23 May 2022

THL forecasts another full year loss

11:00 am on 23 May 2022

Campervan operator Tourism Holdings (THL) expects to make another full year loss reflecting a number of one-time related to the sale of assets.

Campervan, motorhome, RV, freedom camping.

THL operates under the Maui, Britz and Mighty rentals brands in New Zealand. Photo: Unsplash / Hanson Lu

The company said net loss would be in the order of $2 million to $4m with an underlying net loss after tax in the range of $4.7m to $6.7m.

The guidance included a $6.2m gain on the sale of Mighway and ShareACamper, a gain of $1.6m on the sale of shares in Roadpass Digital and transaction costs of $5.1m, related to the proposed merger with Australia's Apollo Tourism & Leisure.

"As travel restrictions continue to ease globally, THL is seeing a recovery of international demand for RV travel in all countries it operates in," it said in a market statement.

"This is evident in the strong number of international bookings in the United States for the upcoming 2022 summer period. In New Zealand and Australia, there have been good early indicators for demand out of Europe, although primarily for travel from October 2022 onwards." it said adding average yields in all countries were returning to pre-Covid-19 levels or beyond, with particularly strong growth in Australia, which had driven most of the improvement on earlier expectations for the group's performance.

Capital spending was expected to fall below the earlier guidance range of $25m to $40m, due to delays in vehicle deliveries in the last quarter of the financial year and first quarter of the 2023 financial year.

"There continuing industry-wide supply chain challenges, creating vehicle delivery delays and inflation in the cost of materials."

The disruptions were most affecting its United States operations, with vehicles originally scheduled for delivery in the June quarter expected to arrive in the September quarter, reducing the peak tourism fleet by 200 vehicles.

The company said it was still working with the Commerce Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on the proposed merger with Apollo to address issues raised by them.

THL was also considering the future of Kiwi Experience as the business emerged from hibernation.

"KPMG has been engaged to explore indications of interest for a potential divestment of the business," the statement said, adding the company was not contemplating any other potential business divestments.