Golden Entertainment - Q3 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Golden Entertainment third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal remarks. Please note, this call is being recorded today. Now, I'd like to turn the conference over to Joe Jaffoni, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Joe Jaffoni (Investor Relations)

Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. On the call today is Blake Sartini, the company's Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Charles Protell, the company's President and Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and our filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise. During today's call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures in talking about our performance. You can find the reconciliation of GAAP financial measures in our press release, which is available on our website.

We'll start the call with Charles reviewing details of the third quarter results and a business update. Following that, Blake and Charles will take your questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Charles Protell. Charles, please go ahead.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Thanks, Joe. For the third quarter, we generated revenue of $258 million and EBITDA of $53.2 million. When compared to last year, this quarter is missing almost $6 million in EBITDA from our Maryland property that we sold on July 25th, and is also missing approximately $800,000 in EBITDA from our Montana distributed operations that we sold on September 13th. In the quarter, we received $260 million from the sale of our Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Maryland and $109 million from the sale of our Montana distributed gaming business.

The net proceeds from these transactions increased our liquidity by nearly $300 million, which allowed us to repay $175 million of our term loan that remained outstanding after our May refinancing, pay a special cash dividend of $2 per share in August, and fund $9 million of stock buybacks in September. Our previously announced sale of our Nevada distributed gaming business for $214 million plus cash remains on track to close around year-end, subject to regulatory approvals, and will provide additional proceeds to enhance our capital structure and strategic flexibility. The sale of our Maryland casino and distributed businesses accomplishes our goals of divesting non-core businesses at attractive valuations, increasing our financial and strategic flexibility, and leaving us with a portfolio of owned casino assets and the largest gaming tavern footprint in Nevada.

Moving to the results of our continuing operations, revenue at our Nevada casino resorts increased 7%, while EBITDA improved 2%. Revenue for the STRAT was up 8%, with EBITDA up 16%, reflecting improved occupancy, which led to higher F&B spend and gaming revenue at the property. Occupancy increased to 75% for the quarter, compared to 68% last year. We also completed the renovation of 537 rooms during the quarter and started on an additional 119 rooms that we finished in October. These room renovations created some disruption, which we estimate to be about $1 million of EBITDA for Q3. With our 1,300-room casino, pool, entertainment, and restaurant renovations, we feel that the property is now well-positioned to capitalize on the high traffic events like F1 and Super Bowl coming to Vegas over the coming quarters and beyond.

In addition, Atomic Golf, a new $75 million golf entertainment complex behind The STRAT, is on track to open in January, which will further drive visitation and spend at the property. In Laughlin, revenue was up 6%, supported by a more robust event calendar, while EBITDA declined 4%, reflecting higher labor and other operating costs, which we expect to moderate going forward. During this quarter, we had more entertainment events that drove more revenue versus last year, and our new bingo room at the Edgewater continues to have success at targeting local visitation from Arizona that has helped increase midweek business. Additionally, we are using third parties to bring new branded food outlets to our Laughlin properties, which will provide enhanced dining options for our guests while preserving capital for us to redeploy in our core operations.

Q3 revenue and EBITDA for our Nevada locals casinos were in line with last year, continuing their stable performance year to date. Growth at our Las Vegas properties offset lower revenue and EBITDA at our Pahrump properties, which were largely impacted by summer monsoons that closed a major highway connecting to California through Death Valley. The promotional environment for our locals properties remains stable, and the strength of the Las Vegas economy continues to support a healthy and growing database of core customers. For our Nevada tavern operations, third quarter revenue was flat to last year, while EBITDA was down 9% as our tavern margins were more impacted by Nevada's July minimum wage increase than our casinos. Despite increased costs, the tavern model continues to generate attractive ROIs for new builds and unit acquisitions.

For the last 8 taverns we have built or bought, the average ROI is over 25%. We expect the growth of Las Vegas to support the expansion of our tavern portfolio, and we anticipate closing on the purchase of 4 locations by the end of the year and 2 locations in Q1. In addition, we have 2 signed development sites and a robust pipeline of potential future locations. Nevada third-party distributed revenue was down 9% compared to last year, while EBITDA decreased 23%. The Nevada third-party distributed operations has a strong pipeline of new locations, which will begin to replace the volume loss from certain chain store contracts we did not renew based on the future economics of these locations.

