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Service Properties Trust (SVC)

Q2 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 6, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

All right. Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hospitality Properties Trust Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Tim Bonang. Please go ahead, sir.

Timothy A. Bonang

Management

Thank you, and good afternoon. Joining me on today's call are John Murray, President; and Mark Kleifges, Chief Financial Officer. John and Mark will make a short presentation, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. I would note that the recording, retransmission and transcription of today's conference call is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of HPT. Before we begin today's call, I would like to read our Safe Harbor statement. Today's conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on HPT's present beliefs and expectations as of today, August 6, 2013. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to the forward-looking statements made in today's conference call, other than through filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC. In addition, this call may contain non-GAAP financial measures, including normalized funds from operations or normalized FFO. A reconciliation of normalized FFO and adjusted EBITDA to net income, as well as components to calculate AFFO are available in our supplemental package found in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause those differences is contained in our Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC and in our supplemental operating and financial data package found on our website at www.hptreit.com. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Now I'd like to turn the call over to John.

John G. Murray

Management

Thank you, Tim. Good afternoon, and welcome to our second quarter 2013 earnings call. Today, HPT reported second quarter normalized FFO of $0.78 per share. Focusing first on our travel center investments. This morning, TA reported second quarter EBITDAR of $86.6 million, an 8% decrease from the 2012 quarter. Second quarter 2013 performance reflects both reduced fuel volumes sold, down 5.3%, and reduced per gallon fuel margins, down 4.3% for diesel and 13.6% for gasoline. Non-fuel sales and gross margin were up 4.5% and 2.6%, respectively, compared to the 2012 quarter. Despite the weaker performance this quarter versus last year, TA's property level coverage of HPT's rents remained strong at approximately 1.8x. Turning to HPT's hotel investments. Second quarter RevPAR was up 7.1% this quarter across HPT's 287 comparable hotels. Ongoing hotel renovations continue to impact our results. Excluding the 3 acquisition and 42 renovation hotels, RevPAR was up 8.7% this quarter. The strong top line performance, which was comprised of both occupancy and rate gains, reflects strong results at 189 hotels that completed renovations since 2010 through the first quarter of 2013, with RevPAR gains of 14.1%. This helped to offset revenue performance at our 42 renovation hotels this quarter, which experienced RevPAR declines of 6.7%, all from lost occupancy. While our 39 conversion hotels continue to negatively impact overall performance, beginning this quarter, we will not be discussing that impact separately because those hotels have or about to reach their 1-year anniversary since conversion and many are beginning renovations. A useful comparable discussions, therefore, challenging without going hotel by hotel. The conversion hotels are included in our comparable hotel statistics. For the third consecutive quarter, HPT's hotel performance post-renovation offset the effects of ongoing renovation activity, and allowed our portfolio to exceed industry average performance. The strong performance…

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

Thanks, John. First, I'll review second quarter operating results for our hotel properties. Operating results at our 287 comparable hotels were strong this quarter, with RevPAR up 7.1% and 100 basis point increase in GOP margin percentage. We achieved these results despite a decline in quarter-over-quarter performance at the 39 hotels we've rebranded in the second and third quarters of 2012, and the negative impact of our renovation activities. In the 2013 second quarter, we had 42 of our comparable hotels under renovation for all or part of the quarter, including 18 of the rebranded hotels. This compares to 55 hotels in the 2012 second quarter. RevPAR for our 42 comparable hotels under renovation during the quarter was down 6.7% on a 5.4% -- a 5.4 point drop in occupancy and an ADR increase of slightly less than 1%. RevPAR at our 245 comparable hotels not under renovation this quarter was up 8.7% versus the prior year quarter on a 5.2 percentage point increase in occupancy and ADR growth of 1.5%. This significant RevPAR increase was driven in large part by the performance of the 55 hotels that completed renovations during the 2012 second quarter, with RevPAR up 25.7% at these hotels on occupancy and ADR gains of 13.4 points and 5.2%, respectively. Our portfolios with the highest RevPAR growth this quarter were IHG and Marriott 234 portfolios, with quarter-over-quarter increases of 19.7% and 11.7%, respectively. Although our renovation and rebranding activities also had a negative impact on hotel profitability this quarter, these declines were more than offset by improved results at our remaining hotels. Gross operating profit for our 287 comparable hotels increased $12.2 million or 9% quarter-over-quarter, and GOP margin percentage increased 100 basis points to 40.3%. Turning to 2013 second quarter coverage. Cash flow available to pay…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] That will come from the line of David Loeb with Baird. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: I wanted to ask a little bit more depth about the Florham Park acquisition. You mentioned in the release that the Wyndham guaranty increased. That's about an 8% return. Is that what you expect to earn, or do you think this hotel has more potential beyond that?

John G. Murray

Management

Well, we always hope that and expected there's greater potential beyond the initial 8% yield or whatever the initial yield is on other transactions. Wyndham doesn't have a corporate headquarters hotel in Northern New Jersey today -- well, they do today, but they didn't up until we made this acquisition. And most of the room nights that they generate in the market, which is a substantial amount, have stated a variety of different hotels in Northern New Jersey. So we expect that there will be some lift to the property's performance as a result of the affiliation with Wyndham. We also expect that because the hotel was run as an independent previously and is now going to be under well-recognized brand that, that will also lead to improved performance. Finally, we're expecting to, over the next few years, to put about $10 million in renovations into the property, which, too, should improve performance. So the short answer is, we expect improve -- we expect the property's performance to improve quite a bit from where it is today as we move forward. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. On TA, the market seems particularly concerned about TA's own performance. It seems to me that your lease, the way it's structured now, your agreements with TA are pretty secured. Do you have any concerns about the credit there?

