Earnings Labs

Sabre Corporation (SABR)

Q2 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 1, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Sabre's second quarter 2017 earnings conference call. Please note that today's call is being recorded and is also being broadcast live over the Internet on the Sabre corporate website. This broadcast is the property of Sabre. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the expressed written consent of the company is strictly prohibited. I will now turn the call over to the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Barry Sievert. Please go ahead, sir.

Barry J. Sievert - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thank you, Carolyn, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our second quarter earning call. This morning we issued an earnings release, which is available on our website at investors.sabre.com. The slide presentation, which accompanies today's prepared remarks, is also available during this call on the Sabre IR webpage. A replay of today's call, along with the slide presentation, will be available on our website beginning this afternoon. Throughout today's call, we'll be presenting certain non-GAAP financial measures, which have been adjusted to exclude certain items. All references during today's call to EBITDA, EPS and net income have been adjusted for these items. The most directly comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations for non-GAAP measures are available in the earnings release and other documents posted on our website at investors.sabre.com. We would like to advise you that our comments contain forward-looking statements. These statements include, among others, disclosure of our guidance, including revenue, EBITDA, net income, EPS, cash flow and CapEx; our expected segment results, the effects of new or renewed agreements, products and implementations; our expectations of industry trends and various other forward-looking statements regarding our business. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made on today's call. Information concerning the risks and uncertainties that could affect our financial results is contained in our SEC filings, including our 2016 Form 10-K and our first quarter 2017 Form 10-Q. Participating with me on today's call are Sean Menke, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Rick Simonson, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Nester, our Treasurer and SVP of Finance. Sean will start us off and provide a review of our strategic and commercial performance and outlook. Rick will offer additional perspective on our financial results and the forward outlook. We will then open the call to your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sean.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Barry, and good morning to everyone. Before I get into my prepared remarks, I do want to just walk through a few things that, as we've managed really since I've jumped into this seat seven months ago, the one group I really do want to thank is the employees of the organization. They have worked tirelessly through a number of things that we have been focused on really getting accomplished. And in doing that, we've had to make a number of tough decisions, one being yesterday relative to some of the employees leaving the organization. And I owe a debt of gratitude to not only those employees, but all the employees that are getting a number of things done. With that, in reporting the second quarter, we met expectations relative to what we'd put out there and we've reaffirmed really guidance for the balance of the year. And it's important to understand that there's a lot of really good discussion taking place within our organization right now, relative to where we are, where we're going, the opportunities that really sit out there. And as I sit here halfway through the year, I will share with you that I feel like there's a lot of positive momentum relative to what we have been doing and really the steps that we are taking to really move into the opportunity that sits out there. And we have spent a lot of time really meeting with airlines, meeting with hoteliers, meeting with agencies, and understanding really how they're looking at the future and looking at their challenges, and how do we actually help their challenges. And in doing that, it's really allowed us to refocus a lot of the good things that we are doing, making sure that we're focusing on things internally…

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Sean. In Airline and Hospitality Solutions, Q2 revenue increased 8% to $272 million, driven by double-digit revenue growth in SabreSonic, high-single-digit growth in AirVision/AirCenter and Hospitality Solutions growth of about 10%, offset somewhat by a $4 million year-over-year decline in Airline Solutions' consulting revenue. Solutions' EBITDA margins were 37.4%, resulting in Solutions' EBITDA of $102 million, representing growth of 11%. In Airline Solutions, sales in the back-half of last year and year-to-date have been below plan, and we're working to drive improvement. That said, in the quarter, we signed multiple SabreSonic renewals as well as new agreement with IAG for our planning and scheduling bundle. We also increased our footprint of multiple customers with solution sales at Scandinavian Airlines, Air China, Aerolíneas Argentinas, and Thai Airways International, among others. Hospitality Solutions drove deeper into the market with multiple deals at customers like Redi National, Inn de Hoteles (16:37) Hoteles Misión the third largest hotelier in Mexico as well. We also renewed agreements and expanded our solution footprint at numerous additional hoteliers. Passengers boarded growth benefited from the strong macro environment. Passengers boarded totaled 216 million in the quarter, an 8% increase year-over-year. And passengers boarded growth on a consistent carrier basis was a strong 5% in the quarter. As has been broadly discussed, our services to Southwest Airlines related to the reservation systems have not ended. This will create a headwind in the second-half passengers boarded and SabreSonic revenue growth, which was already factored into our forward outlook. As a reminder, on an annual basis, Southwest reservations work was approximately 150 million passengers boarded, $50 million of revenue and $40 million of EBITDA. Q2 Travel Network revenue increased 6% to $636 million, driven by bookings growth of 2.4% from the prior year. Positive pricing in the quarter was driven…

