Hello all, and a warm welcome to the IHG first quarter trading update to 31st of March 2022 . My name is Lydia and I'm your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question at the end of the prepared remarks, you may do so by pressing star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. It's my pleasure to now hand you over to our host, Stuart Ford. Please go ahead when you're ready.
Many thanks, Lydia. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to IHG's conference call for the first quarter of 2022. I'm Stuart Ford, Head of Investor Relations at IHG. I'm joined this morning by Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, our Chief Financial Officer and Group Head of Strategy. Just to remind listeners on the call that in discussions today, the company may make certain forward-looking statements as defined under U.S. law. Please refer to this morning's announcement and the company's SEC filings for factors that could lead actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by any such forward-looking statements. For research analysts and institutional investors who are listening via our website, may I remind you that in order to ask questions, you will need to dial in using the details on page two of the RNS release.
The release, together with the usual supplementary data pack, can be downloaded from the Results and Presentations section under the Investors tab on ihgplc.com. I will now hand the call over to Paul.
Thanks, Stuart, and good morning, everyone. I will start, as usual, with a review of our trading performance. You will have seen that we're still providing monthly RevPAR data in our release, as well as giving you both the year-on-year movements and the performance relative to 2019. RevPAR has continued to recover and gained momentum through the quarter. On a group-wide basis, RevPAR was up 61% on last year. Relative to 2019, RevPAR was down 17.7% for the quarter as a whole, broadly similar to quarter four, which was down 17.1%. This was despite January experiencing particularly challenging trading conditions due to the impact of the Omicron variant, resulting in RevPAR that month being down 24%. Trading improved to down 18% in February and to a deficit of just 12% in March.
Average daily rate was up 27% on 2021. This meant it was almost flat against 2019 levels, while occupancy was down 11 percentage points. Global occupancy was 52% for the quarter as a whole, and by March it had risen to nearly 60%. Clearly, it's been another period of differing trading conditions by region, but the strong demand we've seen in markets that have fully reopened means we remain confident of a full recovery. We've seen particularly strong leisure demand and the increasing return of business and group travel. With the pace of demand, together with the strength of our brands, we have experienced strong pricing power. Looking now in more detail at our regional performance. For the Americas, RevPAR was down 8% versus 2019, and by just under 6% in the U.S.
RevPAR sequentially improved in the U.S. through the quarter, from down 12% in January to down 6% in February, and a deficit of only 1.5% in March. ADR across the U.S. business was up 4% in March, with leisure rates up more than 10%. Events, conventions, and conferences showed very encouraging improvement. Leisure performance was further boosted by a strong spring break vacation period. This contributed to leisure rooms revenue for the quarter being 10% higher than 2019. With what's on the books, we can see in the coming quarters that both leisure room demand and rate are anticipated to exceed 2019 levels. This gives continued reassurance on our pricing power, which we expect will only strengthen with further rebuilding in corporate and group activity. Demand in major urban markets has been recovering in recent months.
In January, the top 25 U.S. markets were 24 percentage points behind the rest of the country in RevPAR versus 2019. By March, that gap had narrowed to only 14 percentage points, with the top 25 markets down 10% and the rest of the country up 4%. There remains a wide disparity in the pace of recovery of these major urban markets. In March, San Francisco was still down approximately 50% versus 2019, while New York and Boston saw significant improvements to be only 20% lower than pre-COVID. A number of more leisure-orientated urban markets, such as Miami and San Diego, exceeded 2019 levels. Moving on now to our Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa region, where RevPAR was down 32% relative to 2019. In the U.K., RevPAR was down 15%.
Similar to the U.S., non-urban and leisure properties were key performance drivers, though London has also seen strong recovery in recent months. Continental Europe was 45% down, with the slower recovery owing to lockdown restrictions remaining in place for longer in several markets. RevPAR performance in Australia was 38% lower than 2019 for the quarter as a whole. However, the resumption of international flights at the end of February, shortly followed by the full reopening of Australia's internal borders, meant that recovery accelerated towards the end of the quarter. Performance in the Middle East was strong, with RevPAR for the quarter at only a 7% deficit to 2019. Within this, the UAE was 2% up, driven by the final months of the Expo 2020 Dubai event in Dubai.
