AS Tallink Grupp (TAL1T) Earnings Call Transcript

Good day to all the participants of today's webinar. Today, we are going to give an overview of the developments and results of the second quarter of 2021. And from Tallink Grupp side, the presenters on today's webinar are Chairman of the Board, Paavo Nogene; Member of the Management Board, Harri Hanschmidt; and Financial Director, Joonas Joost. As always, it's possible to submit your questions during the webinar using the question box on the right side of your screens. The questions will be addressed after the presentation part of the webinar. And now over to Harri Hanschmidt.

Thank you, Joonas. Thank you for tuning in to the second quarter webinar of 2021 for Tallink Grupp. We will go over the latest results of second quarter and the developments and then the state of the business. Tallink is the leading European provider of leisure bus travel and business travel and sea transportation services in the Baltic Sea region. This is right now second year of quite unusual operations for us because of the global COVID pandemic. We own a fleet of 15 vessels, and we operate typically 7 ferry routes a part of the time. 3 of the ferry routes have been suspended now, and we will talk about this a little bit on the next slide. We also operate 4 hotels. Our Tallink Hotel Riga has been closed during the crisis. Last year, we had a revenue of EUR of 443 million. In a typical year, the revenues have been over EUR 900 million. And we transported 3.7 million passengers. Before the crisis, this number was close to 10 million passengers. We transported last year 360,000 cargo units. And our asset base is EUR 1.5 billion. This mainly the ships. We also have about 4,300 employees. And our Club One loyalty program consists of 2.8 million loyal customers. Regarding the crisis, there are various restrictions from different governments. For us, it's mostly the effects out of the restrictions from Estonia, Sweden and Finland. And because of these restrictions, the following ships were able to continue operations throughout 2021. It's Megastar, Star, Galaxy Baltic Princess, SeaWind, Regal Star, Sailor and Atlantic Vision. And the ships on the right were not able to operate in the first quarter, but -- and second quarter mostly as well, but will be mostly operational when now the environment allows it and the restrictions allow it. Silja Europa will -- was in short-term charter in U.K. Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony have been in operation from July and will be operational in August, doing Swedish domestic cruises and connections between Tallinn-Helsinki and Helsinki-Mariehamn. Baltic Queen is operating between Stockholm and Tallinn, and Victoria and Romantika are in the short-term charter for 3 months. And Isabelle right now is inactive. So the developments and key facts for 2021 Q2. Obviously, there is still a quite extensive impact from the COVID suspension of the cruise ferries and the restriction on the overall passenger capacity of the vessels. And also especially between Tallinn and Helsinki, it's restricted who are able to travel. And these restrictions are set by the government, and we have to follow this. And this situation has become a little bit better because the vaccinations are progressing. Also the COVID numbers have been a little bit lower. But many restrictions exist on these routes. Different activities and events. Well, we've enforced continuous cost control to ensure efficiency and savings from the previously implemented measures. There has been change in the management board. Margus Schults, who is a long-time employee of Tallink Grupp since 2008 and is a long-time CEO of our Finnish operations, has been appointed as the 6th board member for Tallink Grupp. We have conducted some changes in the loan agreements. We have deferred the loans and also are exempt from loan-related covenants. There have been short-term agreements for Silja Europa, Victoria and Romantika for various charters. We are opening the third Burger King restaurant in Latvia. And this will be the 10th restaurant overall, and we plan another 6 restaurants we believe to open this year. This will be in Latvia and Lithuania. We also finished the renovation of Tallink City Hotel on 30th of June. And the hotel is open right now and looks really good. Regarding the results of the second quarter, the impact of the restrictions was there. Now we are on a more like-for-like period, but obviously the restrictions have this year been more heavily impacting the Finnish operations and the connections between Estonia and Finland. Last year, Sweden was more affected by the restrictions. So we managed to generate EUR 21 million more revenue. This is 32.5%. But obviously the base is low, and this is far from a regular year. The impact on cargo operations was more limited, and we saw 18% more departures compared to the second quarter last year. Regarding costs and support. Cost of sales also increased because of various factors and wider operations, higher fuel bill, et cetera. Costs related to reemployment of the vessel, that also caused for the increase. And administrative and marketing costs. Also in Q2, last year, we saw reduced remunerations, and this was not the case in this year. The total impact for support measures has declined. We still were able to get EUR 10.6 million effect in various support measures, but this is down EUR 17 million from the support last year. When the first crisis impact happened, there were more support measures available. The positive is that EBITDA level is slightly on the positive side, but we still generate a net loss of EUR 24.3 million. The quarterly seasonality breakdown is more useful on the regular years. As you can see right now, it is not regular year. So the only thing we can see is cargo operations are quite typical to our usual year. All the other numbers are down because of the restrictions. And on the dynamics of the high seasonality on profit level, we can see that the year, the first and second quarter have been pretty much similar to the last year. The first quarter is slightly more negative, but the second quarter, a little bit more positive. I will give it now over to Joonas Joost, who will continue with the presentations. Thank you.

