Red Rock Resorts - Earnings Call - Q2 2020

Transcript

Speaker 0

Good afternoon and welcome to the Red Rock Resorts First Quarter twenty twenty 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 Stephen Cootey, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Red Rock Resorts. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining today's Red Rock Resorts second quarter twenty twenty earnings conference call. We hope that all of you and your families are staying safe and healthy. Joining me on the call today from Red Rock Resorts are Frank Pertina, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Finch, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rodot Hamian, Executive Vice President of Development and Strategy. I'd like to remind everyone that our call today will include forward looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of The United States federal securities laws.

Developments and results may differ from those projected. During this call, we will also discuss non GAAP financial measures. For the definitions and complete reconciliation of these figures to GAAP, please refer to the financial tables in our earnings press release and Form eight ks, which were filed this afternoon prior to the call. Also, note that this call is being recorded. Before we get started, we want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Rich Haskins, our president.

He passed away in an accident on July 4. For over twenty five years, Rich was a trusted adviser to the company through both good times and bad. He was instrumental not only in the successful growth of the company, but in the development of the Station Casinos family culture. Those who interacted with him were inspired by his steady leadership in any situation and his anything is possible attitude, which defined what he was all about. While Rich may have left left us, his accomplishments and legacy remain and live here at Station.

Now on to the quarter. Before moving on to our financial results, we will take a moment to remind you of some of the actions we have taken during the first two months of the quarter as we prepared for these uncertain economic times. During the closure, we reexamined and challenged every aspect of the company. We took a number of pivotal steps to prepare for a new operating environment with a focus on health, safety, cost reductions and liquidity. To that end, in working closely with our outside medical experts, we established a very comprehensive health and cleanliness guidelines for our properties given the current environment.

These new guidelines meet or exceed the highest standards set by federal, state and local authorities and will be adapted as circumstances require. Simply put, we are committed to providing the most safe, secure environment possible for both our team members and guests. A few highlights include all guests and team member entrances at our resort properties have been equipped with state of the art thermal scanners. All team members are required to wear masks and PPE consistent with health authority guidelines, and as masks are now required for all guests, we've continued to make masks available to guests upon entering the property. All team members and all vendors and partners underwent FDA authorized COVID-nineteen testing prior to reopening, and we have continued to test our team members, vendors and partners on a regular basis.

We have completed over 12,000 tests as of today. During the closure period, we've also taken time to review and assess every property and every department. Based upon that review, we've had to make some very difficult but necessary decisions in order to streamline our cost structure and guide the company through this crisis in an uncertain demand environment, including significantly reducing salaries for senior executives across the company refining and authorizing our business processes, which led to staff reductions both at the property and corporate levels, reducing costs related to outside services through termination or renegotiations of vendor and other agreements, suspending our quarterly dividend, eliminating nonessential capital spending for the remainder of the year and opening our new our properties in a phased approach to maximize flexibility in meeting business demand. Through these actions, we have become a leaner and efficient much more leaner and efficient company and remain confident in our ability to permanently achieve the approximate $150,000,000 in cost reductions on an annualized run rate basis we referenced on our previous earnings call. These cost reductions do not include any labor expense savings related to those properties that did not open as part of our first opening phase, nor does it include savings related to any amenities that were not initially provided in this phase.

While we estimate that those additional labor expense savings are approximately $200,000,000 on an annualized run rate basis, that amount would decline to the extent that our closed properties were to come back online or those amenities were again to be provided. Now let's turn to our financial results. As you recall, on March 17, the governor of Nevada ordered a statewide shutdown of not all nonessential businesses, including casinos, in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID nineteen. Similar similarly, the Graton Casino Resort, which is managed by the company, closed on March 17. What originally began as a thirty day shutdown on March 17 here in Nevada ended seventy nine days later when the governor of Nevada allowed certain nonessential businesses, including casinos, to open with restrictions on June 4.