Moving to our balance sheet, after using $175 million to repay our old term loan, our outstanding debt at the end of the quarter consisted primarily of a new $400 million first lien term loan and $335 million of senior unsecured notes. At the end of the quarter, we also had full availability on our $240 million revolver and $296 million in cash on the balance sheet, which includes cash reserved of approximately $74 million for taxes and fees related to our recent divestitures. After the quarter, we repurchased $49 million of our unsecured notes in the open market at par or less, reducing the outstanding balance to $286 million at the end of October.

Given the strength of our balance sheet and the confidence in our future cash generation, we accelerated our return of capital initiatives in the quarter. We distributed $58 million to shareholders in the form of a $2 per share special dividend in August, and we repurchased approximately 252,000 shares for $9 million during our brief open window after closing our Montana distributed sale in September. We intend to be opportunistic with future buybacks and have $91 million remaining under our repurchase authorization. Our pro forma net leverage at the end of the quarter was 2.5 times after adjusting for the sale of Rocky Gap and the Montana distributed business, which we anticipate being reduced to less than 2 times after the close of the sale of our Nevada distributed business.

Our pro forma leverage obviously gives us a lot of flexibility to invest in our own assets, return capital to shareholders, and take advantage of potential opportunities to grow our existing portfolio. With operations that range from local gaming taverns to a Strip property, our company remains uniquely positioned to capture growth from the increasing visitor volume and population of Las Vegas. Our core portfolio remains stable, and our rated customers are healthy as we look forward into Q4 and next year. Further, we believe our investment in The STRAT will support improved results through higher occupancy and spend at the property, with new amenities like Atomic Golf and an absence of construction disruption going forward. That concludes our prepared remarks. Blake and I are now available for questions.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. The first question comes from Jordan Bender with JMP. Please go ahead.

Jordan Bender (Jordan Bender with JMP)

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Just looking at some of the market data, you know, the drive-in data has been weak in the last couple of quarters. That might just be coming off of all-time highs. You know, this might pertain more to Laughlin, but are you guys seeing any weakness coming from that California customer that might be driving into The STRAT?

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

No, I, I would say we haven't. I would say that, you know, maybe a bit of an untold story is there is significant disruption on I-15 right now, just south of the Strip, probably all the way through the state line, which I'm sure is dissuading some people. But in terms of material impact at our property drive-in, we have not, we have not seen that.

Jordan Bender (Jordan Bender with JMP)

Okay. And then just for my follow-up, did you guys benefit any from the cyber hack in the quarter, just picking up business at the STRAT?

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yeah, I mean, I think we got a little spillover from that, but, I mean, obviously, it's not something that you want to see to anybody in the industry, but it was a little bit, not material, maybe for a weekend or so.

Jordan Bender (Jordan Bender with JMP)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Carlo Santarelli with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Carlo Santarelli (Managing Director of Gaming & Lodging Equity Research)

Hey, guys. Just in terms of, Charles, I know you, you talked a little bit about what you're seeing kind of in the, in the tavern business. I was wondering, just in, in general, what you're seeing from the, the Las Vegas locals consumer. I know some of the, you know, some of it is location-driven and whatnot, but just in general, the temperature of the locals gaming patron at this stage.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yeah, I mean, for us, our local market is strong. Like, our properties are actually performing better than they did last Q3. We talked about a little bit of, you know, we combine that with our Pahrump assets, so there's a little bit of weakness in Pahrump, that, you know, is offset by the strength of our Vegas properties. So our database there is, you know, very healthy and, and you know, look, I think it's the continued story of there's still population migration to Vegas from California. That is not slowing down. You know, the local employment rates are, you know, relatively high. Unemployment is low, so, you know, folks have, you know, more money in their pockets, and that is translating into a healthy local economy, and we're, we're seeing it in our properties.

Carlo Santarelli (Managing Director of Gaming & Lodging Equity Research)

Great. Thank you. And then, Charles, you also talked about, obviously, you know, leverage and the position you'll be in pro forma for the sale execution. As it pertains to kind of the M&A environment, you know, obviously, there's clearly things happening. It's not the easiest market, I would imagine, to get deals done on the buy side or the sell side. But can you maybe educate us a little bit on your thoughts around M&A at this stage?

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at our transactions, we got some,

... some good deals executed at attractive, you know, prices from a valuation standpoint to us. I think, given where interest rates are, that makes the environment a little more challenging between, you know, buyers and sellers. And I think for public companies, you know, our clearest path to acquiring value, if we're trading below 7x on a forward basis, is our own stock. And so, you know, we'll look to do that. At the same time, if there are things that, you know, may be strategic, that come up, we will take a look at it. Our focus will be narrow. It'll be in opportunities where we could own the real estate, properties that are in the West and where we see strategic value with our existing footprint.

