TUI Pre-Tax Loss for Fiscal 2021 Reduced, But Market Views Missed – Update
By Ian Walker and Sabela Ojea
TUI AG on Wednesday reported a reduced net loss for fiscal 2021, which exceeded market expectations for the full year, and said the first quarter of winter 2022 was almost fully booked.
The German travel operator said the first quarter of 2022 is expected to be between 60% and 80% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019 in terms of bookings. The company also plans to achieve standardized booking levels for the summer of 2022.
London-listed TUI, which expects to benefit from a sharp increase in global arrivals in 2022 and a return to normalization in 2023 and 2024, recorded a net loss for the year ended September 30 from 2 , 47 billion euros ($ 2.78 billion) against a loss of 3.15 billion euros for the same period a year earlier and a loss of consensus of 2.31 billion euros, taken from FactSet and based on forecasts from 10 analysts.
The underlying loss before interest and taxes – one of the company’s preferred metrics, which excludes one-off items and other one-off items – was € 2.08 billion compared to a loss of € 3.00 billion .
Revenue for the period fell to 4.73 billion euros from 7.94 billion euros the previous year and a consensus of 6.37 billion euros, taken from FactSet and based on forecasts of 16 analysts.
TUI said 5.4 million customers traveled with it during the fiscal year and that it is well prepared for any changes in the booking environment as its financial position is strong at 3.5 billion. euros after the finalization of its capital increase of 1.1 billion euros in November. .
The company said it is on track to meet its target of total savings of 400 million euros by 2023 and that it has achieved cost savings of 240 million euros to date.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com and to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix