Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Avolta Half Year Results 2026 conference call and live webcast. I'm Valentina, the call's operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. Webcast viewers may submit their questions or comments in writing via the relative field. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of Avolta. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to this first half 2026 results presentations for Avolta. I'm Xavier Rossinyol, and I'm joined here with our Group CFO, Yves Gerster. I'm going to go straight to page number four, where we have the highlights of this first half of 2026. We have reported an organic growth of 3.7%. If we discount the effect of the Middle East crisis, this organic growth would have been 5.2%. We have reported an EBITDA margin of 9.1%, slightly below last year, but again, if we discount the special effects related to the Middle East crisis and some major ramp-up operations that we had year-to-date, that EBITDA margin would have been 9.5%. Equity free cash flow.
It has been reported CHF 207 million, in line with last year, but a very strong performance on quarter two, where we generated CHF 370 million. We remain very focused on our capital allocation policy, focusing first on growth, organic growth, like the big contracts we signed in Pudong, Shanghai, and the several terminals we won in JFK. Not only that, we are also announcing the last few months, Riga, expansion in Saudi Arabia. We are also doing, as it is in our capital allocation policy, some selective, highly accretive, small and medium-sized acquisitions, like the activities we bought earlier in Okinawa from LVMH. We keep focusing as a second priority on continuous deleveraging, and once more, we have deleveraged versus the same period of last year.
Last but not least, we continue committed to the dividend we announced in the general assembly, and also we continue acquiring shares for the share buyback program, CHF 106 million in June 30 of the CHF 225 million we have announced. We have confirmed this morning in our press release that we are confident on the midterm outlook. This is based on the performance we are seeing in July, where our organic growth is expected to be more than 4%, but also because the major impacts we had, particularly in quarter two, we consider them of temporary nature. The Middle East crisis keeps being volatile, and it gives definitely uncertainty to the industry and the world travel industry. It's also true that in the last few weeks, despite all what is happening, the crisis have less effect than it had at the beginning of the war.
The remaining aspects that are affecting us, the remaining headwinds, are also being progressively less and less. The ramp-up is a very clear example. The ramp-up both of Shanghai and JFK will still take a few months, but every month is getting better, and definitely in 2027. Also, we had some other additional effects, like the bankruptcy of Spirit Airlines in North America. That is also a temporary effect because we are seeing, like in prior crisis, that the slots are being taken by other airlines, but of course it takes a little bit of time. I think the best way to say it is that we remain cautiously optimistic, and we expect progression over the next months and quarters on the positive side.
If we move to the next page, we are showing here that all our four regions are having positive organic growth, but of course, affected in some cases by the headwinds I just mentioned. EMEA is the region most affected by the Middle East crisis, obviously. North America is affected by the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy that I mentioned, and also because airlines in North America are focusing more on yield than capacity, and they are less growth in capacity than initially expected, which affects the number of passengers.
Also experience shows that this is something that happens from time to time, a more focus on the yield, but capacity, because it's related to the underlying passenger demand, will go back at growth level in the next quarters. LATAM has been affected, despite showing a good organic growth, by security concerns in some parts of Mexico, by the hurricane in Jamaica, and also by some fluctuations on the exchange rate, particularly in the southern part of Latin America. Asia-Pacific, despite the effects of the Middle East crisis, is showing a strong organic growth supported by the like-for-like, but also supported by the positive change of scope. All in all, despite the headwinds, a pretty resilient performance. If we move now to the next page, three messages. Despite the volatility, Avolta continues investing confidently in the future.
We won business, duty free, duty paid, and food and beverage in four terminals in JFK, which is one of the airports in North America with the major developments. We have signed a historical win in Shanghai Pudong duty free, the first time an international company, non-Chinese company, has a material business duty free in mainland China. We have also grown on the type of M&A we have explained over and over, medium and small size, clearly accretive and in a very strategic market like Japan. We entered a few months ago with food and beverage in the Kansai Airport and now in Okinawa with the acquisition of the DFS business in Japan. Together with China are two strategic moves, profitable and accretive and focused on return on investment, but at the same time, a strategic move to enter significantly large markets.
