Earnings Labs

Sabre Corporation (SABR)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 31, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Sabre Third 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, re-transmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express 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.

Barry J. Sievert - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thank you, Kim, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our third quarter earnings 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'd like to advise you that our comments contain forward-looking statements. These statements include among others disclosures of our guidance, including revenue, EBITDA, net income, EPS, cash flow, and CapEx, our expected segment results, the effects of changes in accounting standards, and in 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 second 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 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, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on our third quarter earnings call. Before I get into my prepared remarks for today, I do want to take the opportunity, once again, to thank the employees of Sabre. You know I've been in my role now for ten months and I've been pushing the team extremely hard, and we spent a lot of time at our strategic opportunities and alignment, really focused on the discipline and prioritizations of things that need to take place within the organization, and also looking at the talent relative to what we need to do to get things accomplished. We've spent time really looking at our investment, the profile of those investments, and the budget, management, and what needs to take place. From my seat, it's very clear to me that the efforts that we have going on are really paying off, and I'm seeing a more crisp organization as we move forward. And this really does drive forward as we look at what's happening with our tech strategy, how that is really aligning with what's taking place in our products and services and the strategy for those, which drives really customer engagement, and how do we look at our customer engagement, where we need to continue to drive things. All this is about people and the organization, and that's why I'm very grateful to the individuals throughout Sabre and what they are getting done, because we are pushing them and asking them to do things so we look at the future and understand the opportunities that sit out there. All this drives into how are we looking at the organization for rigor and accountability, focusing on financial, operations, and commercial. And really driving to what's important to you and…

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Sean. Turning back to the results for the quarter, in Airline and Hospitality Solutions, Q3 revenue increased 5% to $275 million. It was driven by mid-single-digit growth at AirVision, AirCentre, and Hospitality Solutions growth in the mid-teens. Offset somewhat by the modest decline in SabreSonic revenue due to services to Southwest-related legacy reservation system that have now ended. Solutions' EBITDA margins were 40.6%, resulting in Solutions' EBITDA of $112 million, representing strong growth of 17%. EBITDA growth was supported by benefits from the cost reduction and business alignment program initiated in August 2017, as well as the favorable overlap of service-level agreement, or SLA, payments that were made a year-ago period. Passengers boarded totaled 187 million in the quarter, a 9% decline year-over-year due to the impact of Southwest. Excluding Southwest, total passengers boarded increased 12%, which includes the benefit of the Alitalia migration in Q4 2016 and a strong macro environment that drove consistent carrier growth of 8%. Q3 Travel Network revenue increased 9% to $632 million, driven by bookings growth of 3.2%. Average booking fee growth in the quarter was driven by favorable customer pricing and positive mix, including faster growth in high-value geographies like Europe, Middle East, Africa. Adjusted EBITDA increased 8% to $237 million in the quarter, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 37.5%. EBITDA growth was supported by the benefits of the cost reduction and business alignment program initiated in August 2017 and the favorable overlap of the impairment charge related to a travel agency customer insolvency in the year-ago period. This was offset primarily by higher incentive expense, mainly due to the large agency renewal signed in 2016, as well as regional mix and new agency conversions, particularly in EMEA. Full-year adjusted EBITDA margin expectations of 39% to 39.5% remain intact. As expected, bookings…

