Earnings Labs

Reading International, Inc. (RDIB)

Q2 2021 Earnings Call· Wed, Aug 11, 2021

$9.51

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Transcript

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thank you for joining Reading International's Earnings Call to discuss our 2021 Second Quarter Results. My name is Andrzej Matyczynski, and I am Reading's Executive Vice President of Global Operations. With me, as usual, 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 just run through the usual caveats. 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 2021 second 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 two-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 theater level cash flow, TLCF, which is theater level revenue less direct theater level expenses. We also use a measure referred to as F&B spend per patron, which is a key performance indicator for our cinemas. The F&B spend per patron is calculated by dividing a cinema’s revenues generated by food and beverage sales by the number of admissions at that cinema. 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 our 2021 second quarter results and discuss our strategies for navigating Reading through the COVID-19 pandemic to the post-COVID era; followed by Gilbert, who will provide a more detailed financial review. Ellen?

Ellen Cotter

Management

Thanks, Andre. We're happy to report that as of June 30, 2021, our company, which is in both the cinema and real estate businesses in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand is in a significantly stronger position compared to where we were last year and all prior quarters since March of 2020. During Q2 2021, we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. And again, we're pleased that the fundamentals of our two business three country diversified business strategy supported Reading and its subsidiaries through this unparalleled crisis. Confronted with elimination of most of our cinema cash flow in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we considered a variety of possible routes to increase our liquidity. These included raising new capital, taking on new debt and monetizing certain assets that had appreciated substantially during our ownership, but would require significant amounts of new capital in order to progress them to the next level of value. We decided that rather than dilute our stockholders by issuing stock at low prices or mortgaging our future by taking on additional debt, it was in the best interest of our company and our stockholders to monetize certain readily sellable assets. Over the past six months, we have successfully monetized four assets, which contributed to our ability to pay down debt by over $32 million and still have cash on hand of $111 million or $111.8 million as of June 30, 2021. In early June 2021, we monetized our entertainment themed center, Auburn/Redyard, which included 114,000 square feet of undeveloped land in a suburb of Sydney for $69.6 million or AUD90 million. We have recognized a gain on sale after transaction costs of $38.7 million or AUD50.1 million. As part of this transaction, we lease back our Reading Cinemas at Auburn/Redyard from Charter Hall, the…

Gilbert Avanes

Management

Thank you, Ellen. Consolidated revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, increased by $32.6 million to $36 million when compared to the same period in the prior year. This increase was attributable to the majority of our theaters operating during the second quarter of 2021 compared to the second quarter of 2020, when most of our global cinema remained closed due to the initial COVID-19 shutdown. These positive results were further supported by the release of several major firms in the second quarter of 2021, which collectively led to an increase in attendance compared to the second quarter of 2020. These results were further enhanced by the strengthening of Australian and New Zealand dollar. During the second quarter of 2021, the average Australian and New Zealand dollar strengthened against the U.S. dollar by 17.1% and 15.7%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2021, increased by $4.7 million to $57.3 million when compared to the same period in the prior year. This increase was attributable to the majority of our theaters operating during the first half of 2021, with occupancy restrictions in place compared to the same period in 2020 when most of our global cinema closed in late March and remained closed through the second quarter of 2020. Net income attributable to RDI common stockholders for the second – for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 increased by $45.4 million to $22.7 million when compared to the same period in the prior year. Basic earnings per share increased by $2.08 to $1.04 for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2020. These increases are primarily from the gain on sale of assets related to our Auburn/Redyard and Royal George properties in June of…

A - Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks, Gilbert. But first, I'd like to thank our stockholders for forwarding questions to our Investor Relations e-mail. We do appreciate these questions coming through to us. In addition to addressing some of your questions in Ellen's discourse, we've also compiled a set of questions and answers, representing the most common questions and recurring themes e-mailed to us. Our first question is regarding our liquor licenses, according to your 10-Q as of June 30, 2021, you have pending applications for additional liquor licenses for 10 theaters in the U.S. and two in New Zealand. How long do you expect it to take for approval in these locations? I’ll handle this one. In most jurisdictions, obtaining liquor license is a bureaucratic process that has many layers state, local and in some cases, special interests. There is not one standard formula to be followed and replicated at least not in the U.S. The majority require current public assembly permits and certificates of occupancy to be furnished and background checks to be performed on the principal offices. That being said, we anticipate that the majority of these licenses will be in place before the year's end. With some coming on board earlier like Valley Plaza, Kahala and Kapolei and some later, like potentially the Cinemas 1, 2 and 3 and Village East. With respect to the two applications in New Zealand. We don't expect to receive decisions on these this year. Another question we received was regarding the migrating relationship between studios and theaters read the exclusive windows. AMC just regained exclusive windows from Warner Brothers for 2022 films. What does that mean for Reading? Is Reading at risk in any way of having inferior terms? Has Reading negotiated any deals with any major studios regarding a new normal for exclusivity, or is our chain relegated to follower or taker of terms in such negotiations? Has Reading been in discussions with any studio or distribution company regarding emulating anything like the AMC Universal deal, or other exhibitors recent deals allowing studio example Universal, the option to shorten the window and provide Reading a piece of the downstream PVOD, or other revenue. Ellen, could you handle that one?

