Melco Resorts & Entertainment - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the first quarter 2024 earnings conference call of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the call, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Jeanny Kim, Senior Vice President, Group Treasurer of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited. Please go ahead.

Jeanny Kim (SVP and Group Treasurer)

Thank you, operator, and thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2024 earnings call. On the call are Lawrence Ho, Geoffrey Davis, Evan Winkler, and our property presidents in Macau, Manila, and Cyprus. Before we get started, please note that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of federal securities laws. Our actual results could differ from our anticipated results. In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP measures. A definition and reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the earnings release. Finally, please note that our supplementary earnings slides are posted on our investor relations website. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Lawrence Ho.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Jeanny, and thank you all for joining us today. We have had an eventful year so far. We've had a shift in management, our sales force has been restructured, we've knocked down walls and started reconfiguring our gaming areas, and opened several new retail outlets at Studio City, to name a few highlights. On the financing side, we paid down another $250 million in debt, raised $750 million in bonds, and extended the maturity of our $1.9 billion revolving credit facility, significantly reducing our refinancing risk in 2025. We had a slow start in January, but we recovered in February, in part due to Chinese New Year, and the improvement in our performance in March and April reflects the steps that we've taken towards regaining our leadership position in Premium Mass.

Melco Macau's first quarter Theo Property EBITDA reached 89% of 2019. In March, both COD Macau and Studio City recorded their highest mass table games drop ever. In April, we continued to gain market share, recording the highest daily gaming revenue since Macau's reopening in January 2023. We remain extremely optimistic about Macau's continued growth potential. Various initiatives recently announced by the Chinese government, such as the multi-entry group tour visas between Macau and Hangzhou, the new cities added to the IVS program in March, easier online visa application process for residents of China's 20 largest cities, as well as the proposed connection of Shenzhen to the Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, increases accessibility to Macau and enlarges our customer base. We're confident that we will maintain our lead-market-leading position based on the quality of our properties and our continued efforts to enhance our services and offerings.

In the Philippines, City of Dreams Manila continues to generate solid results in Mass Table Games and slots, but we had some bad luck in VIP this past quarter. City of Dreams Mediterranean and our satellite casinos in Cyprus showed positive EBITDA and cash flow through the first quarter. We have been working on expanding our marketing efforts throughout Europe as well as the Middle East, and we're cautiously, cautiously optimistic that we can continue to expand profitability despite the continued conflicts in the region. Today, we announced that we're working with the John Keells Group in Sri Lanka in relation to their new integrated resort development. The integrated resort will be rebranded as City of Dreams Sri Lanka, and will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka and South Asia.

We will be responsible for the fit-out and operations of the casino, which we expect to open in mid-2025. While the City of Dreams Sri Lanka integrated resort itself is expected to open in the third quarter of 2024. This is a landmark development in Sri Lanka, and we're thrilled to participate in this opportunity. This is a capital-light investment with an attractive return profile, allowing us to expand the City of Dreams brand and broaden our customer reach. Finally, I'm excited to announce that we have hired Tim Kelly as Property President of City of Dreams Macau. Tim was most recently president at Atlantis Global for Kerzner International, based in Dubai, and has achieved great success in building the Atlantis brand since joining them in 2017.

He has a unique blend of skills and experience that we believe positions him perfectly to lead this next chapter of City of Dreams, and I would like to welcome him to the Melco family. With that, I turn the call over to Jeff to go through some of the numbers.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis (Executive VP and CFO)

Thank you, Lawrence. Our group-wide adjusted property EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024 was approximately $299 million. Luck-adjusted group-wide property EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024 came in at $329 million. Unfavorable win rates negatively impacted our results at City of Dreams Macau and City of Dreams Manila by approximately $33 million, whereas a favorable win rate at Studio City had a slight positive impact of approximately $2 million.

...Details of these adjustments can be found in the supplementary earnings slides posted on our investor relations website. In April, we significantly reduced our refinancing risk in 2025 with a series of transactions that include the extension of our $1.9 billion revolving credit facility to 2027, a $750 million bond issuance, and a $100 million tender offer on the Studio City bonds due 2025. The proceeds from the $750 million bond issue have been used to repay loans under the RCF, and the extension of the RCF allows us to draw down again in 2025 to refinance the $1 billion in bonds due at Melco. We have always been prudent as well as opportunistic in managing our financing structure and maturities, and we believe that the actions taken can reduce our exposure to future market volatility.