Carlo Santarelli (Managing Director of Gaming & Lodging Equity Research)

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Thanks, Dylan.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from David Katz with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

David Katz (Managing Director)

Hi, evening, everyone. Nice quarter. Thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to pick up right where you left off, we're thinking the western half of the United States, are we thinking Nevada? Are we exclusive to Las Vegas? You know, where are you seeing opportunities, where would you consider them?

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, David, I think, I think you're spot on. From our perspective, we've spent the last couple of years setting ourselves up with a wholly owned portfolio here in Nevada, and particularly southern Nevada. So obviously, Nevada certainly is a primary target for us. West, meaning, you know, west of Colorado, let's say, probably is a primary target, but mostly we're focused on Nevada. And where, as Charles described, we're looking for things that would move the needle within our portfolio, and where we can derive potentially some synergies from taking on assets that would be in that close proximity to where we're at. So we, we've proven ourselves in southern Nevada, I think it's the best gaming market in the country.

We now have an established portfolio here, and, as I said, I think that's our primary target.

David Katz (Managing Director)

If I go back far enough, I do recall there were some strategies, you know, to enhance The STRAT. Is one of the alternatives that, you know, potentially go back and look at some of those and expand what you have there, particularly in view of the fact that, you know, there's another major property, you know, opening not too far away, and whether that north end of the Strip thesis starts to come to life again?

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. I'll answer it this way. Our major renovations and disruptions at this point are finished at The STRAT. As Charles mentioned, casino, hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, pool have put us in a good position to compete, given the growth north on the Strip, which we've talked about since we've owned the property, that inertia going north on the Strip is going to benefit The STRAT, all within close walking distance to our property. We certainly believe over time. So, although we do have major kind of shelf-ready projects, we're going to sit on the property at this point. A bit of a data point, just in September, with continued minor disruption and October with no disruption, the property performed very healthy.

October, for example, was the highest hotel revenue month that we've had and the highest EBITDA month we've ever had since we've owned the property. So we're going to continue to mine that property now that we've made that prudent investment. And any investment going forward, and we do have some short-term investments, would be more on the, what we call the drive-by side, which would be maybe North Casino in a slot and restaurant or bar renovation to take advantage of a disruption of that traffic that will be generated through to Atomic Golf. Those are in the $2 million-$4 million kind of ranges. They're not major type of investments in terms of capital, and you'll see some of those over the course of the next year. But major disruption and major capital at this point is not on the radar.

David Katz (Managing Director)

Perfect. Thanks very much.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Chad Beynon with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Analyst)

Afternoon, Charles and Blake, thanks for taking my question. Wanted to ask about that lowest-end tier of the database or the unrated customer that we've been focusing on here. Did you see any degradation, I guess, in your Nevada casino operations or in the tavern business? Any change versus kind of what you've been seeing for the past couple of quarters? Thanks.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

No, no, not for us. So if you look at our database for Q3 compared to last year, we've actually increased distinct players, increased distinct gaming days, and, you know, increased actual, you know, slot and table revenue out of those players. So we view the database as very, very healthy. And I think that, as there's normally, you know, as expected, there's probably some atrophy of the retail revenue and the uncarded play. But that's, you know, we and others, you know, have been expecting that, for, for a long time now, and that's just continuing the same trend that we've, you know, been seeing throughout the year. But the database itself for us is very healthy.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Analyst)

Okay, so it didn't. There was no move that we would say was kind of driven by, you know, the economy, housing, macro. This is just kind of, you know, the getting back to the normal, normal type of player.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

No, I mean, not for us. I mean, look at our local properties. I mean, those are, you know, flat on a year-over-year basis. We just talked about the Las Vegas assets being up. That's where most of our, you know, rated play is between, you know, our locals market. So, you know, for us, the database, again, very healthy, and we don't see those trends slowing down.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Analyst)

Okay. Outside of The STRAT, because I think that's kind of a one-off situation that we can model. Charles, you talked about Laughlin, the locals market, the tavern, slightly lower margins, you know, given some higher expenses. Has that kind of plateaued in terms of expense creep? And if we're kind of thinking about, let's just assume, you know, a flat revenue environment, what does that do to margins? Or asked a different way, what do we need to see from a revenue growth standpoint to hold margins from a same-store basis going forward? Thanks.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yeah. So I think if you look, I think we have to break ours out by segments from. So from a local perspective, we think we're pretty flat in that regard. We think we've gotten to that point. I think on the tavern side, you know, the tavern this quarter, you know, was faced with a 7% increase in labor, largely due to minimum wage. There is one more increase in minimum wage here in Nevada. In next year, that'll be at a lower rate because it's at a higher base. So there'll be, you know, a little bit of pressure there, but we're adding, yeah, 6 taverns into the portfolio that we're acquiring at the end of this year, beginning of next, plus two developments.

