Earnings Labs

Century Casinos, Inc. (CNTY)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 14, 2013

$1.43

+2.14%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Century Casinos’ Q3 2013 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode and later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I would now like to introduce our host for today’s call, Mr. Peter Hoetzinger. Please go ahead sir.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you, Sarah. Good morning everyone in North America and good afternoon to all our European listeners. I am happy to have all of you join us for this call following the release of our third quarter 2013 earnings. With me on the call today are Erwin Haitzmann, Co-CEO and Chairman of the company and Margaret Stapleton, Executive Vice President of Finance. Before we begin, I need to remind you that in our remarks today we will be discussing forward-looking information which involves a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We provide a detailed discussion of the various risk factors in our SEC filings and we encourage you to review these filings. In addition, throughout our call we may refer to several non-GAAP financial measures, including but not limited to adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of our non-GAAP performance and liquidity measures to the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our news release and in the 10-K and 10-Q filings, all of which are available in the Investors section of our website at cnty.com. The third quarter was quite challenging as our feeder markets in Colorado and Calgary suffered from significant floods and we also encountered increased economic uncertainty partly driven by the government shutdown in the U.S. The period over period increases of 54% in net operating revenue and 19% in adjusted EBITDA relates primarily to the inclusion of operating results from Casinos Poland Limited. Earnings from operations decreased the two operations in Colorado, but grew 57% in Calgary and 11% in Edmonton, where we continued to make good progress in enhancing operating efficiencies and maintaining a…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen at this time, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) We are now ready to begin. We’ll go first to Justin Ruiss with Sidoti. Justin Ruiss – Sidoti: Hi, Peter. How are you?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Hi, Justin. Justin Ruiss – Sidoti: Just had a quick question on the racetrack that’s going up in Canada, is that I guess if it’s open air or anything on that level, is that going to be an operationally year-round racetrack or do you close off that for certain months of the year?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

We begin on the earlier on facility. Erwin, can you provide more detail?

Erwin Haitzmann

Management

Yes, year-around initially standard later on to operate a minimum of 100 racing days per year. Justin Ruiss – Sidoti: Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Sure.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll go to (indiscernible).

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Jim Fold, thank you for taking my question. I wanted to get a perspective as to how large the Polish operation could be and how profitable? I think you mentioned that of nine casinos in Poland, one or two are not profitable, is that correct?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, one or two of the smaller one are not yet there where we want them to be. So we see some improvement there. As I have mentioned, we also expect over the next couple of years significant improvement on the gaming machine revenue, because all those street machines will have to close.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

So they are closing these gaming machines when?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Every gaming machine that’s operating outside of those casinos has a license and that the duration of that license is six years and the new gaming law says that these licenses will not be extended or renewed once they expire. But they have not all being granted at the same time, so they pretty much every day or every week some licenses for some of those machines expire.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

So this will continue to benefit you?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

We are seeing it over time.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

That’s interesting. What is the seasonality in Poland for gambling?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

This summer month middle of June to early September are the low season because many Polish people especially the affluent people take vacations and leave the country.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

So the quarter you just reported would be the lowest quarter for revenues from Poland?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, it has been historically the case, yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Okay and can I assume the fourth quarter would be the largest revenue around the Christmas season?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, but there is not that big of difference between the fourth and the second, but yes for intents and purposes it’s strongest.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

And the Vienna Casino how much revenue do you think in total that could generate, it sounds like a very large casino?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

It’s not disclosed on our estimates for that. But it would be – it would move the needle for the Century Casinos, that’s certain, both on the revenue and also on an EBITDA level.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Thank you very much.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you Jim.

Operator

Operator

Next we will hear from Russ Silvestri with Skiritai Capital. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Hello, good morning.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Hi Russ. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Hi, couple of questions. First off just in regards to the Polish casinos you have talked a little bit about and the ability to expand the operating margins there, could you talk a little bit about how that’s going and when we might expect to see that, that’s my first question? I got a couple of others after that.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, Erwin can you say something to this?

Erwin Haitzmann

Management

Sure, sure. Hi Russ. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Hi Erwin.

Erwin Haitzmann

Management

We have – there has been a change in management since we own two-third and of the three managers that were there two are new. And they are working hard on improving a number of things. And we are seeing (indiscernible) and I think you will have to see in the numbers it changed in Q1 and Q2 of 2014. One of the more significant changes are that is with time and with groups discontinue renting space in the higher total in Warsaw because we moved license from there over to the Marriott where we opened the second casino in that building. And the higher – rent is very high, but we needed to keep it for in connection with the license application process for that big reason. But we see lot of improvements in various areas. I think it has to be said that slot machine mix has not been optimal and we are now working on improving the slot machines we have improving the mix and also increasing the number of slots so that we can accomplish what people said earlier that we see a significant increase in slot revenue. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Okay, then also looking at the G&A line, and I was curious how much of the G&A might be attributed to some of these development projects. Is that heightened in the current period just because of the things that are going on whether it’s the Racino or Vienna or some of the other operations that are should yield better margins in the future?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes they should probably fit and especially the Racino project in Calgary requires quite a lot of timing and the effort and expenses. I don’t have the exact breakdown now handy but certainly there is a substantial amount and the effort for those projects. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: So the $9.1 million I think it was I mean – is there something that you might – can you quantify it at all, is it 10%, 5%?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

I don’t know, Margaret can you say anything for that in terms of numbers?

Margaret Stapleton

Management

Probably around 150,000 to 200,000 has gone into some of these projects evaluation on Poland and expenses for the United Horsemen project.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

And so I believe it is not going. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Okay and when you talk about the Racino project, I am just trying to remember now top of my head the total slots that you have today in Canada is what and then if you get the Racino project open how much more will it increase?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

There is – at the moment we have 750 in Edmonton and we have 504 in Calgary for a combined total of 1254. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Okay.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Racino would add 550 so that’s… Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Yes, I got it. But didn’t Racino also think was it unable to be increased over a period of time as well?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, but that’s not – is that when bookie notice that it has been slow noise that in the high likelihood.

Erwin Haitzmann

Management

Hi I think it’s based on performance I would say between likelihood and very high likelihood. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Okay and then the final approval when do you start breaking ground on the Racino project?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, great, great.

Erwin Haitzmann

Management

As soon as we have turn it lumpy to say and we hope that it would been in Q1, latest early Q1. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: Okay and just in terms of the win per slot type of thing I mean would you expect the Racino to be more like Edmonton or more like Calgary or better than both?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

We believe it should do at least the average of what exist in Calgary casinos are doing. Yes, that’s what. Russ Silvestri – Skiritai Capital: It sounds very conservative. Okay thank you.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, thanks Russ.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Since there are no further questions at this time, I will turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing comments.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you, operator and thanks everybody for your interest in Century Casinos and your participation in the call. For a recording of the call please visit the Financial Results section of our website at cnty.com. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude today’s conference. Thank you for joining.