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Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 4, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Please standby. Good day. And welcome to the Daly Gray Public Relations’ Chatham Lodging Announces Third Quarter Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. And at this time, I’d like to turn the conference over to Chris Daly. Please go ahead, sir.

Chris Daly

Management

Thank you, Tina. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Chatham Lodging Trust third quarter 2014 results conference call. This morning, before the opening of the market, Chatham result -- released results for the third quarter 2014 and I hope you’ve had a chance to review the press release. If you did not receive a copy of the release or you’d still like one, please call my office at (703) 435-6293 and we’ll be happy to email you one, or you may view the release online at Chatham’s website, www.chathamlodgingtrust.com. Today’s conference call is being transmitted live via telephone and by webcast over Chatham’s website and at streetevents.com. A recording of the call will be available by telephone until 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, November 11, 2014, by dialing 1 (888) 203-1112, reference number 9622790. A replay of the conference call will be posted on Chatham’s website. As a reminder, this conference call is the property of Chatham Lodging Trust and any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the expressed written consent of Chatham is prohibited. Before we begin, management has asked me to remind you that in keeping with the SEC’s Safe Harbor guidelines, today’s conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Chatham Lodging Trust, including statements regarding future operating results and the timing and composition of revenues amongst others. Except for historical information, these forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the volatility of the national economy, economic conditions generally in the hotel and real estate markets specifically, international and geopolitical difficulties or health concerns, governmental actions, legislative and regulatory changes, availability of debt and equity capital, interest rates, competition, weather conditions or natural disasters, supply and demand for lodging facilities in our current and proposed market areas, and the company’s ability to manage integration and growth. Additional risks are discussed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commissions. All information in this call is as of November 4, 2014 unless otherwise noted, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations. During this call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, which we believe to be common in the industry, and helpful indicators of our performance. In keeping with SEC regulations, we have provided and encourage you to refer to reconciliations of these measures to GAAP results in our earnings release. Now, to provide you with some insight into Chatham’s 2014 third quarter results, allow me to introduce Jeff Fisher, Chairman, President and CEO and Dennis Craven, Executive Vice President, CFO. Let me turn over the session to Jeff. Jeff?

Jeff Fisher

Management

Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone. I hope you are as pleased as I am that we started right on time because once I start to listen to that music, I realized that Craven’s new selection needed to dealt whether in any event. We are happy to, of course to be reporting a strong quarter here. It’s been another productive quarter with outstanding results, the acquisition of a new Hyatt Place in the thriving Denver-area of Cherry Creek, a very successful $150 million equity offering and the announcement with our partner, NorthStar, we will be acquiring another portfolio of 52 hotels for approximately $1.1 billion, including four hotels that Chatham will be buying outright for $107 million. We expect that deal to close within the next couple of weeks. Our results for the quarter continue to validate our strategy to own the best assets in the fastest-growing markets in the country with the highest barriers to entry. When you compare our portfolio RevPAR of $142 for the quarter, with an average daily rate of $161 in the select service hotels, I’ll remind you, to other lodging companies including full-service REITs. You get a very good understanding of the quality of the portfolio we’ve carefully assembled. It’s a portfolio that’s been built based on selective acquisitions in high-growth markets driven by business segments. They are experiencing high growth within the economy and within those submarkets and our focus has been, markets driven primarily by technology, oil and gas and medical services. As we make acquisitions going forward, we expect to primarily be located within those markets and we use of course, our market knowledge of owning an Island Hospitalities market knowledge from operating within various markets around the country and other hotels within those markets to understand the market dynamics we think…

Dennis Craven

Management

Thanks Jeff. Excited to be with everyone today and to talk about the all-round great results. We do look forward to meeting and seeing many of you guys over the next few days in Atlanta for the NAREIT conference. For the first quarter, we reported net income of $8.7 million or $0.31 per diluted share, compared to net income of $2.5 million or $0.11 per diluted share over the 2013 third quarter. The primary driver behind the significant net income increased was the incremental acquisitions we’ve made since the 2013 third quarter with the Residence Inns in Silicon Valley, the Residence Inns in Bellevue, Washington as well as the SpringHill Suites in Savannah, Georgia. And additionally, we had a decrease in the acquisition and acquisition-related costs of $1 million in the 2014 third quarter compared to the 2013 third quarter. It was record third quarter RevPAR growth for Chatham with RevPAR growing 10.5% in the quarter for the comparable 29 Chatham hotels. Our RevPAR growth was pretty consistent throughout the quarter with monthly gains ranging from 9.5% to 11.6%. We saw double-digit RevPAR increases across half of our markets and although Silicon Valley is a significant contributor to our overall results, the remainder of our portfolio is also forming very strongly, excluding those four Silicon Valley Residence Inns -- excuse me -- excluding those four Silicon Valley Residence Inns, the remainder of our portfolio was still up approximately 9.9% for the quarter, a good sign that shows the breadth of the performance across our entire portfolio. The only real weak market for us similar to the second quarter was the Hampton Inn and Suites in Portland, Maine where RevPAR was down 3.6%. But having said that, the 3.6% decline was a lot better than we had actually underwritten when we…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll take our first question from Brad Dalinka with SunTrust.