Recovery in Saudi Arabia continued as holy site capacities were further increased, resulting in March RevPAR being up by more than 12%. Finally, moving to Greater China, where COVID restrictions have resulted in a challenging trading environment. RevPAR across the region was down 42% against 2019. Strict lockdowns affected demand across a number of Tier One and Tier Two cities. With these feeder markets effectively shut down, occupancy in Tier Three, Tier Four, and resort locations was also impacted. Within Tier One, Shenzhen was impacted most severely from COVID restrictions during the quarter, with RevPAR down 77%. Guangzhou, in close proximity, was down 49%. Tightening of restrictions in Shanghai did not take full effect until March. However, RevPAR was still down 40% for the quarter.
These restrictions have been in higher RevPAR locations, and with around a third of the estate temporarily closed or repurposed for quarantining, there was a 17% ADR reduction. We don't know the future extent or length of restrictions, but what we saw on each occasion in 2021 is whenever restrictions are relaxed, demand sharply returns thereafter. Turning now to net system size. Over 6,500 rooms were opened in the quarter. 2,000 rooms were removed, equivalent to less than a quarter of a percent of our system, resulting in net system size growth of 0.5% year-to-date. Our net system size increased to 885,000 rooms and our hotel count to over 6,000.
Annualized net system growth for the first three quarters of the year will be impacted by the effect of the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza review, which was completed by the end of last year. When adjusting for the abnormally high number of removals is required, net growth was 3.4%. Before adjustment, year-on-year growth was 0.1%. The need for this adjustment will of course roll off by the end of this year. We signed more than 16,500 rooms into our pipeline in the quarter, 15% higher than in the equivalent quarters in 2021 and 2020. The pipeline increased 2.4% from the start of the year to a total of 278,000 rooms. The strategy we've been following for stimulating growth is evident in the signings performance.
Signings for our luxury and lifestyle brands represented 20% of total signings in the quarter, compared to their 12% weighting in the system today. Following the completion of last year's quality review, we've seen the level of signings across the Holiday Inn brand family and Crowne Plaza increase by 22% on the same quarter last year. On a regional basis in the Americas, we saw the strongest Q1 signings performance since 2018, with almost 8,000 rooms added to the pipeline. There was good breadth to the signings. For example, we signed 3 Kimptons in the quarter, on top of the 4 signed across the whole of 2021, and a further 8 Avid were signed in the quarter, taking its combined open and pipeline distribution to 213 hotels.
In EMEA, there continues to be strong traction for our premium and luxury and lifestyle brands. There were 4 InterContinental signings, including a resort destination in Cyprus and a debut voco signing in Japan. We continue to see strong owner interest in conversion opportunities, with almost half of the rooms signed coming from conversions. In Greater China, 32 new hotels were signed in the quarter, despite the challenges of COVID restrictions. The momentum behind Holiday Inn Express saw 10 new signings in the quarter, while our Crowne Plaza brand continues to demonstrate its attractiveness, with 12 signings across the region. Finally, a note on the very recent financing of our revolving credit facility. In April, we refinanced our previous $1.35 billion bank facilities with a new 5-year RCF of the same value and with pricing reset to pre-pandemic levels.
As we were already battered in our original covenant requirements, all the prior COVID-related amendments have been removed. To summarize the first quarter, at a very positive start to the year, driven in particular by strong trading in the US as well as improvements in EMEA, with forward booking data suggesting the momentum will continue. Net system size growth was 3.4% year-on-year on an adjusted basis. The pace of signings, driven by the particularly strong performance in the Americas, led to an increase in our pipeline. We're making good progress on reversing to prior levels of net system size growth, and with a growing pipeline, we are well-placed for sustainable, industry-leading growth. While trading volatility remains in certain COVID-impacted markets, the strong demand and pricing power in the rest of the business gives us confidence of a full recovery.
Just before opening up the call for questions, I'd like to say a few words about Ukraine and Russia. The devastating scenes of the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis are deeply saddening, and all those impacted are in our thoughts. We continue to support our hotel teams and colleagues, as well as charities providing aid on the ground and working with owners in other countries to help accommodate Ukrainian refugees. In March, we announced that we closed our Moscow office and we are supporting colleagues working remotely. Future investments, development activity, and new hotel openings in Russia have been suspended, and any profit will be donated to support relief efforts. Last month, we made a further announcement that we continue to evaluate the complex long-term management or franchise agreements that our IHG-branded hotels operate under in Russia with independent third-party companies.
