Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Meliá 2025 full year and Q&A conference call. I'm Stéphane Baos, Head of Investor Relations. As you may know, this year we made an update in our approach to our results presentation. Yesterday, together with the release of our results, we made available a webcast presented by our President and Chief Executive Officer, Gabriel Escarrer, and our Chief Operating Officer, André Gerondeau. It provides an overview of the key operational trends in 2025 and outline the company's outlook for the year ahead. We hope you have had the opportunity to review, and that it has been to your satisfaction. In today's live sessions, we will begin with a brief introduction summarizing the most prevalent points of the year. Afterwards, we will be open the Q&A session.
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 Juan Ignacio Pardo, our Chief Real Estate and Sustainability Officer. Please note that all participants are currently in listen-only mute. When selected to ask question, your microphone will be activated automatically as you're introduced. Additionally, we would like to remind you, everyone, that the discussion from the company might include forward-looking statements. These comments reflect our expectation as of today only, and actual results may differ from those presented or implied. I am pleased to turn the call to over Gabriel.
Thank you, Stefan. Good morning, everyone. Before opening the line for questions, let me briefly summarize our 2025 performance. We delivered solid RevPAR growth with a strong pricing discipline, resilient demand, and a well-balanced geographic footprint. We are once again leading the market in RevPAR growth. EBITDA, excluding capital gains, increased by +2.1% compared to 2024, even with major refurbishment on the way at flagship hotels and the effect of the depreciation of the U.S. dollar versus euros. Net profit exceeded EUR 200 million, up 23.6%, supported by operational momentum and lower financing cost. Our increasing free cash flow allow us to fund our investment, ending the year with a stable net financial debt to EBITDA ratio in line with our expectations.
In February, we signed a new syndicated loan, which reinforces our financial discipline and significantly improves our maturity profile without increasing leverage. We also benefit from lower spreads without requiring any collateral guarantees. Looking ahead to 2026, we have a positive on the books position despite a more uncertain environment in late February after some events in Mexico. Our diversified portfolio and upcoming reopenings put us on track for another year of disciplined growth. As a result, we are expecting a RevPAR increase in the low to mid-single digit for 2026. Let us open the line for the first question.
Thanks, Gabriel. Those interested in asking questions, will have the opportunity to do so now. Please dial star 5, so we can assign you a turn to ask questions. Allow us a brief moment to compile the questions and assign turns. Hi, the first question is for Ricardo Benavides from Santander. Please, Ricardo, go ahead.
Good morning, all. Thank you. Three questions from my end. Firstly, regarding this week's tensions in Mexico, I was wondering if you are seeing any volatility in terms of bookings, pricing, more for the midterm note. Second question, for your top-line growth, considering the normalized RevPAR outlook, would you potentially be also considering some net unit growth in your own lease segment? Last question regarding capital allocation. Is your decision right now to not pursue any asset rotations more tactical in nature, or more strategic? In the event, if there are no relevant, let's say, additional projects for you to allocate capital towards, what would you prefer, extraordinary dividends or a share buyback program? Thank you.
Good morning, Ricardo. This is André Gerondeau. Thank you for your questions. Relating Mexico, we have seen, you know, it's been 3 days already. First couple of days, we did have a negative pickup. I'm happy to announce that yesterday's pickup was already balanced between emission and cancellation. Hopefully this is a situation that will reverse very soon. Important to note that all of our partners have started operations again into Mexico. All airports are open. Flights to Vallarta have been restarted. We see that this might be a situation that hopefully has minimum impact. However, we need to wait and see for the next few days.
Again, I think that when we go into RevPAR and top line, what we've said is that we have a strong vision for winter, given the positive trends we've had so far in the Caribbean, far positive than last year, besides the situation in Mexico, obviously. Very strong performance in the Canary Islands and a strong performance in the ski season as well. Our advanced bookings, plus MICE on the books, make it very positive for us to foresee the midterm business. Obviously, on the books is higher than our low to mid-single RevPAR vision, given the advanced booking and the MICE that we've said, and things will balance out. If we look at the trends for some of our competitors, which are in very low single digit RevPAR, this is where we have our confidence from.
I will pass the third question to my colleagues to answer.
