HLO business picking up
Despite border closures in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, Helloworld’s (HLO) Sep quarter fared far better than the same period last year, the company announced in a three monthly update this morning.
Helloworld’s total transaction value for the quarter was $266.5 million, up 50.7% on the same period last year, while revenue for the period totalled $20.3 million, up 62.7% on the prior corresponding period, reflecting a revenue margin of 7.6%.
TTV for Jul was $90.9 million, Aug was $78 million, and Sep was up to $97.6 million.
EBITDA loss for Jul and Aug was approximately $1.5 million per month, but Sep losses were reduced to about $600,000.
These losses totalled $3.6 million for the quarter, compared with $6.3 million in Q1.
On a geographical basis, in Australia, EBITDA loss was $2.5 million for the quarter, while international operations lost $1.1 million.
Helloworld said based on retail, wholesale, and corporate booking intakes across the first three weeks of Oct, it expects a rapid improvement in sales volume and revenues across the next six months.
The company also noted it has sufficient liquidity to maintain operations beyond the end of next year based on current liquidity levels and cash burn rate. Helloworld noted that the Sep quarter last year benefited from $10.4 million of wage subsidies which materially offset the gross pay and on-costs of $19.3 million for the period, reducing the net cost to $8.9 million.
Head count and gross personnel costs were reduced in the current quarter to $16.9 million, with $2.7 million in govt assistance reducing the net cost to $14.2m.
HELLOWORLD Travel Limited says it now has 2,184 agencies across Australia and New Zealand - 1,201 of them in physical offices and 983 home-based.
The company’s quarterly update (see p2) noted 409 Australian Helloworld branded and associate members plus 74 home-based, along with 84 in Magellan Travel, 59 Helloworld Business Travel, 538 physical My Travel Group affiliates plus 216 home based, and 453 MTA members.