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Thanks, Rick. 2017 is clearly a year of transition at Sabre, with strategic initiatives fresh infusion of and new thinking among the leadership team driving significant positive change. The second quarter was emblematic of the year with consistent progress, but much more work to be done to position the company for its next leg of growth. We appreciate your interest and involvement in Sabre as we work to drive greater value for our customers and our investors. That wraps up our formal comments. I want to once again thank you for joining our call today. And with that, operator, we'll open it up for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And we'll go first to David Togut with Evercore ISI.

David Mark Togut - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. Could you talk about what's left in the conversion pipeline in Airline Solutions and perhaps bracket what you mean by muted 2018 revenue growth?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. David, this is Rick. And again, on Airline Solutions revenue growth, we're comping against the Southwest, loss of that, and we lost the airberlin implementation. That's what I mean by it, simple as that. And so we've had some good renewals. The conversions that are coming, the big one is LATAM, that's the TAM part of the airline, the Brazilian. We have LAN already, the Chilean base. So that is coming in the early part, first half of 2018 on schedule. That's an incremental over 40 million passengers boarded. So, that's a large implementation for the airline reservations business.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. And the muted part will really be on the first half of 2018. You'll actually see some acceleration on the back, second half of 2018. Similar to what we had commented on, on really the first quarter call in the pipeline, we continue to see sort of slower activity out there as it relates to the number of airlines that are looking. There have been increased discussions with a few airlines, but there hasn't been a big pickup relative what we have seen or stated in the first quarter.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

And you can see, our same-store sales or ongoing PB growth continues to be strong at the levels of what we see employment growth. So that gives us a real substantial base to work from next year.

David Mark Togut - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Understood. And then just on the Travel Network share decline, it looks to be about 70 basis points year over year in 2Q. And clearly, you called out some weakness in APAC, which you'll remedy with Flight Center conversion. But I'm wondering about Latin America, which has historically been an area of strength for Sabre. What led to the decline in bookings there of 4%? And are there any actions you can take to remedy that situation?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, David. Our share did decline somewhat, driven by our base of agencies growing at a somewhat slower rate than our competitors' customers. If you look at it overall, our methodologies have changed the same. You can bounce around from quarters to quarters. In Latin America, just reminding everybody, it's the smallest air travel market. And there the fluctuations really are a little bit greater based on some of the larger OTAs and who's growing there and who is getting the majority share with those OTAs versus a minority share. And that's the factor for the swing in the second quarter. We have taken actions there to shore up, and we expect to remain the leader and be competitive in Latin America.

David Mark Togut - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Just a quick final question. Curious for your views of American's $2 incentive fee to travel agent for using the NDC connection. Do you see that having any impact on your North American business?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

So, as we look at it, and this gets into the comments that I had made earlier is, there's a lot of activity taking place relative to just distribution in general, and it does get into how carriers are looking at driving more revenue, really getting into dynamic offers and capabilities that are out there. The one thing that we continue to talk about, and I think it's important to understand, is that making that step, which really gets into more of a direct connect, does not really address the costs associated to how do you actually make that work within an agency, the mid- and back-office capabilities and the costs associated with that. It's why, when I look at the broader opportunity and look at essentially where we're focused, it is much in line with making sure that we're helping enable them to do what they want to do, and it's not only American Airlines but there's other airlines that are out there. And I think what we'll continue to find is that the best way of actually selling products and services is through the GDS, but we need to continue to invest in capabilities to be able to do that. The one thing that we've often talked about is, when you look at ancillary revenues, the vast majority of ancillary revenues are sold through the direct channel, meaning through the airline.com. So now I'm talking probably 90%-plus. This is where we see a real opportunity to continue doing – hence, our selling through the GDS is the enablement of that taking place. But, again, it's working with each of the airlines out there and what they're trying to do. I will add just another comment is, as we look at NDC and what's taking place with NDC, because I know that's top of mind for a number of individuals that are out there, there are a number of conversations that we have as it relates to what carriers want in NDC. And what I will tell you is it is different by each carrier. The other thing that I will share is, if you look at essentially the standards that have been put out there, there's been 17 standard changes in the last four years and this is one thing that we have been focused on, as we have to have specific standards or standards that stay really consistent that we build to. And in doing that, the thing that I – as we look into the future, it's making sure that we're just not building one-off solutions for specific carriers, that there is a more of a prioritization of what needs to be developed and when it's developed.

