Mondee Holdings Inc (MOND) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Mondee second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Please note this event is being recorded.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Mondee 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。請注意此事件正在被記錄。

\I will now like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Houston, Senior Vice President. Jeff, please go ahead.

我現在想將電話會議轉交給高級副總裁傑夫休斯頓。傑夫，請繼續。

Thank you, Kayla, and good morning to everyone. Welcome to Mondee's second-quarter 2024 conference call. With me today is our Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Prasad Gundumogula; and Chief Financial Officer, Jesus Portillo; Executive Vice Chairman, Orestes Fintiklis; and Chief Operating Officer, James W. Dullum, who will present our results and be available for questions and answers.

謝謝你，凱拉，祝大家早安。歡迎參加 Mondee 2024 年第二季電話會議。今天和我在一起的是我們的創辦人、董事長兼執行長 Prasad Gundumogula；財務長 Jesus Portillo； Orestes Fintiklis 執行副主席；營運長 James W. Dullum 將介紹我們的結果並隨時回答問題。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements. Including statements about revenue, growth of our business, our management and governance plans and other non-historical statements as further described in our press release. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those related to Mondee's growth, the evolution of our industry, our product development and success, our management performance and general economic and business conditions. We undertake no obligation to revise any statements to reflect changes that occur after this call.

在開始之前，我想提醒大家，這次電話會議可能包含前瞻性陳述。包括有關收入、業務成長、管理和治理計劃的聲明以及我們的新聞稿中進一步描述的其他非歷史聲明。這些前瞻性陳述受到某些風險、不確定性和假設的影響，包括與 Mondee 的成長、產業發展、產品開發和成功、管理績效以及總體經濟和商業狀況相關的風險、不確定性和假設。我們沒有義務修改任何聲明以反映本次電話會議後所發生的變更。

Descriptions of these and other risks that could cause actual results to have a material difference from these forward-looking statements are discussed in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in our earnings press release that was issued this morning. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. During this call, we also refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the most comparable GAAP measures are also available in the press release, which is available at investors.mondee.com.

我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的報告以及今天上午發布的收益新聞稿中討論了可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述產生重大差異的這些風險和其他風險的描述。前瞻性陳述是基於涉及風險和不確定性的預期，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果有重大差異。請聽眾不要過度依賴任何前瞻性陳述。在本次電話會議中，我們也提到了非公認會計準則財務指標。新聞稿中也提供了最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的調節表，該新聞稿可在 Investors.mondee.com 上取得。

With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Prasad.

至此，我很高興將電話轉給普拉薩德。

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone, and welcome to Mondee's second-quarter earnings call to discuss our results and significant developments. We are very pleased to report a strong second quarter with growth in net revenue, take rate and adjusted EBITDA, later by 38% year over year. We also announced a much-anticipated refinancing of our term loan and preferred equity at favorable terms that will position the company for long-term sectors.

謝謝你，傑夫。大家早安、下午好、晚上好，歡迎參加 Mondee 第二季財報電話會議，討論我們的業績和重大發展。我們很高興地報告第二季的強勁表現，淨收入、利潤率和調整後 EBITDA 均較去年同期成長 38%。我們也宣布以優惠條件對我們的定期貸款和優先股進行備受期待的再融資，這將使公司在長期領域處於領先地位。

Looking more closely, we are encouraged by our improved take rate, which increased 20 bps to 81.6%, reflecting the positive impact of our product mix expanding into non-air. During Q2 2024, our non-air net revenue mix increased to 47% from 42% in Q2 2023. Mondee's growth in transactions, net revenue and adjusted EBITDA, along with our platform-driven expansion in global market positions us well for continued market share penetration.

更仔細地觀察，我們對採用率的提高感到鼓舞，該採用率增加了 20 個基點，達到 81.6%，這反映了我們的產品組合擴展到非航空領域的正面影響。2024 年第二季度，我們的非航空淨收入組合從 2023 年第二季的 42% 增加到 47%。Mondee 交易量、淨收入和調整後 EBITDA 的成長，以及我們平台驅動的全球市場擴張，使我們能夠持續滲透市場份額。

We are confident that the ongoing integration of acquired businesses and the growth of our international markets will contribute to faster sustained revenue increases. We are refinancing our capital structure with favorable terms that position the company for long-term sector. With the longer duration to both the term loan and preferred equity, Mondee anticipates having the flexibility and financial resources to execute on its transformative plan. These plans are expected to increase revenue, profitability and free cash flow while continuing to lead AI innovation in travel.

我們相信，收購業務的持續整合和國際市場的成長將有助於加快收入的持續成長。我們正在以優惠的條件為我們的資本結構進行再融資，以使公司在長期行業中處於有利地位。由於定期貸款和優先股的期限較長，Mondee 預計將擁有執行其轉型計劃的靈活性和財務資源。這些計劃預計將增加收入、獲利能力和自由現金流，同時繼續引領旅遊領域的人工智慧創新。

I now turn the floor over to James W. Dullum, Chief Operating Officer, who will discuss some business trends and Mondee's initiatives underpinning our results and outlook.

