Keith Smith
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead with your question
Thanks, Josh. Good afternoon everyone. Before I begin with my comments on our quarterly results, I want to take a moment to address the tragic events of October 1st. Boyd Gaming joins the entire Southern Nevada community and remembering those who were lost. We offer our condolences and prayers to their families and friends and our best wishes for the recovery of those who are injured. This was an unspeakable tragedy. The Las Vegas community can be proud of how we responded in the phase of diversity. Our company is truly grateful for the bravery of first responders across the valley including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and our local fire departments. They risked their lives to save so many others and we're truly grateful. We were proud to see thousands of Las Vegas lining for hours at blood banks across our city including many of our own team members and we were proud to see our entire community pull together to assist those who need help. To-date at least $20 million has been pledged to victim relief efforts including $1 million from Boyd Gaming. Our company also joined others in providing free hotel rooms to the families of victims. From a business perspective it is still early and the long-term impact of the Las Vegas tourism community remains unclear. We have not seen any material impacts or business or the destination over the last several weeks and we do not anticipate any material impact in the future. That is not a biggest concern at this time. As a company and as a city, our primary concern is helping those who need our help and helping this community recover. October 1st was a horrible tragedy. But based on what we've seen over the last few weeks I'm confident Las Vegas and Southern Nevada will emerge stronger than ever before. Now let's review our quarterly results. The encouraging trends we've seen across our operations over the last several quarters continued into the third quarter. We delivered solid performances across the country with margin improvements in every segment of our business. In Las Vegas, our locals business reported its best third quarter in a decade. Every locals property achieved double-digit EBITDA gains, growth in revenue, EBITDA, and margins were all the strongest we have seen so far this year. And those trends are carrying into the fourth quarter with strong results across our locals operations at October. On a same-store basis, the third quarter marked the 10th straight quarter of EBITDA guidance and margin improvements for our locals business, it was the best third quarter in nearly a decade. EBITDA growth continued at a double-digit pace as margins improved by almost 400 basis points. This performance was matched by equally strong results, at Aliante, Cannery and Eastside Cannery our three newest properties posted impressive EBITDA gains and margin growth. We continue to execute on synergies and make improvements throughout these operations growing margins by more than 400 basis points over their standalone results last year. We have now grown EBITDA at a double-digit rate at each of these properties every single quarter since we acquired them. And with three strong quarters now on the books, we remain confident we will achieve our stated EBITDA target of $60 million to $62 million for these properties in 2017. Across the segment, our local operations continue to benefit from several factors. First, healthy Southern Nevada economy continues to drive growth throughout our locals portfolio. Total employment has reached an all time high of 983,000 up 2.4% year-over-year. That is the fourth fastest job growth rate in the United States. This job growth has been diverse and broad-based. We're seeing healthy growth in a variety of sectors including professional and business services, education and health services, leisure and hospitality and financial activities. However the strongest gains are in the construction sector where employment is up 18% year-over-year and with $15 billion in projects now planned or underway across the Las Vegas Valley, we expect robust job growth to continue. This broad-based demand for labor is driving solid wage growth. Weekly wages are now up 5.5% year-over year more than double the national average. And we continue to see encouraging data from local housing market as well. Existing home sales are up 7.5% over the last 12 months, while new home sales are up nearly 14%. This demand has driven resale prices up 15% year-over-year. To put that into perspective, home prices in Las Vegas have more than doubled from their low point in 2011. With more disposable income in their pockets and more equity in their homes, local residents continue to increase their spendings with taxable sales up 4% over the last 12 months. The healthy regional economy is clearly boosting our business and should continue to do so. But we're also reaping the benefits of our investments in non-gaming amenities over the last several years. These amenities have raised the profile of our brands throughout the market and they are boosting the profitability of our non-gaming operations. And finally, our results in the locals segment are attributed to our operating teams throughout the Las Vegas Valley as we continue to refine our operations and achieve outstanding flow through on our top-line growth. But Las Vegas growth story is more than a locals story; we saw that clearly in our Downtown, Las Vegas segment