Carnival Corporation Ltd. Common Shares

Greetings and welcome to the Carnival Corporation and PLC fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may be placed into question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We ask that you please limit yourselves to one question, one follow-up, then return to the queue. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Beth Roberts, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Beth.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by our CEO, Josh Weinstein, our Chief Financial Officer, David Bernstein, and our Chair, Mickey Arison. Before we begin, please note that some of our remarks on this call will be forward-looking. Therefore, I will refer you to the forward-looking statement in today's press release. All references to ticket prices, net per diems, net yields, and adjusted cruise costs without fuel will be in constant currency unless otherwise stated. References to per diems and yields will be on a net basis. Our comments may also reference cruise costs without fuel, EBITDA, net income, free cash flow, and ROIC. all of which will be on an adjusted basis unless otherwise stated. All these references are non-GAAP financial measures defined in our earnings press release. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures are also contained in our earnings press release and in our investor presentation. Please visit our corporate website where our earnings press release and investor presentation can be found. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Josh.

Thanks, Beth. We had a strong finish to an incredibly strong year. And right off the bat, I'd like to thank the efforts of our hardworking and dedicated team, the best in all of travel and leisure. They have delivered results that consistently outperformed even my own high expectations. Our global portfolio is clearly firing on all cylinders, and I am very proud of what we've been able to accomplish together. we delivered another stellar quarter to close out a phenomenal year. In fact, this was our seventh consecutive quarter achieving record revenues alongside favorable forward indicators like record booking trends and record customer deposits, indicating a continuation of the strong momentum we've been experiencing for the last two years. Fourth quarter net income improved by over $250 million year over year, coming in over $125 million better than expected. The outperformance was up and down the P&L and driven by strong closing demand across the portfolio, which pushed yields, per diems, EBITDA, and operating income all to new highs this year. Full-year revenues hit an all-time high of $25 billion and produced all-time high cash from operations of almost $6 billion. Robust demand delivered a full-year 2024 yield increase of 11%, with the majority of the increase attributable to higher prices. Yields finished the year nearly 250 basis points better than our original guidance. driven by a strong demand environment that we elevated throughout the year. Encouragingly, this was broad based. For 2024, prices were up in all of our major brands and trades between mid single digit to mid teen percentages. And on top of this, onboard spending levels actually accelerated sequentially each quarter throughout the year. Additionally, Unit costs came in 100 basis points better than our original guidance for the year as we identified and executed upon additional cost savings initiatives and saw the benefit of an easing inflationary environment. All of this translated to an additional $700 million pickup to the bottom line compared to our December guidance and step change improvements in our two financial metrics that form part of our 2026 C-Change targets, EBITDA per ALBD and ROIC. After just one year down with two to go, we're already over 80% of the way toward achieving both of these targets, calling for a 50% increase in EBITDA per ALBD from our 2023 starting point and ROIC of 12%. both of which would be the highest the company has seen in almost 20 years. And with ROIC ending 2024 at 11%, comfortably above our cost of capital, we are already delivering long-term value for our shareholders as we lay the foundation we'll build upon in 2025 and beyond. At the outset, and with about two-thirds of the year already on the books, 2025 is shaping up to be another banner year, with yield growth exceeding 4%, far outpacing historical growth rates and again exceeding unit cost growth, delivering more than $400 million incrementally to the bottom line. In fact, booking trends even accelerated during the quarter. Despite less inventory for sale as compared to same time last year, 2025 booking volumes over the quarter were actually higher year on year at higher prices for each quarter, including the period leading up to the election. Booking volumes for 2026 also continue to break records, reflecting sustained demand even for further out sailings. The ongoing strength in demand reinforced our record-breaking book position. Both price and occupancy are higher for each of the four quarters of 2025, and we managed to increase both our price and occupancy advantage for our 2025 book position thanks to our outstanding efforts this past quarter. I can actually now report that our North American and European segments are each at their longest advanced booking windows on record. All core deployments are also better booked at higher prices than the record levels we achieved at the same time last year. So, with a good amount less inventory to sell for 2025, I cannot stress enough to our customers and trade partners that if you want to sail with us this year, book now while there's still space available. And keep in mind, our 2024 results and booked position for future sailings are being driven by improved operational execution across our brands. and are essentially on a same-ship basis. Now, don't get me wrong. New ships are great. In fact, we welcomed three amazing new ships in 2024. Carnival Jubilee, the third of five Excel-class vessels for Carnival Cruise Line, is proudly sailing out of the great state of Texas. Some Princess, Princess Cruise's next-generation flagship, was just awarded Conde Nast Traveler's 2024 megaship of the year, beating out all other megaships that entered service this year. And last but not least came the spectacular Queen Anne, Cunard's first ship in 14 years and a beautiful addition to Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, and the venerable Queen Mary II. While new ships do command a nice premium, the vast majority of our yield growth was driven by fundamental demand improvements for the existing ships across our portfolio of world-class brands. Even excluding our new builds, 2024's yields were still