We now have $300 million to refinance at Studio City by July 2025, and we are actively reviewing alternatives. As of March 31, 2024, we had around $1.3 billion of consolidated cash on hand. Melco, excluding its operations at Studio City, the Philippines and Cyprus, accounted for around $635 million. Of this, approximately $125 million was restricted as collateral required for the concession-related guarantees issued to Macau government. Pro forma for the recent bond issue, our undrawn and available credit lines for additional liquidity increased to $1.8 billion. As we normally do, we'll give you some guidance on non-operating line items for the upcoming second quarter of 2024. Total depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $135 million-$140 million.

Corporate expense is expected to come in at approximately $20 million, and consolidated net interest expense is expected to be approximately $120 million-$125 million. This includes finance liability interest of around $7 million relating to fees payable in relation to the Macau gaming concession and the Cyprus gaming license, and finance lease interest of approximately $6 million relating to City of Dreams Manila. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, back to you for the Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, dear participants. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question, and it comes to line of George Choi from Citi. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

George Choi (Research Analyst)

Thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions, if I may. Firstly, given the recently announced Hengqin Macao multi-entry visa arrangement, would you please let us know what Melco will be doing specifically to capitalize on this, in particular with Studio City? And secondly, would you please give us an update on your adoption of smart gaming tables? And finally, would you please remind us your priorities in terms of cash deployment? I guess, specifically, is there any chance of a dividend resumption? Thank you very much, and I'll turn back to you.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, George, it's Lawrence. So maybe let me take the broader question, and then I'll let, you know, Evan and Kevin talk about, you know, the Studio City part. But, you know, I think first of all, in terms from a cash deployment standpoint, where our number one focus continues to be debt reduction. So that is by far and away our number one focus, and I'm glad that, you know, maybe Jeff can supplement later on. Last year, we took down, in the prepared remarks, more than $1 billion of debt, and that will continue to be the goal. The Sri Lankan opportunity is a very unique one.

It's asset light, and I think that's why, you know, we still view ourselves as, you know, balance sheet allowing to be a development company, and so we'll continue to look for developments that fit the balance sheet. And, you know, on the Macau and Hengqin multiple visa entry, I'll let Evan and Kevin talk about the details of what our strategy there. But I think naturally, you know, so far, year to date, there's been numerous positive China announcements. You know, whether it was increasing the individual traveler cities, IVS cities, to Xi'an and Qingdao, to, you know, extending the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, and then now with the most recent Hengqin-Macau news and the so-called other visas that allow people to come to Macau multiple times.

I think on a long-term directional basis, it's all excellent news, and so maybe I hand it off to Evan and Kevin to talk about.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Sure. I can start, and Kevin can supplement. I think on that issue in particular, we've done some of the initial work. I think we obviously, if you look at where we're physically positioned at Studio City, we're well positioned to take advantage. We've evaluated some of the hard infrastructure we have in terms of a bus drop-off, and things that would allow us to facilitate a greater tour volume going through into that point of entry into Macau, and I think that we have some opportunities there.

I would say in terms of concrete plans, we are early on in sort of exploratory discussions, so I think we believe that there may be an opportunity there, but we're going to spend time to make sure we're bringing the right groups on the property, if that's the direction that we go. But as Lawrence indicated, I think it's a long-term positive.

Speaker 13

... I think Evan summarized it well. We already have a very strong agent business with a lot of our current attractions, particularly with the water park. So we have really strong relationships with a lot of the group tour operators. So we see a lot of upside as this visa scheme continues to evolve. And we also have great connectivity from the train station that's being built on the other side, right next to the current Macau light rail. So just a lot of positive opportunities.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

In terms of smart tables, we are obviously prioritizing the adoption of smart table technology. We are getting delivery of our first set or a small set of tables this quarter. Although it will be a small enough number, it will really be more on a pilot or trial basis as we continue to do our learnings with full-scale adoption, pacing out really over the next year until we have our full force of tables. In the short term, we're looking at how we might deploy them within specific areas within the property, both to use them strategically and then also to enhance our learnings on how we're gonna use this technology on a roll forward basis.

