Earnings Labs

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 31, 2018

$158.70

-2.25%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Third Quarter 2018 Hyatt Hotels Corporation's Earning Conference Call. My name is Tiffany, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Thank you. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Brad O'Bryan, Treasurer and Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Finance. Please proceed. [0CPPRG-E Brad O'Bryan]: Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Hyatt's third quarter 2018 earnings conference call. I'm here in Chicago with Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt's President and Chief Executive Officer; Pat Grismer, Hyatt's Chief Financial Officer; and Joan Bottarini, who'll be taking over the CFO role effective November 2. Mark will begin our call today with highlights of our third quarter operating results and an update on our growth strategy. Mark will then turn the call over to Pat, who will provide more detail on our financial results for the quarter, as well as an update on our full year outlook for 2018 and a preview of 2019. We will then take your questions. As a reminder, all references to RevPAR results included in our discussion today are calculated on a comparable and constant dollar basis. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made on this call are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, as described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued late yesterday along with comments on this call are made only as of today, October 31, 2018, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our remarks on our website at hyatt.com under the Financial Reporting section of our Investor Relations link and in last night's earnings release. An archive of this call will be available on our website for 90 days per the information included in last night's release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, Brad. Good morning and welcome to Hyatt's third quarter 2018 earnings call. Before covering our quarterly results, I'd like to comment on two important announcements that we made earlier this month. On Monday, October 8, we announced that Pat Grismer will be leaving Hyatt to take a position as Chief Financial Officer at Starbucks. While we are certainly sorry to see Pat go, Starbucks is a great company and I know Pat is excited about the opportunity to put his capabilities to work there going forward. I'd like to express my deep appreciation for the value Pat has brought to Hyatt during his tenure here. He's provided exceptional leadership as we've evolved our strategy over the last couple of years and he has elevated the finance function here at Hyatt in a meaningful way. We also announced in the same communication that Joan Bottarini will become our CFO, effective November 2. Joan has been with Hyatt for 19 years and has served in a number of important financial leadership positions, most recently as the finance head of our Americas region where she was a key and integral member of the leadership team for our largest operating region. I've worked closely with Joan for many years and have great confidence in her abilities to lead our finance organization and carry on the tradition of effective finance leadership that Pat has demonstrated. Turning now to the second important announcement, earlier this month we agreed to terms regarding the acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality for a base purchase price of $480 million with the possible investment of up to an additional $120 million, contingent on finalizing certain terms related to hotel management agreements and conversions. We expect to close the transaction over the coming two to three weeks and the determination…

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I will begin by providing more detail on our third quarter results, and we'll then share an update on our full year expectations for 2018 as well as a preview of 2019. Late yesterday, we reported third quarter net income attributable to Hyatt of $237 million and earnings per share of $2.09 on a diluted basis. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $175 million with system-wide RevPAR growth of 2.8%. The impact of transactions over the past 12 months resulted in a net decrease in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of approximately $17 million compared to 2017. Excluding this unfavorable transaction impact and other nonrecurring items, our adjusted EBITDA grew approximately 14% on a constant currency basis. This growth was led by net rooms growth of 7.6%, solid management and franchise operating results, strong SG&A management and another quarter of impressive performance at our owned and leased hotels. I'll now highlight our segment results, starting with our managed and franchised business where we delivered solid fee growth with base, incentive and franchise fees increasing approximately 9% on a constant currency basis compared to the third quarter of 2017. Total fees also increased approximately 9% on a constant currency basis. After reflecting the impact of adjustments related to the new revenue recognition standard, we've now delivered nine consecutive quarters of high-single to low-double-digit growth in our total fees supported by solid RevPAR performance and consistently strong rooms growth. In the third quarter, our managed and franchised business accounted for 56% of adjusted EBITDA before corporate and other, up from 51% in the third quarter of 2017 and roughly 45% in the third quarter of 2016. This is clear evidence of the deliberate steps we've taken to transform our earnings profile and we expect this…

