Sharing its second quarter results, Priceline.com has stated that its gross travel bookings and gross profits increased

Sharing its second quarter results, Priceline.com has stated that its gross travel bookings and gross profits increased over 60 percent year over year.

Published: 07 Aug 2006

Sharing its second quarter results, Priceline.com has stated that its gross travel bookings and gross profits increased over 60 percent year over year.

"Gross travel bookings for the quarter, which refers to the total dollar value, inclusive of all taxes and fees, of all travel services purchased by consumers, rose 62.8 percent year-over-year to $927 million. Revenues in the 2nd quarter were $307.7 million, a 15.4 percent increase over a year ago. 2006 results include the operating results of Bookings B.V., which was acquired in July 2005," stated the company.

Priceline.com's GAAP gross profit for the quarter 2006 was $105.8 million, up 62.2 percent from the prior year. Pro forma gross profit was $106.1 million, up 61.9 percent from the same period in the prior year.

Priceline.com said that organic growth in gross travel bookings accelerated in the second quarter in both the U.S. and in Europe.

"In the second quarter, priceline.com experienced domestic organic bookings growth of 17.2 percent, compared to 10.2 percent growth the previous quarter, and five percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2005," said priceline.com president and chief executive officer Jeffery H. Boyd.

"We had accelerating year-over-year growth trends in all our domestic unit metrics, with airline tickets growing 4.1 percent in the quarter, compared to a decrease of 2.6 percent in Q1, and rental car days up 30.3 percent, compared to an increase of 26.8 percent in Q1. Hotel room night sales increased 82.5 percent, versus 62.5 percent in Q1, on the strength of growing sales from Priceline Europe. As in the first quarter, we believe improving domestic top line performance resulted from the More Ways to Save website upgrade and associated advertising campaign and investments in online marketing, including our partnership with Orbitz.com."

Organic gross travel bookings growth rates assume that acquired businesses were owned during all of 2005 and exclude the sale of Travelweb hotel rooms through Orbitz.

In Europe, priceline.com's scond quarter year-over-year growth was even more pronounced.

Priceline Europe, comprised of Bookings, B.V., Active Hotels Ltd., and priceline.co.uk, had gross travel bookings of $356.6 million in the second quarter 2006, which represents an organic growth rate of 116.9 percent.
"Priceline Europe has shown strong growth in the last few quarters as the fast growing markets in Western Europe become a larger part of the overall business," said Boyd. "Over 24,000 participating hotels, solid pan-European distribution and early success in our integration efforts are all contributing to this momentum. Worldwide, priceline.com customers booked five million room nights in the second quarter. We believe priceline.com is now number one in Europe and number two globally in online hotel room night sales."

On the next quarter, he said, Boyd said, "Priceline.com is in a unique position to help leisure travelers squeezed this year by record energy prices, rising interest rates and increasing air fares. Our Name Your Own Price hotel and rental car services deliver some of the best deals available on or off the web. Priceline.com's vacation packages service routinely offers pricing meaningfully below our major online competitors. Our new comprehensive assortment of published prices for airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars provides customers with an easy, one-stop way to quickly find the best available retail deals. And overseas, Priceline Europe enables customers to book hotels and deals they simply cannot find through any other major online hotel reservation service. As economic conditions continue to put a focus on budget travel through the summer and into the holiday season, we believe priceline.com is well positioned to serve our customers and build on our solid growth trends."

Priceline.com issued the following guidance for 3rd quarter 2006: Year-over-year increases in overall gross travel bookings of approximately 44-48 percet; Gross travel bookings from Priceline Europe of approximately $360 to $390 million; Year-over-year increase in revenue of approximately 13-17 percent; Year-over-year increase in pro forma gross profit of approximately 44-48 percent; Pro forma net income of between $0.60 and $0.65 per diluted share.

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