Approximately this time next year, we should be around at full implementation.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes to the line of Ricardo Chinchilla from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Luis Ricardo Chinchilla (Director)

Hey, guys, this is Ricardo from Deutsche. Thank you so much for taking my question. I was hoping if you could comment a little bit on the promotional environment. We keep hearing from your competitors that the competitive environment and promotional environment keeps being pretty intense. Have you seen a material difference between the fourth quarter and the first quarter? And, you know, if you could also comment a little bit on flow through in this particularly promotional environment.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Sure. Why don't I take that? I do think, again, we are seeing a fairly intense competitive environment over the last quarter and into this quarter. If you go to Macau and you walk around, you see evidence of that, even if you just look on people's gaming floors in terms of the number of freebies that are going out to mass players. And if you see what's happening on the mass floor, that obviously is continuing into our premium areas in terms of people competing for that premium mass player in improving their game in terms of product and services.

I do think that there has probably been a little bit of a peak in terms of some of the player reinvestment programs, where I don't think it's accelerating beyond where it was, and I think all of us are taking a look at what we're doing. And so I would expect over time for it to stabilize and eventually come back down. But in the short term, as the market recovered, I think we've been in a little bit of a feeding frenzy, trying to go after the highest value premium mass players, and that's probably taken up investment levels to probably as high as we'd like them to go. And I think we're probably getting to the peak and looking to have them taper and come back down.

Luis Ricardo Chinchilla (Director)

Got it. Thank you. If I may follow up with a housekeeping item, could you please, you know, provide some CapEx figures for the year as split between, you know, the Melco Resorts group, meaning Studio City, City of Dreams Manila and the Mocha Clubs, and then for, you know, Studio City on its own? That would be very helpful. Thank you.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Okay, thank you. So including the recently announced Sri Lanka project, our total CapEx for 2024 is estimated to be approximately $415 million, $50 million of which would be Sri Lanka. So I think you were asking for a property-by-property breakdown. So at COD Macau, that's around $140 million. Studio City is about $75 million. Manila is in the range of $40 million, and COD Mediterranean is approximately $20 million.

Luis Ricardo Chinchilla (Director)

Thank you so much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Just to round that off, in addition to that, some in respect to project spending, with some tail expenditures relating to Phase II and the Cyprus project, that constitutes approximately $25 million for Studio City Phase II, and about $30 million remaining for the ICR in Cyprus. Operator, please go ahead with the next question.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes to the line of John DeCree from CBRE. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

John DeCree (Head of Equity Research)

Hi, good evening, everyone. Maybe two or three questions on some of the changes that you've made in the quarter. Obviously, some new management and starting to roll up their sleeves. Lawrence, I think your prepared remarks, you spoke about maybe moving some walls, updating some retail. So, you know, curious if you could kind of elaborate a little bit on what you've done kind of there at the property level of Studio City and COD, I guess, specifically. And then a little bit more on maybe some of the early success or feedback that you're seeing from some of those developments. I think you mentioned, you know, pretty strong mass market drop in March, but if there's anything else you could add, that'd be great.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Sure, John. You know, I think when we made the management change, it was also a bit of a culture change. I think that was quite important because, you know, over the years, the DNA of Melco was always, you know, in terms of providing the best services and the best product, and we had the hardware built for that. And so I think changing up the team dynamics really helped us. I think in terms of the details, maybe, you know, in terms of the good work at both City of Dreams and Studio City, I'll let Evan and Kevin talk about it. In terms of the numbers, I think, you know, March was...

You know, for the market itself, March was the best month since the pandemic, but for us, it was, it was one of the best months we've ever had. And, and April was shaping out to be another great month for us, even though, you know, seasonality plays a factor. April tends to be a pretty slow month, for the market, but I think for us, it's been a great month. But in terms of the, the nitty-gritty details of what we've done at COD and Studio City, why don't I let Evan and, and Kevin talk about it?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Sure. Why, why don't I start, and I'll let Kevin chime in on Studio City? So, when we went through our management shift, Lawrence has really directed the team to regain our leadership position within premium mass. And so we've been taking a look at really every aspect of our business from a customer-centric perspective, to make sure that our product and service offerings and our gaming experience is commensurate with that leadership position. If you specifically go onto the floor at City of Dreams, you're going to see that already we've moved the electronic product and consolidated that on the end of the floor by Hyatt. We've added tables where that was. We've opened up our previous carded pit, to allow better flow of customers into a premium area.