Hi, Ricardo. On your question on capital allocation. I think, first of all, our policy is gonna be very consistent with the financial discipline. The framework will always be that our debt ratio to EBITDA will be between 2% and 2.5%. We'll be doing little adjustments in our participations, you know, portfolio management that we've been carrying out over the last 12 years. We've been looking for little adjustments. There's nothing really major identified. You know, I think that we see ourselves allocating the capital in growth and improving our assets rather than increasing or changing our dividends policy. We don't see ourselves, you know, giving away a extraordinary dividend.
Less, you know, the share buyback, which, you know, we have discussed that in depth, with you one to one. Being the little free flow that we have now, one of the main circumstances that we think is dragging our quotation, we don't see ourselves in the short term doing a share buyback.
Perfect.
Yeah, Juan Ignacio Pardo speaking. Of course, we remain open to structures that may unlock value while preserving brand control and operating flexibility. Any structure must improve capital efficiency, reduce risk, as Luis has said, maintain balance of the debt to 0.2 debt ratio, and be executable at an attractive pricing. We are evaluating alternatives case by case on asset type, geography, and investor appetite, as we've done in the similar way as we've done during the 2025 exercise. It's okay, Ricardo?
Yes, perfect. Thank you all.
Thank you, Ricardo. Now, the turn for Artem from UBS. Please go ahead, Artem.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my three questions. My first question on net unit growth. Pipeline for 2026 as % of system size is 4.7% now. Last year, it was at 3.3%. Nevertheless, guidance for net unit growth in 2026 is lower than it was a year ago. 2%-3% now for 2026, versus, I think, 4% a year ago for 2025. How should we think about it? Do you expect an increase in the pace of these affiliations? My second question, how do you see 2026 RevPAR growth by main geographies? Which geographies do you expect to be stronger, which ones weaker? Lastly, can you share any initial thoughts or indications on cost inflation for 2026? Thank you.
Hello, Artem. André Gerondeau again. Thank you for your questions. Listen, we feel comfortable on the 2% or 3% net unit growth. We're not foreseeing any specific disaffiliation program. We do recognize, however, that we're sensitive to the situation in Cuba, which might have an impact. Other than that, we are clearly online to follow last year's business and growth strategy as well. Nothing disaffiliation that should be higher than what I just mentioned. When it comes to RevPAR, we've seen a very positive increase of RevPAR in the Caribbean, mainly Dominican Republic, obviously Mexico, given the circumstances in the short term. Please bear in mind that in Europe in general, U.K. is performing very positive for us.
France, and certainly, Italy, for the past few weeks, has had an extraordinary performance, given the Milano Cortina Games. When it comes to Spain, I think it's important for us to note that we've been upgrading our product portfolio, and we've been increasing our footprint in the main regions, whether it's the Canary Islands, certainly in Andalusia, as we have announced, with the opening of ME Málaga, the refurbishment of Gran Meliá Don Pepe. We've taken over the former Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, and we've taken over Holiday World , which is an 800 unit resort. Even though it's in a stabilization year, we see opportunity for our brands and our products specifically as our portfolio develops. I'll pass on the cost inflation question to Stefan.
Hi, Artem, regarding the cost inflation. In the average worldwide, I will say that it's going to be between 2-3% increase, but it's going to depend on the location. That mean, depend on the geographical location, you will see some differences. In general terms, for the full company, I think around 2-3% is going to be the level that we're going to have. It's okay, Artem, about the answer we gave you?
Yes. Great, thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Artem. The third question is come from, Guilherme from CaixaBank. Hi, Guilherme.
Hello, thank you for taking my questions. Three, if I may. The first one is regarding the RevPAR. If you're seeing some difference in terms of the RevPAR outlook for owned and leased hotels alone, and owned, leased, and managed hotels in general, for the whole portfolio? Also related to RevPAR, if you could provide us a figure of like for like performance, since there are important changes in the parameters that could distort a bit the guidance provided? The second question is in terms of margins. What are your expectations for 2026?
Of course, we know there's some impact from effects that could be relevant, but just so that you know, that aside from the DC, you see margins going up on the underlying terms. The third question is regarding free cash flow generation expectations, both on the pre-M&A basis and if you could share with us potential size of investments that you might do, that we should add to have free cash flow generation post M&A, to input in our model. Thank you.
Hello, Guilherme, Andrea again. Good morning. Listen, in terms of RevPAR, no, there's our RevPAR, where we have both owned and leased and managed hotels in the same destinations is very similar. Where obviously the difference comes is in those destinations that we only do management, like it would be Middle East, Southeast Asia. Other than that, our brand strategy calls for a very sustainable RevPAR growth in all destinations and brands.