The Graton Casino Resort also partially reopened on June 18. On June 4, we opened 16 of our 20 properties, Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, Santa Fe Station, Boulder Station, Palace Station, Sunset Station and our Wildfire properties. As we noted on our previous earnings call, if you exclude Palms from both 2019 net revenue and EBITDA, these first three reopened properties generated over 80% of our Las Vegas net revenue and over 90% of our Las Vegas EBITDA during the same period. Our Texas station, Fiesta Rancho, Fiesta Henderson and Palms Casino Resort properties remain closed at this time. We will not consider reopening these properties until we fully assess both the performance of our first open properties and the health of the economy as a whole.

On a consolidated basis, reported net revenue of $108,500,000 down $482,900,000 in the prior quarter adjusted EBITDA of negative $17,300,000 down from $115,200,000 in the prior quarter and our EBITDA margin decreased to negative 15.9% for the quarter. With respect to our Las Vegas operations, we reported net revenues of $101,000,000 down from $457,800,000 in the prior quarter adjusted EBITDA of negative $12,100,000 down from $106,000,000 in the prior quarter, and our EBITDA margin decreased to negative 12% for the quarter. Within these numbers are a couple of items we'd like to call out. As you recall, we are one of only three companies in Las Vegas that continue to pay all our full time team members regular pay and health benefits from March the March 17 shutdown date through May 16 at the cost of the company of over $72,000,000 Because of our commitment to our team members through this crisis, we were able to recognize $18,600,000 payroll retention benefit in the quarter under the CARES Act, bringing the total payroll benefits received to date under the CARES Act to $38,300,000 Additionally, these numbers do not reflect approximately 27,000,000 in payroll expenses in the quarter, which were accrued in the first quarter due to our commitment to provide regular pay and benefits to all full time team members after quarter end from April 1 to April 30.

While the severe impact of COVID-nineteen can be seen in our quarterly results, the company's Las Vegas performance during the open period from June 4 through June 30 tells a different and more positive story that reflects both the resilience of our Locals business model and the impact of the decisive actions the management team took during the closure. Measured on the basis of that period, adjusted EBITDA increased 46.8% to $45,900,000 an increase of 14,600,000.0 This increase was achieved despite net revenues declining 23.3% to $100,100,000 a decrease of $30,400,000 Margins in this period increased 2,192 basis points to 45.9%, yielding our highest June EBITDA margin ever. In addition, while we generally do not comment on our current quarter financial performance, we are pleased with our year over year performance financial performance in July. Though we would caution, however, that we are still in the middle of this pandemic and have little visibility regarding the impacts that this crisis will have on our company and the economy moving forward. I will now cover a few balance sheet and liquidity items.

The company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of the second quarter were $274,500,000 and the total principal amount of debt outstanding at quarter end was 3,300,000,000.0 As of July 31, we've had $197,500,000 drawn on our revolver and have over $1,000,000,000 in liquidity in the form of cash on hand and revolver availability, which provides us with the ability to operate fully staffed for over twenty months should we return to a zero revenue environment. In addition, we believe we are in position to continue to comply with all of our financial covenants for the foreseeable future, and we have no significant debt maturities until 2025. For all these reasons, we believe we remain well positioned financially to handle the uncertain times ahead. Finally, an update on our two Native American agreements. At Grayton Casino Resort, we reported management fee revenue for the second quarter of five point nine million dollars a decrease of 75% over the prior year, driven primarily by the resort closure for the majority of the quarter.

Additionally, we expect to reach agreement with the tribe on an approximate appropriate extension of term in accordance with the terms of the management agreement. With regard to North Fork, our plans to develop a casino for the North Fork tribe have been stalled for the last several years by litigation brought by opponents of the project. The Supreme Court of California held an oral argument on 06/02/2020 a very similar case involving the Enterprise tribe. We are expecting a decision by month end and are hopeful that the decision will clear the way to finally develop this very attractive project on behalf of the North Fork tribe in Central California. This quarter has been one of the most challenging quarters in our over forty plus year history.