Thank you, Harri. So looking maybe a bit more detailed into the development of the revenues compared to the last year's second quarter. So as Harri explained, yes, there were somewhat less restrictions this time around, but still not back to normal. But nevertheless, the revenues improved therefore almost across all the operating segments. And the largest increase was in the segment of restaurant and shop sales onboard and onshore, and this was due to various activities, including also addition of the Burger King restaurants. But this increase came largely down to the higher volume of the purchases and consumption of our passengers. Ticket sales increased by about EUR 0.5 million compared to the last year. And here, I would comment that the increase was largely affected by the ad hoc services offered last year, but not this year, so this elevated the comparison base. Change in the cargo sales, EUR 1.3 million or 6%, is in line with the changes in the number of transported cargo units. And this time around, the charter revenues were EUR 3.2 million higher than last year. And this change was mainly affected from the fact that Silja Europa was chartered out in June this year. The only negative segment in year-over-year sales comparison was the accommodation sales. And this was due to the fact that only effectively 1 hotel was operating in the second quarter of this year. And when looking at the revenue structure pie chart on the bottom right of the slide, then in the second quarter, the split resembles slightly more our normal operation compared to the Q1 this year. And the share of the restaurant and shop sales has increased to 46% from the first quarter this year. And consequently, the share of cargo sales has reduced somewhat. In terms of geographical segments, the Estonia-Finland increased most. And this route this quarter represents also the most services offered. So we had operational the shuttle service, cargo vessel and also in June the cruise service. At the same time, the Estonia-Sweden operation was reflecting only cargo service, but in this year, 2 vessel operations. Last year, it was only 1 vessel in Q2. The Latvia-Sweden route had some activity last year, but it was effectively dormant this year, therefore, the decline in the sales of the Latvia-Sweden segment. And the Finland-Sweden segment represents only Turku-Stockholm route with mainly cargo concept, but still also on this route, there was increase in the revenue compared to last year in the amount of EUR 2.6 million. And the largest increase came this time from the segment Other, which was boosted by the charter revenue and also various retail activities as mentioned, including also the higher number of Burger King restaurants this year. Somewhat reiterate what Harri explained a few minutes earlier. So in this quarter, due to somewhat better operating environment compared to last year, sales increased to EUR 86 million. In line with increase of the sales and the operational volumes, there was also some increase in cost of sales. And also, as Harri explained, the higher fuel cost, preparation cost of operations of vessels for Q3 and various other factors resulted in the cost of sales being slightly higher than last year. And the marketing and administrative expenses remaining comparable to last year's result. And here, you can see the direct government assistance received this year, and this amounted to EUR 6 million. Last year, it was EUR 16 million. So almost EUR 10 million difference in the direct support received. But the total -- the difference in the total impact from various support measures compared to last year's Q2 was EUR 17 million. Overall net result negative, unfortunately, also this quarter still. The positive EBITDA, start of more operations and opening the sales and bookings for new routes for July and longer periods, and also the charter agreements and also negotiations with the suppliers to extend the payment terms resulted in positive working capital developments in the second quarter. So therefore, the operating cash flow was relatively healthy at EUR 30 million, which is quite an improvement over the EUR 4 million recorded in the second quarter of 2020. Just for context, in 2019 second quarter, the operating cash flow was EUR 60 million. So there's still some ways to go to the previous levels. And as the investments were kept low during the quarter, and the loan principal payments were deferred, the majority of the operating cash flows remains on our balance, and the change in cash was EUR 23 million. Just to remind, last year, and the capital expenditure row, it included also the purchase of the vessel Sailor for EUR 8.5 million. And looking at the financial position at the end of the June, the assets remains above EUR 1.5 billion. And I explained the positive developments in the working capital and the cash contributed to the assets increasing compared to the beginning of the quarter. The interest-bearing liabilities reached EUR 740 million by the end of the quarter, while the equity decreased to EUR 656 million or to EUR 0.98 per share. Most importantly, the liquidity remained strong with the cash and unused overdraft combined at EUR 116.7 million. And in addition to that figure, EUR 90 million of the working capital loan from Nordic Investment Bank was still undrawn at the end of the quarter. And as you can see from the graph on the right-hand side, the overall interest-bearing debt level has remained still on fairly comparable level to the past years. The interest-bearing debt amounted to EUR 573 million at the end of the quarter, with the net debt being EUR 535 million. And in addition to the EUR 90 million undrawn amount of the Nordic Investment Bank working capital loan, just as a reminder, we also have EUR 198 million loan signed, but not withdrawn, which is related to the delivery of MyStar next year. As Harri mentioned, during the quarter, we concluded the negotiations over the loans and the deferral of the principal payments of the loans. So overall, the impact for this year is EUR 67.4 million deferral. And as the deferral was agreed for to include also the first quarter of the next year, total amount is EUR 82.1 million. And looking slightly forward, in August, there is the christening ceremony of the LNG powered shuttle vessel MyStar, with the President of the Republic of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, being the godmother of the vessel. We continue preparations for opening new Burger King restaurants. As Harri mentioned, 6 new restaurants are planned to be opened in Latvia and Lithuania in the second half of the year. And unfortunately, the outlook still remains quite unstable and mostly dependent on external factors, being that the progress of vaccinations or the development of the viral situation, and also the decisions of the states regarding implementing various restrictions and measures in the society. Overall, the management is still in the opinion that once the situation with the vaccinations improves sufficiently and the restrictions are lifted, then we would see fairly rapid recovery in the traveling between our home markets and especially in Estonia and Finland. This concludes now the presentation part of the webinar, and we are going to proceed to the questions and the answers. And as customary, we are going to start with the questions that were sent to us in writing prior to the webinar.