我現在請首席營運長 James W. Dullum 發言，他將討論一些業務趨勢以及 Mondee 支撐我們業績和前景的舉措。

Thank you, Prasad, and good day, everyone. Let's start with some market drivers. Long-term growth trends for travel remains intact. However, we did see the beginnings of industry softening by the end of the second quarter, and we expect this to continue into 2025. Furthermore, certain regions experienced disruptive events in Q2, such as catastrophic flooding in South America affecting LATAM travel and the re-escalating Middle East conflict. While a few stronger regional markets remain from the last vestiges of the recovery, the overall moderation in demand is being accompanied by a reduction of airfares and decline in lodging rates. In addition, global inflation and economic conditions are spurring an increase in buyer bargain hunting, this to include higher income consumers.

謝謝你，普拉薩德，大家好。讓我們從一些市場驅動因素開始。旅遊業的長期成長趨勢保持不變。然而，我們確實看到第二季末產業開始疲軟，我們預計這種情況將持續到 2025 年。此外，某些地區在第二季度經歷了破壞性事件，例如影響拉丁美洲旅行的南美洲災難性洪水以及中東衝突重新升級。雖然一些走強的區域市場尚未復甦，但整體需求放緩伴隨著機票價格的下降和住宿費率的下降。此外，全球通膨和經濟狀況正在刺激買家逢低買進，其中包括高收入消費者。

Meanwhile, suppliers who're already under service-related pressure are expected to continue emphasizing product differentiation, packaging and more targeted distribution as their keys to potential growth. In light of this, we expect more emphasis to be placed on supplier-driven programs such as their expanding NDC and direct connections. While the market softness may have a short-term impact on the remainder of this year, we believe these overall conditions significantly favor Mondee's B2B marketplace expansion and the deployment of our emerging AI platforms.

同時，已經面臨服務相關壓力的供應商預計將繼續強調產品差異化、包裝和更有針對性的分銷，作為潛在成長的關鍵。有鑑於此，我們預計將更加重視供應商驅動的計劃，例如擴大 NDC 和直接聯繫。雖然市場疲軟可能對今年剩餘時間產生短期影響，但我們相信這些總體條件極大有利於 Mondee 的 B2B 市場擴張和新興人工智慧平台的部署。

Turning to the Mondee marketplace. During Q2, we capitalized on international expansion through our platform, delivering a 57% increase in transactions year-over-year. This growth could have been higher had it not been for the working capital constraints mentioned previously. Our strategy of expanding in non-air products with higher take rate and growth in transactions in international markets overcame the pricing effect on gross bookings, producing net revenue growth and solid adjusted EBITDA.

轉向 Mondee 市場。第二季度，我們透過平台進行國際擴張，交易量較去年同期成長 57%。如果沒有前面提到的營運資金限制，這一增長可能會更高。我們以更高的接受率和國際市場交易成長擴大非航空產品的策略克服了總預訂量的定價影響，實現了淨收入成長和穩定的調整後 EBITDA。

The strong increase in transactions was accompanied by flat year-over-year gross bookings as a result of lower average transaction values. This primarily driven by our rapid growth in lower-priced international markets. We do plan to continue our penetration in international markets through deployment of our global marketplace platform. We continued to make progress during the second quarter in initiatives around boosting profitability, expanding our travel marketplace and maintaining AI leadership.

交易量強勁成長的同時，由於平均交易價值較低，預訂總額較去年同期持平。這主要是由於我們在低價國際市場的快速成長所推動的。我們確實計劃透過部署我們的全球市場平台來繼續滲透國際市場。第二季度，我們在提高獲利能力、擴大旅遊市場和維持人工智慧領先地位等措施方面持續取得進展。

Our ongoing focus is to significantly enhance our content, accelerate our sales penetration in existing and new markets as well as further streamline our business infrastructure and cost structure, as you know, on the current slide, slide number 7. In the area of content enhancement, we continue expanding packages and product combinations while adding new features and options. This is expected to enhance the appeal of our offerings and improved sales performance across Mondee's growing transaction base. In addition, in content, as Jesus will cover later, we expect to ramp up the use of our fintech tools and content to further increase customer engagement, take rate and net revenue.

我們持續的重點是顯著增強我們的內容，加速我們在現有和新市場的銷售滲透，以及進一步簡化我們的業務基礎設施和成本結構，如您所知，在當前幻燈片（第7 號幻燈片）中。在內容增強領域，我們繼續擴展套餐和產品組合，同時添加新功能和選項。預計這將增強我們產品的吸引力，並改善 Mondee 不斷增長的交易基礎上的銷售業績。此外，在內容方面，正如耶穌稍後將介紹的那樣，我們希望加強金融科技工具和內容的使用，以進一步提高客戶參與度、轉換率和淨收入。

Further highlights of our progress include enhanced supplier connect programs, such as the airline NDC connections, direct connections with major hotel chains and with several other connection projects in our immediate expansion pipeline. With these in place, we're seeing more traffic on our NDC connections with improved product pricing and features as well as material improvement in our hotel take rate and conversions.

