In preparation for the ASCA Q4 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the pertinent forward looking commentary from ASCA’s Q3 earnings release/call.
YOUTUBE
- [East Chicago] “We’ll lap the bridge closure this month; it was about November 14 last year that the bridge was shutdown. We’re continuing our attempts to strengthen the property by proceeding with the renovation of the hotel rooms and working with the state and the city in planning various road improvements that should enhance access to our property to some extent.”
- “We think the second quarter was an outlier and the third quarter of 2010 pretty well reflects what East Chicago can generate, now that the competitive environment has normalized.”
- “At this point, 42% of the debt is fixed and 58% is now floating net of variable rate.”
- “Our Q4 2010 estimate for non-cash stock based compensation expense is $3.2 million to $3.7 million. For the year, we are anticipating 13.8 million or 14.3 million. Our blended federal and state tax rate is projected to be between 46.5% and 47.5% for the fourth quarter and between 43.5% and 44.5% for the year.”
- “Capital spending for the remainder of 2010 is expected to wrap up slightly and be in the range of 26 million to 31 million, which is about double what we have been spending for the first three quarters of 2010. This will all be in the maintenance cap area. Net interest expense in Q4 is expected to be approximately $26.5 million.”
- “Non-cash interest expense is expected to be between 2.6 million and 3 million for Q4. Assuming LIBOR remains steady, which we believe it will, interest expense should decrease year-over-year in Q4 by about $7.5 MM due to the swap agreements expiring in July. And on the dividend front, assuming Board approval, we currently expect a fourth quarter dividend payment.”
- “So we’re spending a little bit of money to renovate the hotel rooms in East Chicago to maintain the competitiveness of that property, and we’ll be adding on 106 rooms at our Kansas City property to enhance its competitiveness, particularly with the new competitor opening in Wyandotte County, Kansas.”
- “Part of the goal from the debt reduction perspective is to position our credit situation for refinancing in another year or so. Once we get to the end of ‘11, the beginning of ‘12 we’re going to have to restructure the revolver, and we want to have debt levels such that we’ll be able to restructure the debt at attractive rates.”
- “CapEx is roughly going to be in the same range next year as it will be for this year--give or take $5 million. We have indicated that we would probably start the additional rooms in Kansas City this year, obviously it won’t be finished in 2011. So, you won’t see a return on that in ‘11. We expect to get areturn on what we spend in the slot area. So, there is something there, but most of the money that we will be spending next year, will start with the hotel in Kansas City and then room rehab in East Chicago.”
- “I think one of the areas that has been hampered more than any other in the economic downturn has been some of the transient play. So I’d like to see some of that come back. That’s a pretty profitable line of business for us.”