So we expect growth from an overall EBITDA basis within that, within that segment. And then if you look at The STRAT, you know, I'd say, you know, in general, it's been fairly stable there. If you think about the potential, you know, pressures around union labor there, we have 1,800 total employees. You know, out of that, only 850 or so are union. So, you know, it's not a big piece of our our portfolio having union labor, but it is some piece of our portfolio. We feel like we have good union relationships, so we expect that to go fairly smoothly for us once, once, that contract gets ironed out with the bigger guys on the Strip.

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

In terms of impact there, Chad, onto Charles' point, we've been accruing for the potential added union expense since-

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yeah.

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Since, yeah, since June. So, we're pretty confident that, you know, we've mitigated that to this point, obviously. And then, once we have the conversations, as Charles said, we've had good relationships with them, so we anticipate that going forward.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Analyst)

Great, appreciate it. Thank you both.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Yep.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from John DeCree with CBRE Securities. Please go ahead.

John DeCree (Head of Institutional Investor Research)

Good afternoon, Blake, Charles. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just two kind of follow-ups to prior conversations. The first on occupancy recovery at The STRAT continues to march forward. When you look at the opportunity and kind of what you've seen in October, Blake, your comments were helpful. You know, is it still very much the weekends are full and the occupancy recovery is needed midweek? And then is there... You know, if that is the case, is there an opportunity to continue to drive price and customer mix on the weekends, just given, you know, how much entertainment and weekend demand the Strip is still seeing?

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Yes, I think that's a pretty good way to look at the property. We still have a pretty significant deficit of midweek occupancy versus prior periods. And that is white space that when that fills in, is a significant bump to the property's performance. So the, you know, the property not having significant amounts of banquet space is going to ebb and flow with kind of citywides more than other properties. But in terms of what we're seeing, you referenced October, I referenced October, with no disruption, with still significant amenities being added, i.e., a $70 million Atomic Golf facility that we think will drive significant amounts of traffic through the property, and other small renovations that I've talked about.

We see the trajectory starting in September to be very positive. It has been, but again, it's going to ebb and flow with citywides, but that trend line is going to be on an upward trajectory. We're pretty confident without disruption. One other metric I think is important in that, John, is when we first took over the property, we were dependent upon OTAs, OTA booking about 80% of our occupancy of the property when we bought it. That number is down to approximately 65%. So we're dependent about-- We've improved our, our dependence, if you will, on the OTAs by, by a pretty significant amount. And we could-- we wanna, we wanna see that continue, which gives us more opportunity to control our own destiny in terms of rate and the type of customer we drive to the property.

With all of those things moving in the right direction, we're very bullish on, on what we think that property can produce in the future.

John DeCree (Head of Institutional Investor Research)

Thanks, Blake. I think you took my follow-up there on OTA mix. So maybe I'll look into November, a couple weeks away from F1. There's been that much discussion this quarter with your peers, but you know, as we kind of look at that as being a major event for the city, do you still feel good about that? And given your positioning on the Strip and even locals, you know, is that still a net positive impact? Or, as we get closer, can you give us a little bit of extra color as to how you're thinking about that event for you?

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, clearly, clearly, it's gonna be additive for the city, and waterfall to us. It's going to be additive as well. We're seeing it migrate to very much of a high-end event and a South Strip event in terms of where the magnitude of the effect will be. But that tail effect, that waterfall effect, will raise all ships, certainly during that timeframe. And beyond that, you have New Year's, and beyond that, you have Super Bowl, which, by the way, is a much more robust sell for us right now in terms of rate and demand than F1 is currently. So, that's even better news for, you know, the next couple of months. But certainly F1 is going to provide a lift.

John DeCree (Head of Institutional Investor Research)

That's helpful. Thanks, Blake. Thanks, Charles. Congratulations on the quarter.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Thanks, John.

Blake Sartini (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference over to Charles Protell for any closing remarks.

Charles Protell (President and CFO)

Thanks all for joining. We'll talk to you at the next quarterly call.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.