In preparation for BYD's F1Q 2013 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.
YOUTUBE FROM Q4 CONFERENCE CALL
- Locals commentary:
- "We saw reasons for guarded optimism in this region later in the quarter, as business trends started to improve. The declines we saw in October to November moderated in December, and that positive trend has continued into the first quarter."
- "Customer accounts are up. Spend per visitor is down."
- "We refined our marketing and advertising programs and made significant changes on our casino floor, and we began to see the benefits of this in the fourth quarter as visitation strengthened month-by-month across our Locals business. In 2013, we will continue looking for ways to improve our core business, not just in Nevada, but across our portfolio."
- "As other companies in our industry have already reported, gaming customers nationwide pulled back in the fourth quarter due largely to economic uncertainty surrounding the elections and the fiscal cliff. While we actively worked to mitigate the impacts of these trends on our business, they did affect our operations. These trends continued into the first quarter. Our customers are now adapting to the impact of higher payroll taxes that took effect January 1; continued uncertainty from Washington over federal spending and taxes is affecting consumer behavior as well."
- "We are encouraged by signs of continued improvement in the Southern Nevada economy. The unemployment rate has been declining in recent months and home prices rose substantially throughout 2012. Las Vegas is still far from the boom years, but the trend is in the right direction, and we believe we will see modest improvement throughout this business in 2013."
- "Visitation remains solid, especially among our Hawaiian customer base, and we gained 250 basis points in market share from the third quarter to the fourth, further expanding our leading position in the Downtown market. We believe those positive trends will continue. Our Hawaiian business remains strong and we will benefit from the ongoing redevelopment of Downtown, which continues to drive new business, new visitors and new residents into the area."
- [Midwest/South/Peninsula] "While business from our core players remained solid, we saw declines in both visitation and spending among casual players."
- [Kansas Star] "With the permanent casino opened, the property is now on track to open a 4,200 seat arena by mid year."
- "Looking ahead to the first quarter, Kansas Star will be comparing to a strong introductory period, when it was able to generate robust visitation with very little marketing spend. That is obviously not sustainable and customer reinvestment has increased to more realistic levels. Winter weather has presented more of a challenge in the first quarter of 2013 as well. But we remain quite optimistic about Kansas Star's long-term potential and we expect that Kansas Star's margins will remain the highest in the Peninsula portfolio and project that the property will generate about $100 million in annual EBITDA going forward."
- "The transactions to dispose of the Echelon site and Dania will result in our leverage improving by over half a turn this year."
- "So, regarding the property tax appeal at the Borgata, I think the only thing I can really say is it is going to trial in late March and we won't provide any commentary other than the fact it's going to trial in late March and we're hopeful of a positive outcome."
