Hello, and welcome to the SkiStar audiocast for teleconference Q3 2022. For the first part of this call all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question and answer session. Today, I'm pleased to present CEO Stefan Sjöstrand. Please begin the meeting.
Well, Thank you, and welcome all of you to this SkiStar Q3 presentation. We're very thrilled to present our numbers, but let's start to go through the agenda. Next page, please. Here we will have a short introduction. My colleague here, Anders, our CFO, he will present the Q3 summary. I will continue to talk about some outlook, and then we will continue with some Q&As from you guys. Please take the next slide w e take the next slide again. Very short or very briefly around SkiStar i mean, the company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap and been listed since 1994.
We have net sales around SEK 4 billion, and we are very pleased to have eight out of 10 satisfied guests this winter season we have behind us. We're even more pleased to have nine out of 10 our employees who is very satisfied to work at SkiStar. We have also a lot of visits on our webpage skistar.com with 32 million visits. We have also more than 1.5 million members within our member club s o by that i would like you to take the next slide. Very briefly, we are running six destinations in Scandinavia five of them are the five largest resorts in Scandinavia with the highest number of visits, where Sälen is the largest one and also one of the largest resorts in the world actually.
Please take the next slide. Very brief about our history i just mentioned that in 1994 the company was listed at the Nasdaq Stockholm stock market s ince then we have had some acquisitions t he last two years ago we launched our summer concept, which we are very pleased to continue to invest in. Please take the next slide. The next again as well. As many companies, we had a very challenging start of our winter season o f the pictures you can see myself needed to jump into the operations and support our guests in the lift. That was due to the COVID restrictions we started off this winter season with. It was very turbulent.
At a certain time actually week six we had more than 800 of our coworkers in quarantines due to the restrictions in Scandinavia, which of course was extremely tough. I'm extremely proud of my team who actually managed to not close the lifts any single day during this winter season due to all this w e actually kept open and also kept a lot of our guests satisfied. Please take next page. Here I would like to give some highlights of this winter season and also summarizing the winter season and our so to say entry into the Q3 report. We delivered more than six million skier days, which is according to ourselves a phenomenal result. This shows that this is actually more than 10% increase of how the previous record was.
We are now delivering these numbers, which means that especially the Swedish destinations show record versus the Norwegian destinations came into a level compared to previous record season. The increase came mainly from the Swedish destinations. When you have so many more skier days we are selling more SkiPass, which is the largest part of our revenues. Compared to last year we increased with 54% which is according to ourselves an amazing result. We also continue to have increases in lodging, in ski rental, in our sports shops, and in our ski school.
Just as a note, we have around hundred thousand people participating in our ski schools the previous year, which is an amazing number and also the largest ski school in the world actually. Very proud. Anders, by that, I would like to ask for next slide and you to take over talking about our numbers o f course, I forgot to talk about our important sustainability result s orry. Our important sustainability result is that we, again, this ski school numbers and also we were extremely satisfied having a lot of kids participating which is good also for this activity and recreation part. We're also very proud of working with different collaborations.
One of the collaborations is together with the Swedish and Norwegian companies for tidying, clean, beautiful environment. Here we actually supported all of us cleaning up at our resorts two weeks ago. Believe it or not, but we managed to collect six tons of litter actually during this. There is a lot of work for all of us to secure clean environment going forward. Very proud having the first resorts in the world having electrified scooters.
We will continue to reduce our footprint in the operations. Very proud of we continue the dialogue and interaction with government and the Minister of trade and Industry which is [Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson], a couple of weeks ago. Also to listen to his comments afterwards was of course very glad that he is recognizing the importance of supporting industries like us in the Swedish mountains. Now we take next slide, and Anders talk about the phenomenal results.
I will thank you, Stefan. Before commenting on the third quarter results we would like to give a background on the financial development. Both we get an understanding of the pandemic hit SkiStar, but also to get a perspective on the profit levels within this year so far. Here you can see a graph that shows historical development of EBIT and EBIT margin, ending with a figure for four-quarter rolling. Main reason behind the profit development are great effects of underlying volume increase and smarter and differentiated pricing of especially ski passes. It's also important to understand that in the previous full year results a substantial part has come from capital gains in the property development division at around SEK 150 million-SEK 190 million per year, up to the 2018-2019 previous all-time high season, that is.
