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Snowflake Inc. (SNOW)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Sep 12, 2014

$143.09

-0.81%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Intrawest Resorts Holdings Fiscal 2014 Fourth Quarter and Year-end Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host [ph] [Liz Derosier]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Company Representative

Management

Thank you, Shay. Good morning everyone and welcome to the Intrawest Resorts Holdings fiscal 2014 year-end earnings conference call. After our prepared remarks, there will be a brief question-and-answer session. I’d like to remind you that some of the comments made by management during the conference call contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary, which are discussed in our public filings filed with the SEC including reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We caution you not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements made during this call speak only as of the date of this call and we undertake no duty to update or revise these statements. In addition, some of the comments made on this call may refer to certain measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP measures. Although adjusted EBITDA is not a substitute for net income, for other GAAP measures, management believe adjusted EBITDA is useful in measuring the operating performance of our business. For a full reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP results in accordance with Regulation G, please see our press release furnished as an exhibit to our Form 8-K dated September 12, 2014. This is located in the Investor Relations area on our Web site at www.intrawest.com. Our call today will include prepared remarks from Bill Jensen, Chief Executive Officer; and Gary Ferrera, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Travis Mayer, Executive Vice President of Operations & Business Development will be joining us for the question-and-answer session. Now, I’ll turn the call over to Intrawest CEO, Bill Jensen.

William Jensen

Management

Thank you, Liz, and welcome everyone. We are very pleased with our full-year 2014 results. Our total reportable segment revenue and adjusted EBITDA were primarily driven by the Mountain Segment and CMH. The Mountain Segment growth reflects higher visitation and increased market share due to strong Season Pass and Frequency product sales as well as from the impact of targeted growth capital investments. In addition, we strengthened our capital structure through the completion of our initial public offering in January as well as a refinancing in December. We are also very excited to announce that we’ve negotiated the purchase of the remaining 50% equity interest in Blue Mountain Ski Resort. Located in Ontario, Canada just 90 miles northwest of the Greater Toronto area’s approximately 5.6 million residents, Blue Mountain is Canada’s third most visited resort. We expect its large base of Toronto customers to provide strategic cross marketing opportunities to all our existing resorts, specifically we expect more significant benefits at Tremblant due to its geographic proximity to Blue. 14 lifts service Blue’s 42 trails, which is spread out over approximately 360 skiable acres and snowmaking can be found on 93% of the trails. The resort owns and operates a newly expanded 37,000 square foot state-of-the-art year-round conference center. In addition, it has a vibrant summer business that includes an 18-hole golf course, Ontario’s first alpine coaster, mountain biking, a waterfront park and other popular activities making Blue a true four season resort. Acquiring the remaining 50% of Blue Mountain unlocks approximately $6 million to $8 million of an annual incremental levered free cash flow and positions us to realize significant cost savings and operating synergies in the coming years as we fully integrate the resort into our portfolio. Historically, the vast majority of Blue’s cash flow has been reinvested…

Gary Ferrera

Management

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. As Bill previously mentioned, approximately 40% of both our revenue and expenses were derived from Canada. In fiscal 2015 with the full inclusion of Blue Mountain, we anticipate this will increase to approximately 46% of revenue and expenses. In fiscal 2014 as compared to fiscal 2013, our total reportable segment revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA were impacted by an unfavorable foreign currency translation adjustment of approximately $14.9 million and $4.4 million respectively. For fiscal 2014, we exceeded the guidance provided during our fiscal third quarter call. Total reportable segment revenue was $513.3 million and adjusted EBITDA was $103.3 million. On a constant currency basis, total reportable segment revenue was $528.2 million and adjusted EBITDA was $107.7 million. These better than anticipated results were due to the fiscal fourth quarter performance of our Real Estate segment and our Ancillary Aviation businesses within our Adventure segment. Delving into our segment results, Mountain adjusted EBITDA increased 5.3% to $76.2 million for the year, primarily related to a $12.3 million or 3.6% increase in Mountain revenue. This was partially offset by planned increases in staffing and expenses associated with the higher volume of visitors and an unfavorable foreign currency translation adjustment of approximately $2 million. Turning to the Adventure segment, the change in Adventure segment revenue was primarily due to an unfavorable foreign currency translation adjustment of approximately $7.8 million. Similarly, Adventure adjusted EBITDA declined due to an unfavorable foreign currency translation adjustment of approximately $2 million. The decline in Real Estate revenue for the year was partially attributable to a $2.8 million, one-time payment in the prior year related to the accelerated commissions for the sales of the Maui Playground brokerage business. The Real Estate segment was also impacted by adverse weather conditions in Mammoth Lakes,…

