Photo: Unsplash / Lawton Cook
Campervan and tourism operator Tourism Holdings (THL) has reported a $29 million profit as tourism rebounds post-Covid.
Chief executive Grant Webster said the company's sale of rental revenue increased 167 percent to $134m in the six months ended December.
Key numbers for the six months ended December compared with a year ago:
- Net profit $25.2m vs $4.4m loss
- Revenue $261m vs $175m
- Underlying profit $26.3m vs 2.3m loss
- Net debt $249m vs $59m
The interim result is the company's first following the merger with Apollo Tourism and Leisure (ATL) at the end of November last year, but only included one month of Apollo's data.
Webster said the full impact of the merger would become clearer in August when the company's full year results are released.
He said the company's full year underlying net profit was on track to be above $75m.
"Based on these current performance expectations, THL expects to be in a position in August 2023 to declare a dividend," he said.
"In recognition of the need to balance funding the rebuild of the global fleet with returns to shareholders, any dividend will be smaller than THL historical dividend policy.
"The longer term dividend policy is being reviewed post-merger and will be provided to the market by the full year results."
Webster was optimistic the post-Covid tourism rebound would continue and said the outlook for the coming years was positive.
"When you're on the floor in the way that we were in tourism, it's a long way to sort of feel like you're standing up and standing up straight again," he said.
"So yes, to keep using that analogy, the ceiling is a little bit lower on a broader economic basis, but as you're still standing up from the floor, there's a lot of room between the floor and the ceiling.
"We still see positive growth, we still see our line capacity growing and we still see that we're going to grow our capacity in motorhome fleet around the world as well."
Webster said the company was getting good margins on global motorhome and vehicle sales as shortages and higher demand were pushing up prices.
"I think what Covid has taught us, and what we've seen in recent times, is that tourism is such a core part of what is like a desire and a need for us from a humanity perspective.
"We want to connect, we want to see other places, we want to explore.
"Broadly speaking, I think we are going to see growth through the 2023 calendar year and the 2024 calendar year.
"Beyond that, let's see what's happening from an economic cycle perspective, that's a long way away, but I broadly think you're going to continue to see tourism grow over the coming years."