我們進展的進一步亮點包括增強的供應商連接計劃，例如航空公司 NDC 連接、與主要連鎖酒店的直接連接以及我們直接擴展管道中的其他幾個連接項目。這些措施到位後，我們看到 NDC 連接上的流量增加，產品定價和功能得到改善，飯店入住率和轉換率也得到實質改善。

By the way, a more specific example of the hotel take rate is the increase of over 50% in our North America hotel take rate so far this year. In summary, as we look into the rest of the year, we're moving from market planning and development to continue platform deployment and business execution. Our focus initiatives include further implementation of AI tools in Mondee's operations, product expansion for greater market appeal, enhanced revenue management and AI automation-led process improvement with further cost efficiency.

順便說一句，飯店入住率的一個更具體的例子是，今年迄今為止，我們的北美飯店入住率增加了 50% 以上。總之，當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，我們將從市場規劃和開發轉向繼續平台部署和業務執行。我們的重點措施包括在 Mondee 的營運中進一步實施人工智慧工具、擴展產品以提高市場吸引力、加強收入管理以及人工智慧自動化主導的流程改進以及進一步的成本效率。

In addition, as we position are positioned to take full advantage of all our fintech tools and services that will no longer be capacity-constrained. All of our initiatives for rapid business expansion or further operational efficiency are expected to put Mondee's squarely in line with our historic growth path and profitability goals by the end of this year despite this market softness.

此外，由於我們的定位是充分利用我們所有的金融科技工具和服務，而這些工具和服務將不再受到容量限制。儘管市場疲軟，但我們為快速業務擴張或進一步提高營運效率而採取的所有舉措預計將使 Mondee's 在今年年底前完全符合我們的歷史成長路徑和盈利目標。

I will now pass the call over to Jesus, our CFO, for a review of Mondee's financial performance and outlook. Jesus?

我現在將把電話轉給我們的財務長 Jesus，以審查 Mondee 的財務業績和前景。耶穌？

Thank you, Jim, and hello, everyone. As I go to our Q2 results, I would like to point out that all growth rates are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise indicated. Let me start with our financial highlights. During this quarter, we continued to generate a strong performance around net revenue, EBITDA and EBITDA margin. As part of our core marketplaces strategy, our focus has been to diversify our product offering beyond air, which improves take rate, expand internationally and continue to grow in existing markets.

謝謝吉姆，大家好。當我談到第二季的業績時，我想指出，除非另有說明，否則所有成長率都是按年計算的。讓我從我們的財務亮點開始。本季度，我們在淨收入、EBITDA 和 EBITDA 利潤率方面繼續取得強勁業績。作為我們核心市場策略的一部分，我們的重點是使我們的產品供應多元化，超越空氣，從而提高採用率，進行國際擴張並在現有市場中繼續成長。

During the first half of this year, we continue to diversify our product offering and accelerating our international air expansion. We led to a 57% increase in transactions that carry a lower average transaction price. At the same time, because of delayed refinancing and working capital constraints, we moderated the growth of our existing business that required working capital to grow. This resulted in flat gross bookings, lower than usual net revenue growth, and improved adjusted EBITDA.

今年上半年，我們持續豐富產品種類，加速國際航空擴張。我們使平均交易價格較低的交易量增加了 57%。同時，由於再融資延遲和營運資金限制，我們放緩了需要營運資金成長的現有業務的成長。這導致總預訂量持平，淨收入成長低於平常，調整後的 EBITDA 有所改善。

Our gross bookings were $678 million in this quarter, in line with last year. Our net revenue of $58 million increased 3%. After adjusting for acquisitions and divestiture of last year, net revenue grew 11.5%. Our check rate of 8.6% was up 20 basis points. As with prior quarters, this improvement in take rate was driven mostly by the growth of higher margin hotel and packaged products. It is worth mentioning that the delay in our refinancing impacted our ability to fully utilize our credit limits, resulting in lower fintech revenue, which carries the highest take rate. We expect this to be fully resolved with our refinancing.

本季我們的總預訂量為 6.78 億美元，與去年持平。我們的淨收入為 5,800 萬美元，成長了 3%。在去年的收購和剝離進行調整後，淨收入成長了 11.5%。我們的支票利率為 8.6%，上升了 20 個基點。與前幾季一樣，採用率的提高主要是由利潤率較高的飯店和包裝產品的成長所推動的。值得一提的是，我們再融資的延遲影響了我們充分利用信用額度的能力，導致採用率最高的金融科技收入下降。我們預計這一問題將透過我們的再融資得到徹底解決。

Turning to expenses. Our largest expense category, sales and marketing, keep improving and was down 5% in absolute terms while it declined from 71% to 65% as a percentage of net revenue. The main drivers for this improvement continue to be AI-driven optimization of our revenue management and reductions in performance marketing spend in our B2C business. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 38% from $4.4 million to $6.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin also increased from 7.8% to 10.5% as we continue to prioritize operating efficiencies and improve profitability.