We've added, sort of free-flowing, food and beverage, so we now have 24/7 snacks and beverages on the mass floor. There's an enhanced, offering as you go into the higher limit area, and then there's a highly enhanced offering, into our carded premium areas, which is including free-flowing Maotai and single malt, scotch, where we've actually had, players staying after play, enjoying themselves. And then instead of where they would typically have left property to go, eat and drink, they're staying within that environment, finishing, and then going back, and we're getting more play hours out of that player. So we're able to expand, our patrons' gaming day, which is obviously helping out, for drop and for results.

In addition to that, we've been looking across our staffing at almost every area of the business. So this goes down to the number of people we have on the floor servicing the guests from a food and beverage standpoint. We're looking at butler service within our high-value and villa areas. And so really, we're looking at all of the little pieces of the business and looking where we can invest in a way that we think is going to improve that experience. So we're either getting a gamer that's going to be playing longer or a better gamer, or a better cash guest into the property. It's probably too early for us to declare victory on any of the initiatives, but I would tell you that we're looking at every little aspect.

We're investing across the board, and what we've been seeing in March and April has been very, very positive indications in terms of what it means for our business after we've made those investments. I'm going to let Kevin comment on Studio City.

Speaker 13

You know, I think, Evan, Evan's comment on becoming customer-centric and getting the properties refocused on, on the service experience, you know, summarizes the journey Studio City has been on. And continuing to lean into the DNA of Studio City, which is it's a fun for all ages, cinema-themed property. And, we're creating a lot of fun activity for our guests when they come through there, both on the casino and, non-gaming side. On the casino, we've really reviewed everything. We have a nice master plan around kind of how we're going to approach our casino floor, our layout. You know, similar to COD, where they rearranged their floor, we're in the process of doing the same, with Studio City.

We're seeing the traction, particularly with our revamped F&B offerings. We've become extremely popular. We've actually seen the highest property visitation numbers since Studio City opened on the last day of March, which has been fantastic. We're seeing that start to go into the casino. So before, there was always the concern on how much of our non-gaming traffic converts, and we're starting to create the environment where people want to hang around Studio City and then continue to go inside. It's been really nice as the property's activated. I think you're seeing all the hard work over the last couple of years come together with Phase II opening, with our retail continuing to be fine-tuned, particularly with the opening of Don Don Donki.

We saw a 10% increase in visitation alone just from that. So a variety of things, but I think the customer-centric approach is where our main focus is.

John DeCree (Head of Equity Research)

That's all really helpful color, especially for some of us who don't get to the property as much as we'd like. Maybe to wrap it up, a question for Jeff. I think last quarter, we talked about a little bit of an OpEx increase, maybe $200,000 a day or so, some of that later in the year with the, you know, the show reopening. But is that still the right, given the changes you're making, is that still the right number for us to think about, or might that be a little bit of a moving target, you know, given all the investment in the operations that you guys are thinking about?

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, I think moving target is probably a good way to, to describe it. So for the first quarter, we were at approximately $2.7 million per day. The guidance that House of Dancing Water will add, towards the end of the year, another $0.1, is still valid. Although with the assessments that we're making in the business and, revenue generating enhancements to the business, I think they're, you know, directionally, we might see, some increase, in that, for the remainder of the year. But why don't I hand it over to Evan for some additional color?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

And look, I want to contextualize this from an operating perspective, because as we've gone through this shift, and the direction from Lawrence is, again, how do we regain our leadership position and our market leading position, and do it in a way where we continue to improve the profitability or EBITDA of the business? So as we're going through that, I think what we have realized looking at the business is, we were not saving our way to EBITDA. So in some of these areas where we felt good about, during COVID especially, pulling back on the operating expenses, in the recovered environment, we have opportunities where we can deploy against our guests and spend against our guests, and have an EBITDA positive outcome by doing that.

That applies in a lot of different areas across food and beverage, across all aspects in terms of service, where we're able to drive the business through that spending. If you look back historically, to 2019, before we did Studio City Phase II, we were in the range of about $3 million in OpEx before that occurred. I would not be terrifically surprised if we determine that between now and the end of the year, we got back into that zip code and felt that we could reinvest in the business in a profitable way, where expenses would creep back up to that level. What we're doing right now is we're deploying, we're evaluating the results, and if we believe we're generating positive EBITDA, we're continuing on.