The business has been growing also with new businesses and extensions in all the regions. Has been published Riga, has been published expansion in Saudi Arabia, as I just said. One thing that remains the same, it doesn't matter where the progress is done, it's always focused on the return on investment those projects bring to the overall company. We move to the next page, the second idea, we continue to transform. I have mentioned that many times, but I want to reemphasize again the importance of our size in locations, but also in access to data. Of the 10.2 billion air passengers we have every year in the world, we have access and exposure to 2.5 billion. That means a potential reach that puts us at the level of materially big and influential companies, for example, on the social media or the technology world.
We had 700 million customers last year. We have reached, in June 2026, 20 million Club Avolta members. Since launch in October 2024, the number of active members in Club Avolta has been growing month on month without exception. Why we do this focus on data, and why we do this investment on transforming our data and technology capabilities, because we believe that through that, we can improve pricing with dynamic pricing, we can improve assortment, we can go more local because we have the capacity to manage that. We can optimize inventory and working capital, and we can manage better our team members. All that to fuel growth and spend per passenger, to fuel margins, to fuel cash flow conversion, and to fuel return on investment. We move to the next page, the last idea, we continue to deliver.
We have confirmed the outlook once more. Just as a reminder that I do every quarter. This is a midterm outlook. It doesn't mean we are going to be at the outlook every quarter, every month, every week. The midterm, we should be there. That outlook is 5%-7% organic growth, an EBITDA margin expansion of 20- 40 basis points per year, and an increased equity free cash flow also year-over-year. Together with this outlook, we deliver on the capital allocation. I know we repeat it many times, but I think it's important for the people that might be hearing us for the first time. Number one priority is investing in the business. Existing concessions to increase sales. New concessions to support business development. Technology to drive better sales and better margins.
Technology to improve also the efficiency of the company from supply chain to cost. Selective M&A, accretive, small, and with the right return on investment. Priority number two, keep improving our balance sheet, decreasing the level of leverage, which again, today is the lowest it has been for a decade. Every quarter, every year, it keeps decreasing. Our target is to be between 1.5x and 2x , potentially going to 2.5x net debt to EBITDA on a temporary basis if we do some M&A. As a consequence of that, we are committing to straight shareholders' remuneration with a dividend that is a third of our cash flow. Cash flow grows, dividend grows every year. Third year in a row that we have announced an increased dividend. If there is still surplus of cash flow, to invest that in share buyback, straight money returning to shareholders.
We have announced for 2026, the third share buyback in a row. We are approximately half of the share buyback for 2026, as it corresponds to the 12 months share buyback. If you put the total dividend and the total share buyback of the last three years, including 2026, will be about CHF 1 billion of money going back to shareholders. Committing to invest, committing to transform, and committing to deliver both on the outlook and on the capital allocation. Thank you very much. Now I hand over to Yves.
Thank you very much, Xavier, and welcome to everybody. Good afternoon and good morning to everybody on the line also from my side to this year's half year results presentation. Starting directly with the financial highlights on page number 10. Turnover came in at CHF 6.437 billion. That corresponds to a organic growth of 3.7%. As Xavier has already mentioned, we were impacted obviously by the Middle East crisis. Without Middle East impact, the organic growth would have been 5.2%. Core EBITDA came in at CHF 583 million, corresponding to a EBITDA margin of 9.1%. Also here, this has been impacted by the Middle East, and also the ramp-up of some of the very large operations, including Pudong and also JFK, which is a large project.
