Earnings Labs

Century Casinos, Inc. (CNTY)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, Mar 10, 2017

$1.41

+1.44%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Century Casinos' Q4 2016 Earnings Conference Call. This call will be recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I would like to introduce our host for today's call, Mr. Peter Hoetzinger. Mr. Hoetzinger, you may begin.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you, Candy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our earnings conference call. With me on the call are my Co-CEO and the Chairman of Century Casinos, Erwin Haitzmann; as well as our Executive Vice President of Finance, Margaret Stapleton. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that 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. The Company undertakes 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 filing from this morning, available in the Investor section of our website at www.cnty.com. We will now review the Company’s financial results, both for the fourth quarter and the full year and following our prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. 2016 was a tremendous year for Century Casinos as we generated all-time record revenues and all-time record adjusted EBITDA. Erwin, Peggy and I are very pleased with these results, but we are even more pleased with the state, shape and condition our company is in today, which the result of a very efficient team effort of great people we have in our offices in Colorado Springs in Vienna and at Casino Property level. All of them are very talented and engaged, striving for continued improvement at everything we do. Ultimately, that leads…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Robert Majek from CJS Securities. Your line is open.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Good morning. On the Apex Casino in the press release, you mentioned $300,000 in net earnings. What was that on an EBITDA basis and does that number build in the removal of the duplicate corporate cost and management fees that you have talked about? If not, when should we expect those synergies?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Peggy, can you provide some detail on that? Do you have those numbers with you or whatever?

Margaret Stapleton

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Yes, I can. The EBITDA for the quarter was $595,000 and we have all the management fees in there already. So everything is accounted for to that EBITDA.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Got it. Just to help us take out the accretion from the deal, can you give us the total expected EBITDA contribution from Apex this year with full synergies? Is that about $4 million or so on a full runway [ph]?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Robert, we're not giving guidance as you know.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Okay.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

But we expect some synergies and they should really kick in more from Q2 onwards.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Thank you. That's helpful. And then just on the Palace Hotel, you gave us the project cost of about $6.5 million. Can you just help us understand the potential earnings of that investment on a return on capital basis?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Some insight there, Erwin?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Yes. This is Erwin. We think the hotel should pay for itself between say, five and seven years.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Got it. That's helpful. And then when is construction expected to start?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Let's say maybe Q3.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Okay. And then across the business, what was the whole percentage this quarter and in last year's Q4? Just maybe remind us what the normalized whole percentage is supposed to be.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

We don't roughly hold percentage across our operations. Really, I don't have to tell you. Do you, Peggy? While you look for that, Robert, in the meantime I can say that for the fourth quarter, in Edmonton which is our largest property, the whole percentages were quite a bit lower than compared to [indiscernible]. For example on the tables, we had a whole percentage of a little bit over 18% last year and 16.7% this year. That's why we showed slight decreasing revenues in Edmonton whilst if you go by the drop and by declining, revenue should have been up 3.5% to 4% and very similar at Century Downs which is our second strongest performer in the entire group, so those gradual impact.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

But between those two deviations, what was the total impact of that?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

In dollar terms?

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Yes.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Or percentages?

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

I guess in absolute dollar terms is fine.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

At Edmonton, that was about for the quarter about $0.5 million in revenue, more than $0.5 million at Century Downs. It was a little bit less than that. Overall, probably just below CAD$1 million.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Thank you. And then just lastly for me. In Poland, pretty solid revenue growth and margin expansion now. What's the driving force behind that and just overall, what's your outlook going forward and perhaps any color if you're seeing that trend continue into Q1?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Yes, I see the trend continue. Please, Erwin? Yes.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Yes, so you see the trend continue. One main reason has been that our main competitor had to close its doors because its license was not extended and that was the casino in Hilton Hotel and we saw a certain number of customers moving over to our property. Apart from that, I think the second effect is that all the retirements that management has been working on for such a long time really come to fruition now.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

What city was that competitor located in?

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

In Warsaw.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Got it. Okay, thank you.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

[Indiscernible] largest of our properties and we have been the largest in are the largest within the Warsaw market and if the number two is closed, the one would have expected and rightly, so that this new has had positive impact on us.

Robert Majek

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Thank you. That's perfect, very helpful. That's all for me.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · CJS Securities. Your line is open

Thanks, Robert.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question.