If we don't, we're cutting off that and looking at different ways to invest in our guests. So, again, we're gonna be prudent in how we do it, but we definitely believe the expenses are gonna creep up from where they were. The positive news is I think that we believe that in doing so, we're gonna be driving EBITDA by reinvesting.

John DeCree (Head of Equity Research)

That's great. Thank, thanks so much. That all makes sense. I really appreciate the additional color. Thanks, everyone.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The next question comes from the line of Praveen Choudhary from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Praveen Kumar Choudhary (Managing Director)

Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Couple of questions from me. First of all, on Sri Lanka, it's obviously a great idea to go asset-light, so that's great. John Keells obviously is a great player. They know the market. Could you tell us a little bit about the market size, how many players and license, et cetera? And if you can, give some sense of the return that you're expecting out of a $125 million investment, that'll be great. So that's the first question. The second housekeeping question was, you mentioned $33 million of hold benefit, not benefit, but negative for COD and City of Dreams Manila. Could you split that for me, please?

And, the third question was, would you be able to give any rough idea about March and April, either market share or EBITDA share, or anything that you can talk about March and April, specifically? Thank you so much.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, Praveen, it's Lawrence. So let me talk about Sri Lanka first. So, you know, I think we've been looking at the region, not so much the country, for over a decade. And, my view is that, you know, Sri Lanka can be to India, what Macau is to China. And, you know, I think having looked at the Indian gaming market, we just don't think—I don't think, you know, anything is really gonna come of it for the next decades or so. And with the rising Indian economy and the wealth creation, Sri Lanka is by far and away, the closest, gaming jurisdiction to India. And, you know, John Keells is, you know, one of the, you know, one of the... Well, it is the biggest listed conglomerate in Sri Lanka, with over 150 years of history.

The building that they've built is truly magnificent. I, you know, I think when I first visited Sri Lanka over 10 years ago, and I heard about them trying to build that building, I thought it wasn't gonna happen, but they've actually done it. It's a billion-dollar building. So, I think for us, you know, $125 million is a, it's a small bet, yeah, and, for a potentially huge opportunity. In terms of... I, I don't think there's any published data on, on the size of the gaming market. We've done a lot of, bottom-up work. I think so far there's, two operators in, in the market, with, with, I think four casinos, but those are all very-

... all, all very local, very local and, you know, casinos only, not an integrated resort and not even attached to hotels. But, so I think, I don't know, maybe Jeff can.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis (Executive VP and CFO)

Sure. So yeah, we're, we're very, I think we're, we're very excited about, about the market. I think it's been currently sort of untapped, essentially, with a few local establishments. But we are, along with John Keells, raising the bar significantly to a world-class standard with the integrated resort, world-class standard with the casino that we're fitting out.

While I think it's a little too early to provide specific returns, you know, we're anticipating, you know, returns that are, you know, very attractive, very shareholder-friendly, will drive shareholder value, and probably, you know, returns that will be difficult to attain in most mature markets. You know, we're very pleased with the opportunity there. I think it's a great way to tap into a market with tremendous potential in a capital-light way. We're, you know, very happy to be going into business with the John Keells company. They're a great partner.

Operator (participant)

Thank you.

Praveen Kumar Choudhary (Managing Director)

Thank you. I had a couple more questions, sorry, on the numbers.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis (Executive VP and CFO)

So I think the hold adjusted numbers, I guess probably the easiest way is just to direct you to the investor relations deck that's out there that gives very specific numbers for all the different adjustments there. And then I think there was a question on sort of the March, April trajectory of... I'm not sure if it was market share or- Well, I- maybe just to give you some context for us, if we look at our mass business at COD and SC, March was the highest drop of any month historically for the company on the mass side.

April, which started off, not surprisingly, a little bit soft, has finished fairly strong, and looks like it will be probably the third-best month for mass drop at COD and SC, in the history of the company. And so, again, I don't specifically have our market share versus everybody else, but, March, we obviously had, a recovery. In April, my suspicion is that we did fairly well, but we won't know how we came out on a market share basis for a little bit here yet. But both have been very strong months. We're very pleased with what we're seeing right now.