Net of those effects, net of the Middle East impact and net of the ramp-up of those two operations, EBITDA would have been 9.5%. Equity free cash flow came in at CHF 207 million, slightly short of CHF 216 million of last year, but a significant improvement versus Q1. As we have mentioned during Q1, and as you probably remember, there was a gap of CHF 60 million predominantly created by the Pudong ramp-up and the corresponding net working capital investments in the business. We have closed that gap to a large extent during Q2 and have generated a record cash flow of CHF 370 million in the second quarter this year. Leverage has been reduced further by around 0.1 turn and now stands at 2.07x . We have achieved that leverage disregarding the significant portion of treasury shares we bought for the share buyback in this year.
Moving on to the next slide number 11, with the growth contributors. I've already mentioned the 3.7% organic growth and the 5.2% net of the Middle East impact and Pudong and JFK ramp-up. On top of that, for the half year, we had a negative impact from M&A and others. As we have mentioned over the last couple of quarters, this is related to a contract we sold in EMEA. This has annualized now. We are about to close the business and the acquisition of Okinawa, which we bought from LVMH, and that will turn this line positive in the second quarter, once we have closed the transaction. And as I've mentioned, this is expected imminent. Growth at constant exchange came in at 3.1% for the half year.
We had a negative FX effect for the half year of 5.7%, but an easing in the second quarter, where we only see -3.1%. We do expect for the full year to see a FX result of -3.5%, assuming that the FX rates remain roughly stable on the level they currently are. If you're quickly looking at the contribution per region, EMEA came in at 1.9%, obviously affected the most by the Middle East crisis. Net of that, the organic growth of EMEA would have been 4.6%. Looking at the other regions, they all contributed nicely to the growth, the organic growth across the board. Moving on to the next slide number 12, with the detailed P&L. I will not go again into the turnover growth, but if you look at gross profit margin, we observe a slight decrease by 20 basis points versus last year.
That's on one hand side, mix effects and also the effect from the ramp-up of Pudong. Additionally, on concession expenses and personal expenses, we do see a slight increase as a percentage of turnover versus last year. Also here, we see ramp-up effects on one hand side and the mix effect due to the strong growth we observe in APAC versus other region and the relatively muted growth due to the Middle East crisis in EMEA. EBITDA came in at 9.1%. We have already commented on that. Net of the Middle East effect and the ramp-up, it would have been 9.5%. Below EBITDA, the P&L is actually quite uneventful and aligned with expectations in regard to depreciation and amortization and all the other lines. Financial results were slightly positively impacted by some positive FX results. Moving on to the next slide with the cash flow statement.
Core EBITDA year-on-year came in CHF 29 million lighter. Equity free cash flow, we have actually catched up most of that effect only having -CHF 9 million gap versus last year. Obviously, we spent a little bit less on CapEx, so that certainly helped. It's important to note here that this is not an active measures we have taken. It's a few timing shifts, including the ramp-up in JFK we have discussed earlier. There will be a catch-up effect in that regard. On the other hand, we have spent some additional income tax paid this year, which is balancing to a certain extent the negative CapEx impact. Otherwise, below the equity free cash flow line, we see a strong purchase of treasury shares of CHF 160 million, on one hand side for the share buyback program and also for the long-term incentive plan.
Additionally, we have seen a negative FX impact from the translation of the net debt into Swiss francs, resulting in a negative evolution year-on-year. Moving on to the next slide with the net debt and leverage. As you can see on top, we have already reduced once more the leverage by around 0.1 turn from 2.15x- 2.07x, roughly 0.1 turn reduction year-on-year, disregarding the share buyback progress and the higher dividend we have paid. On top of that, if we look at the maturity profile at the bottom left, still a very balanced picture. We have one maturity coming up in 2027. It was originally a EUR 750 million bond.
We have already refinanced EUR 400 million earlier this year, the remaining part here represented as CHF 366 million or EUR 350 million, is expected to come later in the year, which will also be refinanced. You can expect to hear again from us in due course in that regard. Otherwise, the balance sheet remains very balanced in regard to maturity, in regard to currencies, in regard to fixed floating debt. Having said that, let me quickly conclude with how I see the half year result. Overall, a good result, obviously impacted by Middle East. We can obviously not deny that. That's something which happens and which is external factors only partially are not in our hand. On the other hand, very solid, very resilient performance thanks to our diversified platform. Let me repeat what Xavi mentioned in his opening remark.