We are in discussions with owners. This is a complicated process and will take some time. With that, I'll now pass back to Lydia to open up the call for questions.
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad now. To withdraw your question, it's star followed by two, and when preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from Bilal Aziz of UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Three for me, please. Firstly, just on the pace of room openings for the remainder of the year, I appreciate that Q1 is seasonally quite low, but pre-pandemic, you usually added somewhere between 8,000-12,000 rooms, so you're tracking just a bit behind that. While clearly targeting a higher mix number at the end. Perhaps you could talk us through the accelerations or the risks around China, in that. Number two, just on the U.S. signings, please, you know, clearly quite a good signings number now above 2019 levels. Paul, I think you mentioned previously that franchise applications were picking up. Just was wondering if you've seen any change in that dynamic as financing and construction costs continue to rise.
Very finally, just in EMEA, and I appreciate you don't give April figures, but if perhaps you could qualitatively just give us some insight into the pace of recovery, so far, given some of the data is particularly encouraging on that side. Thank you.
Thanks, Bilal. In terms of room openings and when they're going to materialize through the year, if you look back on pre-COVID, we always thought that the fourth quarter, the first quarter was the smallest proportion. You go back to 2018 then, actually only 14% of our openings for the year occurred in the first quarter. I think we're gonna see that sort of shape through the year. In China, and you referenced that, I mean, we opened 5 hotels. We have a further 8 that are ready to open, but we have to get the licenses in place. If the offices of the licensing agencies are closed, we can't get those documents officially chopped, and we can't open the hotel without that.
There is some pent-up demand which will come through in the balance of the year as China reopens. There's a lot of demand still there for our hotels, and we're very pleased with the signings performance that we saw there. In terms of U.S. signings, yes, we were pleased with the pickup there. 5 sequential quarters of improvement, and this is the best signings we've seen since 2018. Continue to see a lot of interest from our owners. They want to own our brands. They know that they make a lot of money from them. There are challenges of course.
As there have been for a while, there's challenges in getting construction crews, there's challenges in getting materials, there's challenges in getting financing, but that's the benefit for us of working with a very large entrepreneurial owner base of owners, who overcome those challenges. That's what they do. A lot of interest, a lot of demand continues. Yes, in terms of April data, really both in the U.S. and in Europe, strengthened a lot in Europe, and you picked that one out particularly, but also in the U.S. Building up to what I think will be a good second quarter, very strong summer of demand, with you know, good pricing, and then to the balance of the year.
You know, what we've got on the books, although we're a relatively short booking window, so we don't have a lot on the books, but what we have on the books is very encouraging.
That's very clear. Thank you.
The next question in the queue comes from Jamie Rollo of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Thanks. Morning, everyone. Three questions, please. First, just on the first quarter U.S. RevPAR performance of down 6%, the market was a bit better at down 3%. Was that just the chain scale mix with less luxury exposure, or are your brands also underperforming their relative segments in the U.S.? Secondly, on Russia, could you just quantify. I think we know the room numbers, but maybe just remind us, but in terms of the percent of your fees in 2019, does it? Is it overall under indexing versus the sort of 1% of group rooms? Just sort of picking up on the U.S. signings figures. The pipelines at avid is down again, I think of more terminations than signings.
What's happening on the avid brand in particular, please? Thank you.
Thanks, Jamie. Yes, in terms of first quarter, U.S., pleased with the performance that we've seen and, you know, you've always got to, as you know, take out the geographical mix and also how far we'd recovered before. When I looked at the head-to-heads, for us against our major competitors, and actually the brands are doing very well against the relative brands that we compete against with Hilton and Marriott, and really that's what I focus on most, so seeing very encouraging performance there. In terms of Russia, it's a relatively small part of our business, as you said, Jamie, and the fees are relatively small there. You're not gonna see anything really coming through in the numbers.
We have said that any profit that we did make in the region would be donated to humanitarian causes. I don't think you're ever really going to see that coming through as a drag on earnings, if you like. U.S. signings, yes, U.S. signings up, pleasingly, and across open and pipeline Avids, I think we're up to around 218 or so more than 50 open Avids and a strong pipeline. You'll remember that when we launched the brand, we launched with a very large pipeline, and we gave owners of our existing product opportunities to take down various sites. They had the opportunity, that first mover advantage.