William Jensen

Management

Thank you, Gary. We are looking forward to the upcoming ski season and building on the positive momentum that was generated in fiscal 2014. With the acquisition of the remaining 50% of Blue Mountain and our continued Season Pass and Frequency product growth, fiscal 2015 represents an exciting time for Intrawest. We are also thrilled to build upon the growth capital investments during fiscal 2014 with more on-mountain improvements and the opening of the new on-mountain restaurant in Winter Park, in fiscal 2015. I’m happy to report that, that restaurant is on track to open in mid-December prior to the Christmas holidays. In the last year, Intrawest has made tremendous progress with our improved balance sheet, strong operating momentum, and strategic growth initiatives that will be further enhanced with the acquisition of Blue Mountain. We are well positioned for strong growth and are energized to produce another successful year. With that, operator we’d be happy to take any questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Joe Edelstein from Stifel (sic) [Stephens].

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

Hi. Good morning and thanks for taking the questions. Also congrats on executing the Blue Mountain deal.

William Jensen

Management

Thank you.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

So my first question just is on Blue Mountain. I just want to clarify about how much annual revenue is actually coming through? I had about $37 million in my notes, but I assume that’s all going to fully go into the segment revenues once consolidated?

Gary Ferrera

Management

Sure. We are getting $37 million from -- we don’t typically give specifics for each Mountain. But I’m not really sure what $37 million seems extremely low. I mean historically it’s -- it was in the S1 - the EBITDA back in the S1 that we put in the -- for that resort was in the $7 million range. When you do the math, the way we explained with the purchase price and what multiple we paid is just north of $7 million again and it runs in a normal margin. So I’m not sure why you have $37 million.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

Okay. If we kind of use that normal margin range we can back into maybe a more appropriate number. That's helpful. Thank you. And then, I'm hopeful you can also give us a sense for just what the broader M&A market looks like today, what your pipeline looks like and just generally how valuations look across the market?

William Jensen

Management

Well, we’re out in the marketplace, we’re actively talking to people, we’re focused in -- on acquisitions that are strategic to our existing segments both in Mountain and Adventure. I think all along we’ve felt that the opportunities were probably in the Mountain segment in the six to eight times range. I think in the Adventure segment maybe that range is a bit lower.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

Thank you. If I can maybe just ask one more question, I will turn it over to the others in the queue. I was curious about just your Colorado market, I mean that did pick up share this past season and you did highlight some of the Season Pass and Frequency sales, looks like you're off to a good start with those up 20% across the board. But do you think you’re going to be able to retain a high proportion of those destination customers that came to you this past year and get them to come back to your Denver locations to the Colorado locations again this year?

William Jensen

Management

Yes. Steamboat in Colorado is -- its business is primarily destination. And I think we are very confident about our ability to maintain and grow our visitation at Steamboat this year. We’ve got a lot of momentum there. But the significant majority of our Colorado Season Pass sales are generated here in the Front Range of Colorado and the growth that we’re seeing here in Colorado again this year is significant, but that growth is really attributable to the growing Front Range market here in Colorado.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

Sounds great and good luck this next year.

William Jensen

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Joel Simkins from Credit Suisse.