Praveen Kumar Choudhary (Managing Director)

Thank you so much, and congratulations.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Vitaly Umansky from Seaport Research Partners. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Vitaly Umansky (Analyst)

Hi, good evening, gentlemen. I had two questions. The first is related to the player reinvestment comment that I think Evan might have made earlier in the call, kind of seeing peak player reinvestment levels in premium mass and potentially coming down. I guess the question related to that is, what gives you guys confidence that this is actually going to happen? I think we all often see fits and starts about operators trying to be rational when it comes to player reinvestment, and then often reverting back to a more competitive environment. And the highlight in the call had always been the junket commission kind of awards in 2009, 2010, that led to very elevated junket commissions in the market that never really came down.

Then the second question is related to, I guess, the smart digital tables. Obviously, they've been heavily talked about over the past couple of months, and these tables have been around for quite some time, and the development of these tables has improved over the last couple of years, and MGM have kind of shown their worth. If you think about kind of you implementing these tables, can you talk a little bit about where you see more of the near-term benefit arising from these tables? Then how does that evolve over the next year when you get to full implementation?

If everyone has these tables in, let's say, a year, which it looks like they will, does that just really level the playing field, across the board, or do you think there's ways to kind of optimize these tables that other operators may not be doing?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

So why don't I take first on the peaking of player reinvestment. And you're right, which is none of us have a crystal ball. We obviously have a view on the market. We have general discussions with peers at other places. I think there's a general feeling among the group and competitors in terms of what is rational and irrational behavior. And so based on where we are, what we're seeing, what we ourselves are doing, I think we feel that's where we are. But there's not a money-back guarantee that that's what's gonna actually occur. People can act irrationally, but I think that the tone right now is that people understand where we are.

And so I do think that we have a cautiously optimistic view here, that that's where we are and that's where it's going. In terms of the tables, right now, from a near-term benefit standpoint, what it does is it's gonna give early adopters insight into the actual player work, where you are able to more fully value a player, not just based on betting volumes, but betting by type and betting behavior, so that you can decide where you're going to invest your dollars and which players to go after. So there's a near-term competitive advantage. Longer term, what I think you get is everyone has better insight into your players, so that we can actually fine-tune across the board, our player reinvestment, and processes.

So it should be an overall benefit to the industry within technology, even when the playing field is leveled. And there are some efficiencies just in terms of how we will run table operations, how we supervise operations, how we free up labor to have better guest interaction and better guest involvement, because a lot of the actions that are being done right now by supervisors get monitored by the table, that will free them up to do better player interaction, better player interface, and hopefully serve as more player ambassadors, improving conditions for us and experience for us on the floor. And so I think that there will be, across the board, long-term benefits for the industry, even after you sort of level the arms race, so to speak, by everyone having adopted the tables.

Vitaly Umansky (Analyst)

Thanks. That's helpful. Could I just ask one, one follow-up? It's kind of related to player reinvestment, but I think it's more on the cost side of sales force. I think we've seen, for certain operators, an escalation of sales force expenditure, relative to what we saw before COVID. And I know operators are trying to maintain costs, but is there a risk that we start getting into a kind of a competitive bidding war for a sales force in premium over the next year as everyone continues to try to gain market share advantage in that market? Or do you think we're kind of stabilized with the back and forth and posts and compensation schemes?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Again, I would say that, you know, my own view on where I sit is I am again optimistic that I think we've sort of hit a stasis point. Look, within our industry, if you're a salesperson who has a high quality book of premium mass players, you're valuable everywhere. And so there'll always be some movement of hosts back and forth across systems which we've seen in the past, we'll see in the future. In terms of sort of mass movement, where, you know, we go through that, you know, merry-go-round, where everyone's getting another deal from somewhere else, and we have rapidly escalating sales force costs. We're not seeing that right now. We're not participating in that to that degree, so to speak. So I don't see that on the horizon.