We believe that the company has responded well to each of these challenges and is well positioned to succeed going forward. We would like to extend our thanks to all of our team members for their hard work and continued focus to our guests for standing by us during these trying times. Together, we will manage through this. Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks for today, and we are now ready to take questions from participants on the call.

Speaker 0

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question today will come from Joe Gras with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Guys. Omar Sandler on for Joe. Thanks for taking our question. First off, the $46,000,000 EBITDA in Las Vegas in June, what did the closed properties do in terms of an EBITDA drag, and were you able to manage it lower in July? And can 45% margins for the reopened group of properties sustain themselves in the current environment?

Speaker 1

Okay. So I'll start with the easy one. And so the closed properties for June had a drag of about $1,400,000 That remained fairly consistent in July, though we think we can get it a couple $100,000 lower going forward. Regarding the sustainability of the margins, I think we've done the team has done a great amount of work reevaluating and retooling the business during the closure. And our cost structure, it is in a position to deal with these very uncertain times from a revenue perspective.

So we feel confident that we can deliver margins in excess of our historical margins.

Speaker 0

Thanks. And then can you discuss what you've

Speaker 2

seen in July in the locals market in terms of gaming paper and behavior there? How much is revenue per day down versus June levels? What are you seeing with July with respect to customer mix, which has been holding up better since the June, younger or older? And do you get a sense of the CARES stimulus driving this?

Speaker 1

Sure. What we did what July, you know, we generally don't comment on, again, you know, our current quarter. But to give you some general sense, the trends in July have been basically consistent with what we've seen in June. We've seen less visitation. We've seen more spend per visit.

We've seen more time on device. We've seen a younger demographic in our database show up, Our older demographic, to be expected through the current pandemic has stayed at home. I think this point here is encouraging because it's an opportunity for growth when our seniors, you know, our seniors start returning when the situation subsides.

Speaker 0

Awesome. Thanks. And then just one last one

Speaker 2

for us. Is there a market for assets to sell at prices that you can seriously accept, or is it too early? And then lastly, just what's the future of ponds?

Speaker 1

I think it's too early to assess right now. You know, right now, we have very little clarity on our current economic environment. And so we currently you know, Palms is currently currently undecided whether we're gonna open right now.

Speaker 3

Yeah. We we don't know what if or when we're gonna reopen any of the closed properties. We think it's too early to make that decision at this time. I think so far, we're very pleased with the results that we've had, the ability to move some of the play from the closed properties to our existing properties. And we're going to continue to try to get clarity and navigate the situation to make well informed decisions.

But rest assured, whatever decisions we make will be in the best interest of shareholder value.

Speaker 0

Awesome. Thanks so much. And the next question will come from Barry Jonas with Truth Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, thank you. First off, I just wanted to extend my condolences for your loss. So I guess the first question is, appreciate some of the color on trends you're seeing, but is it possible to give any sense of what the drive to business maybe from California is looking like right now? And any color on group? Is group pretty much nonexistent?

Just would like to get one more layer down into how the segments are doing.

Speaker 3

I think if you look at our the short haul traffic coming into Vegas, that is down. It's down not nearly as significantly as longer haul business, group business, convention business, things of that nature are down much more significantly. I don't know if you want to add to that, Steve.

Speaker 1

No. I think, Frank, you're spot on in terms of how you delineate between short haul and long haul. And from a group business, I think just like The Strip, we're suffering from group. And so I think 2020 and the beginning of 2021 will be tough sledding.

Speaker 3

I think one important thing for people to notice is really the difference in our business model, though. I mean, we are primarily a gaming company that happens to have hotel, catering, and convention business as an amenity. You know, primarily 80% of our business comes from the casino. And so we're able to have the results like we did in the short term without having, you know, the benefit of strong hotel catering conventions that hopefully will return as we get the COVID crisis under control. But our primary business is really suburban Las Vegas local business that's close proximity to our facilities.

Speaker 4

Great. And I guess with that, given Nevada has closed bars, I'm wondering if you've seen any tailwinds or just any impact from those closures.