David Mark Togut - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Understood. Thank you very much.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, David.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go next to Jim Schneider with Goldman Sachs. James Schneider - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just following-on on the earlier question around bookings share. I guess, to put a different way with the go-forward look, you talked about a number of the new agency wins driving accelerated bookings growth in the back half of this year. But, I guess, how should we think about the base off of which that grows? In other words, do you think that the share loss that you saw in the current quarter was more of a temporary blip or do you think it's something that's going to be with us for another few quarters, given the share within some of the agencies in LatAm and APAC?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Jim, I do think it's more temporal. And again, looking at the conversions that we know are coming in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and North America give us that confidence and how we manage Latin America that I mentioned earlier. James Schneider - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thanks. And then maybe as a follow-up, just in terms of how you're thinking at the very highest level about investments the company is making in technology? And I guess, squaring the thoughts on insourcing of shopping and a bunch of other investments that you've talked about versus the push out in CapEx and whether or not that will actually drive kind of an increased CapEx in 2018 or not? And can you maybe talk about the kind of pay-per-drink strategy you're implying, because it seems a little bit different from what you talked about before?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

So, Jim, this is Rick. I'll start and let me just be very clear. The capital intensity of the business is reducing. We've seen that in Q2. I've quantified that for the rest of 2017. And that's an important element of how we are making sure that the capital expenditure for our product and our underlying technology plan for security and stability is getting the return on investment that we need. That allows us then to free up money and put into places where we have the strength, we have the leadership, whether it's the next level of NDC, next-generation retail, next-generation distribution, really focused on the airlines' reservation PSS product, and continuing to build out the industry-leading, single-instant, multi-tenant, SaaS-based, cloud-deployed, central reservations, property management systems in Hospitality. So we've got a lower level of capital intensity this year and looking into 2018 through those actions.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

And let me add on. This gets into a lot of the work that the team has been doing as we have really done a review of the business units, looked at a number of things that are taking place throughout the organization. And the way that we really broke it down was looking at each of the businesses, understanding the strategic initiatives, the strategic focus that's aligning toward our customers' need, and then really going through the prioritization process of what are the things that we will make sure that we're investing in and investing in the right fashion that's going to allow us to do essentially what we think is going to enable the industry. In doing that, it gets into how are we going to essentially look at CapEx and making sure that the alignment is there, and doing that allows us to have a more focused approach as we move into the back half of this year as well as into 2018, which essentially falls in line what Rick said as we're managing the CapEx.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

And Sean and I have said at the beginning of the year that we expected 2018 to be more similar than not to 2017. And when that came to cash flow, as we've mentioned today, with these actions, this focus and the intensity of capital expenditure in the right places, but moving down overall, it allows us to have this expectation that the revenue growth, which continues to be strong at Sabre, you can see the similar kind of dynamic of growth in free cash flow in 2018. That's our expectation.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

