Earnings Labs

Red Rock Resorts, Inc. (RRR)

Q1 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, May 4, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Red Rock Resorts' First Quarter 2017 Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Foley, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Daniel Foley

President

Thank you, Daniel. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Red Rock Resorts' first quarter 2017 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today from Red Rock Resorts are Frank Fertitta, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Rich Haskins, President; and Marc Falcone, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Our call today will include forward-looking statements under the Safe Harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Developments and results may differ from those projected. The risks and uncertainties related to these statements are detailed in our filings with the SEC. During this call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. For definitions and complete reconciliation of these figures to GAAP, please refer to the financial tables in our earnings press release and Form 8-K, which were filed this afternoon prior to the call. Also please note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Marc Falcone.

Marc Falcone

Management

Thank you, Dan, and good afternoon. I'm pleased to welcome everyone to our first quarter 2017 earnings call. The economic factor of Las Vegas continues to be very encouraging in 2017, resulting in further strength in our core business. For the quarter we achieved both our highest first quarter consolidated and Las Vegas EBITDA in nine years and we continue to make good progress on our numerous growth initiatives, which include substantial commitments to our slot in marketing technology, the major expansion and upgrade of Palace Station and our exciting plans for the redevelopment of the Palms. As the Las Vegas economy continues to strengthen, we remain confident that these investments will be important drivers of our future growth. In addition, over the past several months, we've entered into a series of transactions to further enhance our balance sheet, which will increase cash flow and improve our financial flexibility. We're excited about our strategic plans coming together for the remainder of 2017 and are confident that we will continue to drive long term shareholder value. Now, turning to our results, the first quarter consolidated net revenues, including the Palms increased 16.3% to $418 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 2% to $136 million. In Las Vegas, net revenues, including the Palms increased 16.5% to $386 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 1.3% to $121 million. Margins for the quarter were 32.5% on a consolidated basis and 31.2% for Las Vegas operations. The inclusion of the Palms in our quarterly operating results, the ongoing negative impact of disruption related to the expansion and upgrade of Palace Station as well as the enhancements relating to our food and beverage offerings and guest service levels were the contributing factors to the margin decline. None the less, the core fundamentals of our business remain solid. Despite…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from line of Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Good afternoon guys. Marc you mentioned you're still expecting the disruption at the Palace Station to be $10 million to $15 million this year. Can you help us understand what the impact was in the first quarter?

Marc Falcone

Management

We're not going to get to specific, but I think it's in line with our expectations, the negative drag from the renovation and upgrade work we're doing at Palace Station. And over the year, we should be in that $10 million to $15 million range.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay, another way of maybe speaking about it, would you say the incremental contribution from Palms was basically enough to the renovation disruption?

Marc Falcone

Management

Again Joe, we're not going to get to specific, but Palms had a very good first quarter overall on a revenue and EBITDA basis.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay, great. And of the $175 million to $200 million of project CapEx, that contemplates the redevelopment plan to the Palms that you're going to share with us in the future or could those redevelopment plans increase that $175 million to $200 million CapEx range.

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, the $175 million to $200 million included some of the projects that you're currently aware of, such as - we're currently renovating the Café at the Palms. We'll soon finish that project in June and then start on the buffet. So our CapEx includes some projects at the Palms. Like I said, we're consenting to work on the longer redevelopment plans and positioning of the property and we have not finalized a budget or scope, so until then the CapEx will be in that 175 to 200. I'd anticipate with whatever we finalize with respect to the positioning of the Palms that we'll announce a capital program and timing related to that at that point in time.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Great and then just with respect to how you guys are thinking about the trajectory and the near term Palms, do you think some of the redevelopments and repositioning and that the property disrupt EBITDA generation from where it's been recently? In other words, would EBITDA take a hit for four you have greater EBITDA growth coming from what you're doing there?

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, I would expect that once we get into the redevelopment plans later in this year that we could see some disruption at the Palms from a cash flow perspective. But currently our synergies are on target and the property is performing in line with our expectations.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst · Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Hey, thanks and good afternoon everybody. Marc if you could, could you just walk through the rationale? I know you said kind of provide yourselves with a little bit more flexibility, but you're obviously the second operator here in the last two quarters, so it's kind of a acquired ground leases underneath your Las Vegas assets. Could you talk a little bit about the rationale behind why you wanted to do that as well as maybe provide us some context for what kind of boost that could give to EBITDA?