Where they haven't then started construction, so we're confident that they will get a hotel open on the sites that they've taken down, then effectively we'll take that back, and we'll resell it on somebody else, 'cause we don't want to end up with a, you know, a pipeline that doesn't get opened. There's a lot of demand out there, so we're just effectively refreshing those sites, and then we'll sell it on to someone else. We're very pleased with the progress we're seeing with avid.
Thanks. If I could just follow up on one of the previous questions, just on the obviously very good Europe rebound in the last sort of 4-6 weeks, I'm trying to move the other way. Is it fair to say that April for the group is running sort of down in the high single digits? Several hundred basis points improvement for March is down 12%, but you're sort of not yet positive. Is that fair estimate?
I think that's about right, Jamie. Yeah, absolutely. You know, obviously, if we didn't have the China drag, it'd be looking, you know, significantly better. I mean, Americas was almost at parity in March, and then it's, you know, strengthened quite considerably in April. You know, until we have China normalized, then, you know, you're not gonna see the full strength of that come through in the reported numbers.
Great. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Jamie.
Next in the queue, we have a question from Vicki Stern of Barclays. Your line is open.
Good morning. Just firstly, sort of piecing together some of the comments you've made on the openings, acknowledging the construction point in the U.S. and some of those delays in China. Just if you could reflect on your overall level of confidence as you sit here today in achieving that 4% net system growth by the end of the year. Secondly, just on the balance sheet, I think back at the time of the full year results, you were suggesting you'd feel quite comfortable in the upper part of that 2.5-3 times leverage range this year. Obviously, a lot's happened in the last few months.
Just as you think, as we all think about the next sort of phase of that cash return process, if you could just sort of reflect on where you're feeling your comfort level around that leverage today. Just finally on the business travel, obviously the recovery on business travel is lagging leisure. If you could just break out within that sort of forward-looking piece, any sense on what you're seeing on the business travel recovery around the world? Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks, Vicky. Yeah, I mean, we said obviously back at our prelims that our ambition and our expectation was that 2022 and 2023 would feel a lot more like 2018 and 2019. We are targeting getting to a 4% net growth number for this year. I did say at the time, it's not a walk in the park to do that. That doesn't just materialize. We have to push the business to get there, but that continued to be what we're pushing the business to achieve. There's some things that help. The US being strong, a lot of conversion signings in EMEA, those all help.
There's some headwinds with China being particularly difficult at the moment, just you know, the physical logistics of getting materials to our hotels, so that they can stock the hotels, so they can be opened and getting things like licenses. We have to see how the balance of those risks and opportunities materializes through the year. It continues to be our objective and our target to get to that 4%. In terms of the balance sheet, yes, no real change.
I mean, I've said it for a long time, you know, best part of 20 years we've been talking about what was 2-2.5, and then with the change in accounting, bringing on leases, you know, 2.5-3, and in a low interest rate environment, then still happy to be at the top end of that. We've seen the resilience of the business, the very strong cash generative nature of our model. There's nothing that would make me at the moment back away from that intention.
Obviously we declared the dividend at prelims, which I think demonstrates as well as our track record over last couple of decades, you know, how we feel about returning cash to shareholders, but nothing further to say on that today. In terms of business travel versus leisure, business travel is definitely picking up. You know, what's encouraging is it's picking up at a good rate. It does differ a little by market around the world. You know, as I commented on some of the Eastern seaboard cities seeing a lot stronger demand than some of the West Coast cities. London's strong. I'm currently in the InterContinental Park Lane, and it's had its strongest April since pre-pandemic.
2019, April was very, very strong here for groups and meetings, and we've exceeded that. That's very encouraging to see. I'm not saying that that's, you know, bellwether for all of our hotels, but it's definitely recovering rapidly.
Sorry, just to follow on from that. Are you seeing the same trends on price when it's about that business travel recovery coming through as you've been seeing on leisure?