So the first question is, please give an update on the latest travel restrictions to Finland and Sweden and how they work in practice, e.g. is there a long wait to get into Finland? And Paavo will take this question.

Yes. My name is Paavo. And firstly, I'm happy that we are in a stable situation. And the second quarter was tough, but due to different actions all over our company, the efficiency of the company is better, and we are stronger to continue our operations and go through this pandemic situation, which still is ongoing. Answering the question, actually, Finland and Sweden are following now both countries, the European Union agreement where traveling is allowed between the countries and possible if traveler are fully vaccinated, or have one dose of vaccine and negative COVID test, or traveling with a negative COVID test, or have had the COVID in last 6 months. So generally, most easiest way is right now to travel between the Estonia and Sweden and of course our Swedish domestic routes. Secondly, Estonia-Finland. And as we are going to reopen this Sunday also Helsinki-Stockholm, then we don't see right now big problems why people can't use the ferry for traveling between Estonia-Finland. Swedish situation is the best right now. If you take to look at the infection rates, and the Estonia and Finland situation are quite similar already today. So traveling is possible. Of course, we need to understand that we need to live together with this virus some time, most probably some years. But the vaccination in Finland and Sweden going rather well, and Estonia trying to speed up as well the vaccination. So yes, that's actually short, traveling is possible. You just need to have the medical documents with you.