up almost 10% over 2023. That's because we're achieving demand growth well above our modest supply pipeline through ground-up efforts to improve execution across the commercial space. We've been investing in both talent and tools honing in on each of our brand's unique target markets, crafting marketing campaigns that speak directly to them, and in the most effective forums. We're successfully enticing new cruise guests away from land-based alternatives. In fact, both new to cruise and repeat guests were each up double-digit percentages this past year. At the same time, our marketing efforts are continuing to deliver growth in web visits, natural and paid search that far outpace our limited capacity growth, keeping the pipeline of new demand full. Simultaneously with augmenting our performance from top of funnel consideration to closing the deal and generating the bookings, we've been sharpening our yield management techniques to optimize our booking curves and drive ticket prices and onboard spending higher. While all of these efforts are already in flight and clearly working, we have even more in store to continue the momentum. We're launching new marketing campaigns across all our brands. Princess, Cunard, and Seaborn have already debuted spectacular new creatives this month. In Princess's case, its fresh take on its incomparable love boat theme featuring Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso fame already helped to produce record booking volumes for the Black Friday through Cyber Monday periods. And stay tuned for new campaigns from AIDA, Carnival, Costa, Holland America, and P&O Cruises in the UK, all launching shortly to coincide with wave season, our peak booking period. We're aggressively working to increase awareness and consideration for cruise travel globally. We're also actively working on an enhanced destination strategy to provide guests with yet another reason to take a cruise vacation with us, and that is sure to help us continue to excel. While we retain by far the largest footprint in the Caribbean with six owned and operated destinations that captured six and a half million guest visits in 2024, we believe we have a meaningful opportunity to expand and capitalize on this strategic advantage. These destinations are amongst our highest rated guest experiences today, and we have plans to lean into these assets even further. While historically the marketing of our own assets have really focused on the ships, we have untapped potential to create demand for these amazing destination experiences. I have never been more excited about these prospects as we begin to unfold this multi-year strategy with the opening of Celebration Key in just about six months. This will be, by far, our largest and most carnival centric destination in our portfolio with five awesome portals built for fun from family friendly to exclusive beach club experiences. Not only will celebration key be the closest destination in our portfolio, saving fuel costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The only way you can get to celebration key is on one of our cruises. Moreover, We just recently announced a change that signals more about the shift in our destination asset strategy. Half Moon Key, the highly rated and award-winning exclusive Bahamian destination known for beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters, is being renamed Relax Away, Half Moon Key, to better reflect the experience guests can expect as they are immersed in this tropical paradise. Enhancements will include an expanded beachfront experience, lunch venues, a variety of bars, and other features created with intentionality to reinforce this destination's natural beauty and pristine appeal. Ready in summer of 2026, a newly constructed pier on the north side will allow two ships to dock, including Carnival's XL-class ships that will be able to visit the private island for the first time. We'll be positioning these jewels of the Caribbean with consumers in a way that will encourage guests to actively seek out these specific destinations offered exclusively by our brands. And many of Carnival Cruise Line's itineraries will feature both Relax Away, Half Moon Key, and Celebration Key, providing guests with complimentary experiences, enjoying both the idyllic and the ultimate beach days. We believe developing and promoting these unique assets will help us cast the net wider and capture even more new to cruise demand. We're already in flight with preparation for branding and marketing campaigns for these amazing destinations with more to come in the future. As it is, for 2025, we expect to hit our 2026 EBITDA per ALBD target a full year early, while raising ROIC to just shy of our 12% 2026 target. So considering all the progress we've made without this in place, it's clear we have a tremendous amount of headroom remaining to create more demand to cultivate more guest loyalty and capture more pricing for the incredible ship and shoreside experiences we provide our guests. At the same time, we're making meaningful progress on the sustainability front. We achieved about 17.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity versus 2019, on track to achieve our target of 20% by the end of 2026, a goal that was previously pulled forward by four years. Improvement hasn't just been in emission intensity levels. Despite the fact that we're over 9% larger than we were in 2019, we have actually lowered our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by almost 10% over this time. And of course, we're also making huge strides on rebuilding our financial fortress. In under two years, we've paid down over $8 billion of debt off our peak and significantly reduced interest expense, which coupled with our improving EBITDA, has improved our leverage metrics tremendously. Our current 2025 guidance will put us at 3.8 times net debt to EBITDA, closing in on our expectation to reach investment-grade leverage metrics in 2026. Again, thank you so much to each of our team members who have delivered a step change improvement in 2024 and set us up for a fantastic 2025 and beyond. And as has always been the case and always will be, thank you so much to our travel agent partners who have contributed immensely to this success. We also appreciate the support we've received from our loyal guests, investors, destination partners, and other stakeholders. And let's not forget, these efforts were really all about the main thing, delivering unforgettable happiness to over 13.5 million people in 2024 by providing them with extraordinary cruise vacations while honoring the integrity of every ocean we sail, place we visit, and life we touch. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.