Viking Holdings Ltd

Good morning. My name is Paul, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Vikings' third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 2. Thank you. I would now like to turn the program to your host for today's conference, Vice President of Investor Relations, Carola Mangolini.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Vikings Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I am joined by Tor Hagen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Lieta Laktak, Chief Financial Officer. Also available during the Q&A session is Lin Ban, Executive Vice President of Finance. Before we get started, please note our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information. During the call, Management may discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release as well as in our filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements. are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We may also refer to certain non-IFRS financial metrics, which are reconciled and described in our press release posted on our investor relations website at ir.viking.com. Tora and Leah will provide a strategic overview of the company, a recap of our third quarter results, and an update of the current booking environment. We will then open the call for your questions. To supplement today's call, we have prepared an earnings presentation that will also be available on our investor relations website following this call. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Tor.

Thank you, Carola, and good morning, everyone. I will start today's call highlighting a few performance indicators for the quarter, which has been remarkably strong. As you can see on slide three, we reported a great third quarter results with our consolidated net yield up 11% from the prior year. Additionally, we continue to experience strong demand for our core products with 95% of our 2024 capacity and 70% of our 2025 capacity sold as of November 3rd, 2024. I believe that this booking position reflects how well our products resonate with our target consumer. To this end, today I want to take the opportunity to talk a little bit more about our ability to generate demand, which is fueled by our top-rated and well-defined product, effective cross-selling practices, strong brand recognition, and a singular sales and marketing approach. If you look at the next slide, I want to start by highlighting the scale and reach of our operations. We sail across five oceans, 21 rivers, and the five Great Lakes, offering our guests unforgettable experiences in over 85 countries and across all seven continents. What sets us apart is that we achieve this global presence under a single brand, Viking, a name that stands for excellence in all three categories of the cruise industry, ocean, river, and expedition. Each of our products consistently reflects the high standards of the one Viking brand. This allows our marketing efforts and strong brand loyalty to drive growth across all our offerings. And while I mentioned that our top-rated product continues to fuel demand, it is immensely gratifying to see this excellence consistently being recognized. If you follow me on the next slide, you will see that for the second year in a row, Viking was rated number one for oceans, number one for rivers, and number one for expeditions by Continental Traveler in their 2024 Reader's Choice Awards. This achievement marks the first time that a travel company has won these three categories in back-to-back years. These awards are particularly meaningful because they are voted by our guests, which means that they reflect our team's hard work, passion, and dedication to excellence. These levels of guest satisfaction are gratifying for many reasons, but one of them is that they increase brand loyalty. If we move to slide six, you can see that our repeat guest percentage has steadily increased over time, from 27% for the 2015 season to 53% for the 24 season to date. Moreover, in the graphs at the bottom of the slide, you can see that we leverage this strong brand loyalty for future product launches. Over 60% of bookings for each of the inaugural seasons for Viking Ocean, Viking Expedition, and Viking Mississippi were made by past guests. These trends show that our guests trust Viking to deliver the best-in-class travel experiences, whether it be new itineraries for products they love or completely new offerings. In summary, one of the benefits of our single brand is our ability to effectively cross-sell across our product offering to our loyal customer base. Moving to slide seven, for the past 27 years, we have built a single brand that is highly recognized by our target markets around the world. Today, we are the leading brand in North America outbound the river market and in the luxury ocean market. As of the third quarter of 2024, we had 92% of total US brand awareness for river cruises and 80% for luxury ocean cruises. With a single brand, a strong brand awareness drives growth for all our products. Our brand message is clear, and we can streamline and leverage our sales and marketing efforts. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Viking operates globally. This past quarter, I traveled to Egypt and China, and I would like to share some updates on these unique regions. First, let's focus on Egypt on slide eight. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in Luxor for the naming of our two newest vessels for the Nile River, the Viking Hathor and the Viking Sobek. These beautiful ships can accommodate 82 guests each, and I believe that they offer the most elegant way to navigate the Nile. This addition brings our Egypt count to six ships, and we have four more under construction to be delivered by 2026. Although Egypt represents a small portion of our total capacity in the low single digits for 2025, it is a destination of great interest for our guests. For example, our 12-night Pharaohs and Pyramids itinerary offers our guests a fascinating and culturally rich experience that garners demand and strong yields. We are frankly very pleased to be able to offer this highly distinctive product. This quarter, I also traveled to Shanghai, If you now flip to the next slide, you will see that as it pertains to China and the Asian market in general, we have adopted a unique approach rooted in a couple of core principles, which include destination-focused experiences and single language environment on board. So let's begin by addressing our ocean cruises in Asia for English-speaking guests. In September, we celebrated our return to China with Viking Yidun, offering exclusive itineraries and access to rarely visited destinations. China is a fascinating country and our guests can now explore its coastline with the same level of comfort that have been provided on our ocean offerings. This marks the start of an exciting journey for us and we plan to expand this program in 2025 with new itineraries that include Japan. In addition, We are expanding our ocean cruises to better serve our Asian guests. We believe that the Asian market has been historically underserved by the cruise industry. To this end, we will provide culturally rich experiences on the product tailored specifically to our Asian guests' preferences and language. And lastly, since 2016, we have offered river cruises in Europe for Chinese guests. These itineraries feature curated excursions, cuisine adapted to their taste, and a fully Mandarin-speaking crew. Currently, we operate four dedicated vessels for these experiences. While the products I have highlighted represent only a very small portion of our overall portfolio, they are very appealing to our target demographics and play an important role in our long-term growth strategy. Now, shifting gears and turning to slide 10. During this quarter, we completed a secondary offering of 34.5 million shares on behalf of TPG Capital and CPP Investments at a price of $31 per share. As you can see on the slide, this event slightly changed the ownership composition, increasing the institutional float. We appreciate all who participated in the offering and the continued interest and support in our company. We have much to be proud of in this quarter, and we look forward to our continued success and growth. With that, I will turn to Leah to discuss our financials.