which delivered a strong third quarter performance. While all three Downtown properties grew revenue and EBITDA the biggest growth contributor was the California which bounced back from the construction disruption we saw in the second quarter. Our construction team completed this hotel project in August ahead of our earlier schedule. As a result, the Cal had its entire room inventory available in September and the property made the most of it. [Hawaiian] [ph] unrated play up across the segment during the quarter and we saw continued increases in unrated play an indication that we are picking up our share of growing visitations throughout the Downtown area. We are optimistic this long-term growth trajectory will continue, resurgence of Downtown Las Vegas shows no signs of slowing down as new projects and new developments continue to move forward throughout the area. Once complete, these new investments will help drive additional visitation and growth throughout Downtown and thanks to the investments we have made Downtown in recent years, we’re well-positioned to capitalize on future growth in the markets. Moving next to the Midwest and South, we continue to see encouraging results throughout our regional portfolio, as underlying trends continue to improve throughout the segment. And if not for Hurricane Harvey, this segment would have posted year-over-year EBITDA growth for the quarter. The most significant impact from Hurricane Harvey was in our Delta Downs' property in Southwest Louisiana which was severely affected by extensive flooding throughout its region. We estimate that Harvey impacted business volumes at Delta Downs for several weeks starting in late August and continuing through the Labor Day weekend into mid-September. But since that time and continuing into October, business volumes have begun to return to normal at Delta Downs. We also saw some short-term impacts from Harvey at other properties in the Louisiana and Mississippi though not to the same degree as Delta. In all, we estimate this disruption reduced the EBITDA by several million dollars across the segment. Storm-related impacts aside we made good progress across our Midwest and South segment during the quarter. In Iowa our two properties continue to produce solid results. In Illinois, the team at Paradise delivered a great performance posting a double-digit EBITDA gain despite an increasingly competitive environment. To the East in Indiana Blue Chip performed in line with the prior year just preparing for the opening of a new Tribal gaming competitor in the key feeder market of South Bend early next year. EBITDA was also in line with the prior year at the IP and Biloxi. This was an encouraging performance considering the impact of Harvey. In Kansas the Kansas Star to continue to see solid underlying trends throughout the business reporting results that were even with the prior year. In Louisiana, conditions remain challenging at Evangeline Downs which is contending with softer economic condition in its market. But the picture is brighter elsewhere in the state as Treasure Chest and Sam's Town Shreveport each delivered strong EBITDA growth. Looking into the fourth quarter, solid operating trends have continued across our Midwest and South segment, despite the impact of Hurricane Nate which cost the IP and Treasure Chest a full weekend of business in early October. So in all, the third quarter was another strong performance by our operating teams across the country. Also during the quarter we made significant progress in Northern California where we have a partnership with Wilton Rancheria to develop and operate a new gaming resort. The Wilton tried long quest to open a resort took another big step forward in September as the California State Legislature unanimously approved its tribal State Gaming compact with the price. Just a few weeks later California's Governor signed its compact in the law. With the compact now in place and land taken into trusts for the Tribe, we are now in the process of finalizing project design and preparation. We expect to begin construction next summer with the development timeline of 18 to 24 months. Located just 15 miles south of Downtown Sacramento and with direct freeway access, this project will be strategically positioned to serve both the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay markets. We're honored to be the Tribes partners in this exciting project and we congratulate Chairman Hitchcock in the Tribe on their tremendous progress to-date, we look forward to working with them and bringing their vision of a world class gaming resort to life. But beyond the Wilton project, we remain committed to our long-term growth strategy and we will continue to actively explore opportunities to further invest in our business and expand our portfolio through acquisitions and new developments. We have clearly demonstrated our ability to drive growth with our recent acquisitions and we believe that there are additional opportunities available to us. In the meantime, our core operations are generating strong and growing free cash flow and we continue to put that free cash flow to work in the third quarter, investing in our business, de-leveraging our balance sheet, and returning capital to our shareholders. In all, we're making good progress as a company. We feel good about the trends we're seeing throughout the business and we expect those positive trends to continue. Thank you for your time and now I would like to turn the call over to Josh.