Earnings Labs

Century Casinos, Inc. (CNTY)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 14, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Century Casinos Q3 2014 earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to introduce our host for today's call, Mr. Peter Hoetzinger. Mr. Hoetzinger, you may begin your conference.

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · CJS Securities

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning, and welcome everyone to Century Casinos earnings call, following the release of our third quarter 2014 results. With me on the call today are my Co-CEO and Chairman of the company, Erwin Haitzmann; and our Executive Vice President of Finance, Margaret Stapleton. Before we begin, I need to remind you that in our remarks today we will be discussing forward-looking information, which involves a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We provide a detailed discussion of the various risk factors in our SEC filings and encourage you to review these filings. In addition, throughout our call, we may refer to several non-GAAP financial measures, including but not limited to adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of our non-GAAP performance and liquidity measures to the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our news release and in the 10-K and 10-Q filings, all of which are available in the Investor section of our website at cnty.com. You all saw the results, it shows that in a challenging consumer environment, we managed to deliver tangible improvements at our properties in Edmonton, Calgary, Aruba as well as with our cruise ship casinos, while results in Central City and Poland were lagging behind. Aggressive cost controls have been put in place in Poland are beginning to show results, with preliminary numbers for October indicating the best-ever revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We are excited about our new project in Argentina, and also very pleased with the progress of construction of the Century Downs Racetrack and Casino in Calgary. The results of the referendum in Colorado turned out very good…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first one comes from the line of Arnie Ursaner from CJS Securities.

Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

I have a couple of questions related to Poland both in Q3, but more importantly looking forward. Obviously, the Ukraine did have an impact on you in the quarter. Could you give us a little better feel for the pattern of traffic overall in Poland in the quarter? The incremental marketing expenses you may have incurred in Poland? And the shift in marketing expenses you have in Poland? And I'll follow that up with a few additional questions, if I can.

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · CJS Securities

We have different customer segments in Poland. We have the local slot customer, we have the local table customers, we have the business tourists from Germany, and then in the other we have some guests from the Middle East and some times we have some high-rollers from Russia. And some are falling away, because of the Ukraine, but it is overall a very competitive situation, because other casinos in Poland are also going after the same market. So we have to up our marketing expenses. That's just an overall picture. But I'll hand it over to Erwin maybe you can add a little more color of it.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities

Yes. In addition to what Peter said, this was happened in during the course of the last 12 months, in particular one of our competitor is also targeting for the higher end of the market, and puts in quite a significant amount of marketing expenses behind his efforts. And it is so high that we don't think it's sustainable on this, but it brings us to the question, do we do the same or do we not. And in the third quarter, we did not as much as our competitor did, but at least a good portion. But in the fourth quarter we have decided to pullback a little bit, and not give away that much, but rather continue to market our casino on the strength of our services in the casinos. So rather than giving away a huge number of cost, we focus on the customer experience when they are at our casinos.

Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

So just to clarify, you mentioned October had an exceptionally strong results and I think you said the highest revenue you've seen in that market. I just want to clarify, was that in fact correct on the revenue side? And then the margin of 19% is extraordinarily high. We've modeled something like 13% for next year. Is the number like 19%, is that a number that you believe is sustainable?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities

It's very hard to say, probably not in the short-term. I think you should rather -- we think when the numbers are out, you probably should look at the third and fourth quarter combined. What we have seen is that the high-end player's pattern is irregular. Some times they came more to us, some times they go more to the competitors. What has happened is that a few of our high-end players have visited us in the third quarter, but they all came in October. So from that angle, it's not typical and I think should rather average out.

Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

Just my final question. You have had stated probably go to double margins in Poland by the end of '14. You moved it out to mid '15. Is that still your expectation?

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · CJS Securities

When the EBITDA margin was in the 8% or 9% range, we have said that our goal is to double the margin, and that is still, so yes. And always it's a very good indication, but yes, mid '15 that's certainly our goal, absolutely.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital.

Bryan Maher - Craig-Hallum Capital

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

In the EBITDA breakout by property that there was some currency impact, but I also noticed on the 10-Q, on Page 7, a foreign currency translation adjustment of $3.65 million and when I look at what the zloty and the Canadian dollar did in the quarter against the U.S. dollar, they were down fairly meaningfully. Can you give us some commentary on how you look at the impact of currency on the quarterly earnings report?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

Yes. I'll pass that on to Maggie please.

Margaret Stapleton

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

The impact of foreign currency for this quarter on the earnings is about $375,000. $320,000 of that is related to Poland. What are you looking at on the comprehensive earnings statement is the foreign count currency movement on the balance sheet of $3.7 million from yearend.

Bryan Maher - Craig-Hallum Capital

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

And then as it relates to, the previous caller addressed a lot as it relates to Poland, but you also had some commentaries related to, I believe it was in your Q on the potential for moving further side in Poland. Can you tell us how you and the board are looking at that? And should we expect maybe one more move, maybe two more moves and when might that happen?

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

At this point in time either no more moves or possibly one within the next two years. But at the moment, I would rather say, it's more likely no more changes.

Bryan Maher - Craig-Hallum Capital

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

And so that being said, I guess we shouldn't be seeing much in the way of kind of these one-time items that we saw kind of in the second quarter. I know you don't back out one-time items from your reported EBITDA, but we do pay attention to those. So as far as one-time as items in Poland goes for the next year or so, they should be I would guess somewhat de minimis. Is that correct?

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

No. We don't see anymore.

Bryan Maher - Craig-Hallum Capital

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

And then lastly, the Sosnowiec, can you give us an update on what your thoughts are with that property? I know it was shut predominantly or recently. Can you tell us how you think about that property going forward?

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

It's not shut close for [ph] unlimited time, it will be open again. And that the main issue there is whether the illegal casinos, the illegal slot casinos will continue to be present there. Unfortunately, the country is not as expected, as we would wanted to be in closing illegal casinos, something that we certainly could not foresee. And that hits us negatively in Sosnowiec.

Bryan Maher - Craig-Hallum Capital

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

And just one more if I may, plus would you moved into a much better location in the spring. Can you give us an update on how that property is doing?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · Bryan Maher from Craig-Hallum Capital

It's doing wonderfully well. Although, it's not such a large property, but it sometimes number three on the list of performance when it comes to EBITDA and net income, a very favorable and good.

Operator

Operator

And there are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to you.

Peter Hoetzinger

Analyst · CJS Securities

Thank you, everyone, for your interest in Century Casinos and your participation in the call. For a recording of the call, please visit the Financial Results section of our website at cnty.com. We look forward to getting together with you again for our fourth quarter and yearend earnings call in March of next year. Good bye.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.