Earnings Labs

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (LYV)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 30, 2014

$155.31

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Carrie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Live Nation Entertainment Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, Live Nation has asked me to remind you that this afternoon's call will contain certain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ, including statements relating to the company's anticipated financial performance, business prospects, new developments and similar matters. Please refer to Live Nation's SEC filings, including the risk factors and cautionary statements included in the company's most recent filings on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K for a description of risks and uncertainties that could impact the actual results. Live Nation will also refer to some non-GAAP measures on this call. In accordance with SEC Regulation G, Live Nation has provided a full reconciliation for the most comparable GAAP measures in their earnings release. The release, reconciliations and other financial or statistical information to be discussed on this call can be found under the Investor Relations tab on investors.livenationentertainment.com. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment.

Michael Rapino

Analyst

Good afternoon, and welcome to our third quarter 2014 conference call. I'm joined today by Joe Berchtold, our COO; and Kathy Willard, our CFO. We had a great third quarter, and 2014 is on track to be another record year, delivering revenue, AOI and free cash flow growth. For the first 9 months of the year, revenue was up 9% and AOI is up 11%, with all divisions growing both top line [ph] and AOI. Our business model of building the leading concerts platform as a flywheel, driving our other high-margin businesses is working. We are continuing to build share in Concerts and Artist Management and driving growth in Sponsorship and Ticketing. The Live business continues to have a robust outlook as artists are now fully reliant on touring as their main earnings driver, and the best means to engage and connect with their fan base. The ongoing flow of new artists continues to reemphasize the business as fans, more than ever, find the Live experience from club shows to stadiums to festivals a top entertainment choice and the best means to celebrate their favorite artist and share the experience with friends, both on-site and online. The connected world and mobile access allows fans to become the greatest marketing boom for artists and concerts. Our research shows 64% of concertgoers engage in online activities at the show, and 76% of concert attendees in the U.S. who took photos or videos at the concert post them online. All of this is generating billions of earned media impressions on social media for our shows. At Live Nation, we see great continued runway ahead given the fragmented global landscape in concerts management and ticketing. And as our scale grows, we continue to drive increasing economics in our business model with higher profits per…

Joe Berchtold

Analyst

Thanks, Michael. First, with Concerts. In the third quarter, Concert revenue increased 11%, and AOI was up 17% compared to 2013. We had record fan attendance for the quarter as expected, with 22 million people attending our shows. The growth this quarter was driven by North America and, notably, a tripling of our stadium business. Looking more broadly at our full year-to-date, which does a better job of smoothing out timing. We've had a record 46 million fans attend our shows, delivering commensurate record profitability. We've seen that having a broad portfolio of markets and venue types continues to pay off for us as this year, we had a high volume of stadium shows and strong performance in amps and across festivals to grow the overall business. We're also continuing to increase our profitability for fans with pricing per ticket up 6% on a global basis and per-fan spending in our amphitheaters and festivals up 6% as well. Looking at the fourth quarter and full year, we continue to expect to deliver double-digit AOI growth in the concert business. The fourth quarter looks to continue our trend of a bit lower arena activity, but we still expect to end the year with record attendance as we continue to build our global market share. On Artist Nation. Our Artist Management business had another great quarter as well, with revenue up 18% and AOI up 73%. Again, here, we expect to see a bit lower activity from timing in the fourth quarter, but overall, for the year, project revenue and AOI growth along with a strong lineup set for 2015. Turning to our Sponsorship & Advertising business. For the third quarter, Sponsorship & Advertising revenue was up 4%, and AOI up 6%, consistent with our year-to-date performance. Our top focus for the…

Elizabeth K. Willard

Analyst

Thanks, Joe, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start with our results for the third quarter. Revenue was $2.5 billion, up 11% from last year. Concerts revenue was also up 11%, primarily due to more shows and higher attendance in North America from several successful stadium tours, along with increased sales in amphitheaters. Ticketing revenue was up 8% driven by higher domestic resale fees as a result of the continuing success of our TM+ product, along with increases in primary ticket revenue. Adjusted operating income for the third quarter was $258 million, up 17% from last year's $221 million. Concerts AOI was $83 million, up 17% from the strong stadium activity in North America. Ticketing AOI was $86 million, up 7% from the growth in domestic primary and Resale revenue. Sponsorship & Advertising AOI was $88 million, up 6%, driven by growth in international venue and festival sponsorship and domestic online advertising. And Artist Nation AOI was $22 million, a $9 million increase over last year from higher management commissions from existing managers and the additional several new managers. Operating income was $151 million this quarter, 19% higher than the $126 million reported last year, driven by the growth in AOI. And net income in the third quarter was $105 million versus $44 million in 2013. The improvement in net income was driven by our higher operating income, lower income tax expense this quarter associated with deferred tax benefits from acquisitions and the loss on debt refinancing we had last year. Now for the 9-month results. Revenue was $5.3 billion, up 9% over last year. The increase was driven by a 10% growth in Concerts revenue due to more shows and higher attendance in our North American amphitheaters and strong stadium tours along with increased global touring activity. Ticketing revenue…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Vasily Karasyov with Sterne Agee. Vasily Karasyov - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: I had a question on the secondary tickets market. Can you please quantify what percentage of the -- or what portion of the revenue growth came from secondary? I think in the 10-Q, you said that the majority of your growth came from there. And if you could give us an idea about the margin profile of that revenue, how different it is from the primary.