On the margins, I would say, we have discussed this as well, several times. This is the obsession of a company. We have a target to get 30% EBITDA margin in 2027. We're working on that. There are 3 lines. One is the operating performance of the hotels, and we are, you know, optimizing the operations and trying to squeeze the assets as much as we can. The second line is the corporate expenses, where, you know, we have also streamlined and optimized the structure that we have here in HQ, but also in all the regional offices.
The third, and the third line is the asset light expansion, which, you know, as you know, in terms of margins will improve the picture. We are working on that, it's the obsession. We've launched internally a program called 30% Margin, and is a day-to-day, is on the, on our day-to-day. Obviously, we'll have the FX, the FX effect, Ricardo, as you mentioned, but as we have always said, it's just an accounting effect, since we don't cross currencies effectively. Yeah. Yeah, and sorry, I forgot on the, on the free cash flow thing. I was thinking that Stéphane will reconcile. I'm sure they have already the 2025 figures.
We've ended up with EUR 200 million of cash flow from activities. We expect a bit, you know, a higher number for 2026.
Guilherme, it's okay with the answer?
Yeah. Just want to understand a bit what type of investments should we need to take into consideration, that could have implications in the actual cash flow generation generated?
Hi, Guilherme. For the moment, for 2025, you may know, we have the Paradisus Cancún, that we are going to open it again in May 2025. That could represent around EUR 25 million, and additionally to that, we have the Gran Meliá Don Pepe, that is going to be opened at the end of the year, and we are going to invest around EUR 40 million. Between these two big refurbishment that we have, it's EUR 55 million. This is the two major thing that we have on mind right now. To keep on mind that we used to have around EUR 15 million that we used to have in key monies and growth opportunity that we could have for the year. That we have for this year. It's okay?
Okay, perfect. Just on margins, just a small follow-up. How should we think about the fade into the 30% margins between 2026 and 2027?
If I may, Guilherme, adding on to what Ángel Luis has just said, I think it's important to note that we also have a very strong strategy in terms of revenue generation, upselling, and increasing other revenues. An important percentage of the 30% is coming from the top line as well. We have just rolled out a number of strategies and IT technologies for increased experiences in the hotels for other revenues. In terms of upselling, and please bear in mind that most of our openings, over 65% of our business coming in right now, it's between premium and luxury hotels.
I think we're counting on a very large percentage of the Margin Thirty to come from the top line as well, with much better flow throughs when we look at RevPAR growth, mainly through ADR. That's why we've been updating and upgrading our portfolio and our expansion strategy. I don't know if that supports the question?
Thank you.
Thank you, Guilherme. Now the turn is for Fernando Abril-Martorell from Alantra. Hi, Fernando.
Hi, hi, Just only one question. I missed some of the prior questions, so maybe you've already answered this. I don't know if you're aware, but, one of your main peers, Minor Hotels, now the owner of NH, said he was looking to create a separate REIT. I don't know if this is something you would be also open to discuss internally and separate the PropCo and OpCo, within your company. Thank you.
Hi, Fernando, Ángel Luis speaking. Look, this is something we have discussed several times, so I would say almost every time we get together. I don't see that happening in the short term. I think, you know, one of the reasons is that we think that the operating business has to grow a little bit more for us to start contemplating that. As we have always said, you know, we hear the market, we listen to the market, we hear you, and we always analyze opportunities, but I don't see that happening in the short term.
Okay. Thank you very much. Okay.
Thank you, Fernando. Now the turn to Andre Juillard from Deutsche Bank. Hi, Andre.
Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my question. First one, about the operational trend. Could you remind us the weight of Cuba in terms of revenues and EBITDA contribution? On the operating side as well, could you give us some more color about the trend you are seeing on the MICE segment, especially in the Caribbean? Second question, about asset management. Could you confirm that the two main project that you have at the moment are only the Paradisus Cancún and the Gran Meliá Don Pepe, do you have some more project of refurbishment for this year? Thirdly, about the capital allocation, could you remind us the policy in terms of dividend and what we can expect for this dividend? Thank you very much.
Bonjour, Andre. Thank you for your questions. Basically, you know that Cuba has been struggling for the past couple of years, the impact for this year in terms of fees and overall performance is around EUR 10 million in fees and obviously whatever comes down on the EBITDA, we've considered that already. The trend for MICE has been very positive since we've increased our strategy in Europe and in the U.S.. Our on the books business is very solid, mainly for winter in the Caribbean and then springtime in Europe. The trends continues to be positive, and there's a sense of confidence in the market. Business has been picking up. Besides Paradisus Cancún and Gran Meliá Don Pepe, other than our traditional maintenance CapEx and upgrading CapEx, there's no other project at this time.