But again, if you ever got to a hyper-competitive, hyper-promotional environment, it would obviously be a negative. And so I think us and everyone else are watching that to make sure that we don't do something irrational from an overall business perspective.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Vitaly, it's Lawrence. You know, I think you know, once everybody have the smart tables, the so-called competitive advantage in terms of, you know, what some of the players with smart tables are doing, in terms of giving out, you know, rebates and turning pretty much any taxi driver, prostitute, and domestic helper into unlicensed junkets, I think those days are not healthy for the market. And so once everybody have the smart tables, I'm hoping that everybody will start being more rational and realize that the whole industry can do it, and it's not healthy for the whole industry. So I do think when smart tables are adopted, it will neutralize some of this crazy behavior.

Vitaly Umansky (Analyst)

Thanks, gentlemen. That's helpful.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The next question comes to the line of Ronald Leung from Bank of America. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Ronald Leung (VP)

Thank you. Good evening, team. Most of the questions have been asked. I just have one follow-up questions. Could you please tell us a bit more how you have restructured your sales force? And also, how does that help you to gain market share in March and April?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Look, so I think in the last call, Lawrence, had articulated, we're restructuring everything around the customer. So, prior to our latest management reshuffle, we had had a sales team really, you know, focused on COD and a sales team focused on Studio City, and what we weren't doing was delivering the entire system and everything that we have to all of our players. And so by centralizing it under Scott Tang and having one person who's looking at the entire sales picture, we're doing a better job making sure we get the right experience for the right guest, irrespective of which property it's going to, or if there's something that we can offer to a guest who's coming for a different type of trip.

So, for example, if you're a COD player and you typically come and stay at Morpheus, but this time, it's a switch, 'cause you're gonna come with your children and you'd like to go to the water park, we're flipping you over to Epic and providing you a premium experience, and we're doing that in a way where we're trying to make sure it's seamless for the guest. So the early indications are that, we're getting a little bit of crossover. It's early days. People still tend to be, where they had started out from a property standpoint.

But by getting the sales team oriented in this direction, we're sort of having everyone push together and push at once, and we are seeing them work more effectively. I think as we roll forward, we're gonna get more and more where guests take advantage of both properties, which we're starting to see a little bit of, and I think that's gonna continue to drive results. So it's helped from sort of a centralization point, getting whenever everyone focused in the right direction, getting when everyone focused around the customer with the same mindset that's been dictated will just change in pushing. And I think more substantially, by being able to deliver the whole system, we're starting to see some benefits that I think will continue on as we move forward.

Colin Mansfield (Head of Credit Research)

Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Joe Greff from JP Morgan. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Joe Greff (Managing Director)

Hello, guys. I just have two quick questions here. With respect to your commentary on performance at COD and Studio City in April, you framed it nicely in terms of mass revenue performance. I was hoping you could maybe express that a little bit in terms of EBITDA performance, maybe on an EBITDA per day performance. How does April EBITDA per day at those two properties compare to April 2019 levels? Are you at 100% of 2019, or what level are you at presently?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

I would say that EBITDA has improved or continued to improve. We're not at 2019 levels, but I don't think in this forum we commented on an EBITDA per day basis for those months at this point.

Joe Greff (Managing Director)

But that, whatever that was so far in April, per day is in excess of what March EBITDA per day was. Is that a fair commentary to interpret the totality of your comments on this call?

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Well, we-- there's a little bit... Remember, you've got a little bit of a mix and match there, between the two, because you have some holiday period, where you're going through and you have some softness. But I, I would say as a general trend, the trends in April, as we're heading out of April, are stronger than they were in March.

Joe Greff (Managing Director)

Great. And then with respect to China's new recent travel easing measures, I know they go into effect May sixth, which is after Golden Week, unfortunately, so you're not getting the benefit for the holiday. Are you seeing increased levels of group or individual bookings in May? Or maybe put another way, is there less of a post-Golden Week lull than normal because of these easing travel measures?

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, Joe. Actually, so far, our May bookings is, you know, I know we've read the south side, and people talked about how weak they are, but actually, when we looked at our bookings, they're all up from last year. And, you know, I think SC has, you know, more rooms and more bookings, compared to 2019 and 2023. So and also, the quality of the players that we are seeing, for Golden Week is gonna be better than Chinese New Year across the board. So I think all in all, we're quite pleased with the, you know, the May Golden Week.

You know, in terms of the long-term support from China, you know, whether it starts May first or May sixth, it doesn't really matter, because again, you know, I think it's a long-term direction, that's what we care about.