We are still behind in terms of business on rate, but it's only marginally behind. As that continues to build, then I think we'll get back to parity on price. Similarly with group, I mean, group is recovering and the pricing has stayed, you know, within a few percentage points of where we were pre-pandemic. You haven't got that requirement to build back up the pricing because it's been held, which is actually very positive.
Great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Vicky.
The next question comes from Richard Clarke of Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Three if I may. Your U.S. peers, Hilton and Marriott have given some slightly cautious guidance beyond April, that basically April's kind of as good as it gets, relative to the 2019 position. I'm just wondering, I know you're not gonna give us any specific guidance, but in terms of direction of travel, do you still see drivers of momentum in the US business, beyond this month? Then the second question, just on China, just a sense of, you know, what you're seeing on the grounds, in China. Are things getting incrementally worse? You know, are you seeing more lockdowns, more hotels being closed, or are things beginning to ease?
Any particular challenges of having your head office in Shanghai, that's causing you kind of operationally in China there? Then the third question, just on extended stay, because it seems the biggest move in the U.S. pipeline for me is Candlewood Suites. It looks like there's about 1,000 more rooms in Candlewood Suites. It's not a brand you talk about very much. It only exists in the U.S. Just maybe talk about the demand for that brand. Is it fitting into the zeitgeist of, you know, people wanting to work from anywhere, or is it an infrastructure play? Maybe just what's driving that what looks like a good performance there.
Thanks, Richard. Yeah, so is April as good as it gets in the U.S.? I think, well, we still have very short booking windows, so it's always hard to call. My view is we're gonna see a very strong summer of demand, for all the reasons I've talked about before. You know, strong rate across each of our segments, demand still building and as more demand comes back to business and for group on top of very strong leisure, then that does all too well for continued very strong recovery. I guess no certainty, but I don't think April is as good as it gets, personally. China has been challenging, and we've seen that come through in the numbers.
I think what's important to note is that our experiences in the last 24 months or so show that China demand does come back very rapidly, as it has elsewhere in the world, once restrictions are lifted. It has been very difficult for the citizens of Shanghai. I think we've all seen that in the global news. You know, our colleagues in Shanghai are of course impacted similarly to all other Shanghai residents. They're, you know, very resilient and very focused on continuing to drive our business. If you look at the very strong levels of signings that we saw in China in the first quarter, despite the challenges, I think that just shows just how committed they are. You know, very strong team out there.
In terms of extended stay and Candlewood Suites, Candlewood Suites is a fabulous brand. It's got very high customer satisfaction scores. Owners of course like extended stay product because it has very high margins, relatively small personnel on site, and the return on capital employed is very good. You know, extended stay as a category has seen a lot of increased owner demand. Really pleased with that. With Staybridge Suites and indeed with Atwell Suites, our new launch, which we've got a number of really good signings for. We've got our first one opening in Miami and our next one opening up in Denver. Really good locations for that new brand.
Three good offerings in that segment, which will drive a lot of growth for us over the coming quarters and years.
Okay.
Thanks.
Thanks very much.
Thanks.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, it's star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from Jaafar Mestari of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, everyone. Three hopefully quick ones for me, please. Firstly, just on what's on the books for beyond summer. I appreciate it is going to be very, very small for everyone. For example, Premier Inn was explicitly saying we're normally 15% booked for our Q4 at this stage, and this year we're only 10%, you know, disclosed. Did you have any numbers like that for us? It would just be helpful, even if it's small sample. Then on the U.S. segments, you've talked about the segments that may be holding you back a little bit. You're less exposed to leisure, less exposed to resorts, less exposed to luxury compared to the market, et cetera. There would be of course obvious mix of reasons.
What about any positive mix factors that could kick in? In particular, I'm thinking about your exposure to oil-producing states. You overweight those, and historically you've been able to outperform the market in periods where drilling extraction activity picks up, etc. Are you seeing any advanced signs of that given the energy situation worldwide? Then just lastly, on net room openings, I think consensus for this year is 4.3%. Marriott says 3.5%-4%. Hilton says 5%. I guess you are going to be industry leading this year. Without asking you to comment on competitors too precisely, what do you make of the momentum slowing in some of those very, very hot competitor brands that were routinely doing 6% or 7% pre-COVID?
Is that a lag versus consensus because their categories are recovering more slowly, or is there anything structural where you're winning competitive worked in 2019 and won't work in 2022, 2023 at those rates?