For the next couple of months and into second half of 2026, we remain cautiously optimistic about the future trajectory. Having said that, I hand over back to Xavi.
Thank you, Yves. Just to echo what Yves just said, cautiously optimistic on the short term, to add a little bit, more optimistic on the mid and long term. With that, we can open the Q&A session. Thank you very much for your attention.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast while asking a question. Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relative field. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from Manjari Dhar from RBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Kathleen, Xavi, Yves, thank you for taking my questions. I just had two, if I may. The first question is on the new contract ramp-ups. I just wondered if you could give a little bit more color on sort of where we've got to on Pudong and JFK now, and how we should expect those to impact the margin in the second half. Secondly, on cash flow, I just wondered if you could give us some color on how you're thinking about equity free cash flow phasing and development for the second half. Maybe just some color on whether we should expect CapEx to pick up given slightly lower CapEx as a percentage of sales in H1. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I will take the first one. Look, what happens in those two locations, and typically the ramp-up projects or the ramp-up effects you always have, but they are typically not seen in the country related figures because they are a smaller effects. These are two very large new concessions, and the ramp-up comes from spaces from the airport that have not been delivered on time, construction works, the hiring of people, fully understanding the flow, providing for the working capital, in some cases, having the supply chain like in China that for duty-free is completely new for us. What typically you will see effects of a few weeks or three months, now you're seeing two very large A group of concessions, and that takes a few months instead of a few weeks.
Every month is a little bit better, but I think we will not see full operation in these two locations until next year. The effect should be fading away quarter on quarter, but they will last still a little bit for 2026. Maybe you want to take the second one?
Absolutely. Look, on the cash flow, just to be clear, as I've mentioned before, the CapEx, yes, was maybe a little bit lighter in the first half, representing around 3 point something percent on turnover, slightly lower than what we typically would expect. This is related to the shift in some of the projects, specifically also JFK, which happens a little bit later than initially assumed. Yes, in the second half you may see a little bit of a catch-up effect there. On the other hand, we paid more income tax, for example, in the first half than we would typically assume, and there is also a timing shift, an opposite timing shift in that regard because the invoices for income tax have been received earlier than anticipated. Net-net, that balances each other.
Maybe in the second half of the year you see a little bit more CapEx, but then also a little bit less income tax, et cetera. Net-net, the impact is probably rather neutral. Look, it's probably too early to comment on the cash flow for the second half, but there's nothing unusual, nothing special to be mentioned in that regard.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Jon Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for this. Maybe two questions, maybe for Xavier. I note you were mentioning, don't expect us to reach the guidance every sort of day, week, quarter. I'm just thinking about this year. You didn't say anything about you could potentially not meet it in any particular year. Just wondering if you think you have enough in the tank to make up in the second half the margin pressure, and also the organic sales growth. Particularly when you look at IATA data, it looks pretty fragile in quite a few markets. Second question, just in terms of the margin by different regions in the first half of the year, maybe one for Yves. I actually see the margin went up in North America by 70 basis points year-on-year.
Also then you can see that EMEA is down 50 basis points, Latin America down 200+, Asia-Pacific down 200+. I wonder if you can just sort of guide us through the various factors. I'm guessing Asia-Pacific was Pudong, EMEA, of course, Middle East. I'm just wondering why North America was up and then Latin America was down in terms of margin year-on-year. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The comment I made earlier on was thinking about some people, particularly you, because I knew you were going to ask precisely about the second half of the year. Look, let me first, I'm not trying to avoid the question, but I think it's important to put some context. Some of the effects we know are getting better month-on-month and quarter-on-quarter. We know when we are going to open the missing shops in Pudong and in JFK, we know there is a schedule, we know things will keep going in the right direction. It will take a few months because that's the planning.