Joe Greff (Managing Director)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Colin Mansfield from CBRE Institutional Research. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Colin Mansfield (Head of Credit Research)

Hi, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. Just one follow-up from me on Studio City. You know, the entity is, you know, delivering quite nicely, and you guys have been proactively paying down debt there, which has been great to see. You know, maybe just thinking a little bit more medium term, how do you guys see the capital structure there evolving further? There's a little bit left to go, I think, on the 25s and the secured notes, I think are callable right now. So just how are you guys thinking about, you know, sort of the medium-term trajectory on that balance sheet composition? Thanks.

Evan Andrew Winkler (President)

Yeah. Thanks for the question. I think we've put ourselves in good shape to address the $25 maturities down to $300. I think that's, you know, very manageable. And as we said in the prepared remarks, we are looking at a variety of different alternatives, secured, unsecured, you know, potentially having a bank facility in place. I think we have a, you know, a number of good alternatives, and an ability to drive some incremental cash flow into the maturity. So, you know, feeling very comfortable about that, and think that, you know, we are moving towards more of a normalized capital structure that, you know, eventually will include some sort of, you know, lending facility into the property, in addition to our secured and unsecured notes. So, everything's on the table.

I think you've seen us address the capital markets in a very opportunistic way, and we will continue to do that on both sides, both Melco and over at Studio City. But we're feeling very good about the balance sheet holistically, particularly after the three transactions that we recently completed with the extension of the bank loan, the tender offer at Studio City, and the recently completed high yield issuance.

Colin Mansfield (Head of Credit Research)

... Great, thanks. And actually one quick follow-up, if I may. Just going back to Sri Lanka, you know, I understand the rationale, you know, given the proximity to India. But I guess, what other source markets or feeder markets I think are important in your guys' thesis there, whether it's locals or other jurisdictions that, you know, are seeing a decent amount of inbound tourism? I guess, how do you guys think about other feeder markets and the importance of those relative to just, you know, the proximity to India? Thanks.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis (Executive VP and CFO)

Well, I think, you know, India is definitely, the most, yeah, most interesting feeder market, and I think, you know, there's very significant potential there. Of course, there is, some level of, domestic spending, as well, but of course, our goal will be to, you know, address those feeder markets, in India and more broadly, in the region. But, you know, we think the market potential there significantly exceeds, you know, where we are, today with the existing, operators in the market. So combination of local and domestic, but, you know, very heavily skewed towards, towards international, when we think about, you know, where the growth can come, going forward.

So, you know, in our view, the international market could probably be something like, you know, two-thirds to one-third in that ballpark of international to domestic. And that, you know, we think that City of Dreams Sri Lanka from a GGR perspective can be, you know, comfortably in the $200 million-$250 million of GGR on a run rate basis with Phase I of our casino development there. And the Phase I ties to the $125 million of anticipated CapEx for the casino fit-out.

Colin Mansfield (Head of Credit Research)

Great, really helpful color. Thanks, everybody.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Now we'll go and take our next question. It comes to the line of George Choi from CT. Your line is open, please ask your question. Excuse me, George, your line is open. Please ask your question.

George Choi (Research Analyst)

Thank you. So, now that you have set foot in Sri Lanka, does it change your view or your interest level in the opportunity in Thailand?

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (Chairman and CEO)

Hey, George, it's Lawrence. So, you know, I think we're always on the lookout for ... You know, these opportunities are once in a lifetime, so, you know, we're looking at it. You know, I think, together with, like, the rest of the industry. You know, I've always said, for the past 20 years, the two greatest opportunities are Thailand and Japan. So, we're looking at it, and we'll see what happens.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis (Executive VP and CFO)

Maybe just to supplement, though, obviously, the way we address the Thailand market would track to, you know, where we are in terms of balance sheet repair. So, you know, still a focus on the balance sheet, but we do think we can address the balance sheet while still having, you know, a healthy development outlook as well, but just in a capital-light manner, for at least the near term. And then over time, as we make progress towards balance sheet repair, we can think about, you know, more robust involvement in a market like Thailand. But we're very interested. We think it's a fantastic market, and we will be pursuing that opportunity aggressively.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. There are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jeanny Kim for any closing remarks.

Jeanny Kim (SVP and Group Treasurer)

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everybody, for participating in the call today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participation. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.