In preparation for PNK's 4Q earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.

Pinnacle Entertainment Completes Acquisition of Retama Park Racetrack in Texas (1/30/2013)

  • Paid cash consideration of $15 million to acquire a 75.5% equity interest in Pinnacle Retama Partners, LLC (PRP).  PRP will use the  proceeds of the transaction primarily to refinance the existing indebtedness of Retama Development Corporation ("RDC").  In addition, the Company entered into a management contract with RDC to manage the day-to-day operations of Retama Park. In conjunction with the closing, RDC repaid approximately $3.3 million of loans owned by the Company that were used to maintain continuity in the operations of Retama Park Racetrack."

PNK acquires ASCA (12/21/2012)

  • Please see our "PNK-ASCA ACQUISITION CONF CALL NOTES."

YOUTUBE FROM 3Q CONFERENCE CALL 

  • “L'Auberge Baton Rouge... we have seen strong visitation as evidenced by over 48,000 new mychoice sign-ups during the first month of operations. VIP business has opened up ahead of pace and we're optimistic about our ability to drive continued pace in this segment given the high quality amenities at this property.”
  • “These results are being delivered with more efficient and effective marketing spend. For the quarter, marketing expense as a percent of gaming revenue was down 60 basis points. This marks the third consecutive quarter where marketing reinvestment has been reduced versus prior year.”
  • “Table game growth continues to be a great story at Lumière, up 21% year-over-year in table field for the quarter. River City's growth was driven by increased play on day of trips and overall increased frequency of visitation. Our continued focus on driving profitable revenue is again evident in the results coming out of St. Louis, with marketing expense as a percentage of gaming revenue down 180 basis points versus prior year.”
  • [Belterra] "We continue to grow admissions in a declining market, and we remain focused on leveraging our unique assets while maintaining marketing spend discipline.”
  • “In New Orleans, the property and the market are clearly struggling, but underlying trends at Boomtown got progressively better throughout the quarter, notwithstanding the impact of Hurricane Isaac.”
  • “We have tremendous conviction in the value of our company and are very pleased to be purchasing shares in what we view as very compelling levels.”
  • [River Downs] The project's expected to cost $209 million, excluding license fees, land and capitalized interest. We expect to begin construction this year with the entire facility scheduled to open in the first half of 2014. We have master planned this facility for future expansion should demand conditions warrant the additional investment.”
  • “At River City in St. Louis, the $82 million expansion is progressing rapidly with the parking garage expected to open in about a month. The multipurpose event center is expected to come online before the end of next summer, and the hotel will open in the second half of 2013.”
  • “To date, we have contributed about $14 million of the $15.6 million, and we expect the remaining funds to close in the fourth quarter. ACDL continues to make meaningful progress on the development. And while there is work to do on the regulatory front, the project remains on track to open the first quarter of next year.”
  • “We continue to improve our margins, not only in this property, but all of our properties.  We believe margins this quarter are sustainable going forward.”
  •  [L’Auberge Baton Rouge]  “We're pleased with September and initial results. October has a bit different calendar and – but we're pleased with what we see in October and most important, we really feel like we nailed this facility. It's a terrific facility with a wonderful management team that we're very optimistic over time. We're going to build profitable revenues and have really good financial outcomes here.”
  • [L’Auberge du Lac] “Houston is a very underpenetrated market where we think that there is a lot of unmet demand, and we've been able to yield that facility – meaningfully better over the last couple of years mostly by having more profitable guests that come through our place but given the depth of that market. So we think that there is certainly room to go there and we've made enhancements to our facilities to make sure that we can take advantage of that demand. And on the non-gaming revenue side, we've continued to make enhancement that drive non-gaming cash revenue which is part of the story.”
  • “In terms of the spend per visit increase, it is coming largely from our top three tiers, the quality of the guests that are visiting our properties and the incentives that we're providing to them are yielding higher spend per visit.”