轉向開支。我們最大的支出類別——銷售和行銷——持續改善，絕對值下降了 5%，而佔淨收入的百分比則從 71% 下降到 65%。這項改進的主要驅動力仍然是人工智慧驅動的收入管理優化以及 B2C 業務績效行銷支出的減少。調整後 EBITDA 成長 38%，從 440 萬美元增至 610 萬美元。隨著我們繼續優先考慮營運效率並提高獲利能力，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率也從 7.8% 增加至 10.5%。

On a GAAP basis, our net loss was $25.5 million, which included $19.1 million of noncash and/or nonrecurring items such as $3.7 million of depreciation and amortization, $1 million of peaked interest, $12 million of stock-based compensation and $2.3 million amortization of loan origination fees, among others.

根據GAAP 計算，我們的淨虧損為2,550 萬美元，其中包括1,910 萬美元的非現金和/或非經常性項目，例如370 萬美元的折舊和攤提、100 萬美元的峰值利息、1,200 萬美元的股票薪酬和230 萬美元的攤還貸款發放費等。

Looking at our balance sheet. At the end of this quarter, we had $32 million in cash and cash equivalents and $169 million of total debt compared to $36 million and $162 million, respectively, at the end of December 2023. We announced today a comprehensive refinancing of our capital structure with TCW and funds affiliated with Morgan Stanley that is expected to extend the term loan to June 30, 2028, and the preferred equity to December 31, 2028. The extended timing for the term loan beyond August 31, 2025, and the preferred equity beyond September 30, 2026, are both subject to securing a $15 million letter of credit that the company anticipates finalizing shortly and which could provide additional working capital.

看看我們的資產負債表。截至本季末，我們的現金和現金等價物為 3,200 萬美元，債務總額為 1.69 億美元，而 2023 年 12 月末分別為 3,600 萬美元和 1.62 億美元。我們今天宣布與 TCW 和摩根士丹利附屬基金對我們的資本結構進行全面再融資，預計將定期貸款延長至 2028 年 6 月 30 日，優先股延長至 2028 年 12 月 31 日。在定期貸款期間延長至2025 年8 月31 日之後，優先股期限延長至2026 年9 月30 日之後，均需獲得1,500 萬美元的信用證，該公司預計很快就會完成該信用證，該信用證可以提供額外的營運資金。

Operating cash flow was negative $7.6 million for the quarter compared to negative $2.4 million in Q2 of 2023. In this quarter, we used over $10 million of cash reserves as working capital to offset credit limit reductions by certain fintech partners in the face of delays in refinancing our term loan. We are working to get some of these credit limits reinstated as the refinancing is being completed. Year-to-date, both operating cash flow and free cash flow were positive, $11.1 million and $3.3 million, respectively.

本季營運現金流為負 760 萬美元，而 2023 年第二季為負 240 萬美元。本季度，我們使用超過 1000 萬美元的現金儲備作為營運資金，以抵消某些金融科技合作夥伴因定期貸款再融資延遲而降低的信貸限額。隨著再融資的完成，我們正在努力恢復其中一些信用額度。年初至今，營運現金流和自由現金流均為正值，分別為 1,110 萬美元和 330 萬美元。

Turning now to our 2024 guidance. As a consequence of the limitation we described, we now forecast our net revenue to be between $240 million and $250 million, representing an increase of 10% versus 2023 measured at the midpoint, and adjusted EBITDA to be between $25 million to $30 million, representing an increase of 42% versus 2023, measured at the midpoint.

現在轉向我們的 2024 年指導。由於我們所描述的限制，我們現在預測我們的淨收入將在2.4 億美元至2.5 億美元之間，與2023 年中點相比增長10%，調整後的EBITDA 將在2500 萬美元至3000 萬美元之間，即以中點計算，與 2023 年相比成長了 42%。

Let me now turn it back to Jeff for Q&A. Jeff?

現在讓我把它轉回傑夫進行問答。傑夫？

Thanks, Jesus. Operator, Kayla, we're ready for Q&A now. Thank you.

謝謝，耶穌。接線員凱拉，我們現在準備好要進行問答了。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Grondahl, Northland Securities.

（操作員指示）Michael Grondahl，北國證券。

And congratulations on the refinancing. Two questions related to that. One, roughly, how much working capital does that free up for you? And two, what are your priorities spending that working capital on to kind of reinvigorate growth? If you could just go over those priorities, I think it would be helpful.

並祝賀再融資。與此相關的兩個問題。一，大致而言，這可以為您釋放多少營運資金？第二，您將營運資金用於重振成長的優先事項是什麼？如果您能回顧一下這些優先事項，我認為這會有所幫助。

Yes, Mike, good morning. Thank you so much for your questions. So addressing your first question. In terms of how much working capital, obviously, we'll have a 15 million LOC, as we mentioned in the script, right? So that will be to add. We expect another $5 million that will be coming in, in terms of cash, a total of $20 million that will help us revamp our working capital.

是的，麥克，早安。非常感謝您的提問。所以解決你的第一個問題。就營運資金而言，顯然我們將擁有 1500 萬 LOC，正如我們在劇本中提到的，對嗎？所以這將是補充。我們預計另外 500 萬美元將以現金形式流入，總計 2,000 萬美元將幫助我們改善營運資金。

In terms of priorities to drive growth, I think that obviously, at this point, most of that will be used in our fintech solutions because it covers the highest take rate of all of our product mix. And, it's probably the portion that has been affected the most during these past few months while we were doing the refinancing.

