Company Reports

Avolta reported organic core turnover growth of 3.7% for the half, with the Middle East crisis reducing that growth by roughly 1.5 percentage points. This disruption does not affect the medium-term outlook, which remains intact.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail, Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offerings, and geographical diversification.

Avolta reported a 4.7% increase in core turnover in the first quarter and 5.9% if the Middle East drag is excluded. Core EBITDA margin expanded slightly to 6.6%.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail, Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offerings, and geographical diversification.

Avolta delivered solid revenue and profitability development in 2025, with core turnover (which excludes fuel sales) up 5.9% at constant exchange rates. Core EBITDA was up 9.7% at constant exchange rates with a margin of 7.8%. Shares were up around 4% in March 11 intraday trading.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail, Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offerings, and geographical diversification.

Avolta reported continued revenue growth in the third quarter of 4.8%, driven by a 2.7% increase in like-for-like sales and a 2.1% rise in net new concessions. Core EBITDA margin (which is calculated after IFRS-16 lease amortization) expanded by 37 basis points in the quarter.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail, Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offerings, and geographical diversification.

Avolta delivered solid core organic revenue growth and EBITDA margin expansion in the first half of 2025. Management reaffirmed full-year guidance and noted a strong start to the second half. Shares were up 2% intraday on July 31.

We are maintaining our CHF 58 fair value estimate for narrow-moat Avolta as the company reported solid revenue development—in line with our expectations—and better profitability for 2024. The shares remain undervalued, in our view, trading at around a 35% discount to our fair value estimate.

We are maintaining our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Avolta at CHF 58 per share after the company reported solid development of sales and profits in the third quarter.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel flows. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offer, and geographical diversification.

We are maintaining our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Avolta as the company reported solid revenue development in the first quarter. Core turnover, which excludes fuel sales from the motorway business acquired with Autogrill, was up 8.6% organically (8.9% on a like-for-like basis), signaling continuing consumer appeal for travel.

Following narrow-moat Avolta's successful business combination, which yielded CHF 30 million in synergies, we anticipate no significant alteration to our CHF 58 fair value estimate. The company reported a 2023 EBITDA of CHF 1.129 billion, aligning closely with both our estimates and consensus figures. Shares remain undervalued, trading at around a 40% discount to our fair value estimate.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail with around 20% market share, more than double that of its next biggest peer, Avolta is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel flows. Over the years, Avolta has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offer, and geographical diversification.

We are maintaining our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Dufry as the company reported continued solid revenue growth in the third quarter. We expect to adjust our 2023 revenue forecasts slightly downward to reflect currency headwinds, but it will not result in a change to our fair value estimate. We see shares as undervalued, trading in 5-star territory, with almost 80% upside to our fair value estimate.

We maintain our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Dufry at CHF 58 per share as the firm reported solid first-half revenue and profit development. With more solid financial health (lowest net debt since 2015), pent-up demand for travel and travel retail, and the potential for synergies with Autogrill, Dufry shares remain undervalued. Revenue for the first half was up 26.5% on a reported pro-forma basis (21% based on our full-year estimates) and 31.5% organically, exceeding 2019 levels by 3.4% on an organic basis. We maintain our estimates as the comparison base gets more challenging as the year progresses, but the resumption of travel by Chinese citizens should boost sales. July turnover trends remained positive, despite a more difficult comparison basis, up 17% versus 2022 and up 4.7% versus 2019.

We maintain our fair value estimate of CHF 58 for narrow-moat Dufry as the company continued a strong postcoronavirus recovery in the first quarter. Shares remain undervalued. Organic growth, excluding the Autogrill acquisition, was 51.5% or only negative 2.4% versus 2019 levels (with currency a significant headwind). All regions performed strongly with sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa exceeding 2019 levels organically by 5.2%, North America sales were 4.2% lower organically than 2019, and sales in Latin America almost flat organically against prepandemic levels. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region are yet to recover postpandemic (38.9% lower than in 2019), but the removal of travel restrictions in China should boost growth this year. Sales in the region were up 276.9% in the first quarter against the previous-year comparison. We expect full-year revenue for Dufry as a stand-alone to exceed 2019 levels on an organic basis. We note that comparisons will get more difficult in the quarters to come (in the first quarter of 2022 sales were still 34% below 2019 organically versus being down 16.2% for the full year), but improved sales trends in Asia should offset a more muted performance in Europe and North America. We still think developed markets should benefit from a shift in spending on goods to experiences, which should boost travel even against a more challenging consumer backdrop. A case in point: momentum remains solid into the second quarter with April net sales up 30.2% versus 2022 and up more than 2.3% versus prepandemic 2019. Although not much detail about profitability has been provided on a sales announcement, the core EBITDA margin improved by 190 basis points despite inflationary cost pressures. The company stuck to its forecast of around 8% in core EBITDA for the full year (7.3% in our models). Dufry's balance sheet remains healthy with plenty of liquidity and the company is now compliant with debt covenants.

As a leading player in travel retail and a leading concession operator in airport retail with around 20% market share, more than double that of its next biggest peer, Dufry is well positioned to benefit from increasing global travel flows. Over the years, Dufry has played the role of consolidator in a globally fragmented industry, allowing it to achieve purchasing scale, breadth of store formats and product offer, and geographical diversification.