Brad Dalinka - SunTrust

Analyst

Hi. It’s Brad on for Patrick Scholes.

Jeff Fisher

Management

Hey, Brad.

Brad Dalinka - SunTrust

Analyst

I wanted to ask -- thanks for calling me, how are you? I wanted to ask about the new JVs in the next year and how we should think about the contribution from that?

Jeff Fisher

Management

Sure. For 2015, I think what we’re trying -- we are looking at for both JVs is an EBITDA contribution of about $16 million to $17 million for 2015. And the contribution of JV from the two joint ventures is going to be in the $8 million to $8.5 million range.

Brad Dalinka - SunTrust

Analyst

Thanks.

Jeff Fisher

Management

You’re welcome.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And we will now go to Nikhil Bhalla, FBR & Company. Nikhil Bhalla - FBR & Company: Hi, good morning, Jeff, and good morning, Dennis.

Jeff Fisher

Management

Good morning, Nikhil. Nikhil Bhalla - FBR & Company: Hey, good morning. For next year, can you just also give us some sense of other than new promote structure? What the cash distribution that looked like by the end of the year from both the Inland JV and also the Innkeepers?

Jeff Fisher

Management

Yeah. I mean, I think for both the Innkeepers and Inland transactions, I will combine them. They have the exact same promote structure or they’re going to have the exact same promote structure once we close the Inland transaction. So, from a cash distribution standpoint, we don’t expect to get into that promote in 2015. From a distributions perspective, just without regard -- with that regards to promote, it’s going to be relatively close to the $8 million of FFO that we’re projecting. Most of the capital outlays that have -- that are going to be required for both the Innkeepers and Inland transactions for really the first couple of years of those joint ventures, that’s all been pre-funded into an escrow at closing or will be at closing with respect to the Inland transaction. So on a free cash flow out of those joint ventures, outside of some emergency capital, most of that you what I'll call FFO that’s going to be generated is going to be distributable cash. Nikhil Bhalla - FBR & Company: Okay. Got it. And you talked about the pro forma margins with all the acquisitions included 2015. There also you talked about the RevPAR. Any inference of what the margins may look for next year versus this year?

Jeff Fisher

Management

Yeah. I mean, I think for, we talked about 2014 RevPAR for that portfolio of 30 hotel -- 34 hotels is going to be $122. So obviously you can build your growth off that $122 number. From a margin perspective, where we see 2014 for those hotels is somewhere around 42-ish percent. We expect another couple 100 basis points for 2015. So, I think, if you are somewhere around 44% from a margin perspective you are in pretty good shape. Nikhil Bhalla - FBR & Company: Okay. And one final question on, just your (indiscernible) dry powder, how much do you think you still have, Dennis, in terms of acquiring any (indiscernible)?

Dennis Craven

Management

Listen, I mean, I think, we can easily acquire another $150 of assets and still be in that 49%, 50% leverage level. Obviously, in 2011, 2013, and earlier this year, we’ve move those in access of 50%, but $150 million get you to somewhere around that number. Nikhil Bhalla - FBR & Company: Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions in the queue at this time.

Jeff Fisher

Management

All right. Well, if that’s it, we again are, obviously, hope you’re pleased with the results. When looking at where everybody else has been and reading the various releases as they have come out over the last week or so, I certainly, would think that, most folks think that we are in a pretty sweet part of the cycle here for hotels. Personally, I have been doing this for awhile. I guess, I expected and I have said this before, more ADR growth, less occupancy growth in 2014 overall. But it’s materialized in a very positive away for the length of the cycle, because with the occupancy gains that everybody has been seeing, in a more broad-based market settings, I think you can look at 2013 and 2015 as you would in other parts and other cycles, and say you really will get some stronger ADR growth as the rest of the comps sets as you move through 2015 might get nearer to maximum occupancy. So then you look at the better branded hotels and you think about the growth that’s available there. We believe it ought to be pretty strong borrowing some unforeseen events, our geopolitical or other basis that we don’t know about anyway. And internal, therefore, internal growth, bottomline strong, not much supply, you have got a different kind of setting than you had in prior years, for example, building up to 2008, one in ’04, ’05 and ’06, there was a lot of construction. And you look at that and you look at still, the lack overall of financing for construction at a high loan to costs and together with increase construction costs and fewer subs that are out there as a results of the recession, you really and we have heard anecdotally and in real life that as we look to price our first Silicon Valley expansion. We budgeted it reasonable and conservative and on the high side and that’s exactly where we think it will come out. So, again, macro really looks forward to, I think, strong growth internally and our ability to cherry-pick assets and grow on an external basis. And I think some of the strongest markets in the United States that are insolated from new supply that may or may not come later cycle bodes real well for our shareholders and our growth going forward. So that’s our overall plan and we look forward to executing and talking to you at NAREIT and beyond. Thank you.