Great. Thanks, Jaafar. The nature of our business means that we don't have a lot, as you said, that is on the books multiple months out. What we do see is encouraging in terms of the rate that we're able to get. Groups that are getting booked up, you know, at strong rates. You know, I wouldn't call out any particular numbers. Obviously, primarily we're in the U.K. business. We're more predominantly a global business, more predominantly U.S. Just different factors at play there. What we do have on the books and what visibility we have as we look forward gives us encouragement on rate and an increasing demand environment.
In terms of U.S. segments, yes, as you say, leisure's been very strong and we've seen recovery in the other segments, so business and group. We are weighted into the Permian Basin, as you say, an oil-producing area, and that has stimulated demand. There's a lot of factors at play there that mean that. Perhaps you know, before, if you're looking back in 2017, 2018, and you're looking at a few basis points of difference, you might be able to isolate it to say, "Well, it's these hotels in the Permian Basin that's driving it." You've now got such large increases year-on-year, it is harder to go back and say, "Well, it's exactly these hotels," because you've seen such volatility.
In terms of the net growth and the competitive basis, I mean, we are obviously focused on our own growth and pushing our own capabilities. If you think back to 2019, when we actually had the highest growth level in the industry, we had more removals than our top competitors, but that still gave us that very competitive performance overall, which if we hadn't had a higher level of removals would've beaten our competitors. That's what we aspire to, and that's what, you know, everything in the strategy over the last few years has been building to make sure that we can be industry-leading and it remains the top priority for us.
Thank you. Just to clarify on oil and gas, you did say it has already. Difficulty to anticipate has been stimulating demand a little bit.
Yeah. I mean, there have been strong markets and actually going back into the hotels in those areas, people coming back to restart rigs, et cetera. That has been an element of stimulus. Because you've seen so many other stimuluses coming into those hotels as well, and because you've seen such big swings, it's very difficult to isolate exactly what the impact's been.
Thank you. Thanks.
Thanks, Jaafar.
We have a question from Alex Brignall of Redburn. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning. Thanks very much for taking the question. Just one, please. It's really just a sort of higher-level question about what's driving demand and sort of how permanent it is. I guess there's a lot of people, the debate is saying is now. I guess a little bit like the April comment, is now as good as it gets. We're seeing a sort of release of massive pent-up demand and that might then fade. To the extent that you have visibility on that or just an opinion would be interesting. What do you think is kind of going on there? Because obviously things are very strong at the moment, but broader macro situation, you know, there's a bit of pressure. Any thoughts there would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks, Alex. Yeah, without going back, I guess, over my previous comments on it, with the visibility that we do have and also, you know, backed and correlated by the data, say, from the airlines, on their forward bookings and rate and, you know, on how much demand there is, you know, we remain very positive about summer and believe that there's still a lot of consumer demand for our brands and that there's still price to go for, you know, significant amounts of pricing power. We're expecting a good Q2 and a good Q3 and a good Q4. It remains a very good industry and a very good environment for us to be operating in.
Great. Maybe expand on that, just beyond summer and the rest of the year, I guess if you talk to the businesses that you have as major clients or, kind of, some of the group business, do you get a sense that 2022 is gonna be a particularly good year and then it might be tougher afterwards, or do you get a sense of just sort of more follow through?
Well, there's nothing that is coming through from any conversations with corporate clients that would suggest that. You know, we're seeing meetings and events coming back strongly. You know, we're having our owner conference in a few weeks, which is 6,000 owners getting together in Las Vegas, and very significant delegate uptake for that. There's a lot of things that have been postponed that are coming back. You know, the business does require people getting together. That's what stimulates additional sales and things getting done. Everybody is on a growth trajectory, so they want to meet to stimulate that growth. You know, I think we return to what we saw pre-pandemic.
Brilliant. Thanks so much.
Thanks, Alex.
As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, it's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. We have no further questions in the queue, so I'll hand the call back to Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson for closing remarks.
Thanks, Lydia. Thanks, everybody, for joining us this morning. Good to talk to you all. Just to let you know that our second quarter update and the financial results for the first half of the year overall will be out on Tuesday the 9th of August. Look forward to speaking to you all then, if not before. Have a great day, everyone. Bye for now.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.