就推動成長的優先事項而言，我認為顯然，目前，其中大部分將用於我們的金融科技解決方案，因為它涵蓋了我們所有產品組合中最高的採用率。而且，這可能是過去幾個月我們進行再融資時受影響最大的部分。

And I don't know, maybe, Jim, it seems like you're having pretty good success penetrating the hotel-only space? I don't know, a little more detail there might be helpful.

我不知道，吉姆，你似乎在滲透酒店專用領域方面取得了相當大的成功？我不知道，更詳細一點可能會有所幫助。

Mike, I appreciate the question. We are having good success in hotel penetration. I mean, we've picked up some real expertise with some of the companies we've acquired. It's not just pure hotel. Remember, there's also some packaging expertise there, which bring more of that in. So as we get to the non-air product, a lot of that is around packaged product, which carries higher take rate. So we're picking that up.

麥克，我很欣賞這個問題。我們在酒店滲透方面取得了良好的成功。我的意思是，我們已經從我們收購的一些公司中獲得了一些真正的專業知識。這不僅僅是純粹的酒店。請記住，那裡還有一些包裝專業知識，這會帶來更多的知識。因此，當我們談到非空氣產品時，許多都是圍繞著包裝產品的，它們的利用率更高。所以我們正在挑選它。

The other thing is in the hotel program itself, I think we've mentioned previously, we've been emphasizing the hotel program. And as we've done that, we are significantly improving our agreements with certain hotels. We've added a couple of direct connections with major chains so far this year and we have more in the pipeline before the end of the year that will come. All of those things help not just the pricing and the presentation of the product but significantly the take rate, which is why you've seen the nice improvement that we saw in our North American hotel take rate so far this year.

另一件事是酒店項目本身，我想我們之前已經提到過，我們一直在強調酒店項目。正如我們所做的那樣，我們正在顯著改善與某些酒店的協議。今年到目前為止，我們已經增加了幾條與主要連鎖店的直接連接，在年底之前我們將有更多的連接。所有這些事情不僅有助於產品的定價和展示，而且還能顯著提高入住率，這就是為什麼今年迄今為止我們在北美酒店的入住率方面看到了很好的改善。

Brett Knoblauch, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

布雷特‧諾布勞赫 (Brett Knoblauch)，坎托‧費茲傑拉公司

This is Thomas Senske on for Brett. I guess, first, how has the traction been for the AI-related products? More specifically ABI, I guess, if you could give us an idea of how many transactions are coming through that virtual assistance. And then also internally, I know we mentioned Infinity last earnings call, I guess, how has progress been there?

我是托馬斯·森斯克（Thomas Senske）替布雷特發言。我想，首先，人工智慧相關產品的吸引力如何？更具體地說，我想，如果您能讓我們了解有多少交易是透過該虛擬協助進行的，那就是 ABI。然後在內部，我知道我們在上次財報電話會議上提到了 Infinity，我想進展如何？

So ABI is providing good traction for us to have some great interactions and transactions, although the numbers seem to be less than 2% of our business. However, the employment provided us to have the knowledge to train our model, which we are currently doing and also take the feedback in improving this product, which we are working on our second version that is on delivering in Q4.

因此，ABI 為我們提供了良好的動力，讓我們能夠進行一些精彩的互動和交易，儘管這些數字似乎還不到我們業務的 2%。然而，這份工作為我們提供了訓練模型的知識，我們目前正在這樣做，並在改進該產品時獲取反饋，我們正在開發第二個版本，該版本將於第四季度交付。

At the same time, we have Infinity project, as you mentioned, Infinity project to deploy for our AI icing all of our internal operations that includes operations call center through our CRM platforms being placed and our sales and marketing, revenue management functions. So we already deployed that at our revenue management function of Infinity, which has presented some very good results where we are able to reduce our sales and marketing expenses by 5% and we expect to deploy more onto all of our sets of our business where either we improve our take rate and reduce our sales and marketing expense or reduce our cost per transaction by having an efficient operations function.

同時，我們有Infinity 項目，正如您所提到的，Infinity 項目為我們的AI 部署，為我們所有的內部營運錦上添花，包括透過我們的CRM 平台部署的營運呼叫中心以及我們的銷售和行銷、收入管理功能。因此，我們已經在Infinity 的收入管理功能中部署了該功能，該功能已經取得了一些非常好的成果，我們能夠將銷售和行銷費用減少5%，並且我們希望將更多的部署到我們的所有在業務中，其中我們透過高效的營運職能來提高接受率並減少銷售和行銷費用或降低每筆交易的成本。

So Infinity is currently under deployment by function in our business and we are hoping to complete it by end of Q4 and beginning of Q1, and we are planning to reap very good results from it.