Michael Rapino

Analyst

If I'm not -- so we said the secondary growth was up 44% year-to-date. I'm not sure I fully understood the question. But the margin profile, as we've said, is very consistent with our primary tickets. We have margins that we expected, over time, as that business scales, to be consistent with kind of that rather mid-20s range. Vasily Karasyov - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: My question was if you look at the revenue growth year-on-year, what percentage of that revenue increase came from secondary?

Michael Rapino

Analyst

Yes, we haven't -- we are not breaking that out.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Amy Yong with Macquarie.

Amy Yong - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie.

One question and then one follow-up, if I could. First, I was wondering if you could actually comment on some of the acquisitions that have been talked about in the Industry Rag [ph], including C3 and also Greek Theatre [ph]. And I guess, now that you're wrapping up your CapEx spend, what are your priorities for free cash flow? And then just one really quick housekeeping question. Can you just give us, Kathy, what the right share count is given all the different convertible activity that's been going on and what the right number we should be using going forward?

Michael Rapino

Analyst · Macquarie.

Amy, it's Michael. I didn't -- we don't -- we've historically just not commented on our acquisitions until we close them. I think it would be fair to say, we've been very vocal on our priorities over the last couple of years, that we are continuing to grow our global Concerts business, whether that means the festival channels, like we did with EDM. We've been very clear that we've been underserviced in our festival business in the U.S. There's a big hole for our business, which really drives our Ticketing and then Sponsorship, and we're going to continue to grow internationally. So I can't comment on the rumors, but it would make sense that we would be looking to acquire a strong festival company in the U.S. that we've outlined already as a priority for us for cash flow, and we're going to continue to rally it. There is a lot of great global opportunities and sizable ones in the Ticketing and Concerts space that would continue to supercharge our growth if the price and the return was at the right level.

Elizabeth K. Willard

Analyst · Macquarie.

And Amy, on the share count, on basic level, I'd used the number on front of the Q, which is the 200.7 million. On a diluted basis, you're right. It's because of the timing of when we bought in that convert. The diluted is a little bit high, and if you want use the diluted we use, I'd take out about 8 million shares, which would take you down to more like 213 million on a diluted basis, on a comparable basis.

Operator

Operator

All right, and we'll take our next question from John Janedis with Jefferies LLC.

John Janedis - Jefferies LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the Sponsorship segment? Growth seems a little below trend year-to-date and I'm wondering if there's anything timing for us to think about or maybe any change in renewal rates.

Michael Rapino

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

Yes. That's why we tried to give you some very specific numbers in terms of being up 10% on a contracted revenue basis relative to last year, to give you some comfort but even though what we have recognized thus far year-to-date is at a lower trend, we gave you that, we're over 90% sold and we're up 10% year-on-year. So we think that should give some comfort that we will continue to grow at that historical rate that we've done in the past few years. So it will be more fourth quarter backloaded this year.

John Janedis - Jefferies LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

Joe, on that 10%, for example, is the average length the same? Or is that a bit extended?

Joe Berchtold

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

There's no material change in the duration of our average sponsorship deal.

John Janedis - Jefferies LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

Okay, great. One related question -- or unrelated question I should say. I know it's early, but is there any evidence that your channel in Yahoo! is driving growth or efficiencies across other parts of the Live Nation platform?

Michael Rapino

Analyst · Jefferies LLC.

Well, in the ecosystem, we're -- we know that any way we can continue to add ad units to our advertising businesses, how we very clearly outlined how we continue to grow. So one of the holes in our portfolio to date has been that video. So Yahoo! was able to provide us enough eyeballs with our content. So my advertising team now, when they're walking in to deliver against those RFPs, has an ad unit on video. So our Sponsorship business was sole benefit of that strategy. And then on a secondary point, we don't have any evidence yet that, that scale that would've mattered. But we do know from our research that the average fan, when he's debating about going to a concert, the casual fan, he spends a couple of weeks shopping. And we know that the #1 way that you can get a casual fan to press the buy button is by a live video of that artist, is a very stimulating conversion tool. So we do know is the more we scale and bring a high-quality live experience to the fan and add a buy button, we know it's also a great conversion mechanism for our core business. So it will be core benefit. It's a sponsorship ad unit, and a longer-term benefit is conversion around the ticket.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from John Tinker with Maxim.

John Tinker - Maxim Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Maxim.

8% festival attendance growth, how much of that was organic?

Michael Rapino

Analyst · Maxim.