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, Rick. The third quarter was solid and straightforward, reflecting our strong focus and execution. As I mentioned, our teams are working hard to accelerate our efforts, and I want to commend them for their dedication and enthusiasm, but there's so much more work to be done to position the company for its next leg of growth during a time of evolution across the industry, but we are definitely up for the challenge. 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, I will ask the operator to open up the call for your questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question today is from David Moerdler (sic) [Mark Moerdler] from Bernstein Research. Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Hello. I apologize, it's Mark Moerdler. Sean, the passengers boarded to the Airline Solutions was quite robust. How do you see that trend continuing? I know obviously you're not guiding to next year, but can you give a sense of the pipeline deals versus the expectations for additional passengers boarded, et cetera? Just any color would be appreciated. And then a quick follow-up.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, happy to do that, Mark. So as we look at it great, you're correct that if you look at it, there has been decent growth, just on the base level on the PB side of the equation. As we look at campaigns going forward we continue to see, you know, from my perspective, carriers that continue to look at the opportunity that is out there. We are engaged in a few discussions, that I would say, have been a little more advanced than probably the last call that we've had. So I continue to stay optimistic, but again, as we look at this, I think as we have discussions with carriers, a lot of carriers are trying to understand as the distribution world changes, how does this actually impact the PSS side of the equation as well? Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Excellent, and then can you give – you touched a bit on the investments. Can you give a sense where you were in that process in terms of the work you had to do on the GS side, on the airline side, just a comfort of where you are in it, and how much more still needs to be accomplished?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, so the teams have done a significant amount of work on this. And as we've broken it down, as we look at the technology, technology sort of platform where we're at right now, it does start with what do we feel that we need to do as it relates to just core infrastructure, and we have a good line-of-sight really on what we want to do on data infrastructure strategy. Part of this is being led by Joe DiFonzo, so there's a significant amount of work that has been done there. The other thing is really with platforms and the way that we're looking at that going forward, and we continue to gain line-of-sight on the things that are happening there. Vish just joined the organization, so I have to give him a little time to get ramped up, but there is a lot of work that was done prior to him joining the organization, that we're essentially handing the baton off to him. As we get into the products and I really break it down as it relates to Travel Network, I'm very pleased with where we are with Sabre Red Workspace and really the underlying platform that's there. And we've spoken a lot about that, because that provides us the agility to really add content, not only for Sabre Red but for anybody that would like to absorb those API or web services. If we look at the Hospitality side of the equation, the primary focus right now as it relates to development, is really on the property management system and B4 (32:46) that we talked about during the second quarter, and the teams are well upon-are really tracking well on what they need to deliver there. And then on Airline Solutions, the one that we probably highlighted the most, a lot of effort and with Dave Shirk coming on board, been able to do a number of deep dives and understanding the priorities by which we need to focus on what are the products and really services out there that are going to drive, what I consider and Rick is focused on, the greatest return. So I'm very comfortable with where we sit right now and this is where we are focused is how do we make sure that we have this aligned properly as we go into 2018. The important thing in this too is the sequencing of all of these things and that's probably where we're spending most of our time is you got to be careful that you can't do all of these things at once, that there are foundational things that need to take place that allow us to look at the appropriate investment and the schedule of that investment going forward. And Rick, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, thanks, Sean and Mark. It's important, it is the sequencing, it's the pivot, and so there's a sharper focus on investing for higher return across our product portfolio, as well as in the tech stack. And as we've shown again in the three months, capital expenditures and adjusted capital expenditures have gone down. Same as in the nine months, but that has allowed us to rotate more into these platform areas that Sean's talked about that enable the next level of stability, security, and importantly the evolution of distribution for this dual world as we move to a refined business model there. So that's the balance. We think we're increasingly playing that well with the discipline, and it's allowing us to spend more on technology that matters for product health, customer health, and leading the evolution of the industry, and we're taking that away from things that are a result of a tighter focus and better operational rigor. Mark L. Moerdler - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Excellent. Thank you. Much appreciate the detail.

Operator

Operator

Moving on, we have a question from John King from Merrill Lynch.

John P. King - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Merrill Lynch

Yeah, good morning. Thank you for taking the questions and congratulations on the Q3. It is actually pretty much a follow-up on Mark's questions. If you go back to the appointment, I think, of Vish, the CTO, I think if I'm right you called out a migration to open systems and I guess away from some of the TPF modules as a part of the future. Maybe, Sean, if you can just talk about that project and how long it could take, how much it could cost from a modernization standpoint? And then related to that, I know you said last quarter, Rick, you're committed to reducing the capital intensity overall to deliver the free cash flow growth in line with revenue next year. I just wanted to understand what specifically might happen to the budget for CapEx for the PSS? And maybe if you can give us a bit more detail as to what kinds of modules get deprioritized in order to deliver on that outlook?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