Benjamin Chaiken

Analyst

Hey, guys. It’s Ben Chaiken on for Joel. First, just a quick one here, I think you guys mentioned $4 million in incremental public company cost. Pretty sure this is what we were already modeling S1 to confirm this is not you’re not deploying $8 million total for the year, this is just you’re just pointing out $4 million for the whole year, correct?

Gary Ferrera

Management

Correct.

Benjamin Chaiken

Analyst

Okay. And then, additionally when you think about kind of Blue Mountain, I guess kind of total this would be generally in the -- I guess call it $12 million to $14 million range in EBITDA, because what you guys acquired was just a -- and you talk about seven times to 53, that’s just the incremental that you’re acquiring, correct?

William Jensen

Management

Correct.

Benjamin Chaiken

Analyst

So I think that was the revenue to -- mix up back there, but I think that when you kind -- and this thing about the guidance, I guess, is there a one part of your business that is slowing down or just kind of guidance a little bit conservative, so that when you back out this $6 million or $7 million incremental EBITDA you get, I guess, so if you could provide some color there?

Gary Ferrera

Management

I think the answer I think would be no. I think when you look at the guidance compared to maybe what you might have is we’re talking on actual dollars. Remember, historically the Canadian versus U.S. was around a $1, now it’s at a $1.10. Everything we’ve done as I mentioned in the script, our budgets and everything are all at a $1.10, our guidance is at a $1.10 Canadian to the U.S. So obviously that has a few million dollar impact.

Benjamin Chaiken

Analyst

Okay. That’s helpful. That’s all for me.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Afua Ahwoi from Goldman Sachs.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Hello, can you hear me?

William Jensen

Management

Yes, we can.

Gary Ferrera

Management

Yes.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Hey, so just two questions from me. First on the Blue Mountain, I know the numbers you gave were excluding any synergies, do you think there is an opportunity there to get some synergies out of it given the proximity as you mentioned with some resorts? If there is, is there any numbers you can put around that? And then also I thought -- I’m not sure Gary on the drivers for the Mountain resort, I definitely heard you mentioned price, I didn’t really hear you mention anything on actual skier visits growing. So is that just an assumed that it’s growing or is there -- do you not expect growth in skier visits? Thank you.

Gary Ferrera

Management

No, I will let Bill override me here. I think in general what you noticed last year was the growth was heavily skewed towards growth in skier visits. I think this year it’s more of a balance between price and skier visits. Pretty -- fairly evenly weighted.

William Jensen

Management

Yes, I mean, I would add and I think we’ve shared with our investors that we’re really targeting 3% to 4% price growth and we’re targeting 2%, 2.5% skier visit growth and help you guys with our numbers.

Gary Ferrera

Management

And on synergies we excluded all synergies just to make it nice and clean for everybody. But right out of the bat there is immediate synergies with -- they had a Board of Directors, they had a CEO, that’s something we don’t needed. So right away there is dollars to be saved and then I will let Travis continue as far as operational synergies and things like that.

Travis Mayer

Analyst

Yes, I mean, I think down the road they’re not all going to happen within fiscal ’15, but there could be in a ballpark $1 million additional synergies on the cost side. I don’t think a lot of them originate from the fact that it’s close to our other assets, but bringing them into our shared services and we provide a lot of administrative support from here in Denver, much more efficiently than a single resort can deal. And then there is a potential upside on the revenue side from kind of harnessing the power of that Toronto database to market Tremblant, CMH and then the rest of our portfolio.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Got it. So the immediate synergies you will get is that, first of all, can you quantify that for us and is that in your guidance number just to finish up there?

Travis Mayer

Analyst

Yes, the low hanging fruit is in the guidance number. The additional million, I talked about is probably not going to happen within fiscal ’15, it will be fiscal ’16.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Got it. Okay. All right and maybe just actually one more from me, just on the real estate front, I know for a while you talk about maybe looking at some of the land parcels and whether starting up some condos or residential developments, where do you stand on that right now?