And there's other things we continue to tackle. You asked about just sort of the data management strategy, and this is part of what Joe brings to the table in joining the organization is a lot of expertise in this. We have good expertise already, but how do we continue to look at cloud opportunities, how do we continue to look at ways to diversify that allows us to have high quality and essentially high reliability that allows us to find ways for reducing cost at the same time. The other thing is continuing to look at just, as we look at ways of improving the development and what we're doing from a development perspective, not only in development centers we have around world but how do we continue to leverage those, make sure that we're getting the ability to drive more efficiencies and capabilities. James Schneider - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thank you.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Jim.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Mark Moerdler with Bernstein Research. Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Thank you. Two questions. The first one is bookings growth of 2.6%; passenger boarded, 5% organically; what's driving the difference there? Is it just a timing issue? And then a follow-up.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Just really kind of timing. And again, that 2.6% was the air bookings, very much similar to our biggest competitor. The two of us drive most of the air bookings through the GDS. The passengers boarded, as mentioned, the 5% organic, strong and consistent. We had 8% overall passenger boarded there, Mark. So we think it's shaping up largely as expected. I'll point that we had very strong growth in Q2 in margins in Travel Network last year, this year a little bit less so. But I want to reiterate that, overall for the year, we're looking at a revenue growth that's strong. We've got the bookings growth in the back half accelerating. And all of that leads to reiterating our target for the EBITDA margin of 39% to 39.5%.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. And two other things on that. Bookings come before actually PBs. So you're doing a lot of booking in the first quarter that actually turns into PBs into the second quarter. So there's a timing issue associated with that. The other is, you sort of have apples and oranges, right? When you look at TN in the bookings, it's global in nature. PBs are really based on the customers that we have. So there's some big differences. Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Beautiful. That's very helpful. A little drill down color. Rick, can you a little more color on APAC? Obviously, Flight Center is going to help going forward, but is there anything else underlying at Flight Center that we should just keep an eye on?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

The couple of things that we have seen there, and it's been more probably in Korea, Japan and India, is just high-level growth with certain customers. And as we've talked about, when you look at customers that we don't have, those are three regions, specifically India and Korea, that we've seen that there's been high growth in agencies there that we actually don't have any penetration. So they've been outgrowing the marketplace. So, that has been impacting what we're seeing from a share perspective.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

And Japan has been a slower growth market and we have a high share there. Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Excellent. Thank you. I appreciate.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Ashish Sabadra with Deutsche Bank.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Thanks. Just wanted to follow-up on the earlier questions on the free cash flow growth. So, free cash flow is expected to grow in line with revenues in 2018, despite the $110 million of cost savings from the restructuring program. So I just wanted to better understand why doesn't the $110 million of cost savings flow to the free cash flow. What are the puts and takes on the free cash flow next year?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, Ashish. So what we've said is we continue to invest for the things that are going to differentiate, meet the customer needs and provide the overall investment into next-generation retailing for our airlines, for our hoteliers, for the agencies, and while we assure that we continue to have the industry-leading stability and security. And that's essentially why 2018 will still look more like 2017 than not. But we've been able to get the free cash flow expected to be growing with the revenue. We'll point out again related to that that AS growth is slower for the reasons of losing Southwest or the push in the loss of airberlin and some of the selling that's been slower last year and this year, again, all of those being addressed in good shape with that and we'll look to then reaccelerate. But those are the three reasons.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Thanks, Rick, for that color. And maybe just a quick follow-up on Hospitality Solution. That slowed down a bit in this quarter So, I was just wondering how should we think about the Hospitality growth going forward, and puts and takes there on the growth profile.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. We had 10% growth there in the quarter, you're right. We've been running organically and the team's growth, we think that's absolutely possible. What we've shown again is there's still a lot of growth around the world in the independent hoteliers section, where we lead in central reservations and where we're only getting started on property management. So, again, property management is still relatively small in our total revenue mix. We've rolled out very successfully in the limited service with Wyndham. But we will then begin to bring that on into the independents and other enterprise. So we see the opportunity in Hospitality just as bullish as we always have and consistent with the results we've demonstrated.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Thanks again, Rick. And maybe one final question is just how should we think about the EBITDA at the segment level with the new guidance?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

