In preparation for MGM’s Q4 earnings release on Monday, we’ve put together the pertinent forward looking commentary from MGM’s Q3 earnings call.


YOUTUBE

  • "You’ll see a very significant increase in convention business and mix in the first quarter of 2011."
  • “For the fourth quarter, we expect our stock compensation expense to be approximately 9 to 10 million in the quarter. Our depreciation expense in the quarter, fourth quarter is estimated to be in the range of 155 to 160 million. Our gross interest expense in the third quarter was 285 million, of which 261 million was cash interest. And we had no capitalized interest in the third quarter. Our estimated gross interest expense for the fourth quarter is estimated to be in a range of 270 to 280 million, and we don’t anticipate any capitalized interest in the fourth quarter.”
  • “On the CapEx front, we’re projected to spend just inside of about 200 million in 2010”
  • “We’re spending on various maintenance and capital projects throughout the company, including the purchase of new slot machines, some suite and villa remodels at the Mirage, and in the early stages, some room remodel programs that will get fully underway next year.”
  • “For 2011, Aria has more than 136,000 convention room nights on the books, which is 74% of our estimated total convention room nights for all of 2011. In the first quarter alone, ARIA has 50,000 room nights booked for 2011, compared to 30,000 room nights in the first quarter of this year.”
  • “We recently remodeled our rooms at Mirage and Mandalay, and now we plan on refreshing the rooms here at Bellagio, and at MGM Grand starting next year.”
  • [M Life] “We’re going to roll this out in all of our Las Vegas properties at the very beginning of this coming year, starting in January.”
  • "Bellagio and the Mandalay not only had RevPAR increases in the third quarter, they are up again in the fourth quarter and they’ve been joined by our other luxury properties so far in October. We saw a very strong overall RevPAR number for Bellagio."
  • “We’re seeing booking pace up still in the high-teens year-over-year. We see the entire Strip looking like it will benefit from higher convention activity. The LVCVA, for example, talked about a 10% increase in convention attendance next year versus this year. We’ll do better than that. MGM has picked up market share in that segment. We’re getting much better rate and overall our mix is going to be improved. And of course, as the mix improves we expect to see ancillary revenue increases in catering and F&B and all the way up in terms of covers and our revenue per cover; we see productivity improving.”
  • “In 1Q, on our wholly-owned properties, our room nights on the books right now are up over 30% versus last year, and our room rates are up, meaning our convention revenue is going to be up very significantly, probably over 40% in the first quarter.”
  • “October, led by Golden Week, was a record month for MGM Macau in terms of everything, in terms of revenue, in terms of EBITDA, and yes, in terms of margins. And that property is continuing to improve. We’re making, we believe, very smart business decisions there, which is increasing our cash flows and our profitability.”
  • [CityCenter] “You might have had a base of 15 maybe 20 million in EBITDA. That should improve in each quarter going forward.”
  • [Aria occupancy] “It was 88 in October, selling out on the weekends.”
  • [CC residential] “The closings of course are slowing down. We have our final 30 closings in the fourth quarter, and so the first group of closings, 438 units, that leaves us with about 600 units remaining, 200 of which are in the lease program, and we have a variety of things that are under consideration by the joint venture board as it relates to the other 400, but even in a very, very quiet residential market, particularly high-rise residential market in Las Vegas, we have in the last 12 months sold 23 units in spite of that.”
  • [CC occupancy] ”Mid-80s next year.