We are talking about thousands of square meters in the JFK, for example, in four big terminals, some of those terminals are new buildings with all the implication that that has on getting to learn how the flows works, et cetera. It's not only a learning curve for us, but sometimes also a learning curve from the airport. Mainland China duty free came with even a higher level of challenge on legal authorizations, et cetera, something only some Chinese companies had experience on. I see it positively. If we have these major effects in 2026, it's because we signed two group of very material contracts that, over time, it will be positive. At the beginning, they have a negative impact. That impact will be every month, a little bit less in the coming six months.
I think realistically, you will have them at full potential only in 2027. Okinawa will also be supportive. This year will be consolidated maybe three, four months. Next year, 12 months. We have some positives investments in 2026 that will pay off a little bit later. The only thing we don't control is the Middle East effect. What we are seeing is a lower effect now than three months ago, but it's still an effect. Probably looking at what is happening in the world, on and off, there will be some disturbance on that part of the world. When I put everything together, what we feel comfortable at this stage to say is that we see a progressive improvement. We think quarter two is probably the bottom, but we are not feeling comfortable on giving specifics for the next couple of quarters.
I think it's fair because some of what is happening, we control, others we don't control. I think saying that we are cautiously optimistic and that we see positive progression, I think is very important. One thing we've been saying for a few years now is we are more resilient than the other companies in the industry because of our size. I think looking at what is going on in the world, it's pretty solid set of numbers. We also said that when there will be volatility, we will consistently focus on cash flow generation. I think that's what, once more, you are seeing. Per region, the major effects are EMEA, you very well said, it's Middle East effect. LATAM has been affected, Mexico by some security concerns. There are less Americans going to the touristic destination in Mexico this year.
That has happened in the past, and again, it's cyclical. There are some more extreme movements on the exchange rates of the different countries than usual, Argentina, Brazil, et cetera, that has a slightly negative effect in the profitability. Again, we always say, if you go to quarter per region or you go to weekly per country, the volatility is higher than if you go to the group and for the full year. That's a little bit our commitment. Asia Pacific, yes, definitely is the Pudong ramp-up. North America is very interesting because even if JFK is a very large operation, proportionally to the size of North America, it's less relevant. It shows, if you want, a little bit what we are able to do on the profitability of a region when the disturbing effects are less than they are in other regions.
Again, I would not read much into a quarter results of a region. I still prefer to look at the full year and the full group. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Joern Iffert from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good afternoon. I would have two questions, please. The first one is, your midterm outlook is ending in 2027. Can you share with us a bit your thoughts, how you look on the organic sales growth prospects beyond? Was the 5%-7% still supported somewhat after the COVID recovery? It just was helpful, and now it could fade a little bit? Or do you think the 5%-7% is something we should also assume for the next couple of years, given your business model strategies? The second question, please, can you give us an update on your initiatives you are doing with investments, digitalization, loyalty program, et cetera, in terms of shops where you have tested this more pronounced about success ratio? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Look, the midterm outlook remains unchanged until we say something different. Every five years, we do a full strategic review, but at this stage, we feel comfortable with the 5%-7% that you mentioned. On the digital technology and data transformation, we continue at full speed. I gave just a few messages in one slide. As I said, Club Avolta reached already 20 million members. It's not only the size of the program, it's also the quality, the progressive improvement on the quality of the data we get from the Club Avolta. It's not only the members. We can use the understanding of the behavior of the members in the Club Avolta, which I hope it's all of you, and then extrapolate some of that behavior to non-Club Avolta members.