Joan Bottarini - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, Pat, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate the kind words from both Mark and Pat and would like to say that I'm excited to take on the role of Chief Financial Officer and work with the management team to execute on our well-established strategy. I look forward to meeting all of you soon as I begin to get out on the road and engage with the investment community. Along those lines, I'd like to announce that we intend to host an Investor Conference on Tuesday, March 5 in New York, where we will further discuss our long-term growth strategy and financial outlook. I look forward to seeing all of you there.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, Joan. To conclude, we are very pleased with our third quarter results marked by solid RevPAR growth and strong net rooms growth. As we continue to successfully execute our capital strategy, including the anticipated closing of the Two Roads acquisition later this month, we are driving a continued evolution of our earnings base with heavier weighting toward our high-growth, asset-light fee business. Additionally, we are pleased to be returning approximately $1 billion of capital to shareholders this year. With that, I'll turn it back to Tiffany for Q&A. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of David Katz with Jefferies. Your line is open.

David Katz - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Hi. Good morning, everyone or good afternoon.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Good morning.

David Katz - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Good morning and best of luck to all concerned. I wanted to just go back to the Two Roads acquisition, which I appreciate the color on from the context that it's a bit of an – it's somewhat unusual. How would you have us think about the streams of revenue and profits that it generates? How should we be thinking about returns on it? And how should we think about the opportunities for you to grow it, specifically is there an embedded growth opportunity with it that we can talk about, please?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, David. This is Mark. I'll start and turn it back to Pat to talk about how we think about the financial profile. We're really excited about this acquisition. By way of reminder, we have not closed the acquisition yet, so what we'll discuss is anticipatory. But I guess, first and foremost you asked about growth and that is probably the primary rationale or primary point that I would make in terms of why this makes sense for us. It's a collection of very strong brands that are performing very well, but with an embedded pipeline and we believe that there is significant further growth embedded in these brands globally. I would say, in particular, the Alila brand in Asia has, with a small base to start with, generated a tremendous amount of interest amongst developers in Asia and we have a very, very strong network in Asia amongst business travelers. What Alila brings to us in Asia, for example, is a significant additional representation in resorts, and it will really round out the World of Hyatt opportunity for us for our guests. So we're very, very excited about the growth potential and believe that there's accelerated growth opportunity moving forward. Secondly, based on the rate positioning of the brands within the Two Roads portfolio, they operate in the same sort of average daily rate range that our higher-end hotels and luxury hotels operate. And by derivation and by knowledge, we look at the customer base that they're serving and we believe that it is an enhancement to our current customer base and represents a significant measure of additional opportunities for our existing guest and customer base. The third thing I would say is that these are attractive segments. If you look at what's going on in the world, lifestyle brands and boutique brands are growing at very good pace up and down the chain segments. And we believe that these are very compelling brands that have already proved their mettle in terms of garnering interests from outside third-party developers. The final thing I would say is it fits our strategy because it's asset-light. We are buying a management platform and brands and that's what we intend to leverage going forward. So that's really how I would frame how we're thinking about it and what we see the opportunity to be.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

And, David, just to build on what Mark has said, how we're thinking about it from a financial perspective is, first of all, the acquisition we expect will be immediately accretive in the first full year of operations, that is in 2019, even with the significant impact of onetime transition-related and integration-related expenses. We believe that from a valuation perspective, it's more appropriate to look at year three, which is 2021, by which time a lot of the growth that Mark has referred to will materialize. And when we look at the expected earnings in year three in relation to our anticipated investment, that yields an implied multiple of 12 to 13 times. And when you consider how we have raised funds in order to make this investment, we have monetized real estate assets under our permanent asset sell-down program at an average multiple of 16.5 times adjusted EBITDA. So we see this as a tremendous opportunity to create value for our shareholders while, as Mark said, accelerating the evolution of our earnings profile in a way that increases our weighting toward the high-growth fee business.

David Katz - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Perfect. And if I can just sort of follow that up with a detail, the structure of the management contracts, are those relatively similar or garden variety to what we would see here in the United States as we think about modeling them? And then I just wanted to ask for any color that you may have specifically on China and what you may be seeing over there since it was an area that you mentioned in your commentary. Thank you.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Okay. So there's two distinct questions. I'll cover the first one and I'll turn it to Pat for the questions...