John, let me go ahead and start with your first question and then I'll go ahead and pass it to Rick. So prior to Vish joining the organization, we had a whole host of individuals within Sabre, and we brought in expertise outside of the organization to really look at how do we accelerate the balance of what we want to move off of mainframe. And in doing that, I think the one thing that we definitely have focused on internally and has been pointed out, is that when you go back and there has been a number of comparisons made specifically to one of our primary competitors that the dollars and the time it took, technology has definitely advanced over that period of time. And I think the other thing that is important to note is people go through long transitions, there's things that when you look back, you probably wish you would have done differently. As we look at it, we have identified an approach that we feel comfortable with, that allows us to look at how do we migrate certain things off of TPF, how do we potentially wrap things around TPF. But in doing that, we've handed that work off to Vish, and the important thing when you have any new executive come on board, he is going to be the individual that owns this. And it's important that he understands essentially the strategy that has been laid out and what corrections he would like to make to that strategy. When we look at it from the investment profile, and I know this is where the strives as it relates to the dollars associated, and I continue to be very strong in my opinion here is that as we go through the prioritization process of what we're doing right now, we are finding that we're aligning dollars to the most valuable projects that are out there. The other thing that we're doing is we have been very focused on how do we drive efficiency within the organization, what are the things that we can stop doing that allow us to fund what we find are the most important things. And that was a big thing that we really did in working through the second quarter and announced in July was the realignment of the organization. We continue to focus on what are those opportunities as we look at our global workforce. So, the reason I go through all of that, is we know that there is dollars that are required for all of our investments, but how do we make sure that we're very laser focused on what we can do internally in funding those projects, and also how are we looking at new technologies and capabilities in working with different partners outside of Sabre. Rick?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, John, you know guys, as we talked about, this is the last question about capital intensity, and then specifically you asked about PSS CapEx. And to Sean's point, is in the Airline Solutions portfolio, PSS and the commercial suite, what we call AirVision, really, those are priority, right, to invest at the right rates, the right time, get the right return on investment, and we're doing well there. And we're just going from a strength to, we hope, better strength there. That really is kind of how we think about the connected airline. That's the intelligence and the critical systems and it's part of the whole distribution underpinning of air travel and the commercial optimization for the airlines. And so we're making sure across the company, so both within AS portfolio and across the company, to make sure that we focus or pull some resources away or get better in order to put more into those areas. On some of the operation side we talked about before, it hadn't been getting acceptable return on investment, and that's where we're changing how we go about that in order to free up dollars.

John P. King - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Merrill Lynch

Thank you. And if I could just ask one quick follow-up, Rick, just breaking down the very strong pricing growth you saw in Travel Network between mix, which, I guess, should've been favorable to you, and then offset by any like-for-like price increase, which also seems to have played a role?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, it is exactly that way. And as we said, we don't expect quite that much of the price-uplifting in Q4, so we had a little bit of that that won't continue. On the flip side, we had a little bit of unexpected impact on the revenue from the hurricanes, so if it's about 1% of bookings, 130 million bookings, you get about 1.3 million bookings. And so good quarter there. We liked how it played out. But want to caution that we won't have that kind of positive pricing benefit in Q4. But again, remember, Q4 is seasonal. And in the second half, both Q3 and Q4, we have lower EBITDA margins in Travel Network. And that's why we're confident of getting to the 39% to 39.5% for the total year.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, another thing to point out here, and this just gets into the higher-value markets that Rick had in his script in EMEA. We had 16% growth in EMEA. We had 11% growth in APAC. And this really does align to the strategies. We look at the GDS side of the equation, and looking at ourselves and the growth that we can continue to have within the marketplace in Europe and the Middle East as well as in Asia. And again, when we look at what our rates are from an airline perspective, those are greater rates than what we have in the Americas.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks, John.

John P. King - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Merrill Lynch

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today is from Jim Schneider from Goldman Sachs. Lara Fourman - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Good morning. This is Lara Fourman stepping in for Jim Schneider today. I was wondering, on the Solutions margins, you guys showed really healthy margin expansion there, and if you could talk a little bit about if Southwest rolling off is helping that? Or if not, doing work for other Solutions that have been mixed is helping that, or if there's just underlying efficiencies there?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