Those are those 3 points on our side.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Andre, bonjour, Ángel Luis, speaking. On the dividends, as you know, this is something that, you know, the board of directors proposed to the general shareholder meeting, and I think it will be March when, you know, the directors of a company will take a decision. As you know, we went back to dividends two years ago, and we started with a payout dividend of 17.5%. Last year, we increased to 22.5%. You know very shortly we'll have the clue, of, you know, the dividend policy. We want to absolutely preserve the financial discipline, but we understand that, you know, the shareholders need to be, and the dividend policies need to be consistent.
We'll confirm very shortly.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Yeah, Andre?
Yeah, perfect.
Merci.
The last question that we have for the moment is from Iván San Félix from Renta 4. hola, Iván.
Hi. Good morning to everyone, thank you for taking my questions. Most of them already been answered, maybe if you could give us an update on the new development that you've been carrying out in the last few quarters, mainly Albania, Malta, Saudi Arabia, how they're going. A financial question. After the EUR 800 million syndicate refinancing, should we expect the cost of debt to be lower than that of 2025, the 4.2%? Thank you very much.
Iván, good morning. This is Andre. In terms of development, I think positive overall. On one hand, we continue to grow and consolidate our footprint in Albania, Montenegro, and Croatia with different opportunities. Malta, as you know, we keep opening properties after the success of the ME Malta, and we have several properties on the way. We've announced in Saudi Arabia an important project of three hotels in Qiddiya, the first one under construction. We have a few opportunities in Riyadh that we will announce very soon, and we have something else coming in Jeddah.
I do have to say that the reopening or the opening of Paradisus Bali in Southeast Asia has been very positive. We would perceive that there will be a growth on the Paradisus brand, both in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. We continue the footprint in Vietnam, very strong. We have a few more opportunities both in Indonesia and Thailand. We feel that overall, Southeast Asia and Middle East will continue to grow. We are chasing several opportunities in the south of Italy, Greece, and Portugal. That footprint on the Mediterranean will continue to grow. I'm sure that we will announce very soon, two or three projects more in the overall Emirates as well. I don't know if that answers your question, Iván.
If I may add, André, I just want to mention, Iván, that most of the openings that took place last year, the 29, and the 30 that will take place at least this year, are taking place in where we believe we have competitive advantage. This is mainly the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia, and this is where you should expect to see the new openings, and in the areas where we believe we have critical mass in order to maximize the profitability and the margins of the fees generated. There are some strategic new places that, in my opinion, are the ones that we should focus as well and are mainly the Middle East and as well places like Maldives, Seychelles, et cetera.
This will be the only exceptions, but most of the openings and can be applied as well for the new the pipeline. The new signings will take place mainly in the Mediterranean, in Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.
Hello, Iván. Ángel speaking. On the new facility. Look, the main goal of this facility was to really improve the maturities profile of the company. Some of you had already started asking questions about that, even if we were not concerned. Again, you know, we listen to the market, we hear you, and we thought it was there was momentum to approach our lenders, which we did in September. You know, the result is you can compare now the maturity profile of the company. Moreover, as you know, this kind of syndication normally are more expensive than, you know, bilateral loans.
Because we approached the lenders in September, I have to thank them, for, you know, their understanding, we've managed to reduce the spread of the 19 facilities that we had canceled with the process of this new syndication. We've reduced by 20 basic points, the average spread, and we fixed half of this at a very good rate last Tuesday, where, you know, we took advantage of the rates coming down, and we closed the fix and the swap at 2.32%. There has not been underwriting commission, there has not been market flash. The kind of costs that are normally affecting these kind of structures and loans, we haven't suffered.
Again, the main goal was to, you know, to stabilize our debt, to have a clear and, you know, not to be concerned of the, of the maturities profile until, you know, four years from now. Ivan, it's okay?
Oh, sure. Excellent comments. Thank you very much, Andre, Gabriel, and Ángel Luis.
Okay. There is no more questions. Thank you once again for joining us today and for your continued interest in Meliá Hotels International. Please do not hesitate to contact our investor relation department for any further question you might have. Thank you, have a beautiful and good day. Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.