所以Infinity目前在我們的業務中正在按功能進行部署，我們希望在第四季度末和第一季初完成它，我們計劃從中獲得非常好的結果。

And then one more, if I may. Very encouraging to see the strong growth in transactions, coupled with a continued pressure on ARPT. I guess, you mentioned strong growth in international contributing to this. And last quarter, obviously, we mentioned short-haul international hotel only. I was just wondering, have you seen a skew towards more just consumer weakness contributing to this and just overall decreased travel spend? And any visibility into I know you see continued weakness into 2024 and a bit into 2025? And is there any visibility into when we can see this ARPT start expanding again?

如果可以的話，再來一張。交易量的強勁成長以及 ARPT 的持續壓力非常令人鼓舞。我想，您提到了國際市場的強勁成長對此做出了貢獻。顯然，上個季度我們只提到了短途國際酒店。我只是想知道，您是否看到更多的消費者疲軟導致了這種情況以及整體旅行支出的減少？我知道您認為 2024 年和 2025 年會持續疲軟嗎？我們是否可以看到 ARPT 何時再次開始擴張？

Yes. Thanks, Thomas. It's Jim. Yes, look, I think we would expect to see that average transaction rate moderate here and start to recover through the rest of the year. You're right. The biggest influence has been the expansion internationally in markets that as they recovered, they recovered in more regional short haul first, which tends to be lower priced transactions. That will continue to expand back to more global and international travel as it does that, that we should see even though air fares and even hotel rates will come down somewhat in our expectations for the next few quarters, we will see the mix start to moderate back in our favor.

是的。謝謝，托馬斯。是吉姆。是的，我認為我們預計這裡的平均交易率會溫和，並在今年剩餘時間內開始恢復。你說得對。最大的影響是國際市場的擴張，隨著市場的復甦，它們首先在區域性短程航線中復甦，而這些市場往往是價格較低的交易。這將繼續擴展到更多的全球和國際旅行，我們應該看到，儘管機票價格甚至酒店價格將在我們對未來幾季的預期中有所下降，但我們將看到這種組合開始放緩回到對我們有利的位置。

So we see the ticket price fall, the average transaction rate fall moderating now to stabilize and then recover as we go into next year is probably the timing, I would put on that. So the average revenue per ticket is between 50% to 55% in our business this year. Last year, it is high, it is mid-70s. But we grew the transaction by 57% and at the same time that we are maintaining a good revenue per ticket and also paying the inroads into expanding our trend in tech and answer revenues by taking this market share. So we expect to continue to have the revenue per ticket transaction between 50 and 55 this year and in the following year in 2025, we're expecting to grow into 60 to mid-60s.

因此，我們看到票價下跌，平均交易率下跌現在放緩至穩定，然後在進入明年時恢復，這可能是我認為的時機。所以今年我們業務的平均每張票收入在50%到55%之間。去年，它很高，是70年代中期。但我們的交易量成長了 57%，同時我們保持了良好的每張票收入，並透過佔據這一市場份額，為擴大我們在技術和應答收入方面的趨勢付出了努力。因此，我們預計今年每張門票交易的收入將繼續保持在 50 至 55 之間，而在接下來的 2025 年，我們預計將增長到 60 至 60 左右。

And since this is an important point, I would like to add one more perspective here. The softening in the market is typically advantageous to the Mondee business model because there is more desire for the consumer to hand for bargains and also for the suppliers to provide better economics. But in Q2 and Q3, we were not able to fully capitalize on this because of working capital constraints. We simply didn't have the working capital even though the demand was there to capture it. So as we look towards the end of the year and 2025 following the completion of the refinancing, we should be able to take advantage of that market dynamic, which is typical in such times of softness favorable to our business model.

由於這是一個重要的觀點，我想在這裡補充一個觀點。市場疲軟通常有利於 Mondee 的商業模式，因為消費者更願意討價還價，供應商也更願意提供更好的經濟效益。但在第二季和第三季度，由於營運資金限制，我們無法充分利用這一點。儘管有獲取流動資金的需求，但我們根本沒有流動資金。因此，當我們展望年底和再融資完成後的 2025 年時，我們應該能夠利用市場動態，這在有利於我們業務模式的疲軟時期是典型的。

Darren Aftahi, ROTH.

達倫·阿夫塔希，羅斯。

This is (inaudible) on for Darren. First, with the revised guidance, could you talk a little bit about what some of the expectations are in there? Like how much of that is driven from lower fintech in 2Q? And then it seems like at least for a portion of 3Q until the financing secured versus some of the softness that Jim was talking about.

這是達倫的（聽不清楚）。首先，您能否談談修訂後的指導方針中的一些期望？例如第二季其中有多少是由較低水準的金融科技所推動的？然後，看起來至少在第三季的一部分時間內，直到融資獲得保障，而不是吉姆所說的一些疲軟。

Yes. So at this point, I would say probably around 50%, 50% is driven by our fintech revenue that is down as well as some of the opportunities that we had to let pass because of our working capital restraints.

是的。因此，在這一點上，我想說可能大約有 50%，50% 是由我們的金融科技收入下降以及由於我們的營運資金限製而不得不放棄的一些機會推動的。

It's almost the entire Q3 that's impacted because it's not just a matter of securing the financing, but then it takes time to open these credit limits. So this impact we expect it to be on Q2 and Q3.

