Sabre Corporation (SABR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Thank you for being with us today, and welcome to Sabre Corporation's 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I'm Gail Mandel, Sabre's Chair of the Board and Chair of today's meeting. With me are Kurt Ekert, Sabre's Chief Executive Officer and President; and Steve Milton, Sabre's Corporate Secretary and Secretary of today's meeting. Also attending today's meeting are the members of our Board of Directors. In addition to Kurt and myself, these directors are George Bravante, Hervé Couturier, Eric Kelly, Phyllis Newhouse, Elaine Paul, John Scott and Wendi Sturgis. Also attending is Ashan Willy, who is a nominee for election as director. You should have found on your chairs a copy of today's agenda and a few rules for this meeting. As you will see from the agenda, we will first cover the legal requirements for the meeting, and then we will address the proposals included in the proxy statement. After that, Kurt will provide a brief business review. Finally, we will have a report on the results of the voting on the proxy statement proposals. The items properly submitted for consideration at this meeting are the proposal for the election of the 10 directors named in Sabre's proxy statement, ratification of the appointment of our independent auditors, approval of our 2025 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan and approval of the advisory nonbinding vote on the compensation of our named executive officers. Now Steve, please give us your report as to the call of the meeting, the inspector's report as to the presence of a quorum and the rules for the meeting.

We provided the following materials to each stockholder of record as of the record date, February 24, 2025. Proper notice of the meeting and access to copies of the 2025 proxy statement and 2024 annual report. More than 88% of the company's common stock is represented at this meeting, either in person or by proxy, as a result, this meeting is properly convened and a quorum is present. Affidavits concerning these matters as well as the certified list of stockholders are available for examination. The materials will also be filed with the records of this meeting. The following Inspector of Election has been appointed: Rex Morgan of BetaNXT. As Gail mentioned, the ground rules for today's meeting are included with the agenda placed on your chairs. In order to provide a fair and informative meeting, we have established these rules and procedures, and we appreciate your cooperation. We will introduce each of the 4 proposals set forth in the proxy statement and identified on the agenda. After all the proposals have been presented, we'll open the floor for discussion and general comments and questions. We will then vote on all the proposals at the same time. If you are a stockholder and you wish to speak on a matter on the agenda, please raise your hand when the floor has been opened for discussion and wait to be recognized. When you are recognized, the microphone will be brought to you. Then please identify yourself and the number of shares you represent and the proposal on which you wish to speak. As described in the rules, individuals recognized to speak on any matter will be limited to 3 minutes. If you gave us your proxy or voted by telephone or the Internet, your shares will be voted by the proxy committee as you've directed. If you've not voted your shares yet or if you wish to change your vote on any matter, please raise your hand and a ballot will be brought to you. We'll collect the ballots later during the meeting when the polls are declared open. Finally, during today's meeting, we'll make forward-looking statements based on management's expectations of future results and actual results -- future events and actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. For more information about risks that could cause this to happen, please refer to the risk factors and the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements sections in our 2024 10-K as well as in our other filings with the SEC. In addition, we will be presenting certain non-GAAP financial measures. The most directly comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are available in the presentation [indiscernible] as well as in our earnings releases and in the other documents posted on our website at investors.sabre.com. And now I'll turn it over to Kurt.

Thank you. We will first consider and vote on the proposals in our proxy statement. I will then provide a few comments on our 2024 business performance. And finally, Steve will report on the results of today's vote. Each of the 4 proposals on the ballot today has been described in detail in our 2025 proxy statement. The first proposal in the proxy statement is the election of George Bravante, Hervé Couturier, Eric Kelly, Kurt Ekert, Gail Mandel, Phyllis Newhouse, Elaine Paul, John Scott, Wendi Sturgis and Ashan Willy. I thank each of our incumbent directors for their significant contributions to the Board, including collectively attending 28 Board and committee meetings in 2024 with an attendance of 100% for each director. In addition, please note that Karl Peterson has retired from the Board of Directors today. On behalf of the Board and the management team, a deep thanks to Karl for his service, and we wish him well. On behalf of the Board, and its Nominating and Governance Committee, I declare that each of these 10 individuals has been properly nominated for a 1-year term expiring at the 2025 (sic) [2026] Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The next order of business is proposal 2, ratification of the Audit Committee selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm to audit the company's 2025 financial statements. Gabe Stagner and Rusty McLendon from Ernst & Young are with us today. The next order of business is proposal 3, approval of the company's 2025 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan. The next order of business is proposal 4, approval of the advisory nonbinding vote on the compensation of our named executive officers. We will now open the floor for general discussion. If you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand and wait to be recognized. Once recognized, please wait for a microphone, then state your name, the number of shares you own or represent and the proposal on which you will comment. Also please remember to limit your comments to 3 minutes each to ensure others have an opportunity to speak. Is there any discussion on any of the proposals or any other questions or comments? There being no questions, I declare that the polls are now open. Please raise your hand if you would like to cast a ballot from the floor and someone will come and collect it from you. [Voting]

I now declare that the polls are closed. While the Inspector of Election completes the vote tabulations, I will comment briefly on our business performance for 2024. Sabre had a successful year in 2024. Our team delivered on our strategic technology transformation objectives, including significant product and platform enhancements. Steady revenue growth combined with effective cost management, resulted in 550 basis points of margin expansion and a 53% year-on-year increase in adjusted EBITDA. Travel Solutions achieved solid financial results in 2024 due to higher average distribution booking fees from a richer customer mix, double-digit year-on-year growth in hotel distribution bookings and contributions from new air distribution business. Notably, our exit rate for GDS industry share was up 1 percentage point versus the prior year. Our Hospitality Solutions team delivered strong results in 2024 as total revenue reached an all-time high due mainly to increased CRS transactions. This revenue performance was driven by new customer deployments, and a favorable mix within our customer base. Overall, strong revenue growth and continued operational focus contributed to a $25 million increase in adjusted EBITDA. In closing, our strategic focus remains unchanged: To generate free cash flow and delever the balance sheet through sustainable growth and innovation. We believe our accomplishments in 2024 have reshaped Sabre's growth trajectory and positioned us well to deliver shareholder value in 2025 and beyond. Thank you so much for your participation today. And I will now turn it over to Steve to report on the voting results.

Thank you, Kurt. First, let me say that the results that I'm about to announce are preliminary. We'll file the final results with the SEC on a Form 8-K within 4 business days. The inspector of election has advised me that each of the 10 nominees for director was elected for a 1-year term. The selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm was ratified. The company's 2025 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan was approved and the advisory nonbinding vote on the compensation of our named executive officers was approved. With that, I'll turn it over to Gail to adjourn the meeting.

Thank you, Steve. On behalf of your Board of Directors and the entire management team, I'd like to thank you for your attendance and for your continued support of Sabre. With that, the meeting is adjourned.