David Katz - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Sorry about that.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

That's okay – on China. So, on the management arrangements that are in place currently, it's a fully managed portfolio, so there are management agreements and the management agreements, I would say, that are in place right now are representative of the kinds of management agreements you would see for these types of properties in the respective markets. Meaning that if you look at the way in which the management agreements are structured in Asia that differs from how they might be structured in certain markets in Latin and South America and also different to the U.S., but there's nothing inconsistent with what we see as the marketplace and what the management agreement portfolio looks like for these types of properties in place. So that's the answer to your first question. Let me turn it to Pat to talk about China.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Certainly. With respect to China, as I mentioned earlier, our Greater China RevPAR growth in Q3 was broadly in line with the segment average which was 2.5%. But it's important to note that there were a number of one-off impacts in the quarter for our Greater China business. There were some large hotel renovations. There was a shift in the timing of the mid-Autumn holiday festival and some significant storm and earthquake impacts. So, when we normalize for these onetime items, Greater China RevPAR growth was actually in the strong mid-single-digit range, but we would acknowledge that that represents still a modest deceleration from where we were in Q2 on a normalized basis. We're not concerned about that, however, but we are monitoring the situation closely. We remain very confident in the long-term growth potential of Greater China. We like our position there today and we believe we're well positioned to capitalize on the market's enormous growth potential over the long term.

David Katz - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Perfect. Thank you very much. Bradley O’Bryan - Hyatt Hotels Corp.: Can we move to the next question please?

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Jared Shojaian - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst · Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Your line is open

Hey, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. So I wanted to ask about some of the asset sales you've done in 2018, just sort of the impact that that's going to have on 2019 EBITDA. And then as you look at the Two Roads contribution for 2019 as well, assuming that that might sort of offset, is there any reason as we sit here today to think that sort of the longer-term projections that you've outlined at 6% to 11% EBITDA growth can't be achieved off of the guidance that you've given this year? And maybe you can just help me understand the puts and takes between the assets you've sold this year and the impact to next year.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Certainly. Thank you, Jared. When you consider all of the transactions that we've completed this year under our permanent asset sell-down program, the net impact to full year adjusted EBITDA is on the order of $100 million. We expect the impact of those transactions next year to be on the order of $20 million with a lot of that concentrated in the first quarter given the timing of our portfolio sale to Host. Setting aside the transaction impacts, we remain very confident in the earnings growth model that we had outlined; as you mentioned, mid-single-digit to low double-digit growth given the strength of our fee growth engine, in particular, which has helped us overcome the earnings headwinds from our transactions.

Jared Shojaian - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst · Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Your line is open

Great. Thank you. That's helpful. And I think you mentioned U.S. group production for all years was down about 4% in the quarter. I mean the prior quarters, I think you had been running more in a high-single-digit, double-digit type of range. Can you just sort of elaborate a little bit on what really changed quarter-over-quarter sequentially from what you had been seeing?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Sure. I guess, first, I'll just make a comment about the quarter itself in terms of group revenues. It was a profile of significant growth on the association side and some reduction in room nights on the corporate group side, but ADR increases on both sides of that equation. So, association business, for example, was up in the low double digits for the quarter, that's realized revenue in the quarter. In terms of production, we had a very strong in-the-year, for-the-year production level in the quarter, which was really encouraging, sort of up mid-single digits. And while total production was down for the quarter, it was really concentrated in out-years in 2020 and 2021. So, our outlook for 2019, for example, remains in the low-single-digit range, which is consistent with what we said before, maybe strengthened a bit. And 2020 remains very strong, up in the high-single-digit range in terms of pace at this point. So, as we look at the profile of what we've seen on the group side, we continue to see very good lead production and also continued strength in corporate bookings for future periods. So, I would say to you that we don't – while we had a decline in total production in the third quarter, it's not anything that we see that leads us to be concerned that we're not going to see continued solid performance on the group side. And just for clarity, I mentioned that corporate was down in the quarter and association was up significantly. If you look at it on a year-to-date basis, corporate is up year-to-date and association is down a bit in total revenue on a year-to-date basis. So, again, no real evidence or cause for us to be concerned on the corporate side. In particular, we saw some significant strength in pharma and the finance and banking sectors. Pharma was up in the low-double-digit range. So, those were all indicators that we feel good about.

Jared Shojaian - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst · Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Your line is open

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Smedes Rose with Citi. Your line is open.

