By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY--Corporate Travel Management lowered its annual earnings guidance, becoming the latest of Australia's major travel agents to blame weaker-than-expected sales on uncertainty caused by U.S.-led trade tariffs.
The ASX-listed company on Friday said it expects revenue for the 12 months through June to be about 4% lower than targeted in February. As a result, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization will take a hit of about 30 million Australian dollars, or US$19.2 million.
Australian travel stocks rebounded strongly from the hit of the Covid-19 pandemic as business and leisure activity surged following the relaxation of travel restrictions. However, valuations have slipped in recent months and CTM is the second major player to cut its outlook this week.
On Monday, rival Flight Centre cut its annual profit guidance on what it said was the impact of U.S. trade and border policies on both business and leisure demand.
CTM said that uncertainty generated by tariffs had depressed client activity across its rest-of-world division during what is usually the busiest period of the year. CTM expects annual revenue for the unit to rise by about 5% on year, and Ebitda by about 10%.
CTM and Flight Centre, which are included in Australia's S&P/ASX 200 benchmark stock index, both said that customer activity softened from March, when new U.S. tariffs on goods including steel and aluminum took effect.
President Trump then unveiled his administration's so-called reciprocal tariffs on other nations on April 2.
CTM said that its downgraded guidance assumes no further deterioration to sentiment in May and June, relative to April.
Its Europe division is still performing in line with prior targets, with about half of the A$1.6 billion in new business won so far this fiscal year coming in the region.
CTM had targeted A$1 billion in full-year total transaction value from new client wins. It said that the beat should contribute positively to its fiscal 2026 performance.
Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2025 19:36 ET (23:36 GMT)
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