EBITDA at the segment level, again, Travel Network for the full year, 39% to 39.5%; on the solutions business, about 100 basis points of pickup from last year rather than the previous 200 basis points, and again it's related to the guidance we've talked about extensively here today.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Okay. Thanks, Rick.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Abhey Lamba with Mizuho Securities.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah. Thank you. Sean, I wanted to follow up on your earlier comments about NDC. Now taking a step back, what's happening currently in the market that we've started to hear more and more of these discussions come up with multiple airlines? How do you think this will play out? And also, if you can comment about the Lufthansa situation, are you seeing other airlines use that as an example in your conversations with them?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. So let me start with Lufthansa, then I'll go back to NDC. Lufthansa, there really hasn't been no change there. Again, we continue to have dialog. The data that we have continuously tracks – really continues to show that when we look at indirect and direct bookings, they had essentially come back in line from a capacity growth perspective. So, very much in what I've spoken about, they sort of hit this plateau. We sort of hit this plateau and flattened out for a period of time. Let me expand a little bit on just NDC. So, a lot of activity, a lot of discussion, and it's important to – and I'm just going to take a moment to really walk through the three levels of NDC and what that means and then comes back to what is the responsibility of Sabre, the other GDSs, and then what is the responsibility of airlines, because this is something that I don't think people completely understand and that's important. As we have our discussions, we get into a lot of questions with airlines. So I'm going to share some of those with you, because I think it's important. When you look at level one, it's really just ancillary shopping, and we do that today for American Airlines. If you look at Main Cabin Extra and the capability of them really being able to do dynamic pricing after the transaction is done, that's really level one and we have that in place. When you have level two, level two is one where essentially there's a difference in who is actually putting the offer forward. So, today, if you're shopping from, call it, Salt Lake City to Minneapolis, we put that together from a shopping algorithm perspective. And in doing that, we go…

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

So there's complexity that needs to be mastered. There's scale that's got to be obtained in order to manage the cost at every level of NDC, whether it's Tier 1, 2 or 3. And again, Abhey, that's where we think we're well-positioned to master that. And as the different players start to look at that and realize it, not everybody can achieve those kinds of mastery of the complex or scale at a sustainable cost. That's essentially what a GDS does very well today. And as we extend that across looking at distribution of the direct, the indirect channel and operationalize in the airlines' reservation system, again as we said, we're one of the very few, handful of technology providers that can work with airlines, work with agencies, with hoteliers to master that at scale.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst

Got it. Thanks. And, Rick, if you can just kind of let us know how should we think about Accounting 606, that option on your revenues and margins next year? And that's it from my side.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. So, Accounting 606, we've gone through the work there in preparing for that. We'll retroactively adopt. We've got more detail on that coming out in our 10-Q. It'll be filed later today. And – excuse me, we'll have the modified retrospective transaction method. We really think there was minimal impact in Travel Network and Hospitality Solutions, but there will be some impact on Airline Solutions, and we'll update you at the next quarter on that. Well-prepared for it.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst

Okay.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Brian Essex with Morgan Stanley. Brian L. Essex - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning and thank you for taking the question. I guess, question for Sean, just to kind of take another high-level step back at this and all the transition that the company's gone through in the year. Certainly, a lot of transition at the executive level and spending initiatives, whether it's on the network, or applications, or availability and uptime. I guess, as you kind of communicate these changes to investors, is there an overarching philosophy that you're employing in terms of that communication process, how you anticipate this transition to unfold over the next couple of years? And then, is there an inflection point or a point where you might be able to draw a line in the sand and be able to give investors a clearer view of what the sustainable or long-term operating performance of this company might look like, and might it be different than the previous long-term views that the management team had had?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. I'm happy to address that. If you look at the first six months, a lot of transition taking place, and I'll start really at the executive level. You had individuals that had left the organization for different reasons. We spent and I have spent an enormous amount of time making sure that as we looked at new executives coming on board, it's really bringing in the talent that's going to allow us to continue to move this organization forward and address some of the things that we see as really strategic opportunities. And you always have the capability of when you're going through that change, what is the talent level that you really need? And the balance for me was having a level of industry expertise. But when you look at us from a technology perspective, how are we making sure that we've brought in individuals, very similar to Dave Shirk and Joe DiFonzo, that have worked not in the industry per se, but they've been in very complicated organizations that understand portfolio management, they understand data center management, they understand a number of things that we have to be from just a high resiliency perspective. So that was a big part of what we have been laying the groundwork in is getting that executive team in place. The other thing is really just focusing on where we're spending money, what are the objectives, what do we want to do. Again, when I mention Travel Network and Hospitality, I'm very comfortable with what we're doing. Flight Center is in the early stages of transitioning in Australia and New Zealand right now. I can tell you that they are tickled with where the product is. There's a lot that's going on. So the momentum that's there is really good momentum…