That will be all basically organic because we had the full year in. So we started -- we launched -- as we do every year, we organically launch across the globe from our various 30, 40 markets, we launch 8 to 10 festivals a year and organically see which one of those ones are able to sustain M.I.A. in Los Angeles. We launched the country one in Detroit and we launched a few across the U.K. and Europe. So mostly organic and continuing -- we'll continue to do both organic and bolt-ons to remain as the leader in the Festivals segment.

John Tinker - Maxim Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Maxim.

And as a follow-up, as the festival business tends to have a -- can have a margin of 25% as opposed to the promotion business, which can be sort of 2% to 4%, at some point, would you see your margin in the Concerts division starting to tick up as festivals become a bigger percentage?

Michael Rapino

Analyst · Maxim.

Well, first of all, our revenue is so big on our main line business that affecting the bottom line margin on our business, even with 65 festivals or 100 festivals, is always just a hard math game because of our massive growth across our 25,000-plus main line shows. But your core -- the core to the question is why we're in Sponsorship and Festivals. Remember, a concert may have a 4% margin business at the door, but the -- an amphitheater concert may be 4% on the door, but still it's a 20%, 30%, 40% margin business when you add sponsorship to it. So we know that when you have any type of concert where you control the environment, your sponsorship is going to be highly accretive to that proposition. So festivals in Europe are driven by sponsorship, and so our U.S. ones and they are a key product, if you want to call, to grow your core Sponsorship business.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our next question from David Joyce with International Strategy & Investment Group.

David Carl Joyce - ISI Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · International Strategy & Investment Group.

I was wondering if you could provide some more color as to your recent acquisitions in Belgium. Does that provide you now the full complement of assets and activities there? If you could talk about what else you've got in that country. And then secondly, how does Eventjoy fit into your Ticketing product set?

Michael Rapino

Analyst · International Strategy & Investment Group.

Yes. Belgium is a perfect example of why our model and our scale works. We have a very large Festivals and Concerts business in Belgium. We have not had a concert -- hadn't had any Ticketing business in Belgium so we are always weighing the options of buying the large one, starting our own or finding a smaller acquisition that provides us a faster ramp-up, and Belgium was the perfect example where we were able to find a relatively inexpensive backroom. And overnight, we have our content now with our Ticketmaster support from U.K. to be now a legitimate ticketing and concert business in Belgium. So we're always looking where we have content. In those 40 markets around the world, we would have an ongoing business development assessment on launch it or buy it and what's the best return, and Belgium is an example where that came to life and you'll continue to see that model and those -- of those 2 extremes come together. Eventjoy is similar to what we originally did with TicketWeb. We believe that Ticketmaster+ is a -- obviously, a fabulous mainstream brand that's going to continue to do and service its mainstream clients. We have a great company in TicketWeb that's out there every day fighting other competitors on the GA [ph] club business. And we knew that we need a do-it-yourself product to be able to enter that subspace. We wanted again to enter at a fairly low risk to understand the category. And then the magic with our scale is we like to go in low cost, learn and then provide the scale of Ticketmaster to excel the growth. So Eventjoy, a really strong product team. We like the individuals. We like the product. We're going to learn a lot about that space this year, and we're already looking at ways that we can help attach the fire hose to propel that business in that space.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our final question from Ben Mogil with Stifel Financial. Benjamin E. Mogil - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Michael, so on the cost savings, which, I think, you sort of moved from $0.10 to $0.15 on the North American Ticketing side, can you talk about what sort of drove the push forward, if you will, about it? And then on the $0.35 target, do you see more upside from there? And then sort of as a follow-on, what about the international front? Can you give us the time line there around the ticket savings?

Michael Rapino

Analyst

I'm going to let Joe take that one.

Joe Berchtold

Analyst

Sure, yes. So Ben, as you've indicated, we previously guided to $0.10, and just our overall technology investments that we're making are letting us move a little faster than we had thought, 3, 6 months ago, and we're taking now more costs aggressively as we can to capture that for everybody. So combined with what we had already captured before this year, this is why we said we're more than halfway through the $0.35 target. And we think that overall, we are on target or on track with next year's getting to a run rate of $0.35. I don't think we're ready to declare that as something that will exceed at this point, but we certainly understand that, over time, one of the keys to Ticketmaster's success is we are truly omnipresent in all the channels of online, mobile and so on as having a very efficient cost structure-wide platform. And then our plan is, yes, that as we get that technology fully deployed in the U.S., we then take that to our markets internationally. Again, I don't think we're ready for the public declaration on the timing of that, but that is absolutely the plan. Benjamin E. Mogil - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: And so maybe on -- and just the U.S. because, obviously, you're further ahead there. When do you think, and you don't have to give me like an actual date, but approximately, when are you thinking you can kind of take the training wheels off the new system and kind of close down the legacy systems?

Michael Rapino

Analyst

Yes. So I think as we've talked, this is redoing it as we go, modules being replaced like by new modules. So there are no training wheels in the approach that we've taken. We are redoing the pieces as we go. I think we'll have complete products in our Concerts segment before long that won't have any of remnant core components of inventory management or e-commerce to them, and then we'll roll it out, aligned with the timing of the sports leagues to those teams over the next couple of years.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Live Nation Entertainment Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.