幾乎整個第三季都受到了影響，因為這不僅僅是獲得融資的問題，而且開放這些信用額度也需要時間。因此，我們預計這種影響將出現在第二季和第三季。

And then as a follow-up, when you are going into some of these other markets and expanding where some of the rates are lower, do all those markets have the same, sort of, I guess, offerings as your more established markets? I'm talking sort of all the ancillaries? Or those are some of the things you're looking to add?

然後，作為後續行動，當您進入其他一些市場並在某些利率較低的地方進行擴張時，我想所有這些市場是否都提供與您更成熟的市場相同的產品？我說的是所有輔助設備？或者這些是您想要添加的一些內容？

Yes. That is precisely one of the opportunities. So at this point in time, we are capturing the market share. And the market share is most of the times, just the low-priced transaction that you mentioned, with very limited trended revenue, right? So the strategy here is to capture this market share, which also was favorable in the last few quarters because this best requires less working capital. So we could take advantage of it with the constraints that we have.

是的。這正是機會之一。所以在這個時候，我們正在佔領市場份額。而市佔率大多時候只是你提到的低價交易，趨勢收入非常有限，對吧？因此，這裡的策略是佔領這個市場份額，這在過去幾個季度也是有利的，因為這最好需要更少的營運資金。因此，我們可以在現有的限制下利用它。

And then on the back of that, we can attach the ancillaries, not just the fintech, which is the easiest one to attach, but then negotiate better deals and attach better trended revenues at as hotel attach other ancillary product that carries a higher take rate. So this is precisely the strategy. And that is one of the reasons you are seeing now at this point in time, much higher transaction volume, not significant growth in gross volume because it's the lower price particle that you mentioned, without the full capacity and capability of the additional revenue that attaches to each one of the transactions. And even with dynamic -- high EBITDA margins.

然後在此基礎上，我們可以附加輔助產品，而不僅僅是金融科技，這是最容易附加的，然後談判更好的交易並附加更好的趨勢收入，就像酒店附加其他具有更高採用率的輔助產品一樣。這正是我們的策略。這就是你現在看到的原因之一，交易量要高得多，但總交易量沒有顯著增長，因為它是你提到的較低的價格顆粒，而沒有額外收入的全部能力和能力到每一項交易。即使是動態的——高 EBITDA 利潤率。

(Operator Instructions) Nick Jon, Citizen JMP Securities.

（操作員指令）Nick Jon，Citizen JMP Securities。

It's Tim on for Nick here this man. Just a couple for me. I appreciate you taking our questions. Can you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing kind of in terms of the competitive dynamic or the intensity within marketing? A lot of your editors have called out like (inaudible) channels. Just wanted to see how petite landscape from your guys' point of view? And do you have any plans to change your strategy moving forward in the second half?

提姆代表尼克這個人。對我來說只是一對。感謝您回答我們的問題。您能否簡單談談您在競爭動態或行銷強度方面所看到的情況？你們的許多編輯都喊出了類似（聽不清楚）的頻道。只是想看看你們眼​​中的風景有多嬌小？下半年你有什麼改變策略的計畫嗎？

Nick, it's Jim. Let me start. First of all, we think the strategy is working great in the current market. Again, the transaction increase, as Orestes has just described, we're taking share of wallet. We're taking market share, fully positioned now to both capitalize on the base transactions as we penetrated those markets to improve things, but also capitalize on the deployment of our platform more and more international, right? And as we do that, we think that allows us to continue to grow very strongly in this market.

尼克，是吉姆。讓我開始吧。首先，我們認為該策略在當前市場上效果很好。再一次，交易增加，正如奧瑞斯特斯剛才所描述的，我們正在佔據錢包份額。我們正在佔據市場份額，現在已經完全定位，既可以利用我們滲透這些市場來改善事物的基礎交易，又可以利用我們平台的部署越來越國際化，對嗎？當我們這樣做時，我們認為這使我們能夠在這個市場上繼續強勁成長。

What we certainly believe is a lead position in the deployment of AI into the space, which gives us great differentiation in the market. So we think we stand in a strong position to grow. We had a little bit of headwinds with this capital issue that constrained us from knocking everything out of the park. But we took advantage of everything we could. We're taking advantage of this platform. And we're pretty jazzed about the position we have going forward in this market. Sometimes the softness is actually great for Mondee strategy and to continue to deploy it.

我們當然相信人工智慧在該領域的部署處於領先地位，這使我們在市場上具有巨大的差異化優勢。因此，我們認為我們在成長方面處於有利地位。我們在這個資本問題上遇到了一些阻力，這限制了我們把一切都從公園裡拿出來。但我們利用了我們所能利用的一切。我們正在利用這個平台。我們對我們在這個市場上的未來地位感到非常興奮。有時，這種軟弱實際上對於 Mondee 的策略和繼續部署它來說是很好的。

Just one more if we could, please. And in terms of kind of airfares kind of looking out into back half of the year in 2025, a lot of the airlines have kind of called out taking proactive actions to reduce capacity, which should kind of help drive stability and fares. I know you guys kind of talked about your guidance, taking down your guidance due to some of the softness you're seeing and the impact from kind of on the working capital. In terms of airfare tenant the back half of the year, how are you guys thinking about that? Are you guys expecting to change softness? Any kind of improvement? Or any kind of color on what the end of the guide there?