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Matthew Broome with Cowen & Company. Matthew Broome - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Can you give us any more detail on how the roll-outs of the new Sabre Red Workspace is going?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. Sabre Red Workspace is going very well. Sean mentioned that Flight Center was – I think you said tickled with, and I think that's right. I mean, obviously, we as a team are all very close to how that's being deployed and rolled out. And just a reminder, it sits on top of the Sabre Red platform. And the Sabre Red Workstation is essentially our API that is the tool that the agents use in sitting on top of that platform. We believe it's industry-leading. It allows agents to use the most modern graphical user interface, or toggle behind the older algorithms that they've used in the so-called older green screen. And we've shown that they can be more effective with the Sabre Red Workstation. And we did that as a pilot, as you'll recall, with Flight Center in Canada. When we picked up that business, it was very much determinative in having them select us for their lead GDS and picking up the business in Asia-Pac, and we're rolling that out very well. Importantly, though, is what it's doing for us and we've talked about other agency conversions and the benefit that that's going to be to the whole community. This just isn't an instance for a Flight Center. They're the first one. They helped inform and refine and accelerate at some of things that we did. And that's going to benefit the community of all agencies and we think we've got something that's differentiated in the marketplace. So, going very well.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. The other thing is we have agencies that are queuing up behind Flight Center relative to converting over to new Sabre Red Workspace. So, that's the important piece. The other thing that I do want to call out that, and this really builds off of what Rick was saying as it relates to the platform and the APIs, those APIs can be absorbed, and I did mention it in my comments, can be absorbed. And it doesn't have to be the full product. So there can be certain capabilities that we have via APIs that we're willing to offer up to other agencies that are out there maybe as it relates to trip management or could be in just booking tools that we're making those accessible as well.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Building ecosystem of platform where innovation comes from Sabre and it comes from other players in the ecosystem, and builds into that platform. Matthew Broome - Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. Thanks very much.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Jed Kelly with Oppenheimer. Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Back to booking share, is there anything to call out in regards to the global OTA share other than LatAm that you mentioned earlier. Any changes you are seeing in the OTA channel over the past 12 months? And then as the global carriers start to offer more basic economy fares, how are conversations with the OTA progressing and what type of solutions can you offer? And I have a follow-up after that.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. Jed, this is Rick. I'll take the OTA. No, it really is, the big dynamic is in Latin America. We don't see any change in how that's going forward. We're very comfortable with what our share around the world and in the markets are with OTAs. We've been continued to be at the forefront of that and making sure that we invest to service them. Sean, maybe on the global carriers.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. As it relates to – well, I'll touch on one thing. On just OTA in general, we see that it's actually relatively flat right now. There wasn't a big share increase, OTAs versus brick-and-mortar. So, not that that has stabilized for a long period of time because we have been seeing the shift over really the last five or six years, but it has stabilized a little bit. The capability of OTAs and selling really the basic economy, that is out there. We enable that. When you look at OTAs, it's a little bit different and each of the OTAs has a little bit of different strategy relative to the air potentially being the loss-leader to selling hotel. It's how do they actually want to sell it and are they selling ancillaries on top of that. So, and again, this is something that we enable and it really gets into the strategy by which the OTAs want to sell their products and services, and it becomes a discussion between really an airline and an OTA. Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.: Thanks. That's helpful. And then one more is, how should we think about the Wyndham contract as it relates to out of your Hospitality growth? And does that contract starting to roll-off present any type of headwind to 2018?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, Jed. This is Rick. As we said, we're well-deployed in terms of the vast number on the limited service property management. We still have quite a bit of conversion to do on the reservation. Remember, on CRS, they were going from four systems to one, and we're doing it brand-by-brand as we go through that. So we're still going to get some continuing benefit from that here as we go through the rest of the year.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

And that will continue a little bit into 2018 as well, the ramp-up. Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Brad Erickson with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Brad D. Erickson - Pacific Crest Securities

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I think you mentioned LatAm sounded incrementally better on ramping first half next year. So, wanted to confirm that that was the message. And then, second, just any update to Copa and that implementation as we look out into 2018 and 2019?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Sure, Brad. On LatAm, there's no change as it's reiterating exactly where we've been on schedule there. And then, Copa, as we've said, they shifted their focus for a time and we continue to sell to them other solutions, work with them, and we'll see what happens in terms of their decision on reservations. So, nothing to update there.