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, so let me take the second piece first and that is, we'll pick up approximately $7 million of incremental EBITDA related to the purchase of the two ground leases. Obviously, we're long term believers in the Las Vegas market, we like to own our real estate, there is opportunity for us to acquire these land leases and sales at the accretive nature of the cash flow, the addition of the 7 million as well as controlling the land underneath those properties was key to our long term belief in the Las Vegas local market.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst · Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Okay, great. And then just in terms of the balance sheet as you see it right now, clearly you want some dry powder for whatever you guys ultimately decide on the Palms, but in terms of other thoughts around some of the other land parcels that you have for development, not necessarily for sale, but for development, kind of what's the mind set on things like Reno and Durango at this point?

Marc Falcone

Management

Well, currently right now I think we mentioned this in the past, but our focus right now is on the Palace Station renovation, expansion as well as the redevelopment project at the Palms. Until we get further through those projects respectively I think with respect to Reno as well as Durango we would continue to do the appropriate analysis around those projects and be prepared at some point in the future, but there is nothing on the immediate horizon for either one of those development opportunities.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst · Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Okay, great. Thanks, Marc.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Your line is open

Great, thanks. Good afternoon everybody. Marc just could you give us maybe a little color between - as we think about the kind of the different components of what's going on. With the EBITDA the positive contribution from Palms which sounds like it performed well, offset by Palace and F&B initiatives. I mean between the two negatives, which one of those is dragging more right now and how do you see those two pieces kind of trending as we move through the year.

Marc Falcone

Management

I would say from our perspective, the investments in food and beverage and the drag on margins is a larger contributor on the negative on both an EBITDA and margin perspective in where we currently are with Palace. And I suspect to anniversary some of those investments by the end of the third quarter.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Your line is open

And just like - it looks like last year, I think the F&B contribution margins were actually negative by the second and third quarters, so I mean are there incremental things that have been done even - just like a multiyear, multistage initiative that is kind of causing that because we would think that we would have been sort of heading to either your comps kind of by now.

Marc Falcone

Management

I think some of the investments we made really began towards the latter part of the second quarter, accelerated into the third quarter of last year and that's the expectation line of anniversary those by 3Q of '17.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Your line is open

Great, thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Cameron Knight from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Cameron Knight

Analyst · Cameron Knight from Wells Fargo. Your line is open

Good afternoon, thanks very much. Just turning to the sports book Marc, can you talk about the cadence of business through the quarter and how the quarter finished with March madness past the weakness in Jan and Feb that you highlighted previously?

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, I would say sports had a really tough start to the quarter. The continuation of the negative trends we had from the NFL, little by the NCAA, Football and then obviously through the Super Bowl and we got some good momentum through the second half of February and the balance of the quarter to end up in a good spot. However, I would just say that hold still is down year-over-year, but we did finish out on a respectable side. We had mid single digit increases and rate for sports overall in the quarter.

Cameron Knight

Analyst · Cameron Knight from Wells Fargo. Your line is open

Got it thanks and then I mean conference activity was pretty high across the strip during the first quarter, particularly with the ConAGra Convention coming back into Vegas. Do you think that had a - did that have a meaningful material impact on the results this quarter?

Marc Falcone

Management

Well, tend to - those large citywide conventions, we have roughly 5,000 hotel rooms now. When you take into account the Palms acquisition and so we get a lot of ADR compression and RevPAR compression citywide, we tend to benefit from that across the market. So I think ConAgra was helpful to us overall from a RevPAR perspective and an ADR perspective in the quarter.

Cameron Knight

Analyst · Cameron Knight from Wells Fargo. Your line is open

Okay, got it. Thanks and then one last one for me. Just slightly bigger picture, if congress removes the deductions for state and local taxes, would that change your view on Reno and its appeal to you?

Marc Falcone

Management

I don't think at this point any of those changes would affect our decision. I think like I reiterate the fact that we're very focused on delivering an outstanding product at Palace and excited about what the future holds for the Palms and that's primarily the focus and I think we'll stay with that course.

Cameron Knight

Analyst · Cameron Knight from Wells Fargo. Your line is open

Perfect, thanks a lot.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Your line is open.