如果可以的話，請再來一張。就 2025 年下半年的機票價格而言，許多航空公司都呼籲採取積極行動來減少運力，這應該有助於推動穩定性和票價。我知道你們談論了你們的指導，由於你們看到的一些疲軟以及對營運資本的影響而取消了你們的指導。對於下半年的機票租戶，你們怎麼看？你們期待改變柔軟度嗎？有什麼改進嗎？或指南的末尾有什麼顏色？

Tim, your point is a great one. You're absolutely right. Airlines actually reduced capacity slightly or didn't increase capacity, certainly not in keeping with what was the demand, the strength of the demand during the first half of the year. And they did see their load factors increase, which is, in general, good for the airlines. However, in the face of that, even there because they have such service issues because some of the constraints coming out of coal that still remain for them. With those service issues, they still struggle to continue to compete on the routes that they all work on. So they appear to be using pricing as a strategy going forward. We think they will use targeted distribution channels more strongly. So we see them using several different levers. Price is going to be one of them.

提姆，你的觀點很好。你是絕對正確的。航空公司實際上略微減少了運力，或者沒有增加運力，這當然不符合需求，也不符合上半年的需求強度。他們確實看到載客率增加，這總體上對航空公司有利。然而，面對這種情況，即使在那裡，他們也面臨這樣的服務問題，因為煤炭帶來的一些限制仍然存在。由於這些服務問題，他們仍然難以繼續在他們所從事的航線上競爭。因此，他們似乎正在使用定價作為未來的策略。我們認為他們會更有力地使用有針對性的分銷管道。所以我們看到他們使用了幾種不同的槓桿。價格將是其中之一。

Right now, we would expect air prices to continue to be a little soft through the remainder of this year, maybe into early next year. We think that a little bit of inflation fares in some of the general economics globally are causing a little bit of customer sentiment to back off. So I think as the airlines look at that, they make some decisions because they're trying to price so far forward, it make some decisions that create some softness in price. So we think that we see a little bit of movement probably still downwards slightly on airfares, but a stabilization here before it starts picking up hopefully in the early part of next year. But that's sort of the general trend that we would expect.

目前，我們預計今年剩餘時間，甚至明年初，空氣價格將繼續走軟。我們認為，全球某些總體經濟領域的輕微通膨正在導致客戶情緒回落。因此，我認為，當航空公司考慮這一點時，他們會做出一些決定，因為他們試圖遠期定價，因此做出了一些決定，導致價格出現一些疲軟。因此，我們認為機票價格可能仍會略有下降，但在明年初預計開始回升之前會先趨於穩定。但這是我們所期望的整體趨勢。

To expand the changes from market to market, there are certain markets that are performing very strongly. We being a global platform and looking into these opportunities very closely. So we are using our platform as a vehicle for us to expand into the areas that really are growing and expected to grow and using our platforms to receiving the transactions and optimize it.

為了擴大市場之間的變化，某些市場表現非常強勁。我們是一個全球平台，正在密切關注這些機會。因此，我們正在使用我們的平台作為我們擴展到真正正在成長和預期成長的領域的工具，並使用我們的平台來接收交易並對其進行最佳化。

At the same time, managing the softness of certain segments of the business with the other markets and other product mix that we have in our plans. So being a marketplace, although there is a little stress in the market, on the airline and inventory and its softness of the price, but we see some great opportunities that we fit very well in that environment. So we are working on our plans. And hopefully, we are going to see that in results in the next few quarters.

同時，管理某些業務部門與其他市場以及我們計劃中的其他產品組合的疲軟狀況。因此，作為一個市場，儘管市場、航空公司、庫存以及價格疲軟方面存在一些壓力，但我們看到了一些非常適合這種環境的巨大機會。所以我們正在製定我們的計劃。希望我們能在接下來的幾個季度的結果中看到這一點。

This does conclude the question-and-answer session, and I will hand back over to Jeff Houston for any final remarks.

問答環節到此結束，我將把最後的發言權交給傑夫休斯頓。

Thank you, Kayla, and thanks to everyone who tuned in for our second quarter 2024 earnings call, whether it was live, the replay or the transcript, if you have any questions or would like to learn more about Mondee. Please don't hesitate to schedule a call with us. You can get more information on our IR website, which is investors.mindee.com or you can send us an e-mail at ir@mondee.com. Thank you.

謝謝你，Kayla，感謝所有收看我們 2024 年第二季度財報電話會議的人，無論是現場直播、重播還是文字記錄，如果您有任何問題或想了解更多有關 Mondee 的信息。請隨時與我們預約通話。您可以在我們的投資者關係網站 Investors.mindee.com 上獲取更多信息，也可以向我們發送電子郵件：ir@mondee.com。謝謝。

That does conclude Mondee's earnings conference call. Have a nice day. You may now disconnect from the call.

Mondee 的財報電話會議到此結束。祝你今天過得愉快。您現在可以斷開通話。