In the fourth quarter rolling figure, the corresponding value is SEK 65 million. Even more impressive. Two financial years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 are of course affected by the pandemic. We can't parry the loss of revenue, but we did maintain a strong profit which has given us peace of mind in a very stressful time at our industry at least. Looking at the four quarter rolling figure at close to SEK 1.2 billion is of course really exciting. The curve has pointed downwards, but we are extremely pleased to see the turnaround already and at this level. It should be noted, however, that in the fourth quarter last year we had a one-time effect at over approximately SEK 150 million linked to two major transactions, sale of St. Johann and the real estate transaction.
Otherwise the figures are completely comparable. Next slide. Moving to page 12 diving into the third quarter and summarizing the winter season. Of course, slightly complicated with growth figures, but you can see that our sales growth is coming across the board in all products and services, as Stefan already mentioned. Of course, previously were affected by COVID-19 especially in Norway, but the sales records stand even against the previous all-time high season, 2018-2019. Four takeaways on the revenue side. On the left side you will find our core business, and there you can see that the volume growth is behind the sales development. Volume i.e. new guests buy all the products and not only the ski pass. Number two, continued strong development of the retail business throughout the first nine months 38% in total.
Similar growth online as in our physical stores. But in addition, we acquired sports shops in Switzerland that add growth to the company. Number three, we have a new hotel and lodge division that's contributing just over SEK 300 million top line first nine months. All the hotels and lodges that we run are located in Norway where we had a tough start with various restrictions such as alcohol bans and that of course affected the restaurants and the hotels in Q1 and Q2. If you look into the property development side income it's not about a slower pace, but more of the timing and structure of the project. We're gonna come back to that in the next slide.
Looking at EBIT in Q3 you can follow the changes in EBIT by segment and the impressive effect of our business model. We operate in a CapEx-heavy industry, but the margin on the last ski pass sold is 100%. In property development, as I commented, we've had higher capital gains, SEK 20 million as a remark from the previous slide, but we are consolidating also a better result from our joint venture. No worries there. Finally, our hotel division has had a slow start, but we are happy to be up and running. We had some profit to make up for when the lifts opened, and you can say that we did. SEK 872 million better than last year. We beat our previous pre-pandemic all-time high with over SEK 300 million with a lot less capital gain.
Moving into page 14 and the cash flow statement. We of course get a very positive effect from the underlying demand and profit from our operations, along with the behavior of the booking earlier and earlier for and paying for its holiday. It's very favorable for SkiStar that our guests prioritize and secure their winter holiday so early. It's unique to our industry i t's also give us both self-confidence and financing for future investments. If we look at the cash flow from investing activities we are currently investing at a higher rate. In previous year, we had two single one-time investment, a little outside the ordinary business that disrupts the comparison figures. As we have commented before, we will increase investments in the future, and you can follow that in our cash flow going forward.
We have also received the final payment for the disposal of our shares in St. Johann EUR 50 million this winter. Moving into page 18 to the financial summary and round things up from my perspective. A very challenging time is behind us as SkiStar is still in a strong financial position and with the cash flow to investment to even further strengthening our offering. It's satisfying that the earnings come from core business. Our property development will continue to be a substantial part of our results and operation, but it's nothing we are dependent on. Our net debt is low, and liquidity forecast is better than ever due to responsible actions in the pandemic and the record figures we report today. Our balance sheet is strong, with an equity ratio of over 60%, excluding IFRS 16.
Of course, a part of seasonal effect when just closing the winter season. Our financial position is, of course, the main explanation for our belief in the future. We will show that we mean by accelerating our investment in core business. Stefan will talk more about that later. As a last comment from my side, we are aware that we live in an uncertain time with concerns about the economy from several perspectives. It's also important that, from an internal perspective, we are well protected with hedges for interest rates and electricity.