It's a tool in itself, but it's also a tool to understand other type of customers. We did a pilot, I explained a little bit on dynamic pricing. Now we are doing an extended pilot in five different locations, and probably we will progressively extend that over the next couple of years. We are doing also pilots on dynamic assortment. We believe that people taste us, changes faster than in the past, and also we need to invest in making the assortment more dynamic. We keep investing, and we're giving a push at the last quarter of this year on camera analytics. Remember, I mentioned that in the past, it's not only our aim to understand the customers, which we know on the ticket information, on the Club Avolta membership, but also to understand the behavior of non-customers.
People that browses the store, but they don't buy anything, or people that learn through camera analytics and the software, how we can improve our offering. We are also investing more and more on digital advertising on the stores. There is several initiatives that they might look from outside that they are disconnected, but they are all connected on an overall strategy. The overall strategy is, in simple terms, passengers change. Passengers behave in a different way. For example, I typically don't like to give details because then everybody knows, but millennials, 70% of them buy on impulse. For example, dynamic advertising is very important to capture them. Boomers, more than 50%-60%, do plan the purchase in duty free, and therefore, the strategy to capture them is a different one.
All these learnings, not only nationalities, but age, backgrounds, gender, whatever might condition the way they behave, is what we want to learn. Then this simple idea to apply it one by one to anything that can make a difference, from assortment to pricing, to supply chain, to advertising, to entertainment, to hybrids, et cetera. More and more, take decisions based on what we learn from the passengers. This is continuing. It's not always going at the speed I would like, I have to confess. Sometimes we take longer, but again, it's the direction. I received the question, Asia, why don't you grow in Asia, et cetera. I always said the direction is very clear, but it will take time. It has taken time, but now it's taking off. The same thing on the digital and data transformation.
We have done a lot, not enough, but it's going on the right direction. Thank you for the question because those two questions are a little bit more longer term, and I like very much. Thank you.
Thanks for the answers.
The next question comes from Harry Gowers from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Afternoon, everyone. Couple of questions, if I could. The first one, just on Okinawa, what sort of margins can that business bring into Avolta? Is it above the group average EBITDA margin? Maybe just a little bit on why that business in particular was attractive for you to add to the group. Second question on Pudong and JFK combined. I understand, the sales ramp-up and opening the new stores can take a few quarters, but when might we get to a full profit maturity? Could that take a couple of years, or can they reach a full margin potential very quickly, potentially even in 2027?
Third question, if I could, again, just related, but do you envisage any more really big concession wins over the next 12- 18 months, similar to JFK or Pudong, which will have this temporary drag on performance in the ramp-up? Is 2027 just going to see you solidifying some of that recent space growth? Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much. I have to be always careful on what we disclose or not. I'm looking at if I can say that Okinawa should be ahead of the average margin. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that, but I also said it. Why it was very attractive, for several reasons. Number one, we were in Japan recently, three months ago, in food and beverage, but not in retail. That gives us the opportunity to step in into the retail and the duty free, which makes Japan from a market where we were not, a market where we are with retail and food and beverage. This is from a strategic point of view, very important. To do that in an accretive way, it's even more important. Japan is a very large market in our industry, but very difficult to enter, and now we are there.
On top of that, this particular location has a higher component of some luxury brands than our average group. It's also a great opportunity to increase our expertise in a segment that is small for our business, but that is relevant when in certain places you want to win new spaces. To be able to bring certain brands in your portfolio, it's something that might help the development in other regions. We didn't do the acquisition to get the profit somewhere else in a distant future. In itself, it's accretive and it's a right acquisition. On top of that, brings some more structural benefits. Pudong and JFK, they should be almost normalized in 2027, probably not fully, so it could be an additional upside in 2028, but the difference between 2027 and 2028, it should be limited.
Your last question, I don't know how to answer, because right now I have to say I do not see major ramp-up effects for 2027 with the current pipeline. On the other side, I would say, well, maybe I wouldn't mind to have another one. The reality is that the pipeline is very healthy in the four regions. We see very nice opportunities, but on average, those opportunities are smaller on size. Even if we will win a few of them, the ramp-up effect should be very limited, if any.
Great. Thank you, Xavier.