Smedes Rose - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Smedes Rose with Citi. Your line is open

Hi, thanks. I just wanted to understand a little bit better on Two Roads. So, the properties that are managed now that are kind of "independent and are maybe under the destination management platform," I mean, I guess they have an option whether or not they want to join Hyatt. And sort of how do you prevent, say, leakage in the existing platform and from the pipeline opportunity going forward? And just with that your integration cost at least at first blush seemed kind of high relative to the first year contribution and I'm wondering maybe you could sort of talk about what some of the costs are related to. Is it technology? Is it key money? Like how does that maybe break down a little bit?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thanks, Smedes. I'll start and turn it back to Pat to address the second part. With respect to the portfolio, let me be a little bit more granular and say that the four existing and operating brands where they're open and operating hotels are Alila which is primarily in Asia, Joie de Vivre, Destination Hotels and Thompson Hotels. Those are the four currently operating brands. There is a micro-lifestyle brand called tommie which has two hotels under construction at this time. We're very excited about entering that segment. But there are no open hotels at this point. The nature of the deal is that we are acquiring the platform and with the platform comes their contract assets or their contractual asset base, which means the management agreements that they've got in place. We've said and we've disclosed the fact that there is a base purchase price and potential additional consideration, and that potential additional consideration largely relates to individual circumstances in which we and the Two Roads ownership groups are working through various topics to finalize what the exact portfolio will look like that we close on. And so there is no optionality with respect to the underlying contract base and in areas in which we identified topics that we needed to spend more time with the Two Roads ownership group on, we structured a variable part of the total purchase price. So, that's how we're managing together and with great visibility exactly how we will define and close on the final portfolio. So, with that, let me turn it back to Pat for the rest.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you, Mark. So, Smedes, with respect to the $25 million to $30 million that I referenced in relation to integration-related costs, I would say there are four primary buckets. The first would be reorganization costs, which would encompass both severance and relocation associated with the restructuring of the organization as we integrate it into Hyatt. Second would be transition services from the existing team to bridge us to the integration and to provide a seamless transition into Hyatt. The third would be, as you mentioned, IT-related costs as we look to bring Two Roads hotels onto our systems, so that they can fully derive the benefits associated with the Hyatt affiliation. And the third (sic) [fourth] would be some selected brand conversion costs. So, there are a number of buckets there that are fundamental to our ability to realize full value in terms of the synergies that we gain with the integration of this company.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

So let me just clarify one thing based on how Pat just described it. Our current plan is to continue to operate these four – actually five brands. So, we are not retiring any brands. We're not consolidating brands at this point. So, we have no plans to do that. We are working through how we are going to organize the brands and we are moving towards establishing a lifestyle management division within the company to focus on the segment and support the development efforts going forward as well. So, we'll have more to say about that in the future. And first we need to close and we'll be describing that in more detail as we move forward. So, I wanted to just be clear about the intention to retain the brands.

Smedes Rose - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Smedes Rose with Citi. Your line is open

Okay. I appreciate that. I just wanted to ask you too on your decision to buy and Phoenix and Indian Wells kind of highly seasonal markets, was there any particular underlying motivator there? Were there contracts coming due and this is the way to lock down the brand? Was the pricing particularly attractive in your view? I was just sort of interested that those would be the markets that you picked to recycle into with some maybe (45:40).

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Well, you're batting a thousand, Smedes. I think first, there were contract term issues that we were facing. Second, we believe that they are – each of the two hotels is a strong performer in their respective markets with additional opportunity with some application of additional capital by way of renovation in the case of Phoenix, and some changes to the area programming in Indian Wells that we believe will further enhance our ability to maximize the potential of those properties, especially as it relates to group business in those markets. So it was a combination of a contract term issue combined with reasonable pricing and future opportunity to enhance value. And I would just add that these are the types of things that we fully expect – types of properties that we would fully expect to recycle over time. So these are not bought by way of thinking about a permanent addition to our real estate base. So they'll be available for recycling once we get through the capital projects that we are planning for those properties.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

And, Smedes, what I would add to what Mark has said is that the existing management agreements at those two properties also had development restrictions that impeded our ability to capitalize on new growth opportunities. So, as we've purchased those hotels, those restrictions are now gone, clearing the path for us to take advantage of those opportunities.

