John Vandemore
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thank you, Patti. Before reviewing our financial results, I would like to highlight some of the additional disclosures we are making this quarter. We believe that these enhanced disclosures will facilitate a deeper understanding of both our core and interactive businesses. We're now providing separately results for our interactive business in 2 parts: social gaming, which represents Double Down; and IGTi, which represents our online, real money wagering business. As a result of these additional disclosures, our gaming operations results will now exclude all of our interactive businesses. Revenue and gaming operations was flat year-over-year as an increase in our installed base offset yield declines. Additionally, our gaming operations gross margin increased in the fourth quarter by 400 basis points to 61%. On a same-store sales basis, gaming operations gross margin was up about 100 basis points. This was mainly driven by an increased percentage of stand-alone and fixed-fee games that carry higher gross margins than typical WAP games. It also reflects the success of our strategy to manage the turnover of capital in our MegaJackpot installed base. On an annual basis, our profit per unit in MegaJackpot was flat despite -- sorry, was flat despite the lower yield as our convertible platform installed base continues to benefit our profitability. In fact, our profit per unit in gaming operations has been up or flat every year since we instituted the strategy. In 2013, we expect gaming operations revenue and installed base to be about flat with 2012, while gross margin and profit per unit are expected to show modest improvements. Our product sales business performed extremely well in 2012, especially in the domestic markets. Total revenues, units recognized and gross profit all grew. Our consolidated average sales price for the year was up 1%, continuing a trend we've seen for 11 of the past 12 years. We believe that this reflects the benefits customers see in the performance of our games and in our industry-leading technology. Consolidated product sales gross margins were down slightly for the year as an increase in North American gross margin was offset by a weaker gross margin in our International businesses, driven by higher component costs, lower part sales and the benefit of a large, onetime, high-margin sale in 2011. For 2013, on a same-store sales basis, we expect our pricing to follow historical trends. On the strength of our VLT business in Canada, Ohio and Illinois, where we expect to enjoy leading ship shares, we anticipate our product sales revenue and gross profit to deliver double-digit increases while gross margin may be slightly softer due to mix. On the social gaming side of our interactive business, DoubleDown continues to show impressive growth. On a sequential basis, revenues, gross profits, users and bookings per user all grew. In addition, we have seen remarkable growth in the number of mobile users and a corresponding growth in revenue from those users. We remain very excited about DoubleDown's potential and still expect the transaction to be GAAP accretive by 2014. In our IGTi business, we restructured and consolidated some of our European operations. This resulted in approximately $15 million in mainly noncash reorganization charges in the quarter. However, we were also able to take advantage of certain tax strategies as part of this reorganization. This lowered our tax expense in the quarter by about $40 million. Moving forward, we expect some additional costs and, in the short term, lower revenues and gross margin in our IGTi business as this restructuring plan is executed. On the positive side, these actions are anticipated to reduce annual operating expenses in our IGTi business. Fourth quarter adjusted operating expenses increased 10% to $183 million, or 29% of revenues, primarily due to additional investment in our interactive business, which we expect to leverage as revenues grow. For the year, adjusted operating expenses were about flat as a percentage of revenue, and we expect this trend to remain consistent into 2013. I would also like to explain some of the unusual asset impairment charges that we incurred in the quarter. Collectively, these noncash charges totaled $27 million and reflect a significant reduction to the carrying value of the previously acquired Walker Digital patent portfolio and Alabama notes receivable. These charges are detailed further in today's press release. As of September 30, 2012, cash and short-term investments, inclusive of restricted amounts, totaled $288 million. Contractual debt obligations decreased by $140 million from June 30 to $1.8 billion, reflecting cash payments made to repay borrowings under our current credit facility that partially funded our previously announced $400 million accelerated share buyback. To date, we have received approximately 28 million shares under the ASB and currently expect to receive additional shares. To illustrate, if the transaction closed yesterday, the volume weighted average share price underlying the transaction, including discounts, would be $13.12. That would translate into total repurchases of slightly over 30 million shares. We expect this transaction to close in the fiscal first quarter. This year, we generated approximately $447 million in operating cash flow. This is down from the prior year as the timing of income tax payments and an increase in trade receivables related to our Canadian VLT customers were temporary uses of cash. That said, we're extremely pleased with the rate at which our revenue is being converted into operating cash flow, roughly 21%. Over the past 5 years, on average, we have converted 26% of revenues into cash flow from operations. Excluding financial companies and banks, this places IGT in the top 15% of the S&P 500, significantly better than anyone else in our industry. We have been, and will remain, diligent stewards of this operating cash flow, prioritizing organic growth and investment alongside returning cash to shareholders. In total, in 2012, we have returned over $0.5 billion in cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. And we have $600 million remaining in our current repurchase authorization. At this time, we expect the weighted average share count for 2013 to approximate 267 million shares. Looking forward to 2013, we are initiating our adjusted earnings per share guidance at $1.20 to $1.30 per share, representing 15% to 25% growth over fiscal 2012. We feel this guidance reflects the positive momentum in our business as well as the current economic conditions globally and the improving sentiment of our customers toward our products and services. We expect to continue to grow the top line and grow operating income and adjusted earnings per share even faster. Please also keep in mind that historically, we earn about 40% to 45% of our full year earnings in the first half of the fiscal year and that the fiscal first quarter is usually less than half of that. As Patti said, we had a remarkable fourth quarter and a great year. We believe that we have the right strategy in place and can quickly adjust to market demands and deliver consistent, strong financial results. Back to you, Patti.