William Jensen

Management

I think we’re still looking at that. Obviously, the majority of our land value sits at Tremblant and Steamboat, which is where we’re focused. So we also think that there is still some interesting opportunities down the road for us at Stratton and then Winter Park, but our focus in the near-term continues to be on Steamboat and Tremblant and we’re looking at different opportunities or possibilities and we’re starting -- we're seeing a gradual recovery really across all our resorts and the resort real estate market. But it’s a gradual recovery and to get to appropriate margins on real estate development, it's still a bit out in front of us. I think we’ve been -- we’re hoping to see that recovery continue over the next year or so and if it does, I think it will help us move closer to some development opportunities on those real estate parcels.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Gary Ferrera

Management

And Afua, just so everybody is clear I know, others ask question too, I just want to reiterate that when we -- in the guidance we’re including just the actual -- just the actual numbers, it’s not pro-forma, so it’s just the nine months that we will actually own the full 100% of those and just to give you some general background, Blue had a very strong summer business. So they are pretty breakeven for the first three months, so hopefully that will help you a little bit in understanding kind of how it plays out.

Afua Ahwoi

Analyst

Yes, that’s helpful. Thank you.

William Jensen

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Bob LaFleur from JMP Securities.

Robert LaFleur

Analyst

Hi, guys. Just wanted to ask you little more about the market dynamics of Ontario and Quebec? How are those resorts operate differently under consolidated ownership? How much cross marketing is there now? How many of the customers do you share? Are you going to package -- Season Pass products definitely, maybe just kind of talk about how those resorts interact now versus how you see that going forward?

Travis Mayer

Analyst

Sure. So this is Travis Mayer. Thanks for the question. Right now there is not a lot joint ownership or joint marketing of products between Ontario and Québec specifically. Despite that fact, Ontario is our biggest market for Mont Tremblant outside of the Province of Québec itself. This year we marketed for the first time an Intrawest wide Frequency card product called the Intrawest Passport, which provides six days of skiing at all of our resorts. Our first couple campaigns we saw a lot of sales in the Ontario market. We think that people intend -- Blue customers intend to use some basic Blue and then likely the other days at Mont Tremblant. Historically, we haven’t had access to the Blue database of customers which are largely Toronto folks. And going forward we intend to market through that database of customers not only Blue more heavily, but multi-resort products in our other resorts. And within Ontario, the vast majority of ski resorts are private clubs, there are not that many for private -- for profit ski resorts and Blue stands out as the dominant player in the Ontario market with kind of a strong position in the Toronto market.

Robert LaFleur

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our last question is a follow-up from Joe Edelstein from Stephens.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for entertaining the follow-up here. You did call out the software expense as you’re starting to build out the e-commerce platform. I was hoping you could give us an update really as to what's been done to date, how much of the booking process is getting done through this method and really ultimately how the economics from online booking you’re going to compare to how you have done this in the past?

Gary Ferrera

Management

So the vast majority of the increase in the operating expenses is associated with e-commerce as it related to the installation of a new shopping cart and online booking technology for our Web site. We are adopting a platform called Inntopia, which is used by a lot of the large ski resorts and operations throughout North America. We currently have that installed everywhere except Steamboat. Steamboat will be shortcoming; I think May is the installation date. The goal was to make a buying process, a whole lot more intuitive in [ph] [EV] for our customers. The online channels are growing as a proportion of our total distribution. There is still some (indiscernible) in the call centers, but we think long-term the big opportunity is online, because more people are shopping that way. So we're making investments and making sure that we’re on the cutting edge of that trend.

Joseph Edelstein

Analyst

That's helpful. Thank you.

Gary Ferrera

Management

Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. I will now turn the call back over to Bill Jensen for closing comments.

William Jensen

Management

We just want to thank everybody for taking the time to join us today and we look forward to speaking with you soon.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.