Smedes Rose - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Smedes Rose with Citi. Your line is open

All right. Thanks. And, Pat, best of luck to you in your new gig.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Hi, good morning.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Good morning.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Good morning. Two questions; the first is on your owned margins, you'd said 70 basis points on the global 5% RevPAR, roughly 100 excluding some onetime comp issues. How were those margins, specifically of your domestic hotels in the quarter?

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

I'm sorry, Patrick, I didn't catch the last part of your question. How did those hotels perform in relation to.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

No. Sorry, if I'm breaking up here. How did you – what was the owned hotel margin growth for your domestic hotels in the quarter?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

U.S. So, you're asking U.S. versus non-U.S. properties, is that right?

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Yes. Correct.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Sorry, it's just a little tough to hear you, that's why we're asking for clarification.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Okay.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Normally – yeah. Patrick, thank you for the question. Normally, we don't break out the performance of U.S. versus international within our owned and leased portfolio. What I will say is that the portfolio is dominated by U.S. properties. And so what you're seeing is largely a reflection of what happened in the U.S. What I would highlight and I believe we disclosed this in our earnings release is that we did see better performance out of our international owned and leased properties from a RevPAR growth perspective than we did for our U.S.-based owned and leased hotels. And so as a consequence, we would have seen better margin performance at those hotels as well.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Okay. Okay. And then my follow-up question, please. I'm actually on a cellphone, please let me know if you cannot hear me. As we think about your 1% to 3% RevPAR guidance next year in relation to the approximately 100% – approximately 100 basis points of margin growth this year on 5% RevPAR in the third quarter, is it fair to think flat owned margins next year, flat, maybe slightly up, slightly down, is that a reasonable assumption?

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

I would say that's a reasonable assumption at this stage. As we've said before, we typically target around 3% RevPAR growth in order to hold our margins flat. However, we've also benefited from significant productivity initiatives that have been launched in the last couple of years. We see those initiatives sustaining into the next few years here. So, even though we're guiding conservatively to a RevPAR growth range of 1% to 3% across the entire estate, not breaking out specifically what is owned and leased, we do anticipate that margins next year would be at least flat. But we'll provide further guidance, in fact, full guidance for 2019 on our Q4 earnings call in February.

Patrick Scholes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Your line is open

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Allen with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Thomas G. Allen - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hey. Good morning. Just on the Americas and the U.S. segment, can you just talk high level how you're thinking about kind of the current state or kind of backdrop of RevPAR trends? Obviously, you had strong full service RevPAR growth, but select service was declined. And is that a function of just the hurricane comps? Is it a function of supply growth, which you highlighted in your prepared remarks? I mean how are you thinking about the general backdrop here in the U.S. and Americas? Thanks.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thanks, Thomas. I would say overall we're feeling good about demand levels really across transient and group. If we dig into that a little further, we look at our managed corporate account business in the third quarter which was very strong, sort of up in the mid- to high-single digits. And so, we think that the health of the business traveler is good. We're looking at – based on some selected resort results over the course of the third quarter, we continue to see good demand into resorts. And as we've said previously, we really think that this is a reflection of our customer base which is a relatively higher-end traveler. The ADR levels in our resorts tend to run higher than the rest of the portfolio. And so, we believe that there is – we derive from that the continued health of that segment. So I think we feel good about demand. On the select service side, in particular, 2018 is a significant year of growth in supply, and it is a year in which supply is exceeding demand growth. We do see supply growth tapering in 2019. And I think that most of what we're seeing across the markets is primarily supply-driven at this point. Thomas G. Allen - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Perfect. Helpful. Thank you. And then, you highlighted in your prepared remarks how you could be a net buyer next year. I assume you're talking more about single property transactions and physical asset transactions, but how are you thinking about more brand M&A? And just a clarification, can you use kind of – are there tax benefits buying other brands or is that only hard asset for hard asset? Thanks.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Okay. Thanks. First of all, when Pat referenced the potential for us to be a net buyer in future periods, he was talking about as part of the recycling bucket of asset transactions and therefore, yes, more focused on single assets. With respect to tax profile, the 1031 exchange opportunity, which is a like-for-like exchange, only applies to real estate asset to real estate asset. It doesn't apply to real estate assets being sold and then redeploying in other investments.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