I think our Solutions margin, again, benefited from, one, an easier comparison from last year, where we had higher expenses, SLA expenses, and we have the onboarding of Alitalia fully in this year as well. That's primarily it. The roll-off of Southwest really isn't a positive to the margins. It was high margin and had good flow-through. But we also really benefited from the cost reduction progress, that I called out that we implemented that. So you can't lose sight of the cost-reduction program, and we took care of things in the G&A side, and in some of the sales side that weren't revenue producing, and we're getting it right sized for that. That's the biggest input. The other things are ins and outs that you're all familiar with and haven't changed. Lara Fourman - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thanks. And then on the Travel Network margins, obviously, the OTAs have put some pressure on margins this year, but do you expect that they can return to those next year?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, the OTAs are growing. We grow along with them. They do have, the bigger ones, a bit of a lower margin profile. But we haven't given any update for 2018 to the TN margins.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, and the important thing on this as well, Rick stated it during his comments, is we've identified that the margins for 2017 were going to be in the range of 39% to 39.5% at the beginning of the year. We restated that that's where they're going to be. Typically, what we do see and it's a seasonal basis that we see year in and year out, as the first half margins are stronger, the second half margins are weaker. So it's playing out as we had actually thought it would play out at the beginning of the year. Lara Fourman - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Next we'll go to Jed Kelly from Oppenheimer. Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Two, if I may. Can you just touch on what's causing some of the agency contracts that were supposed to on-board later in 4Q to on-board in 2019? And then my second question, I guess, is as the OTAs continue to invest more in lodging marketing, is there an opportunity for you to actually service the OTAs more, more on their air technology, because I get a sense they're going to invest more in their marketing versus their air?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, Jed, this is Rick. On the agency contracts, again, it's just really a bit of slowing of some of the conversions, particularly in the Americas, that we're working on. And we just see those coming on. There's nothing there. There is not a consistent pattern there. It's a small handful of agencies.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

And on your second question, as it relates to OTAs focused on developing their technology, more specifically on the lodging side, this is – when we look at what's happening in the evolution of distribution, specifically within the airlines, this is one of the key reasons I think, we have a very strong position in helping not only OTAs, but also just brick-and-mortar agencies, TMCs. Because when you look at each company and their investments and how do they look at where do they want to invest for the high value of what they're trying to do, a lot of what we're hearing as we have our discussions with a number of agencies around the world is making sure that we are front and center as it relates to the distribution and the changes in distribution on the airline side of the equation, that allows them to look at how do they make sure that they're investing in the things that are going to give them the greatest return as well. So those conversations are taking place, and you're spot on on the way that they're looking at it. Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra from Deutsche Bank.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Solid quarter. My question was going to be around the percentage on EBITDA going forward. Thanks for laying out, detailing out the investment that you're making in terms of the products as well as infrastructure. There's also some benefits coming in from the realignment initiatives. Just as we think about the percentage going forward, can you just help us understand what are the tailwinds and the investments, should we consider 2018 as another year of investments with new CTOs and CIO coming onboard?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, well, basically, Ashish, it's just the focus, as you said. We had done a lot of work at the end of the year and coming into the beginning of the year to prepare for the onboarding of some of the new leaders, both external, internal moves. Vish at the CTO being one of those, Joe DiFonzo, CIO, a bit earlier, Dave Shirk at the lead of AS, and Clinton Anderson moving over to HS. And they're well positioned to receive that and start the focus that we've talked about. So, we still are at the same place that we said. We see dynamics at this point in 2018, both in the market dynamic and shaping up similar to 2017. And again, the preliminary guide that we've given as revenue would shape up for similar growth in 2018 versus 2017, pre any change in 606 accounting, which I droned on about in the call. And that level of pre-606 revenue growth would expect it to flow through similar to free cash flow. And so those are the dynamics that we have, and the new folks are playing into that well, and just sharpening up the execution on that.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Thanks for the color. And just a quick question about any plans for Analyst Day or giving out a mid-term guidance?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, as we said, we will give our guidance on 2018 at the Q4 call. And Sean, and Barry and I have been consistent, we'll look to give guidance ahead of that of how things might transpire in the following years at that time and later. We aren't prepared to do that now.