Speaker 3

It's definitely not helpful. We have about six fifty bar machines in the company in Las Vegas, those of which have been closed. So we look forward to the ability to get those open as soon as possible. You know, this is kind of an ebb and flow thing, you know, with changing requirements, whether it be at the pools, whether it be at the bars, whether it be that you have to wear a mask or you don't have to wear a mask. And so every day is trying to navigate through kind of a new set of circumstances.

And I think our team has done a very good job so far.

Speaker 4

Got it. And then last, just touching on the promo environment. Is it fair to say pretty rational folks are just more focused on margins at this point? Or are you seeing anything heat up amongst the competition?

Speaker 3

I I think it is a very unique situation where every operator has found themselves in the exact same situation, which is that, you know, we have a lot of unknowns, lack of visibility. And it's focused. It's made everyone, I think, refocus on what really matters in the business. And I can tell you for us, we took the, I don't know, seventy nine or eighty days that we were closed, and we probably worked more hours and longer hours on just trying to unpack and really go through and think through what was meaningful in our business and what were things that were maybe just taking a lot of time and not creating a lot of results. And I can tell you whether it be at the corporate level or how much labor we need or what amenities really drive the profits at the facilities, it's led us back to where we really started in this business.

And every survey you've ever done for a Las Vegas local since we started 1976, for the most part, hasn't changed. It's all about convenience, the value proposition, and relationships at the end of the day. And sometimes maybe we have all over complicated it a bit too much, but I think we're definitely back to the basics. I think we have a lot of good things going for us. We have the best properties.

We have the best distribution in the valley. If take the six properties that we have open today, five of those are all in the suburbs with growing population off of major interstates, great ingress, egress. They were purpose built for the local business. The exception Palace was built the same way, but it is in the center of town. But as the town has grown into more of a suburban town, I mean, think that's where we're going to rely on great properties, great service, great relationships and great value.

And we're going to be much more laser focused on marketing and advertising and things that we can really measure and know that they work.

Speaker 4

That's great. Thank you so much, guys.

Speaker 0

And the next question will come from Chad Van with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Wanted to, I guess, dive into another metric for June. Did you see any major difference in terms of weekday versus weekend compared to what you have seen, I guess, pre COVID as you've run the business? And do you think margins may have been elevated compared to prior weekday period just because of extra traffic?

Thank you.

Speaker 1

We have seen kind of a change in a change at least a subtle change in some of the traffic patterns. Most notably, Saturday is kind of a which is normally one of our busiest days, has been slightly down. We believe that's due to the COVID crisis, and you're seeing a lot of that same traffic return during the midweek or Sunday. So the people coming back, they're just choosing to they're spreading their time and visits throughout the week.

Speaker 5

Okay. And then from a CapEx standpoint, I don't know if you have an updated view. Is there a new level of maintenance that we should be thinking about just to run the business? I know you've suspended all projects and really most of the maintenance CapEx, but should we think about something coming back now that your business is back to a new normal rate?

Speaker 6

Yes. So just to

Speaker 1

give you an update on Q2, we spent approximately $10,500,000 in Q2. We still expect to be in that 50,000,000 to $60,000,000 CapEx range. We think 60,000,000 around $60,000,000 it's a good number going forward for maintenance CapEx.

Speaker 3

And I think the fact is that we have maintained the properties very, very well. They're all in great shape. And I think we still have a lot of unknowns in front of us relative to the COVID crisis and, you know, what the future is gonna look like. And so we're gonna be very, very diligent on any CapEx that we spend until we have more clarity.

Speaker 0

The next question will come from Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, good afternoon everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Just going back to the $150,000,000 of potential longer term run rate savings, can you parse that out and help us understand what some of the biggest items are that are in there? And I guess what will be different about the operating model once we're through this pandemic that allows you to keep those costs out of the business? And do you worry about any risk of impairing the overall consumer experience?