And then, Thomas, as to your question regarding Hyatt's appetite for future brand acquisitions, that remains something that we are focusing on. We're very excited about the acquisition opportunity with Two Roads, and there will be tremendous focus on the successful integration over the next several months here. But the company continues to look at other opportunities like Two Roads that would involve the integration of brands that are complementary to our existing portfolio, while bringing in a new management fee platform. Thomas G. Allen - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Shaun C. Kelley - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Your line is open

Hey, good morning, everyone, or good afternoon, I guess. So just wanted to touch on sort of the 2019 outlook a little bit closer, in terms of the 1% to 3%, could you give us just your high-level thinking about how you think international trends kind of compare to domestic trends? Appreciate that you probably don't want to break it out in too much detail, but just sort of what your kind of baseline thinking is for that?

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Absolutely. Thank you, Shaun. We are anticipating that the international business will be relatively stronger and the U.S. business relatively softer within that range of 1% to 3%. But we believe that it's appropriate at this point in time to guide relatively conservatively just given the uncertain business environment and the fact that we have a full year ahead of us. But what I would also say to reinforce this range of 1% to 3% is that our group revenue pace is up in the low-single digits currently and our corporate rate negotiations, we expect, will deliver 2% to 3% rate growth. So we feel very comfortable with that outlook, again recognizing that the U.S. will be a bit softer and our international markets will be a bit stronger.

Shaun C. Kelley - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Your line is open

Great. Thanks for that, Pat. And then second thing was just a couple clarifications on Two Roads. The main area was – I think this is really building off of a question earlier, but these types of contracts often can be terminated by the owner sort of at will or in certain circumstances. So, I guess the question that I have is simply, is built into the contingent consideration, I guess, the $120 million, Mark, that you referenced, does that include a baseline assumption around some kind of properties that may stay in and others that may terminate? So is there some churn that's built directly into that $120 million? Is that really what you're trying to say?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

We can't really go into details about the composition of what's being worked through at this point that relates to the potential additional consideration. What I will say is that we believe that based on how we have assessed the current portfolio and how it's performing, first of all, the hotels are doing well and so the brands are working which is important. We look at the ability to leverage our sales organization, revenue management systems, and also processes. We believe that the application of World of Hyatt will have a significant impact and our customer base similarity is such that we feel we can make an immediate impact. We also have centralized service benefits in reservations and purchasing. And finally, on the distribution channel front, we believe that we can both improve mix and the commission structure. And we think that a number of these things can be implemented rapidly. And so, our feeling, our sentiment about this in our plan is that we will be able to – with appropriate planning and migration, with as much stability and seamlessness as we can muster, which means that we're not going to rush through it, we're going to do it the right way, we believe that we will be in a very solid position to continue to have the existing property portfolio that we finally close with in place for an extended period of time, and also accelerate the growth for the brands. So, that's about all I can say and I'm not prepared to go into more detail about the mechanics of the additional consideration.

Shaun C. Kelley - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Your line is open

That's plenty. And just one clarification for everyone, but the $25 million to $30 million of integration cost, is that going to be included in your definition of both SG&A and adjusted EBITDA in guidance? Or is that something that's going to be stripped out or called out?

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Well, it will definitely be called out. Each quarter that number will be called out. But the integration costs we anticipate will be recorded as part of our adjusted SG&A and therefore will be part of our adjusted EBITDA, but those numbers will be called out separately. I would also mention that there will be some transaction-related costs that will sit below adjusted EBITDA and, therefore, will impact net income and those will likely be characterized as special items.

Shaun C. Kelley - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Your line is open

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Joseph R. Greff - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Hey, guys. First off, congratulations to Pat and Joan as well. Best wishes to both of you.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Joseph R. Greff - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Your line is open