Ashish Sabadra - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today is from Abhey Lamba from Mizuho Securities.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho Securities

Yeah, thank you. It's Mizuho Securities. So, Sean, thanks for the update on the NDC technology and the investments you're making. When we look at the Airline Solutions business for the new business contracts you kind of show up, or some of the meaningful contracts you sign, do we need the completion of these investments that you're making? Or are there other things that you're working on that can expedite that process?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, I mean, they're completely different investments and what's taking place. So if I speak more specifically, and I think you're speaking of the TAM rollout, that's just investment that's taking place. Everything that I was mentioning as it relates to our focus on distribution, retailing and distribution, and how we're looking at it within each of the business units, specifically Travel Network as well as Airline Solutions, that's separate. So, we are looking at those separate, but as I said – and this goes back to the prioritization of investments, making sure that as we look at what we need to deliver, that is taken care of, and then what is the investment on top of that that is focused on our business strategy going forward.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho Securities

Got it. And Rick, I know you're not giving 2018 guidance right now, but can you give any qualitative puts and takes in terms of how we should think about your margins and revenues next year?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

No, I could repeat what I just said last question, but otherwise, I really can't, because let's – we're just – as we said, we want to lay out what our priorities are, where the focus is, increase a focus on return on investment across the different investments, whether it's at the platform stack or at the product level, and judge us by have we done that, or are we making progress? And we think we are, and again, we're able to put some proof points on that, hopefully, here in Q3 with respect to in Q4, and then we'll have a better view on 2018, beyond what I've painted at a high level.

Abhey Rattan Lamba - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho Securities

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Moving on, we'll hear from Brian Essex from Morgan Stanley. Brian L. Essex - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking the question. Rick, maybe – or maybe this is a question for Sean. Particularly as you have conversations with carriers about NDC, and they try and balance their primarily indirect distribution between OTAs and TMCs, I guess, where do you see the – particularly considering what the OTA mix looks like now, and maybe that kind of inventory is more commodity in nature, I mean, do you see a meaningful opportunity there for the role that you'll play in the distribution, and potentially some upside in economics as OTAs may revisit the role they play with airline distribution?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, let me tackle that, and I'll let Rick add some comments. So when we have conversations with airlines around the world – I was in APAC for a couple of weeks about a month ago, and spent time in Europe as well with the carriers here in the Americas, both North and South America. The one thing that I don't think is coming across really clearly is that each of these carriers are looking at it a little bit differently. And in doing that, their primary focus is on how are they driving more revenue. And as they look at distribution, they are focused on what are the forms of distribution that are going to drive the higher revenue components, and that's an important sort of distinction as you break this down. And what is clear – and we continue to see this play out – is the important role that agency have both on, be it the TMCs, the brick-and-mortar agents, as well as OTAs. And in doing that, I see us sitting squarely in the middle relative to thinking through how all this comes together, and actually being the voice that's driving a lot of this. I think there has been, actually, a void in the travel ecosystem on how we drive this forward, and that's something that I'm very adamant that we are going to do. And I can relate to what a number of these executives are going through, as they think through the constraints that they're working through and trying to drive more revenue, and technology sits right in the middle of it. And not only is it related to what's happening on OTAs or the brick-and-mortar, but what's happening, what they've been able to accomplish on the direct side of the equation. And…

