Hostelworld Group, a booking service for hostels around the world, has named its new chair and announced an earlier-than-planned repayment of a debt facility thanks to strong trading ahead of its Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The online platform, whose AGM takes place today in Dublin, has announced that its current chair, Michael Cawley, is retiring and named Mr Ulrick Bengtsson, the former CEO of William Hill and chief operating officer at Virgin Media O2, as Cawley’s successor.
Cawley has been Hostelworld’s chair since 2015 and made his name as deputy chief executive of Ryanair, a position from which he stepped down in 2014. Bengstsson will assume the role of chair after Cawley departs in October.
In a statement to markets, the outgoing chair also confirmed the group is expected to pay back an outstanding €7.5m (£6.4m) of the loan by the end of June this year, two years before the deadline. The move, Cawley said, will save the firm €500,000 (£427,000) in interest.
Alongside the positive news, Cawley also announced the firm’s intention to conduct a programme of share repurchases in the second half of the year, which would compensate for the dilution of shares issued last month.
He is expected to tell attendees at the booking site’s AGM today: “I am pleased to report that trading remains consistent with the trends outlined in our March Preliminary Results continuing into 2023. In particular, our highly differentiated social strategy continues to deliver growth in market share, whilst marketing costs remain at the low end of the guidance range… We are confident we can deliver high single-digit booking and revenue growth.
“Hostelworld is well positioned with a product offering that resonates with our customers and a business model characterised by cost discipline and operational excellence.”
Hostelworld beat expectations in its full year results, published in March, thanks to an increase in demand for bookings in Asia.