The next question comes from Luka Trnovsek from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi, both. Thank you for taking my question. Just first on the July current trading number you gave. You mentioned that the Middle East headwind has reduced by about 100 basis points from Q2, and you also mentioned that the negative new space contribution in EMEA is going away in Q3. I was wondering if that means that essentially outside of EMEA, you've seen a deceleration in North America and LATAM in July. Just maybe some color on that. Just the second one, I was just curious on Club Avolta. Are you seeing that kind of strong member growth come from any particular region, or is this very much global growth? Thank you.
First, my usual disclaimer. I'm going to answer your question, but my usual disclaimer, if you go to months, if you go to weeks, if you go to days, you go to countries, of course, you have different. Your reading is correct, but I will not read too much about it. One of the things we've been seeing over the last six months is a little bit more volatility than usual. Some months were better, then the following months was a little bit weaker, then the next months was a little bit stronger. North America, for example, in July, has been partially affected by the World Cup that everybody expects to be a positive effect, but in general, it's a slightly negative effect.
The reason being because you have the attendees to the events, but the normal passengers avoid those cities because of concerns about traffic, hotel prices, et cetera. Again, if you look the first and the last week in North America or Latin America will also be different. I think what is important is what we said earlier on. In general, we see the negative effects slowly but surely getting away in the coming months. That doesn't mean everything is going to go perfect every week or every month. Latin America was affected by some swings on the exchange rate. That again, it could be the other way around in a couple of months. Not too much to read, in my personal opinion.
At the end of the year, not all the regions will perform the same, but we hope or we expect the group overall, to be improving from the current level. Your question on Avolta was?
The members and if the increase of members.
Oh, yes.
is coming from a specific region.
That's a very interesting question. There are regions where the penetration of the Club Avolta is higher, and no secret. The higher penetration is where you have more frequent flyers. If you have a big business airport, you have more Club Avolta members than if you have a holiday airport in the middle of the Caribbean where people goes maybe once every 10 years. It's pretty rational. It's also true that at the beginning of Club Avolta, worked better in general in duty free, and now in the last months, it's catching up in F&B. The reason was because, and maybe now I'm going too much into detail, we started on a standard campaign, and the behavior sometimes is different, now we have done a more specific food and beverage recruiting policy.
Overall, it's pretty much across the board with regional and country differences, but differences that are logical when you understand what a membership and a loyalty program is, and of course, is targeting particularly frequent flyers.
Perfect. Thank you so much for that color.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Gian Marco Werro from Zürcher Kantonalbank. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Xavier and Yves. Thanks for the insights. From my side, only two more questions remaining. For the second quarter, can you give us for the organic growth also the usual split of spending per passenger and tax development? Maybe you also see some key differences among the regions that you have, something that you want to share with us, where you see significant reduction of spending per passenger, for example, or increases. On the other side, it's a more products category related question. If I look on your food revenues from the category perspective, I see that, yeah, we had some declines in EMEA, which I can explain with the Middle East, but then also North America.
I just wonder, if it's mostly the reduction there in the revenues due to FX, if it's more cautious spending on food due to inflation, or is it the Spirit Airlines effect? Thank you.
Look, of course, in general, you have an effect, because the line was not perfect, so I hope I answer your question, Marco. In general, you see weaker passengers, one, because of the Middle East effect, second, by the Spirit Airlines. Third, in North America, the airlines have been focusing in the recent months more on yield and capacity. You typically have 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% increase on capacity in a normal year. If you look at what Delta, United, et cetera, have announced, they are more on the lower end of that increased capacity. We know that over time, the capacity comes back because the underlying demand is still there. Spend per passenger in general remain on the positive sign, of course, with some effects.
