In preparation for PNK's F2Q 2013 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.
YOUTUBE FROM Q1 CONFERENCE CALL
- "In Lake Charles, we've been performing an extensive room renovation program with approximately 16% of year-over-year room nights out of service. This is particularly impactful on our weekends. The good news is our newly refurbished guestrooms are terrific, and our guests love what we are doing."
- "In St. Louis, we are on the homestretch of our $82 million expansion. Our event center, which is the second component of the expansion, will open in June, and our 200-guestroom hotel opens in the fall."
- "We have a new management team in place at Boomtown New Orleans. We are seeing immediate improvements with multiple metrics at this property.
- "In Belterra, we believe we have the right strategy in place to maximize our position in a market that continues to experience increasing gaming options. We remain focused on differentiating Belterra with its resort destination positioning and have recently completed an extensive buffet remodel, are in the process of building a new Stadium Sports Bar and we'll undertake a hotel renovation project this year."
- "Marketing reinvestment, as a percentage of revenue, was flat versus prior year. We continue to be very focused on driving profitable revenue and applying a measured and rational approach to our marketing spend in all markets."
- "In terms of guest behavior, in January and February, we saw that trips declined at a greater rate than spend per trip. Meaning people came less often, but their spend was pretty much in line with historical play levels. In March and then into April, both trips and spend patterns came back close to prior-year levels."
- [L'Auberge Baton Rouge] "Guest acquisition continues to be very strong with over 27,000 people visiting the property for the first time during the quarter. Repeat visitation is also very strong, with over 50% of those who have visited returning for a second trip. The hotel continues to be a good story, with occupancy now over 90% and RevPAR increasing over 30% since opening. We're very pleased in the progress made by L'Auberge, Baton Rouge over the quarter and are confident of the ramp-up of that facility as we continue to go through the rest of the year."
- "We continue to look for ways to grow the market by leveraging our existing assets, such as the Four Seasons, where we increased casino guestroom utilization by 43% over prior year. And we await the completion of new assets with the Event Center at River City opening in June and the hotel coming online in late September."
- "We continue to see the impact of new competition in Columbus, affecting visitation. In terms of the Horseshoe Cincinnati opening in March, it's still too early to quantify but thus far the impact has been muted."
- "On River Downs, demolition of our grandstand and the other older facilities is complete and we have begun construction of the new facilities with a scheduled opening in the second quarter of 2014."
- "Our team responded well to lower business levels with a focus on cost containment and operating efficiencies."
- [L'Auberge Baton Rouge] "You should continue to see improved operating margins there as time goes on. As long as we continue to build the revenue we'll have corresponding margins with that revenue."
- [River Downs] "The heavy spending will start going into the third quarter in reality. And really the fourth and first quarter will be the bulk of it, the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year with the property opening in the second quarter of 2014."
- [AC land sale] "It relates to the NOL being created, yes, that will happen as soon as the transaction gets consummated. And our expectations are that that will happen in the third quarter of this year."
- [Texas] "We don't anticipate there will be any legislation that will move forward this session."
- "We think that we will be able to de-lever pretty quickly. Not only will we, following capital expenditures both in Lake Charles and River Downs, will we have cash flow to actually pay down debt. But obviously those -- our cash flow base is growing, both by virtue of Baton Rouge maturing as well as River Downs and Lake Charles adding to that base. So we have talked publicly about our targets between 3.5 and 5 times of leverage. We think that we will get there relatively quickly at a faster pace than would be normal because of the dynamics that I just talked about. And really our goal is to get to 4 times or lower within a few years."
