Earnings Labs

Reading International, Inc. (RDIB)

Q1 2020 Earnings Call· Tue, Jun 30, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you for joining Reading International's earnings call to discuss our 2020 First Quarter Results. My name is Andrzej Matyczynski. I'm Reading's Executive Vice President of Global Operations. With me are Ellen Cotter, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gilbert Avanes, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Before we begin the substance of the call, I will start by stating that in accordance with the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, certain matters that will be addressed in this earnings call may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual performance to be materially different from the performance indicated or implied by such statements. Such risk factors are clearly set out in our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. In addition, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures on this call. Reconciliations and definitions of non-GAAP financial measures, which are segment operating income, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, are included in our recently issued 2020 first quarter earnings release on the company's website. We have adjusted where applicable the EBITDA items we believe to be external to our business and not reflective of our cost of doing business or results of operation. Such costs include legal expenses relating to extraordinary litigation, and any other items that can be considered non-recurring in accordance with the 2-year SEC requirement for determining an item is non-recurring, infrequent or unusual in nature. We believe adjusted EBITDA is an important supplemental measure of our performance. In today's call, we also use an industry-accepted financial measure called theatre level cash flow, TLCF, which is theatre level revenue less direct theatre level expenses; and property level cash flow, PLCF, which is property level revenue less direct property level expenses. Please note that our comments are necessarily summary in nature, and anything we say is qualified by the more detailed disclosure set forth in our Form 10-Q and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So with that behind us, I'll turn it over to Ellen, who will review the results for the first quarter 2020 and discuss further Reading's precautions and strategies in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. And then Gilbert will provide a more detailed financial review. Ellen?

Ellen Marie Cotter

Management

Thanks, Andrzej. First let me acknowledge the tumultuous period of history we’re all living through. The global pandemic causing sweeping economic hardship and the cultural and societal shifts emanating from the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmed Aubrey, Breonna Taylor and so many others. Our hearts go out to those impacted by these pervasive global challenges. We want to thank the thousands of first line responders and health care workers who've helped battle the COVID pandemic. And together with our board, Margaret and I want to acknowledge and sincerely thank the many Reading executives and employees around the world, who have despite these extraordinary challenges and distractions kept their focus on ensuring that Reading survives these very uncertain times, and hopefully emerges stronger at the end. We're here today to review our first quarter 2020 results. I'll also spend some time updating you on where we are in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Q1, 2020 results were negatively impacted by the worldwide COVID-19 crisis that ultimately resulted in both the temporary closure of our global cinemas and live theatres, and imposed a business halt for many of our tenants at our centres in Australia and New Zealand. Also the weakening of the Australian and New Zealand dollars against the U.S. dollar by 7.7% and 6.8% respectively during the first quarter in 2020. A quick financial overview. Our first quarter 2020 consolidated revenues were $49.2 million dollars 20% versus the first quarter in 2019. We reported a $2.5 million operating loss for the first quarter 2020. Our Q1, 2020 EBITDA was a negative $1.8 million compared to $4.3 million in the first quarter of 2019. We reported a net loss of $5.9 million against a $2.1 million net loss in Q1, 2019. To provide a liquidity cushion against the COVID-19…

Gilbert Avanes

Management

Thank you, Ellen. As Ellen mentioned previously, our financials were significantly impacted by an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. The temporarily closure of all of our cinemas and the live theatres in March 2020 led to a decrease in revenue thereby impacting our bottom line. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter 2020 decreased by 20% to $49.2 million compared to the first quarter in 2019. As previously mentioned, this was primarily driven by a temporary closure of our 60 global cinemas and three live theatres due to compliance with governmental directions, which led to a $12.3 million decrease in revenue. Additionally, the on-going temporary closure of our consolidated theatre Kahala Mall in Hawaii for a top to bottom renovation during the first quarter and the 2019 closure of our historically profitable Paris Beekman and Managed 86th street theatres also contributed to the year-over-year decline. These results were further impacted by 7.7% decline in Australian dollar and a 6.8% decline in New Zealand dollar against U.S. dollar for the first quarter of 2020 over the comparable period in 2019. Net loss attributable to RDI common stockholders increased by $3.8 million to a loss of $5.9 million for the first quarter 2020 compared to the same period in the prior year. Basic loss per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 was $0.27 an increased loss of $0.18 from the prior year quarter. Non segment general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2020 decreased by 13% to $4.4 million compared to the same period in 2019. This was the combined result of general and administrative staff reduction occurring in late 2019, COVID-19 related expense reductions and lower legal expenses when compared to the same period last year. The results of the CARES Act during the first quarter of 2020, the Company…

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks, Gilbert. As always, I'd like to thank our stockholders for forwarding questions to our Investor Relations email. We've compiled a set of questions and answers representing the most common questions and recurring themes emailed to us. I'll try and handle this first question.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Regarding the recent sales of Class A stock held by the James J. Cotter Living Trust by Ellen and Margaret Cotter as trustees of that trust, there are 10b5-1 plan through early May 2020. It was indicated that these stock sales could have impacted Reading's removal from the Russell Index, and further asked whether these sales were solely for estate tax liability and whether that liability now has been satisfied. Are there more sales to come and when?