David Bain

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Thank you. Hi Erwin and Peter. I was hoping to review the timeline for Century Mile. Peter, I know you gave a little bit more detail at the end of the prepared comments. But it sounds like Alberta Gaming and Liquor approval would be next and I'm assuming that's fairly near term next 30-45 days and I'm hoping you can speak maybe to the timeline from there in terms of permitting, augmenting your credit line. I guess what I'm trying to nail down is a little detail because I know Century Downs took you about a year to build, but that was a smaller project. So I'm trying to get a sense if the end of 2018 is right where you anticipate at this point? If that could be conservative or any thoughts on that side of things?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

The short answer, it's maybe the end of '18 or the first half of '19 and it depends on when the approvals are coming and the weather is cooperating in Canada. You know that really is an important factor up there. Unfortunately, that's really all we can say at this time, Dave.

David Bain

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Okay. And do you expect to put in the market limit of 1,100 slots?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Not at the beginning and that's also not our call that we can ask for a certain number of slots and for most slots although the Gaming and Liquor Commission brought ultimately their call. And it was based on - previously whenever a casino performs very well, then they have to add more machines to that casino. So we are hopeful that while we may stop with the lower number that we could reach there.

David Bain

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Okay, great. And then just a final follow-up to Robert's question on hold. I understand win rate was lower, but was that out of the normal range, or is that something that you typically would point out if it were? Maybe both to those answers would be a little helpful.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Yes and yes. It was from a normal range like it was normal last year and it was lower than normal in Q4 '16.

David Bain

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Okay. All right, great. Thank you.

Erwin Haitzmann

Analyst · David Bain from Aegis Capital. Please state your question

Thank you, Dave.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Mike Malouf from Craig-Hallum Capital. Please state your question.

Michael Malouf

Analyst · Mike Malouf from Craig-Hallum Capital. Please state your question

Great. Thanks, guys, for taking my question. Just another follow-up call on Century Mile. I think on the last conference call, you sort of pointed out that you might start spending part of that or you start the $50 million project cost starting in the second quarter. Is that still the expectations?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

That's unlikely. As soon as we get the gaming commission approval, we would start to spend some money on planning obviously on certain things. But that is small change when you completed the entire project. So in Q2, you will not see any meaningful CapEx on that.

Michael Malouf

Analyst · Mike Malouf from Craig-Hallum Capital. Please state your question

Okay. So the approvals, do you think have been a little bit delayed from what you have expected to get?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

There was never really a schedule, a goal set by the gaming commission by when they will take that to the board for a decision. So we always hope to get it next month, next month, next month. But we never knew any date from them in the first place.

Michael Malouf

Analyst · Mike Malouf from Craig-Hallum Capital. Please state your question

Okay, great. And you mentioned that you do have a couple other projects in your pipeline. I'm wondering if you could just give us a little bit of scope. Are these projects on the same size as Century Mile? Are they smaller or larger and can you give us any sense of geographic location?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

We're working on two projects or more than two. Complete already, pretty far along. One in North America, one in Europe and they both are smaller than century Mile.

Michael Malouf

Analyst · Mike Malouf from Craig-Hallum Capital. Please state your question

Okay, great. Thanks for the color.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thanks, Mike.

Operator

Operator

My apologies. Your next question comes from Jayant Ishwar from Singular Research. Please state your question.

Jayant Ishwar

Analyst · Singular Research. Please state your question

Thank you. Can you give us some color on the cruise ship business?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

The cruise ship business in the fourth quarter was doing very nice revenues. You know it's a small segment but we increased revenues by 58%, so it fit very well on the revenues. On the cost side, that was also all proportionally up [indiscernible] cruise ships in the second half of the year and some high cost associated with the openings with staff cost, especially the one that we've opened in China. And that led to lower EBITDA in Q4 compared to Q4 '15. We are talking a difference of about $150,000.

Jayant Ishwar

Analyst · Singular Research. Please state your question

Can you break out the revenue on the EBITDA for that?

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Did we break that out, Peggy? In the presentation? Is it broken out and can we disclose that number?

Margaret Stapleton

Analyst · Singular Research. Please state your question

We don't have it separately disclosed. I can update the presentation. Is it - for instance the presentation has it; so it's $1.346 million net operating revenue.

Jayant Ishwar

Analyst · Singular Research. Please state your question

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I turn the call back over to the presenters.

Peter Hoetzinger

Management

Thank you, everybody and thank you 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. Goodbye.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.