Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending December 31, 2022

February 16, 2023 9:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to the Hyatt Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Call. After the speakers’ remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Hoppe, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Noah Hoppe

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Hyatt's fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joan Bottarini, Hyatt's Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our annual report on Form 10-K quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other SEC files. These risks could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued today, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. In addition, you can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in today's remarks on our Web site at Hyatt.com under the Financial Reporting section of our Investor Relations link and in this morning's earnings release. An archive of this call will be available on our Web site for 90 days. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Mark Hoplamazian

Thank you, Noah. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hyatt's fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. I'd like to begin today by thanking all 189,000 members of our Hyatt family for their remarkable contributions to a truly transformative year. We successfully navigated a rapid RevPAR recovery that was unlike anything we've previously experienced. We've successfully integrated Apple Leisure Group and made meaningful progress toward our asset disposition commitment. We also led the industry in organic growth for the sixth consecutive year. These achievements are a direct result of the extraordinary efforts and thoughtful execution by our Hyatt family members, and I'm honored to lead such an outstanding team who is guided by our purpose to care for people so they can be their best. Our financial results also reflect the considerable achievements of our team. We concluded the year with another record breaking quarter, bringing our full year adjusted EBITDA to $908 million plus $94 million of net deferrals and $63 million of net finance contracts, with the sum of these three numbers more than 40% above the adjusted EBITDA we generated in 2019. The record level of earnings and free cash flow that we achieved in 2022 is primarily the result of successfully executing on two key elements of our strategy, optimizing capital deployment and investing in new growth platforms. This strategy was first outlined approximately five years ago and included a commitment to realize proceeds from the sale of owned real estate assets and prioritize the reinvestment of those proceeds into asset light growth platforms to accelerate our fee based earnings, broaden our portfolio and enhance guest connectivity to Hyatt. The execution of this strategy has been nothing short of remarkable.