Thank you, Paavo. Next question. Following the postponement of principal loan payments, the line repayments of loans received in your cash flow statement will be 0 until the end of the first quarter 2022, right? When will the major loss payments be for the deferrals?

Yes, the moment will be 0, aside of fluctuations from the use of overdraft. The payments are deferred to the last payments of each respective loan agreement. And the different loans have different duration, and they range from 1 to 8 years.

Next question. What investments do you foresee for the remainder of the year? Can it continue to be at around EUR 3 million or EUR 4 million?

It depends a lot how many ships are in operations. The more ships and operations, the more maintenance investments are needed. We, of course, are still keeping the strict control over the investments, but we may not be able to keep it quite at EUR 3 million or EUR 4 million per quarter in the second half of the year if we continue with the traffic planned right now. But as the situation changing, not only monthly but weekly, then as we are monitoring carefully all of the passenger numbers on different routes, then if we decide to suspend some vessel again for some period, then investments or the CapEx is lower. But if you continue like this, it should be a bit higher than this EUR 3 million or EUR 4 million.

The next question. Is there any way to get the guidance on the estimated number of the employees at the end of the year? Is there employee statistics in your report also including personnel hired from staffing agencies?

Employee statistic includes personnel with whom we have the employment contracts, which is the main form of employment. The number of employees at the end of the year is mainly dependent on the number of vessels in operations and the hotels. Factoring in the nature of seasonality and the addition of Burger King restaurants in the second half of the year, the number can be estimated to be somewhere around 4,000, and the current level is 4,350. But to clarify, this 4,000 doesn't mean that we pay the salary for 4,000. Because as we see decrease in the passenger numbers on some routes, then also some people are going back to layoff, as it has been throughout this pandemic example in Finland. So one is the number who are on the payroll. And the second is what workload we can offer for these people. But this is a bit too early to say how it ends up by the end of the year.

The next question. How are the booking rates for Q3 and Q4 developing? Better or worse compared to last year in the same period?

It is very hard to compare with the last year. So what we can see right now is that they're coming in the last moment, bookings. Example yesterday, just in 1 day for the same day, we sold more than 800 tickets for different routes. Also we see in Tallinn in our hotels that people are coming to the hotel and just walk in and taking the room. And they are not Estonians. They're coming from abroad. So when last year, we were saying that people making the bookings in very last moment. Then this year we can say that they're making the bookings even the same day of the traveling. So it's not good there right now to take a look booking numbers in October, November, December because it's changing all the time.

Next question. Can you quantify your fixed cost savings in the second quarter of 2021 compared to last year second quarter? How much of these are permanent and how much volume dependent?

It depends also, again, are we going to bring back some vessels and routes, because a lot of costs are connected directly with the employees, cost of operations and so on. But generally, yes. Tallink Grupp is absolutely more efficient. We have made changes in our -- all our land organizations where we have made changes in the employees' numbers. We did bring some operations from some countries to Estonia because of the cost efficiency and all other reasons. So definitely, we are more efficient when the traveling comes back to the previous year's numbers. But as I said, it's difficult to say exact number, because if you open the new route, then the marketing cost goes up. If we decide to start operations with some vessels, we need to hire back the people. What has been changed during this crisis, that example, we hired back the people also for shorter periods with the short-term contracts. So also this summer, we're using the short-term contracts in Estonia example and also in Sweden. So we really take look into every cost we need to do and trying to optimize as much as possible.