Eric Langan
Analyst · Sidoti. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Gary. Good afternoon everyone. Please turn to Slide 4. After the market, close, we announced our first quarter results for fiscal '17. We had a good solid quarter. The GAAP EPS increased 20% to $0.30 per, and non-GAAP EPS increased 3.2% to $0.03. I'm sorry $0.31. Free cash flow did very well. They came in at $5.1 million, up 33% year-over-year and that keeps us on track for our initial $18 million fiscal '17 target. Although we have already partially reported revenues, the details tell an even better story. Total revenues were up less than 1% year-over-year, due to the disposition of the number of underperformers in the fourth quarter of 2016. However as we indicated, same store sales were up 3.6%. But what's noteworthy is our high margin service revenues were up 6.6%. We also continued our share buyback program. During the quarter, we repurchased about 90,000 shares in the open market for than $1 million at an average of $12.28 per share. As a result, the basic and diluted share counts are now down 5.1% and 7.7% respectively from the first quarter of 2016. Please turn to Slide 5. Our focus at RCI continues to be growing free cash flow. Thus, our capital allocation strategy is critical. For those of you new to RCI, I'd like to take a minute to review the capital allocation strategy we put in place going into fiscal 2016. We have updated this slide for our lower share count due to buybacks and the pay-down of convertible debt. We have two major uses for our free cash flow. One is buying back shares. At $16 to $17 where the stock has traded recently, buying back shares generate an after-tax yield on free cash flow of 11% to 11.6%. We consider this yield risk-free, since we are buying our own assets, which we know very well. Two is buying or opening new units. We target a hurdle rate of 25% to 33% cash on cash return to account for the risk of making new investments, absent an otherwise strategic rationale. Conversely, if a unit is not performing in line with our strategy and efforts to improve it have not been successful, we will take action to free up as much capital as possible for more profitable use. With regard to paying down debt, only at a much higher stock price does it make sense on a tax adjusted basis to pay down our most expensive debt prior to maturity? Having said that, we are always looking for ways to refinance our high interest debt at better rates. Thus, at the current stock price, we are more inclined to look at opportunities to free cash flow and buyback our shares. To be clear, this does not mean we would stop buying shares. We currently want to be prepared a step into the market aggressively through the price leasing. Please turn to Slide 6. Total revenues, total club and restaurant sales and same-store sales continue to outperform year ago levels. We expect this positive trend to continue over the balance of fiscal 2017. Let’s look at the table on the bottom half of this slide for revenue line analysis. Our higher margin service revenues, as sometimes call our VIP spend has now risen four quarters in a row versus year ago periods. Beverage, food and others were down in the first quarter, because of the sale of two nightclubs, the closing of a restaurant and the sale most of our interest in our energy drink business. Please turn to Slide 7. Here, you can see the effects of the change in the sales mix on our gross profit margin. With increase in service revenues and the reduction in other revenues, gross profit margin is now the highest it's been in five quarters. Now let’s look at our non-GAAP operating margin. It increased sequentially from the fourth quarter, but was down about 60 basis points year-over-year. We took the opportunity in the first quarter to make some investments as part of our plan to make the Company more scalable for future growth. Some examples of this spending were some extra labor cost to facilitate the transition to our EPR system, marketing to support a new club and the Bombshells franchise program, and accounting and tax experts to advise on tax planning strategies in order to minimize our tax liabilities. As we go through the year, we expect these expenses to shrink as a percentage of total revenues. Please turn to Slide 8. Here are segment results for nightclubs. Sales were up 3.9% on one less club, well same-store sales increased 2.8%. As I mentioned, the VIP spend seems like it has returned. We saw strong results from units in Minneapolis with the Vikings returning to their new stadium downtown. Clubs in New York City and other parts of Texas also did very well. New and reformatted units are off to a good start. Non-GAAP operating income was up 2.5% but non-GAAP operating margin was off a little due to the factors I explained on the previous slide. We expect margins should show year-over-year improvement over the course of fiscal 2017. To keep you posted, at certain clubs we have begun to make small capital investments, in line with our