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, so the important thing is, and it will be – what you'll find is – I can give you an example of having conversations with different carriers, and when they look at NDC, they look at it a little bit differently. Remember, NDC is a protocol, right, it's a development protocol standard is what it is. What NDC is driving towards is how do you sell more products and services, or how are you being able to present them in a different way to be able to do that? And what we find is different carriers have different strategies as it relates to that. The one thing that I think is going to drive this is really locking into a couple of carriers that are going to be at the forefront of this. And this is typically what we see, is companies go to the forefront relative to what they're going to sell, because of the way products and services are sold throughout – call it, the airline business in the indirect channel. There has to be a level of standardization that's there, and that's where we are going to be the voice of reason on what can and cannot be done because we also have to make sure – and this is one thing that I have been very vocal about with specific carriers, and I have asked them, as you begin to think about changing what you are selling, or how you begin to enhance it more, how are you looking at revenue management? Because revenue managing with classes of service in the hierarchy is completely different if you are putting a dynamic offer together, and that's why we're focused on that. That's why we're focused on how that gets pushed into the PSS system. So it's what I would consider to be some really detailed conversations that's just not about how do you just change the selling of it, but how do you do the fulfillment of it at the end of the day.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Hey, Brian, this is Rick. I would add it means airlines are going to pace what they are investing in the protocol, NDC, and it means we are as well. And it's important to realize that while there are a number of airlines who are more at the forefront of this, and Sean has talked all year about how that is changing, and a number of those, those are the ones that we're looking to work with and evolve this and set along the basic standards so there aren't multiple flavors. But it's important to realize the majority of the airlines aren't in a position right now or don't need or want to. And just to put a little bit of frame on that is we have got – in the quarter, out of our well over 400 airlines around the world that we service through the GDS, we renewed a couple dozen of those, and those are all at the normal structure. It has nothing to do with NDC or different protocol. And to the year, we've renewed closer to 50 of those, again, that are outside of any discussion of near-term change relative to the model in terms of incorporating NDC. And I think what has come out in the last month or so since we last talked is a real clarity around how the GDSs are critically important at the center of new distribution protocols. You've heard that from the big TMCs, the big OTAs, and even the airlines, like American Airlines, stating that. And so it is going to be paced and we can pace along with that. Brian L. Essex - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today is from Matthew Broome from Cowen & Company. Matthew Broome - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi, thanks for taking my call. Just one from me, how would you characterize the pipeline for your Hospitality Solutions business? Thanks.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, again, as we've said, we have good growth in the AirVision, AirCentre this quarter. Oh, I'm sorry, you said Hospitality. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. My bad. Consistent. People are a little bit concerned. Are we going to grow continued at mid-teens? I think we put that to rest in Q3. We had strong growth there. That will continue and make the year, as expected, in the teens growth with Hospitality. That's driven by our central reservation systems, both across the whole global independent hoteliers where there continues to be a lot of growth there. And then benefited from the fact that we still are doing some cut-overs on the Wyndham corporate central reservation systems and we have more of that to go here in the fourth quarter, as we talked about, as well as into the beginning of 2018. So intact for that teens' growth in Hospitality Solutions is what we're seeing. Matthew Broome - Cowen & Co. LLC: Thanks, very much.

Operator

Operator

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

Brad Erickson - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

Hi, thanks, just had two follow ups. First, could we just get a quick update on Alitalia as it pertains to the outlook, and then any update you're able to provide on the expected LATAM implementation? Thanks.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. So Alitalia is continuing to operate under the protection of the trustee. We continue to get paid. We continue to provide them with critical services that are allowing them to improve their operations. So we don't have any change there. LATAM, as I mentioned before, we're working hard on that and it's expected to cut over in the first half next year. And so when that cuts over, we do get the benefit of another implementation on our SabreSonic that is for an airline. We're running the long side of that, if you'll recall. This brings on the TAM side of that, and that's an incremental 40 million-plus passengers boarded.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Back on Alitalia, they've reported that relative to the line, I think it was €600 million that government have provided them, that they had not even tapped into that yet. That their performance is actually improving from a financial perspective.

Brad Erickson - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

That's great. And then just following up on a lot of the NDC questions guys have been asking. Can you just talk about how we should think about NDC relative to the maintenance and incremental CapEx associated there? Any potential changes, capital intensity-wise, that investors should be thinking about for going forward? Thank you.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, again, we're building that into our plans, and how we're pacing and doing rotation to the highest priorities, the highest values, so no, not anything additional to add there. And again, this will be the incorporation of NDC protocol, in that piece in this evolution is a many-year evolution. And that's a good thing. That makes you able to better manage the pacing of that and focus when the market is ready and the airlines are ready.

Brad Erickson - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

Got it. I guess, just fundamentally there, though, does NDC serve to sort of drive that initiative you've been looking to do over the last year or so to reduce capital intensity ultimately? Is that kind of the message you are aiming to tell here?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, it's part of it. I think where I would start is what we had talked about on data infrastructure strategy platform capabilities agility. Because the marketplace, as it continues to evolve, and this is why when we look at moving more off of mainframe, it gives us the agility to make the adjustments to what the marketplace needs. And that's the right investment, because there won't be a lot of capital intensity, if you are essentially developing to the core, and that's what this is all about is to make sure that we're providing ourselves flexibility agility that will benefit ourselves and benefit our customers going forward.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Again, that's more medium longer term.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah.