With respect to Two Roads, can you just talk about the background of the transaction or the deal? How was that sourced? Was it the (00:59:44) competitive process with other competing bids? And then, with regard to your comment about this should generate – created a multiple of 12 to 13 times on 2021 or an 8% EBITDA yield, is that on the $480 million or the $600 million and do you include that $25 million to $30 million of integration costs? And when you look at system-wide RevPAR dollars for Two Roads, how does that compare to your existing portfolio on a managed and franchised basis? Is it a premium or a discount? Thank you.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Okay. I'll cover the first and third points and leave to Pat to answer the second. With respect to the deal process, the owners of the company ran a process. They had a financial advisor as did we, and it was a competitive process. And I think not much more to say about that. On the RevPAR front, I mentioned earlier that the ADR level that the hotels operate at under the Two Roads brands are in very similar ranges to our upper-upscale and luxury hotel base by region. So, if you break it out by region or by country, they look very similar to where we are as an ADR matter. As a RevPAR matter, it depends on the brand. Some of the brands are at or around our levels, the Hyatt branded levels and others have somewhat lower occupancy. And so the RevPAR profile might vary just depending on location of individual assets or by brand. With respect to how we're thinking about yield, I'll leave Pat to describe that.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Joe, so to clarify the 12 to 13 times EBITDA for year 2021, that would not include or give effect to the onetime transition-related and transaction costs. So, we're strictly looking at the anticipated incremental adjusted EBITDA in relation to our investment, which will range from $480 million to $600 million.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

And your question was, is it based on $480 million or $600 million, the answer is our expectation generally is that it will slide. The answer doesn't change depending on where we end up in our minds between $480 million and $600 million based on how we structure the transaction.

Joseph R. Greff - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Thank you. Bradley O’Bryan - Hyatt Hotels Corp.: Tiffany, I think we'll take our last question now.

Operator

Operator

Your last question comes from the line of Michael Bellisario with Baird. Your line is open. Michael J. Bellisario - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Good morning.

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Good morning, Michael. Michael J. Bellisario - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: You guys mentioned, I guess, 250 basis points of increased penetration from the World of Hyatt guests. Are we still in the low-30% range there? And then, what's the runway that you guys see for that number to move higher and eventually get closer to where a few of your peers are at today?

Mark S. Hoplamazian - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

Michael, so right now the way we track room night penetration, it leaves us in a range of about a bit over 37%. And if you think about how you might relate that back to what we had disclosed at the beginning of this year in our 10-K, the basis on which we are measuring our room night penetration figures has changed to conform to how other major hospitality companies are doing it. We received additional information and we've changed the basis on which we are going to be measuring going forward. We'll provide more detail on that in our next 10-K filing. But right now I would say on a more comparable basis than we had been measuring in the past, we are running a bit over 37%. And then, with respect to progression, the ongoing work that's been done to enhance the value proposition for World of Hyatt continues to provide solid growth over time. And so we absolutely do believe that we will continue this path going forward and we've got other initiatives that we continue to work on which we will provide updates on when appropriate. So, we have a high degree of confidence that we have got significant positive momentum now, and we'll be able to actually leverage that further. It is true that structurally by virtue of the fact that we have such a strong and sizable group business, larger in proportion than some of our competitors who are looking at penetration levels with a higher transient mix, that we are structurally – we have a lower eligible room night base from which to measure penetration simply by virtue of the fact that we have more group business. And, of course, we've talked about the fact that we think that that group business is critical to us and really important to us in terms of how we perform and compete over time for business travelers who are also ultimately going to be members of World of Hyatt and stay during leisure occasions. But structurally, there are some differences that you would need to take into account as you think about penetration levels.

Patrick J. Grismer - Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Management

And, Michael, to build on what Mark has said, one of the things I like to highlight is that when you think about where we're at from a room night penetration perspective today or where we have been in recent years with our loyalty program and you consider the amount of headroom that we have with all of the improvements we're making to the program itself through new partnerships and alliances like Small Luxury Hotels of the World and other things that we have in the pipeline, as Mark mentions. And you consider that even with the program that we have, we have consistently outperformed our key peers from a RevPAR growth perspective and we've outperformed on a net rooms growth rate basis. I'm very excited about how all of these improvements and enhancements will help to sustain our continued outperformance. So, I think great progress to date, more coming down the pike, and a lot of excitement for the future on how this improved loyalty program is going to enhance our ability to continue to win. Michael J. Bellisario - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Thanks. That's very helpful.

Operator

Operator

I will now turn the conference back over to our presenters. [0CPPRG-E Brad O'Bryan]: Thank you, Tiffany, and thank you to everybody for joining our call today. We look forward to talking to you soon.