Points International Reports Preliminary First Quarter 2020 Results and Provides Business Update in Response to COVID-19

- Full Q1 2020 Financial Results to be Issued on May 13, 2020 -

- Annual General Meeting to be Virtual Only; Postponed to May 22, 2020 -

TORONTO, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Points International Ltd. (TSX: PTS) (Nasdaq: PCOM) (Points or the Company), the global leader in powering loyalty commerce, is providing a preliminary update on its first quarter 2020 results and 2020 outlook, as well as an update on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q1 2020 Financial Highlights (vs. Q1 2019)

• Gross profit¹ expected to range between $13.6 million and $14.2 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA² expected to range between $3.2 million and $3.9 million
• At March 31, 2020, total funds available stood at approximately $107 million, including a $40 million credit facility drawdown.

Q1 2020 Line of Business Highlights

• Loyalty Currency Retailing - On March 24, launched a full suite of services for Air Canada’s Aeroplan program with the intention of further enhancements over the course of 2020.
• Points Travel - On March 5th, launched a multi-year Partnership with Quidco, the U.K.'s largest cash back rewards program. Members booking hotels on our white label site found at hotels.quidco.com can earn up to 15% cash back and select from more than 350,000 properties worldwide. This marks our first move into the global cashback segment and opens Points Travel to additional opportunities for further growth. 
• Platform Partnerships - On March 26, launched the second Exchange service in the Middle East with Aimia/HSBC’s MyRewards now being transferable into both Emirates and Etihad frequent flyer miles.

Management Commentary

“Given the dramatic global impact from COVID-19, we felt it was important to provide a comprehensive early update on our business and outline the actions we are taking to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rob MacLean, CEO of Points International.

Employee/Operations:

• Our top priority has been the safety and well-being of our employees across the globe, while ensuring business continuity for our partners.
• In early March, we proactively mandated all of our teams to work from home, well ahead of broader public policies, and we have seamlessly migrated to this model with minimal impact on operations. 

Business Performance:

• We started the year with great momentum from our record fourth quarter last year. In January, February and early March, we experienced strong transaction dynamics and continued to build our new business delivery pipeline.
• Beginning in mid-March, we began to see a significant decline in transaction volumes and expect that to continue in parallel with COVID-19 travel and hospitality disruption.
• We are working aggressively to mitigate the transaction volume degradation by actively coordinating as much relevant, targeted promotional activity as possible with our loyalty program partners.
• Our new business pipeline remains strong and our delivery resources are presently operating at capacity.
• We believe that our loyalty program partners are actively managing the balance between the near term situation and establishing as much capacity to accelerate growth when the environment improves. 

Liquidity/Balance Sheet