Chad Beynon

Analyst · Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Your line is open

Great, thanks for taking my questions. First, I wanted to ask about I guess North Las Vegas in particular. Board recently acquired a couple of properties up there and now that those which are relatively new have been plugged into a different system. I'm wondering if there was any type of affect or if you expect anything to happen as players potentially try product with one of the other known company. Thanks.

Marc Falcone

Management

Hey, Chad. I would say, listen, those properties have both been in operations for quite a while. We've been competing with assets for quite a while and we're very familiar with those assets as well as the customers in that North Las Vegas market. I don't think we've seen any major change or significant change with the change of ownership and the promotional environment still remains relatively stable across the market and including North Las Vegas.

Chad Beynon

Analyst · Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Your line is open

Okay, thanks. And then my follow up with respect to slow through, I guess how we should think about it going forward given some differences in the hotel, the F&B and GGR growth rates, is there anything that we should be thinking about in terms of how the EBITDA to revenue flow through should be within your Las Vegas business. Thank you.

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, Chad I think as we get through the third quarter here and we anniversary some of these investments we made in our business. Our expectation is, in addition to other initiatives we're focused on that we would be able to have improved flow through in the course of normal business starting hopefully let me get through the quarter. So our expectation is, you will start to see improved flow through going into the fourth quarter of '17 and into 2018.

Chad Beynon

Analyst · Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Your line is open

Okay, great. Thank you, Marc.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Steve Wisinski from Stifel. Your line is open.

Steve Wisinski

Analyst · Steve Wisinski from Stifel. Your line is open

Yeah, thanks. Hey Marc that you mentioned that Palms was up 6% year-over-year in terms of revenues, but did you say or would you say what the property did year-over-year in terms of EBITDA?

Marc Falcone

Management

No, we did not disclose that. We don't generally speak specifically, but wanted to give some positive data points about how the Palms was performing and as I mentioned earlier, it did have a strong quarter overall on a revenue and EBITDA margin.

Steve Wisinski

Analyst · Steve Wisinski from Stifel. Your line is open

But is it fair to say though, EBITDA was higher year-over-year relative to what the property was doing under previous ownership?

Marc Falcone

Management

That's correct.

Steve Wisinski

Analyst · Steve Wisinski from Stifel. Your line is open

Okay and then second question just around your core customer base at Palace Station, have you guys had many discussions with them about what are they doing while the disruption is and the construction is going on, meaning are they still coming or are they coming less often, are they going to any other of your assets or are they staying home more and things like that. Have you had many conversations with them, your core customers there?

Marc Falcone

Management

Yeah, well I think it wasn't. We have a strong management team there, they have very good relationships with our customers, who're always talking to them and they recognize its somewhat disruptive now, but they're still coming. Some are going to other properties and some continue to come on a regular basis, so there's no really a direct answer to the general behavior. I would say that there's a lot of unique circumstances and we feel the property is going to be very well positioned when we're through this renovation and upgrade of the property.

Steve Wisinski

Analyst · Steve Wisinski from Stifel. Your line is open

Okay, great. Thanks a lot Marc. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from line of Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Hey, guys just two quick follow ups. You just mentioned when you're done with the Palms renovation you'll be pleased with the EBITDA potential of that property and a return implied there in. When does the property getting renovated. Are we talking about three more quarters or are we talking about a year and a half, just thinking about the sense of how to think about the near term there.

Marc Falcone

Management

At Palms or Palace, I just want to make sure I understand correctly.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Palms.

Marc Falcone

Management

The Palms like I said, when we get to announce everything in context we will give a more definitive timeline in terms of what we're doing and how long we expect the property to be in a position of redevelopment.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Do you think on this call a year from now that we'll be talking about renovation issues at the Palms? It's another way of my asking about.

Marc Falcone

Management

I don't know, it's too soon to tell.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay, okay it's great. And then I'll ask you another equally fair question Marc. From here would you expect total in the [indiscernible] adjusted EBITDA growth to accelerate in the next three quarters?

Marc Falcone

Management

Our expectation is we have a very strong economic environment. Revenues are growing in that 2% to 3% range, which we have indicated in the past was our expectations and then as we kind of anniversary these expenses and improve flow through, our expectation would be that we should see rising EBITDA on our business overall.

Joe Greff

Analyst · Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] This concludes today's Q&A session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Marc Falcone for closing remarks.

Marc Falcone

Management

Thank you everyone for your time today. We look forward to talking to you soon.