Brad Erickson - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets

Great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Dan Wasiolek from Morningstar.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst · Morningstar

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Kind of switching gears back to the Travel Network. Wondering if you can give some color on how each of the regional markets grew? And also, if you can give some information on what percent of your new APAC customer has been on-boarded and kind of where you see that toward the end of this year? Thank you.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, Well, regionally, as we showed in our slides there, we had good growth in the quarter, EMEA, 16% bookings growth, 10.8% in APAC. And again, that is being contributed to now by that big agency conversion in APAC. And in North America and Latin America, we did have the 1.9% declines. And again, the biggest impact on that was the impact from the approximate 1.3 million bookings lost due to the hurricanes. But as well, I had mentioned that some of the conversions in the Americas got pushed out a little bit, those two things contributed to that. In terms of the conversion of the big agency in APAC continuing on here in the quarter, will continue a bit into the first quarter of 2018.

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah. On that, the first component of the conversion, Flight Center conversion is on the leisure side, their leisure business. And their leisure business probably makes up close to 70% of their total business. We are actually tracking ahead of what the schedule was on the conversions taking place, so the number of stores that they have within Australia and New Zealand is going really well. What was always assumed is the business component would be the second phase of that, and that will roll out late this year into early next year.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst · Morningstar

Okay, helpful. And any information just on how the industries grew for air bookings in the respective regions for the overall market?

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, we're waiting for detail on that as it comes out, and it will come out in the next weeks.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst · Morningstar

Fair enough.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

And again, we feel good about how we positioned and played in Q3, and hopefully giving you the ins and outs to get the granularity.

Dan Wasiolek - Morningstar, Inc.

Analyst · Morningstar

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take a question from Neil Steer from Redburn. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Hi, thanks very much and thanks for the commentary on NDC. Is there any specific feedback that you can share from the agents with regards to the American NDC strategy that was announced a couple of months ago?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Well, I mean, the thing that continues to come back from the agency, I think you're hearing them be a lot more vocal probably than they have before with what is playing in the marketplace is that, you know, offsetting in the middle of that from a technology perspective. The question that agencies always ask, be it if it's going through a direct channel, is what forms of investment are they going to have to make to make sure that the new booking sort of flow aligns with what they have in the mid- and back-office. And what you often hear is that the dollars that they will be getting aren't enough to pay for the changes that they're going to have to make in development. And that's one thing that, again, is people continue to listen to the entire story, is what additive investment is going to be required on the agencies, be it a brick-and-mortar or an OTA, if the distribution model changes. And remember, they have been – and they've spent millions and millions of dollars aligning their systems to the GDS and the GDS capabilities. And if you would change that, essentially – I go back to sort of heart transplants. You're doing a heart transplant, and there's costs associated with that, and when you look at what is being offered by some of the airlines, what agencies are essentially – what we're hearing is just not enough for them to be enticed because of this development that they will have on the back end. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Okay. Thanks for that. And my understanding of this may be slightly incorrect, so correct me if I'm wrong, but if you provide NDC content to the agents, is the agents liable to reimburse the airline for any fees that the airline pays you as a distribution fee? Because that way, I'm not sure the economics from the agent's perspective actually changes if they use NDC Level 3 through you in any case.

Richard A. Simonson - Sabre Corp.

Management

No, don't see it that way. Remember, NDC itself doesn't deliver, isn't determinative of the content on that or the business model. But, no. Neil Edwin Steer - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude today's question-and-answer session. With that, I would like to turn the call back to Mr. Menke for closing remarks. Mr. Menke?

Sean E. Menke - Sabre Corp.

Management

Yeah, great. Thank you very much, and I appreciate everybody joining the call today. As you can see, there's a lot of momentum taking place at Sabre across a number of different areas. And the one thing that I would be remiss, and I've said it a couple of times – I can't thank the employees enough of what they're doing and the changes that are taking place within this organization as we continue to gain momentum and move into 2018. So, again, look forward to talking to you at the year end.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude our conference today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.