But of course, major changes in the household incomes will affect us even though we know that the Scandinavians prioritize their winter vacation highly. Again, also important to note that we have a very big advantage in our early booking pattern. We have already booked 25% of the coming winter season, and we will have all the possibilities to handle different scenarios this autumn. First, an exciting summer, and that and much more you will tell us about, Stefan.
Thank you, Anders, for this numbers update. First, we take page 16, and then we take page 17 and go into our further investments. Please, click so we can see the whole page there. Here, as previously communicated, we are investing record number SEK 555 million. The largest part of that is connected to two new chairlifts in [Åre], where we will modernize our resort there. It's also. The other part is to modernize and put a lot of extra focus on snow capacity.
That is a plan we have now decided in the board to do for the next coming years to continue the investment, especially in snowmaking, as due to also the climate changes we have in the society around us, it's important that we secure this winter within our ski resorts. Gladly, in addition to all these investments, we had the board meeting this week, and where we in the management presented a continuation in our development of the summer season which was highly appreciated by the board. We got an approval of an extra investment of SEK 67 million and that is then related to continue the summer activities at our destination w e are really much looking forward into that. Please take next page.
Also please show all the parts into what we will do in the strong summer season. First of all, we have a very high booking level w e have +9% and that is growth on growth. Last year, we had +80% at this time of the year, and now we're +9% on that. That is a clear trend that the staycation is here to stay. This morning I've had some interviews with media as well, and I have been a little bit I couldn't resist to talk about also the queuing you have in the airports at the moment. You really doesn't need to queue in the airports by visiting us. You can really have a gladly visit in the nature and also being outdoors and have an active holiday.
Lastly but not least, we are really investing in our SkiStar Stockholm, Hammarbybacken, where we will have an opening June 24th, where we'll have year-round activities like climbing parks, a Mountain Coaster, summer ski, et cetera, where we will continue to strengthen the SkiStar brand as well actually to show that the people living in Stockholm, that they can have this as an activity place year-round. Next page, actually, we are going into page 19. As Anders mentioned, a very important part of our growth this year has come from our sports shops. Now we continue to develop that area and not only selling winter equipment, we actually continue to develop the range, and especially the range within our own brand, EQPE.
That means that we have developed a special outdoor collection, which will be highly promoted by two important Swedish persons, Nils van der Poel, Olympic gold medalist in skating, and a very popular person, Charlotte Kalla, who have been working with cross-country skiing for many years. Those two will be part of the product development team. Of course, we have ambassadors like Maria Pietilä Holmner, Hans Olsson, the sisters twins, Kalla. Also in Norway, we have Helene Olafsen, which is one of the most popular Norwegian persons at the moment, also leading a lot of TV shows, et cetera. Those ones will be our spokesperson and also support us for creating more attraction to SkiStar and also mountain tourism.
Here we believe in possible growth going forward as well. Please take next page where we will talk about next winter as we believe that we have a very good booking pattern. We have + 20% if you look into the last normal winter season, and that was 2018- 2019, before the pandemic. We have a very strong outlook if you compare to that. If you look into how it looks compared to last year the winter season 2021- 2022, the one we have just passed, there is negative numbers with 8%. To explain this, I just wanted to highlight this by showing you the weeks. Here you can see the weeks 51- 52 and week one.
When you have this calendar effect, which we have this year, like when Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas comes in a Sunday where we normally have our changing days, we cannot have that as normal. We need to change the whole calendar, and that means that the week who suffer will be week one. That's why we have a lower booking in week one. That is the whole calendar effect is hitting week one. If I take out week one, we have a better booking pattern across the season.
That's why we have this +20%. We are very much looking forward for a strong winter season in front of us. We are very proud of what we have in our books already. Like Anders said, we normally are striving after having 25% booked by midsummer, but already two weeks ago, we had reached those numbers. Yeah, we are in a good position for also for next winter season. By that, I hand over to next slide and also for Q&As.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. We have a question from the line of Karl-Johan Bonnevier from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Congratulations to fantastic execution during the high season. Just to elaborate a little on that and the guest pattern you have had under this season how have you been able to build say, short-term demand when looking at international arrivals? I understand that maybe the big impact is still coming from domestic demand.