John G. Murray

Management

No, I think that we're very comfortable with how TA has been performing. I think if you listen to the call today, that they're very optimistic about their outlook. There are some unusual events this quarter because of some competitive pressures because one of their -- the chief competitor has been cited for cheating some of their customers. And so there's been a lot of press about that and a lot of questions about if TA and other truck stop operators might steal business. It's a very competitive business. Normally, it's increasingly competitive because of that chain of events that's unfolded recently. So I think this is just an aberration that's going -- I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but long-term, we are very confident about TA's potential. And I think it's important to focus on the fact that our coverages, I think around 1.8x across the 2 portfolios this quarter. So I don't think HPT investors should be concerned about the fact. And last year's quarter for TA was as very strong -- unusually strong quarter. So anyway, I don't think investors should read anything too negative into this quarter for TA. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. And then finally, Mark, you talked about the return on New Orleans for the entire property being 7.25%. Is that on the EBITDA or in the NOI? So is that basically an EBITDA yield or is that after the CapEx cost?

John G. Murray

Management

That was me, David, and that was an EBITDA number. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: That is EBITDA yield, okay. And you guys sound exactly alike, so I'm sorry about that. And then can you give a little more color on the incremental return on the land purchase? Did you say that was above or below that average?

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

Sorry, can you ask that question? David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Yes. On the land purchase itself, on what you just did, was that -- what was that -- what do you expect that return to be for -- based on 2013 results? And if you can give an exact number directionally, better than that average 7.25% or less.

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

I think my guess statement to be it's a better and that the average is 7.25%. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. And that's on the $120.5 million that you just put in, that's what I'm asking, as opposed to the combined purchase price of everything?

John G. Murray

Management

Honestly, I didn't look at the -- I didn't do my math that way, so...

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

[indiscernible] Well, I think the leasehold is -- was about -- probably about 20% of the total purchase price, and the land about 80%. Before, we had 25% of the cash flow. So that would say that the yield on the lease was slightly higher, but not much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Next, we'll go to the line of Wes Golladay.

Wes Golladay - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Looking at your Wyndham agreement, it looks like you guys had an increase of $20.5 million for the guaranty from Wyndham as a result of the acquisition. How should we view this? Can you comment on why it was such a large increase? Will it take a while for this property to stabilize with the renovation?

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

It increased $6.7 million to the $35 million. Not by, not by.

Wes Golladay - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. Got you, okay. And looking at your Extended Stay hotels, have you recaptured your typical customer there? I know you had mentioned in the past that you have to go more of a shorter-term customer during the renovation?

John G. Murray

Management

It's still a work in process. I think that in connection with prepping for the renovations, the length of stay will shorten up. And once the renovations have been completed, the -- our operators have been trying to extend out the average length of stay. In some cases, they're right spot on in their progress. In some cases, they've actually gone too far and have maybe too much what we call Tier 4, too much -- very long stays with potentially less ability to be nimble about rate. And so it's still a work in process getting to the right balance. But the performance, the RevPAR growth and margins have been very strong post-renovation and all of the Extended Stay properties. So we're very optimistic that they're going to continue to perform well.

Wes Golladay - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. So maybe going forward, more of a rate-driven RevPAR increase is what we can expect?

John G. Murray

Management

Yes. I think that they've done a good job of ramping up their occupancy, but they're still fine-tuning the mix between the week or less and month or more and tiers in the middle. So yes, I think over time, you'll see more rate and less occupancy growth there, but continued RevPAR growth.

Operator

Operator

We'll hear from the line of Jeff Donnelly.

Jeffrey J. Donnelly - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

I'm curious, how many years do you think you can see outsized growth from the portfolio post-renovation?

John G. Murray

Management

That's a good question. We're certainly confident that it's going to be strong performance this year, strong performance next year. But I think things have to revert back towards the mean, so it won't last at this level forever because much of the gains that we're seeing are coming on the occupancy side. We're seeing rate gains also, but it's the combination of strong occupancy gains and rate that's leading to the good performance. So it won't continue at this high pace forever, I think. But I think we should expect outsized performance relative to the industry averages throughout the balance of this year and next.

Jeffrey J. Donnelly - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

And then just a follow-up question. I'm actually curious, because you guys tend to be always in the market, or in the past, it's always been a market for kind of chunkier portfolio. There's some talk out there of somebody's larger platforms, like La Quinta and the Extended Stay America returning to the marketplace. Any interest on your part in trying to slower sort of a larger transaction there, or is that -- would you say it's off the table?

John G. Murray

Management

Well, we never comment on specific transaction activity. But historically, we've been very interested in portfolio transaction, so I think we'll continue to be interested in any portfolios that we see out there. I think Extended Stay America filed for an IPO within the last week or so, so I don't see that coming around to -- as just a sale anytime soon. But that could change, I suppose. But we're always in the market looking at opportunities and we'd like portfolios. So if we see opportunities, we'll take a look.

Operator

Operator

And we will go now to the line of David Loeb. David Loeb - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Just one quick follow-up. With all this investment activity, I have to ask the proverbial dividend question. Is this likely to create upward pressure on your taxable income, such that you will need to distribute more?

Mark Lawrence Kleifges

Management

No, where we sit today, we don't think that we'll be forced into raising the dividend from gains that income tax distribution department so [ph].

Operator

Operator

And there are no further questions in queue. I will now turn the call back over to John Murray for closing comments.

John G. Murray

Management

Thank you very much for joining us today. Have a good rest of the day. Thanks.