Brad D. Erickson - Pacific Crest Securities

Analyst

Got it. And then, just secondarily, this has been tossed around a few times, but on the IAG portal and the surcharge there, can you kind of talk about just what your formal expectations are as that ramps in November? Is it such that you would expect to see some fall off in volumes, but offset by the better pricing? Or just kind of what are your formal fundamental expectations around the dynamics there? Thanks.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. So we're spending a lot of time in discussions with IAG relative to really what they're driving toward as it relates to their strategy. There's a number of discussions that will continue to take place as we look at what essentially will be the selling mechanism or how it will be sold, what agencies will be driving certain things. So there's a lot that's still in play right now. So, to give clear definition, we're just not in a position to do that.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Hey, Brad. Just as a reminder, I mean, IAG, particularly BA and Iberia which were affected by this, are less than 2% of our GDS bookings and in that way it's in about the same size range as the Lufthansa Group.

Brad D. Erickson - Pacific Crest Securities

Analyst

Got it. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Neil Steer with Redburn. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Hi. Thanks very much indeed for taking my question. Just a quick one. $25 million spent, but the annualized savings of $110 million seems quite a lot. Could you just give us some color on how you're going to get a payback of over 4:1?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Just is where it is, Neil. We've reduced very heavily in the VP and above ranks. And so, again, I think sometimes with the forced reductions, people say, jeez, you really aren't getting much economically because you're looking at places where the cost basis is low. This was a determined effort to make sure that we haven't touched developers, on the product and all that, that's important, number one. First I want to emphasize that. And then it's taking out layers of essentially higher cost employees in management that with the improvements that we've made to our systems, our tools, our technology and our focus, we're able to do that. So I would acknowledge that you get a little bit more economic gain for the impact there.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Yeah. Let me add. I mean, the $25 million is really related to severance. You get the full-year savings, that's where you get to the $110 million or something. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Yeah.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

That's a simple breakdown. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Okay. Thanks. I know this is potentially quite commercially sensitive, but there are clearly parts of the Airline Solutions that you're actively deemphasizing. Does that then have a follow-on effect in years to come in terms of the revenue trajectory of that product set?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Well, it allows us – I mean, this gets into what is actually producing, what is not producing. And as we continue to look at what's going to drive the business, and it's what we've talked about for a period of time, and part of this is what we've articulated really throughout the six months, is there's a number of products that were in development that really weren't driving a lot of revenue. So, again, it's being really focused on the ones that are going to drive revenue, going to drive return and are strategic because it relates to a number of things that I was commenting on earlier. Rick, and I don't know if you have anything else to add.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. First, it's focus on really the core, which is reservation and the connected airline on some of the revenue management optimization products that we have in AirVision. And then, secondly, it's don't continue to invest in the intensity of the other products that we had in the past, given the return and what customers are willing to pay to buy them. But there isn't decision yet that we've communicated on any further than that. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: That's useful. Thanks very much.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Neil.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll go to Dan Wasiolek with Morningstar.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. So, based on your earlier commentary on going through these transitions and kind of how you're balancing capital allocation and shareholder return, and is shareholder return such as buyback something that you guys are looking at as being opportunistic? Or how does that kind of prioritize with then spending back into the business? Thanks.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. Thanks, Dan. We look at everything through the lens of return on invested capital, whether it's investment in the organic business, it's M&A or it's share buybacks. And we're working under the $500 million authorization program on the share buyback we aim to offset over a year period, year-ish rather by technology company standards modest dilution of about 5 million plus shares. And then within that, we do work a program and opportunistically within any quarter. So, I gave you the numbers of what we've done through the first half and continue to execute on that. We've got the capital structure and the strength and the flexibility to continue to pay our dividend, have it grow with the growth in net income and then use flexibly the share repurchase under that $500 million authorization.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And that is all the questions we have for today. I'll turn things back over to Mr. Menke for closing remarks.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Operator

Great. Thank you very much. And again, I want to thank everybody for their interest in the organization and getting the update on what's taking place. As I mentioned, a lot of good momentum as we move into the second half of the year and we look forward to continuing to share the progress in the months to come. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

And that will conclude today's conference call. Thank you everyone for your participation. You may now disconnect.