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

The company has publicly disclosed since August 2019 that the Co-trustees of the James J. Cotter Living Trust informed the Company that they will sell Class A shares to satisfy liabilities including estate [ph] taxes of the estate and trust of James J. Cotter Senior. The most recent trust 10b5-1 plan received by the company reported an intention to sell shares from February through May 2020. The company has been informed that the Co-trustees of the trust expect to continue to sell Class A shares over the next few years to satisfy liabilities of the estate and the trust. As required by a company's insider trading policies, any future use of 10b5- trading plans by the Trust will be publicly disclosed in advance. While the question suggests a connection between the preannounced trust circle, and the removal of the company's shares from the Russell 3000 Index, the company believes that there is no connection. Like many companies in the cinema exhibition and retail end of the real estate business, our market cap dropped in the first half of the year due to the COVID crisis. With respect to the most recent reconstitution of the Russell 3000 Index, the pervasive market cap group of many public companies including Reading moved many companies out of that index. This is not the first time our shares have been removed from the Russell 3000 Index only to return. We believe that execution of our business strategy will provide us future opportunities to increase our market cap and to rejoin the index.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

The next question which Ellen can do, what will ticket pricing look like once you're out U.S. assets open? What have you seen from your theatres so far?

Ellen Marie Cotter

Management

As I touched on earlier in the U.S. will likely open a few weeks prior to the release of major studio movies. As of today, Tenet has been rescheduled to open on August 12 and move on on August 21st. We'll let those dates sit for a while and monitor the infection rates in our markets in the rest of the country. As we get closer and become more confident that the dates won't move again, we'll officially announce an opening date a few weeks prior. During that time, we'll offer a range of curated programming centered on repertory and some recently released titles. When we reopen in the U.S. we’ll open with a flat reduced ticket price for these titles to generate buzz and attract our guests back to the theatres. Before the big titles open, we want people to come in and experience and be reassured by our new protocols in the COVID environment. Once the major titles resume in the U.S; today we anticipate reverting back to our standard pricing, however, post relaunch we'll also anticipate doing a full pricing review to take into account all relevant factors and make a determination as to what pricing would improve our overall profitability in each market. And with respect to the pricing in our other theatres so far, we opened reopened Australia with a standard value pricing. Remember that our ticket pricing in Australia is already viewed as being a true value. And in New Zealand today, we're offering a flat $10 dollar ticket pricing for standard sessions, which is less than our pre closure pricing. While our attendance in New Zealand and Australia has been significantly below last year's attendance this has more to do with the lack of new and compelling content than our ticket prices, which has not been a deterrent.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks Ellen. We received a number of questions about our monthly cash burn rate. Gilbert, could you help our investors better understand where we stand on liquidity?

Gilbert Avanes

Management

Sure Andrzej. As we mentioned earlier, as of March 31, 2020 we have just under $55 million in cash. As of today, we have about $41 million in cash. This data includes some construction payment related to 44 Union Square. Historically film rent and the payment of other accrued expenses, because so many factors can impact our monthly cash spend we are hesitant to code a monthly burn rate as opposed to providing you with an actual cash spend. However, we proactively engage in liquidity management practice and constantly monitor opportunities and challenges that must be addressed. At the moment we're comfortable that our cash position will carry us well into 2021 even if our theatres were to remain closed. Further, our internationally diversified strategy that includes significant real estate assets provides us with liquidity alternatives should operational cash flow combined with debt restructuring or refinancing not be sufficient in the event of sustained cash burn. That said, we're encouraged about couple of points. New release date in August for two [Indiscernible] films from major studios, Tenet and Mulan. Fourth quarter release dates for additional [Indiscernible] films including Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Top Gun and No Time to Die. That we re-launched our New Zealand and Australia cinema and our customers have embraced the reopening, even with the older from programming. No major releases.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Okay. Gilbert what about at the end of the year?

Gilbert Avanes

Management

As of March 31, 2020 we had $263 million in debt. We're currently working with our lenders in each country on a loan governance structure that better reflects the financial results cost by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The US dollar amount of our debt is obviously impacted by the exchange rate. At the present time, our debt is largely in five countries. $79.1 million secured by U.S. fee interest, $60 million secured by substantially all of our U.S. cinemas, $31.1 million in subordinated debt; $73.7 million secured by our Australian asset and $19.1 million secured by our New Zealand asset. We believe our debt balance at the end of the year will not be materially different than at March 31, 2020.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks Gilbert. Assuming government imposed capacity restrictions, what are your plans and programs for optimizing occupancy? How and why do you feel Reading can effectively migrate weak-end demand for studio tenfold product in excess of restricted capacity into weeknights and/or additional screens. Ellen?

Ellen Marie Cotter

Management

As I mentioned earlier, before we have the luxury of playing highly anticipated titles from major studios, we’ll reopen with much of our own creative programming. To optimize the occupancy on reopening and taking into account mandated seat count reductions, we're curating film programming. We hope it's compelling and entertaining for our audiences. We’ll play not only recently released commercial movies, but also feature content from our popular alternative content series. Also on relaunch, we may not open all of our U.S. based screens in our big complexes. In those closed auditoriums, we’ll market a private family or public group screening program, and a big screen game or rental program where we give video gamers who've been playing at home for months a chance to play in a big screen environment. With respect to migrating weekend demand for studio temples into weeknights, if the films are good enough which we think Tenet and Mulan will deliver, our guests will relish the chance to get back to the cinema and experience something fresh. If there are weekend sell out, people will migrate to the weekdays especially to our Mahalo and discount days. Also, remember that in the early days there will be not a full flow of commercial project product. So we'll open those movies on multiple screens at multiple show time. Our goal is to be flexible with the programming to maximize the growth from these early titles so we can deliver not only to ourselves, but to our studio partners a healthy box office. We understand that we're going to have to be creative and nimble to attract people back to the cinemas, but also believe that there is a lot of pent up demand. We understand first-hand the cabin fever that can build up in a work from home environment. We're confident that if the movies deliver, and our protocols inspire public confidence, people will return again to the cinema to enjoy the magic of movies.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks, Ellen.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Well that marks the conclusion of the call and the question and answers. We appreciate you listening to the call today. Thank you for your attention and we wish everyone good health and safety in these uncertain times. Thank you for listening.