Yeah. The large impact is coming actually from Swedes who have traveled, but also a lot of Danes who actually had the opportunity to come back to our resorts after previous season. This year, we had a lot of Danes coming back, you can say.
If you look at the Danish participation during this year compared to say a pre-COVID season, it's the same kind of impact, or is it falling behind or it's coming ahead?
It's you can say it's roughly the same impact. The Danish customer is a very good customer because they are coming to us booking the whole package, you can say, ski school, ski rent, and the ski pass. It's a very good customer for us, the Danish ones in our bookings.
Looking at the 6 million skier days you produced during the high season, you can say the international contribution to that number is basically back to normal.
Maybe a little bit lower if you look at the total international customer definition. Because of course, it started very rough in U.K., for example, where the Brits had problems going to Scandinavia. No big differences actually.
Interesting. If we obviously, as you point out, there's a big question mark about household budgets and similar things going into the coming season. If you look at the opportunities of keeping Norway open during the whole season without any restrictions and say maybe getting back to full U.K. demand and these kind of things that you have seen historically, do you think that could largely compensate for any slowdown, say, in the Swedish component that I guess had been extremely strong during this year?
Yeah. I mean, if we start from the large perspective we have the +20% booking compared to the previous normal season so to say. That means that we see a strong demand still coming to our resorts. In this year when we opened, we opened with restrictions like I started off with, and that meant that also like Anders just said, we didn't have any or very few people coming from U.K. for example w e didn't have so many Swedes in Norway in the beginning p eople were hesitating, even though that you could enter the border without any problems m any were i think a little bit afraid.
We still see that there is great potential for us to run our Norwegian business in a stronger manner than we did in the beginning of the season because it took some weeks before we were up and running. Like I also said, our skier days in Norway were in the comparable level as 2018-2019, versus that Sweden were the ones who took off in a stronger way. We believe that also this the Swedish krona, will continue to have a quite slow situation, so to say.
Based upon all the information we have got from the market, I mean, it's of course we don't know the answers, but if you look at the Swedish krona will continue to have a quite slow situation, so to say. That means that for the Danes, and also for British, where the pound has versus the Swedish krona has become stronger, again, also will give an opportunity for people not coming from Sweden to visit Sweden and also for Swedes not going abroad. I think it is a good effect for us. It was a long answer, KJ.
Yeah, no, but it's good. It's good with extra color. When you look at the potential for getting tour operators back to creating demand for you, so do you have any early discussions for the coming seasons with, say, those in other geographies as well?
Okay, I can give a short answer to that. No early warnings, at least. We have a good agreement in place for next winter season. No warnings there.
Sounds promising. Anders, one detailed question as well. When I look at the right-of-use assets, you had a q uite a high growth in that in the quarter, but you didn't see the similar kind of impact on leasing debt. What is happening there compared to previous quarters?
Yes, you can because as I say, it's our IFRS 16 debt that is increasing, and you get a full year effect of the agreement we made for the hotel division. You can see the certification at page number in our reports. I don't have that in my head now.
Yeah, because when I look at the right-of-use assets, you now surpass about SEK 2 billion, and whereas the financial leasing debt is just short of SEK 1.9 billion, whereas before you used to have, say, a negative delta between the two, and now suddenly you got a positive delta.
That's an effect you're gonna have in time, right? The further the time go, the underlying base will be lower. Of course, you're adding new agreements to the base. I will not make. I think it's very difficult for you to make forecasts by quarter on our financial lease debt.
Okay, I need to drill into that slightly more with you at some stage, I guess.
Sure. You're welcome. Get back to you.
Okay, now I'll go back to the queue. Thank you.
Just as a final reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. There seems to be no further questions, so I'll hand it back to the speakers.
Okay. It doesn't seem that there is more questions. We would like to thank the audience for listening to me and Anders. We hope you come and visit us in the summer at any of our fantastic resorts. Glad Midsummer and happy Friday from Stockholm.
All right.
This concludes the conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.