I may, this is André Gerondeau regarding the development question. Listen, I think in general, every year we have some delays in openings that go to next year on certain properties, but then happens the same for the following year. So anything we trail back is recovered. Our vision for 2025 is around a 4% increase in the net unit growth of the company. So this is where more or less those 20 properties should look like. I don't know if I'll answer your question, Jarrod.
Yep. Thank you. All three answers are very clear. Thanks very much.
Okay. Now, the next question comes from Guillermo, from CaixaBank. Someone on the line, Guillermo. Go ahead, please.
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. So two if I may. The first one, could you provide a bit more details on your performance expectations specifically for the Caribbean area, with a particular focus on Mexico? And second, could you provide any cash flow target expectations or asset acquisition plans for this year? Thank you.
Good morning, Guillermo. This is André. This scenario plan stands specifically your question on the agreement, but when it comes to performance, at the end of the year, given the situation in the U.S. with the election and different political processes, we've seen a minimum slowdown for the winter season that is coming back, and picku ps are coming back again. So the expectation for Mexico is that there is a slower demand than during the COVID times, but still strong. What we have been able to recover, and we're focusing strongly, is on the MICE segment, which we have positive news, at the same time on certain consortia, travel agencies, and the upscale business. Now, when we go into the Dominican Republic, we would say two things. One is that the DR has shown increased demand, and it's moving on a positive phase.
Both Mexico and DR are better than last year's first quarter, and in the Dominican Republic, we also have a strong demand. In terms of growth and development, I think that within the next few months, we're going to see a part of this development strategy for the year coming through Dominican Republic as well. DR is probably in a better position than Mexico. I don't know if this answers one. We'll go into the cash flow with Á ngel Luis, and then we'll come back.
Good morning, Guillermo. Look, on the cash flow side, we are not giving today any guidance on the EBITDA next year for 2025, but we expect that the business remains strong, and so we expect a better year than 2024. And that will obviously translate into cash flow generation. And there will be other factors such as the reduction of debt and the reduction of the reference rate, and the reduction of the spread will make the financial expense go down. So all in all, we expect a higher cash flow generation compared to 2024. On the asset rotation side, I would love to talk to my colleague Camila Zapata, but what I can anticipate is normally the company, when we ran the valuation, now it's time to reflect on the portfolio and to think strategically.
There will be no principal big asset rotations in the short term in terms of this process. Now we are analyzing what I would like to throw for coming next year.
Thank you. Thank you.
There is a cash flow asset strategy of the company. It will be on different sides. The first one will be the repositioning of some strategic assets that we have in the Caribbean, aligned with our strategy to strengthen our presence on the leisure destination, the luxury segment, more specifically on the Paradisus Cancún, which is based on investment that has been projected for this year. We all know that maybe we cannot give specific details, but as you may decide, but some windows start to open on possible acquisition, more specific flagships in strategic locations that we will plan under different formula in partnership as we've done in recent operations. Always, always, for sure, keeping in mind that our debt ratios should be and should be maintained under 2.
Thank you. Okay. Then the next question comes from Fernando Abril from Alantra. Please go ahead, Fernando.
Just to follow up, if I may. So could you please provide us what's the level?
Hello. Yeah. My question, good morning. Two questions, please. First on the RevPAR evolution. So Q1 is going strong at high single digits. Q2, I understand there will be tailwind coming from Easter season. Then you are guiding for mid-single digits for the full year, with Americas, Mexico, and DR doing well. So my question is, are you guys being prudent, or do you see something in the market that leads you to expect a slowdown to match the slowdown to management? Second question, you've mentioned some development for the Paradisus Cancún and so on. Can you tell us what is the CapEx guidance for the year between maintenance and, let's say, development? Thank you.
Fernando, this is André again. Thank you for your question. I think that basically what we're trying to say is that we're seeing a stabilization in the market, both in prices and in volume. So it's not that we're being too conservative. It's that the reality is that we see a positive trend on the books business for Spain. Canary Islands has been strong. It is true that our on-the-books business for Spain and Europe in general are positive, but we still need to see the evolution both in Latin America in general, the Caribbean, and then the rest of Europe. You know that Germany is going through some challenges at the time and some other countries in Europe. So I think we're just being sensitive to the reality. We are planning a growth of two times inflation. So we think that it's realistic more than anything else.
We believe we're going to see some stabilization in the market, which should be normal. Do remember, and I'm sure you all understand that last year was a wet year for Spain.
Good morning, Fernando. Ángel speaking. I will start with the answer to the second question and probably will pass the floor again to Juan Ignacio. But what we've done recently is to improve a bit more specific on the policies of maintenance, risk, and IT investment, and that posed a volume of maintenance, risk, and IT CapEx of EUR 60 million, and that will be stabilized every year. On the CapEx with return on investment, Cancun will definitely be the bulk of this year. It's a very significant property, and we'll face a full refurbishment of the property, which is needed. It's one of, I would say, one of our big vessels that still need debt because we've CapExed, as you know, recently pretty much all our portfolio. Also we'll provide some allocation for some money to support the strategy of the asset-led growth.
All in all, that's it.
You've said it perfectly well, André. Is that okay, Fernando?
Yes, sir. Thank you very much, Ángel and André.
Okay. Thanks, Fernando. Okay. Next question came from Dani Amissi, Common Gate Entertainment. He's now open.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I've got two. The first is around your openings. I saw that you're planning to open 20 new hotels in 2025. Is this a net number or a gross number? I just finished - no, I just stopped. Sorry. If it's gross, I just wondered how many hotels you're planning to close this year as well. And the second question is around OpEx inflation. Apologies if I missed this early on the call, but what level of OpEx inflation are you expecting for your hotel business this year?
Hello, Dani. This is André. Good morning. Regarding development, what we're saying is that we're planning to sign at least 25 properties for this year and to open 20 properties. Out of these 20 properties, we should be somewhere around close to 4,000 rooms and net unit growth. As far as the openings, we have a number of properties being opened in Spain, leisure and urban Spain. We're moving forward with several properties in the rest of Europe. And then we have some openings in Southeast Asia and Maldives and Seychelles as well. So I don't know if that answers your question regarding development.
And very nice to hear. And speaking is regarding the inflation cost of OpEx that we expect for 2025, the expectation that we have is between 3%- 4%, something like that.
Complement this question. If you're going to open 4,000 rooms, are you planning on shutting any hotels or shutting any rooms in the year?
Basically, as we've said, Paradisus Cancún is our top priority for this year. Yes, the intention is to shut the property at the end of this winter season to have it ready by the beginning of next year. These are about 700 units, Dani.
Okay. Very helpful. Thank you.
Okay. That's all the questions, I think. Then that concludes our question and answer session. We hope that we have been helpful here. Please do not hesitate to contact our investor relations department for any further questions you might have. Thank you, and good day, everyone. Bye.