For example, if in a specific market, the airline tickets grew exponentially, then in some cases, the consumer spends a little bit less money. Also, in some locations, we might have seen a decrease on high expenditure. For example, if you are in a big European airport and you don't have the Middle East flights, that might have a slightly mixed effect. Of course, it's true that the current volatility, any consumer that opens a newspaper in the morning Oil price goes up, inflation fears, et cetera. In general, there is a bit of weak behavior, but when you put everything together and all these effects and being able to report a 3.7% organic growth, and don't get me wrong, I always want more, so I will be happier with five, 10.
I think it shows that our portfolio, both geographically and in segment business, is pretty resilient. Despite all these negative headwinds, we are sustaining the operation pretty well. Of course, I can always go into more detail for more the granularity in regions, countries, et cetera, but I think that's the major headlines. There are others that we have not even mentioned. The Entry/Exit System in Europe has not helped the last couple of months. That was another headwind, but still, lower than initially anticipated. EMEA is reporting positive organic growth year to date.
The next question comes from Manuel Lang from Vontobel. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. First one is actually a follow-up to what Luka was asking before. It's on EMEA. There, you reported, I see successive negative net concession growth in the second quarter. Could you maybe shed some light on what this actually is? Is it downsizing? Has it to do with the Middle East or competition for concessions or more just on your capital allocation policy? The second one, also related to JFK and Shanghai ramp-up effects on the EBITDA margin. There, I'm wondering if you could quantify how big this impact was in the first half, first part of the 40 basis points headwind you mentioned with regard to those two, including the Middle East, just to get a feeling of how big of a tailwind we can expect from a more normalized operation by end of 2027. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Look, on the change of scope for EMEA, there is an effect that Yves mentioned earlier on, and there is another one. We are exiting a small or relatively small, I'm not sure I want to say, well, a small structure in unprofitable. Again, I would not read too much on change of scope on a quarterly basis because that moves. EMEA, I think over the next couple of years with the wins, the extensions or the expansions in Saudi Arabia, the win of Riga that we announced recently, I think over time it will have, like the rest of the regions, a regular positive change of scope. That will not be, as we always say, every year, every quarter, but on the midterm, it should bring positive change of scope.
On the second question, I will let Yves to decide if you want to split or not the ramp-up and the Middle East effects.
Look, the two effects together amount for around 40 basis points, as we have stated before. We have not disclosed the split, but as I get the opportunity to decide, it's around half and half, give or take. If you take that as an assumption, it's not that bad.
Okay. Thank you very much.
We now have a written question from the webcast from Mr. Uzair Alam, MFS Investment Management, asking, "Would you be able to disclose the acquisition value of DFS Okinawa? Is it expected to close in Q3 or Q4?
Thank you very much. I think we have a non-disclosure agreement with the seller, we cannot disclose the specific price, I think we have said that has an effect on leverage of-
The effect on leverage is between 0x and 0.1x , you can basically do the math what that roughly means, give or take.
We expect the closing to be at the end of quarter three, sorry, we expect the closing to be imminent, either at the end of this month or next month. Definitely by the end of August.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Xavier Rossinyol for any closing remarks.
No, just thank you very much. I really appreciate that on the 30th of July, in a hot afternoon in Europe, you spend the time with us. If we go to the next slide, just two final remarks. Number one, please, if you are not a Club Avolta member, use the QR code you have in your screen right now and become one. I personally guarantee you will be happy in the next few years of having become a member and start consolidating some advantages. The second one, that because sometimes we give it for granted, and I think it's very important to say that everything that happens in Avolta is thanks to all our team members. In the shops, in the restaurants, in the kitchens, in the warehouses, in the offices.
70,000 team members that on a daily basis, sometimes in the middle of the night, they start their journey to go to an airport or a service area in a motorway or a train station. Daily, they talk to customers, and they work to make sure that those customers have a better journey experience. Of course, we try as a company to provide more and better technology, more and better training, more and better tools for their job to be more efficient and to be better. You, team members of Avolta, are the heart of this company. I want to thank you once more all your daily work and your daily efforts. With that, I just say thank you to everybody. See you in a few months to present quarter three 2026.
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