Speaker 3

We don't worry about the consumer experience. I think one thing that you have to look is that we've made significant reductions at the corporate office building, which I don't think will affect the guest experience in any way whatsoever. Again, it's easier to, you know, retune the car when it's not going 80 miles an hour down the road, and we had close to three months to really focus on every aspect and challenge everyone as to what we could live with and what we could live without. And the other thing is that, unfortunately, we have a lot of amenities that I don't know if they'll return. They were amenities that maybe generated a lot of traffic, but not necessarily high margin business.

And we have foreclosed properties, and we've been able to move a good portion of those revenues to some of our other facilities. So I think I can't predict the future, but I can tell you that what we've seen so far doesn't impact I think we have a great customer experience. We spent a significant amount of time and energy on health, safety, testing, convenience for the customers through thermal camera scanners, you know, at all the entrances and everything. And I think the customer experience is great. I think our team members have done a great job.

And, you know, hopefully, we can move forward and be able to operate the business in a much more efficient basis. Our our team member headcount today is about 50% of what it was going into this crisis. It's, like I say, forced us to really challenge and rethink everything we do.

Speaker 7

Got it. And then other regional operators have talked about new and younger customer that's driving some of the performance right now. My question is, are you seeing that in the locals market here as well? And do you have an estimate for what percentage of your guests are employed by the Vegas Strip in some form?

Speaker 3

Look. A healthy Las Vegas Strip is super important to a long term healthy Las Vegas economy. That being said, we have seen a very strong housing market here in Las Vegas. I think you have a lot of migration out of other states and everything to a place like Nevada and, where it's more affordable, housing, cost of living. I think the retirement community here is growing at double the rate of the regular population growth here in Las Vegas.

We're still seeing population growth. I can't tell you exactly what percentage of our business is employed by the gaming industry. I can tell you we do have a fairly substantial retiree customer base. I can tell you that we have seen a pretty significant increase in the younger demographic in our business, which we're very focused on relationship marketing, capturing the information and being able to continue to market to them. And we have seen a decline in the older guests that is more concerned about the COVID virus.

So I don't know what the future brings, but if we can get some stickiness and retain some of these younger people that are coming into our facilities, get the COVID virus, you know, under control to where our older demographic feels comfortable coming back, it could be a a very good thing for us.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you very much, and my condolences as well for your loss. Thank you.

Speaker 0

And the next question will come from John DeCree with Union Gaming. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. And like everyone else, my sympathies and condolences. I know Rich was a dear friend and valued colleague to all of us and you as well and just, you know, very, very proud of myself. Sympathies.

Question, I know we've touched on it a little bit already and there's only been a few weeks of operation to really look at but, you know, kind of while grasping at consumer behavior so far. And I'm not sure if I missed it in the prepared remarks. But is there any commentary or color you could provide on some of the typical metrics, what you're seeing in rated versus unrated play, realizing so much play is local and rated. But any bifurcation there? And with limited perhaps entertainment options such as bars, are you seeing an increase in new customer sign ups or anything that might kind of give us a little bit more insight on consumer behavior so far in the first couple of weeks since reopening?

Speaker 3

I'll tell you anecdotally that if we go back to what we were just talking about, pre COVID, a big part of our our database and card at play was from an older demographic, retirees and things like that, that really are are staying home at this point with their concerns over the virus. We've had a pretty significant increase in younger, un carded demographic, but our focus is basically to convert that un carded, younger play into carded play.

Speaker 6

And perhaps a follow-up is I mean, I think from what you've said so far, could extrapolate, but they ask directly, is the amount of visitation from your card customers down but maybe spend per visit healthy when they come? Or how how has that been been playing out?

Speaker 1

Yes, John. The short answer to your question is yes. You're seeing visitation down, spend up, and spends offsetting the visitation.

Speaker 6

Thanks

Speaker 0

At this time, there are no further questions in the question queue. And I would like to turn it back over to management for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call, and we look forward to talking to you in ninety days.

Speaker 0

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. I would like to do encourage everyone to disconnect at this time.