Ellen Cotter

Management

Yes, Andrzej, we also read that AMC had inked a deal with Warner Bros ensuring a 45 day theatrical window for the studios releases in 2022. As we mentioned in our last earnings call in the U.S. at the moment, we don't have any new definitive long-term overall film deals with distributors that address changing windows or film splits or participation – participation PVOD deals. We've historically had a strong relationship with Warner Bros and expect that relationship to continue going forward. We'll play Warner Bros movies in 2022 with this 45 day exclusive theatrical window in place, just like AMC, and following on this point, we don't believe that a major studio would treat our U.S. circuit differently from our larger U.S. peers when it comes to any major adjustments to the theatrical window. We believe that for pre-pandemic periods, our historic film deals, we're competitive based on our relative size compared to our larger peers. We think our historic practice of competing with our larger peers and negotiating film deals in the U.S. that are competitive compared to our larger peers will continue in light of the announced 45 day exclusive theatrical window for the 2022 Warner Bros slate. Likewise, we believe that with respect to major shifts in windowing will be treated similar to our larger peers. In Australia and New Zealand, the same themes apply. We don't have any definitive long-term overall film deals with distributors that address changing windows or film splits or participation in PVOD deals. However, taking into account the overall cinema industry in Australia, New Zealand, we believe that in the near term, the average overall exclusive theatrical window in Australia and New Zealand will remain longer than in the U.S. And as a general policy and philosophy, the pandemic and changing theatrical windows will put pressure on the economics and margins for exhibitors, like occupancy cost with their landlords focus on film rental terms that make economic sense, for exhibition need to be a priority for our company and the industry at large.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks, Ellen. Another question we received perhaps Gilbert, you can handle this one? Can Reading’s U.S. Cinemas made money at 50% capacity restriction? What level of occupancy from capacity constraints? Do you feel are necessary to at least break even in your U.S. cinemas? Gilbert?

Gilbert Avanes

Management

There are many potential variables that could be at play a 50% seating capacity restrictions were strictly enforced across our U.S. circuit for a sustained period of time. Historically, we rely on access to full seat capacity for certain showtimes in New York City, or other high volume theaters. In addition, evening show times traditionally commend more patrons and major blockbuster films significantly add to the popularity of these evening showtimes. If 50% of each throughout our U.S. circuits were not there. It would be hard to break even the way we do business today.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks, Gilbert. A former railroad property owned by Reading adjacent to the. Reading Viaduct in Philadelphia was the target of the lawsuit seeking to basically condemned the property and charge Reading for its cleanup and rehabilitation. Reading purportedly has chosen to demolish the building. What is the status of the litigation regarding this property? What are your plans for the site post demolition? And what are Reading plans for his main Viaduct properties. Ellen?

Ellen Cotter

Management

As an owner, we thought to complete the necessary demolition work. We initially obtained a permit from the City of Philadelphia to demolish the upper half of the building, which was connected to the Viaduct. After receiving this permit. We made the decision to demolish the entire building and sought a permit for that demolition. Before we sought the permit for the full demolition, the plaintiffs appealed the city's issuance of the initial permit for the partial demolition. We appeared before an administrative board of the City's Department of Licenses and Inspections, and with the City support, successfully defended the issuance of the permit for the partial demolition. We then sought and obtained a permit for the demolition of the entire structure. As of today, the demolition of the building and the platform connecting to the Viaduct are currently underway and should be completed during the quarter. As to the status of litigation, we've appeared in court and moved to remove the matter to Federal Court. We've told the Federal Court that the Surface Transportation Board, the STB, or a federal agency having oversight over railroad properties has exclusive jurisdiction over transfers of rail properties such as this property, and that the STB, not Pennsylvania Court, must therefore approve any takeover by the plaintiffs of this parcel. The Federal Court hasn't ruled and we believe our actions to demolish the structure, render their litigation view are moved. With respect to our Viaduct and related property assets, we need a long-term plan that ensures the company and the interests of his stockholders are protected and plan strategic action will be developed and do course.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thanks Ellen. With that, we’ll draw the question-and-answers to a close and also the earnings call. We appreciate your listening to the call today. Thank you for your attention. And we wish everyone good health and safety. Thank you.