In preparation for CZR's FQ1 2012 earnings release Tuesday afternoon, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.
Telsey Advisory Group Spring Consumer Conference (March 27)
- [Octavius Tower] "The three villas are still under construction, and they're going to open in the third quarter of this year. The Octavius Tower, 662 rooms, are very high demand. It's at our best property in Las Vegas, which I mentioned was our best market, so we're very confident about the returns associated with that."
- [Thistledown] "We have a pavilion that can support a temporary spot facility, we would expect to get up and running in a few months after the [Ohio Roundtable] legislation is cleared. And then, the question would be where do we put a permanent facility. But we would expect that to be operational as well in the latter part of this year."
- "Additionally, at Baltimore, we have submitted the only remaining eligible bid for the downtown Baltimore license. The project is currently under bid, as I mentioned, and we're waiting to hear back regarding the award of the license once that happens. It will be a relatively short bid and we would expect to be operational about 18 months after that."
- [Nevada online gaming] "The regulations are more or less drafted. They're being finalized. They're under the process of licensing applicants, and we would expect to be up and operational probably in the fourth quarter, maybe in the first quarter, depending. We're investing in servers. We're building out our call centers. So it's well underway, and Nevada is going to be the first state that legalizes online gaming."
- "Gaming online will happen, and it's going to either come in a state-by-state by format or by federally legislated bill."
- "The primary one is the regional market, where we have a number of guests that visit us many times a month. And so those guests, let's say, they drive 30 miles and they visit us five or six times a month, will be impacted by the fuel. And it's really, as we've seen historically, it's the change in fuel price, not so much the absolute fuel price. So, to the extent that the fuel price is a slow increase, that really doesn't appear to impact our customers as much as it does a slow change in the fuel price....a change in fuel price does impact us but it's not as significant as it could be otherwise, if the trips were just eliminated."
- "What we're seeing is a return in general in terms of trips. So, customers are starting to make more trips but they're really not spending a lot more on those trips."
- [Revel impact on AC] "We believe they will grow the market because they're going to create a lot of excitement, but also they won't grow it sufficiently to offset the revenues that they're going to consume, so there will be same-store sale declines."
Youtube from Q4 Conference Call
- "I'll begin by noting like my colleagues in the industry that we're bullish on the Las Vegas market. International business there has been primary driver of gaming growth for Caesars in Las Vegas recently, and an exceptionally strong Chinese New Year result suggests that this strength should continue in 2012 and beyond."
- "Spending by core gaming customers has not yet returned to previous recession levels, but with Las Vegas visitation increasing and several important U.S. economic indicators trending positively recently, we're cautiously optimistic that these customers will spend more with us in Vegas in the remainder of the year."
- "Horseshoe Cincinnati, is slated for a second quarter 2013 opening."
- "We anticipate the Linq will open in phases from mid to late next year."
- "Trends for group bookings continue to prove strong in 2012 and as we approach our theoretical capacity for group business in our hotels, we expect this strength to continue to translate into an improved rate environment."
- [LA/MS region] "This region is still affected by relatively weak demand dynamics in most of its local market, with revenues mainly being affected by a decline in trips."
- "Our contribution margin from hotel revenues is 80% to 90% generally and we've proven that for several quarters now, though in other quarters we've had more gaming revenue growth as well. So, in terms of its sustainability, I would expect that with – on hotel revenue growth in the future that we'll be able to deliver similar contribution margins. Gaming revenue growth of course would have a contribution margin more in the range of 50% to 60% but I also continue – I expect it will continue to drive down cost in Las Vegas as well as across the business."