capital allocation strategy. This is mainly to expand their ability to serve more customers. The goal is to enhance their opportunities to increase same-store sales. Please turn to Slide 9. Here are our segment results for Bombshells. Revenues declined 1.9% on one less unit, while same store sales increased 9.6%. This is pretty impressive considering most change in the industry did not have a great December quarter. That, combined with the closing of Webster unit in the fourth quarter significantly expanded bottom line results as well. Operating income increased 31% and operating margin expanded 3.7 percentage points. We are starting to meet with multi-franchise operations. They like the concept and our average annual sales per unit of more than $4 million. And again, to keep you posted, our three Bombshells development in Huston are moving ahead according to plan. We anticipate these opening during the second half but understand actual opening dates are often up to final inspection schedules. Please turn to Slide 10. This slide reviews our cash generating ability. As I mentioned, free cash flow increased more than 33% year-over-year. That was a function of our 20% increase in net income and our corporate focus on generating cash. Adjusted EBITDA was down about $200,000 due to the investments I mentioned earlier. Cash at $12.1 million on December 31 was up 6.5% from the September 30 quarter. That reflects our strong sales and operations, but keep in mind we have to pay large but routine tax bills in the second quarter. Please turn to Slide 11. Due to the first quarter, we continued the largest share buyback in the Company's history. Equally important, as I mentioned on the last call we paid off the last of our $2.8 million in convertible debt issue, eliminating 230,000 possible new shares and also 49,000 related warrants expired. Subsequent to the first quarter, we paid off the last tranche of convertible debt that we had outstanding, a $400,000 seller finance note. This eliminated 40,000 potential shares, and so there are no dilutive securities at all in our current capital structure. Please turn to Slide 12. This is a new slide we put together to illustrate how we have been growing our free cash flow while we have been reducing our share count. Since we initiated our capital allocation strategy going into fiscal 2016, we are very pleased with the results. Our goal is to continue building on that success to date. Please turn to Slide 13. Here is our long-term debt slide. Through the current mix of new properties and properties sold, the amount and percentage of our real estate debt declined slightly from the end of the fourth quarter. Among our other debt segments, convertible was down to $400,000, but that will be completely gone when I show you this slide next quarter. If you please turn to Slide 14. Here we have updated our debt maturity schedule. As you may recall, we financed a lot of debt and paid off some borrowings in the fourth and first quarters, and continue to pay off some bank debt and convertible debt in the first and second quarters. Looking at our debt maturity schedule, as if February 6 you can see how it has become very manageable from our point of view through 2021. Annual debt amortization is in the $5 million to $8 million range. We have a small $3.3 million non-realty balloon to take care of in 2019. And we have a large non-realty balloon in 2020, but based on the properties involved, we expect, we’ll be able to refinance them. Please turn to Slide 15. Our fiscal 2017 plan remains the same. Following through with what we started in fiscal 2016, we will continue our approach to capital allocation, as evidenced by ongoing share repurchases. First half sales should continue to benefit from the positive trends developed in the second half of 2016. The second half of 2017 should grow from our planned opening of three new Bombshells units and the sale of our first franchises. Margins and free cash flow generation should benefit from a more profitable portfolio of clubs and restaurants, and reduced interest expense as a percent of revenues. Other key factors will be or total focus and commitment on free cash flow generation. Progress we are making with reformatted clubs and one new club. We’ve already seen the benefit of a strong sports line-up in the terms of the Vikings returning to downtown Minneapolis. The first MMA event in New York City also had a nice effect on our operations there. And in the second quarter, our Houston operations did well last week, and through the weekend, leading up to an including the night of the big game. In addition, we have already sold one non-income producing property at a price of line with our expectations. We anticipate the sale of seven other non-income producing properties we have on the block to approximate $10 million. Speaking on behalf of RCI’s management and that of our subsidiaries, I would like to thank our loyal shareholders for their support. And with that, let’s open the line for questions. Operator?