MGM Resorts International (MGM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

All right. Welcome, everyone. I'm James Kayler, the high-yield gaming, lodging and leisure analyst here at BofA. So unfortunately, Jonathan Halkyard -- they did they change the -- they changed the slide. Jonathan Halkyard, the CFO of MGM, got tied up in his travel. But we're still very lucky to have Vivian Chan, who's the CFO of MGM China. Thank you, Vivian, for coming. Vivian making a very long trip from Macau to Southern Florida. So thank you for coming.

It's my honor to be here.

So yes, given that it's just Vivian and I, we're going to do like a sort of abbreviated chat just on MGM China. If people have questions, I'll leave some time at the end. But maybe we could just start, Vivian, with give us a little sense of the top line recovery in Macau. I think it's been a very gradual but sort of methodical recovery since sort of reopening in early 2023. Sort of where is the market today? And within that, how is MGM sort of performing relative to the market?

Thank you. So ever since COVID finished back in early 2023, Macau has been very strong in terms of recovery. So overall, the market this year, fiscal year 2024, so basically, we are looking at around 77% recovery of the financial year 2019, the market GGR of Macau. And then the Macau government just announced the budget GGR for next year, 2025. The recovery rate of -- in terms of FY 2019 will be 82%, equivalent to USD 30 billion for the budget GGR for Macau next year. So the bounce back is quite strong. And -- but the segment changes, instead of VIP, Macau now more focused on the premium mass market. And also that is the strength of us, MGM China, because we always used to focus on the premium mass market.

Very good. Yes, I think -- I actually don't have all the stats in front of me for the whole market. But certainly, MGM, I think, has had the best recovery post-COVID and is one of the few operators where your EBITDA is actually above where it was in 2019. I guess what have been the major drivers there? I know part of it was that you had some capacity or some additions that you had made pre-COVID that you really sort of optimized now. But what have been some of those drivers of MGM's outperformance upon reopening?

That's correct. So in terms of out of the 6 gaming operators for MGM, we recovered better than the market. Just now I mentioned, for this year, overall Macau market recovery is 77%. But for MGM China, we are above 100% as compared to pre-COVID level. Some key drivers are, first of all, we have additional 200 tables when we retender for this gaming license. in the upcoming 10 years. Second is we know the customer well. We know what the Chinese customer -- they want. So in terms of product offerings and also our property, we tailormade to the taste of the existing or the new Chinese customer that add up to our market share. Like from 9.5% back in 2019, right now, it's like 15% and above overall for MGM China. We caught up a lot. And like a lot of our competitors also jealous about us.

And I know -- and I think probably your market segment and your knowledge of that premium mass customer has been a huge driver. I think from a technological perspective, you guys were also ahead of the curve in terms of like the RFID tables. How much of an impact is that? I think it has been some benefit. Obviously, your competitors have seen how well you've done. I think people are now investing as we speak sort of in that same capability. Do you think that, that will result in much of a market share shift? Or is it that they're just going to sort of catch up to where you are already?

I think that they will just catch up. But in terms of like competition for that is one factor that you just mentioned. Another factor is the competitors, they are having -- finishing their construction in terms of the speed conversion for Sands China and also for Galaxy as well. So competition for next year will be more intense given there are more product -- new product offerings in the market. But for sure, we will also have our own secret weapon to defend that. But to answer your questions, yes, that will be a factor for the tables, the RFID chip, because they are catching up.

Very good. You mentioned earlier the concession renewals and extensions and all the concessionaires made commitments both to invest in nongaming, both physical investment as well as, I think, sort of more SG&A investment, marketing investment. What are the things that MGM sort of put forward for the concession renewal? Where do you stand in terms of those investments? And like how do you see the returns on those investments so far?

So for us, for MGM, we focus on the art and culture and also the wellness when we submit our tender. And this -- because each gaming operators, they have their own items presented in the tender document. And in terms of like the investment we have, we have both in CapEx and also OpEx. And in terms of the return on those investments, different offerings have different things, but we do have -- so maybe I need to do some advertisement, right? We have the museum just opened in November with the Poly Group back in China. It's very worthwhile going to take a look, is at the MGM Macau property. In December, we also have a show by very famous director, Mr. Zhang Yimou. Opening in December is the premier show at the MGM Cotai Theater. All this will help bring us more visitation to our property. And definitely, we will have shows and events that will drive up gaming customers and also tourists into our property. So all this will help boost our visitation together with our volume in terms of gaming.

Very good. I think in terms of -- when you think about the long-term growth of the market, which I think Beijing has been very consistent that they want to keep -- continue to grow the market, nongaming, but they really have been very supportive of Macau. Just recently, there's been a couple of, I think, interesting developments. One is in the last year or so, it feels like from a visa perspective, there continue to be sort of incremental improvements to help to, I guess, increase the number of Mainland Chinese that sort of have access. Maybe you can just talk a little bit -- and I think very recently, there was some positive developments from Hengqin and -- I'm forgetting the other jurisdiction. But maybe you could talk about initially -- your initial thoughts on sort of like how that could impact visitation and the quality of the customer coming to the market.

So China has been very supportive to Macau, and then they have been opening up more cities or more visit visa that can get into Macau. So if people who visit Macau recently, it's been very crowded. So it's still very popular city from both Chinese customers and also international because as everyone knows, Macau government trying to push up a lot of events and to attract all the international visitors to Macau. So in terms of China, visitors keep growing up. And together with the international people coming, we'll just be better and better in terms of a very attractive city to visit for leisure, not just for gaming.

And from an infrastructure perspective, I saw that a new light rail line just opened. I think there's a lot of investment happening in the Macau airport. What is -- how much improvement has been made just in terms of like ease of accessibility? And like what does that look like over the next few years? Like what projects are on the horizon?

So the Macau airport definitely have the expansion. It will happen maybe in 1 or 2 years, not that quite in a few months. But we'll have more airlines arriving that will help drive the visitation. And also, I think because of all the roads, the highways recently that connect to Macau, basically, the people from China and from Hong Kong is easier to access and come over to Macau. That will help as well because like the trip will be more frequent. So that's the infrastructure that we are talking about.

Very good. I think leverage today -- just switching to the balance sheet, leverage today is like around 3x. We talked before, and you can tell us what the leverage target is, but you're below your sort of like long-term leverage target. Is that a place that you're comfortable? And I guess like what would move that leverage target -- or sorry, what would move your leverage like closer to that target? Would it be -- would you lever up to buy back shares or to invest capital? Or is it more you're sort of happy here and to have some cushion versus your current target?

So you're correct. As of now, our leverage level is below 3. And then the target will be around like 4.5. That's -- the reason behind that is because we have the revolver credit facility. And then as of now, the agreement is the maximum at 4.5. So we still have a lot of cushion in between now and then. So target around 4.5.

Very good. And in terms of capital investment, what -- when we think about maintenance CapEx and then any of the growth things that you have, like how should we think about annual CapEx?

The CapEx will consist of 2 parts. One is what we have committed to the government in the upcoming 10 years when we submitted the tender back in June, November. And the second part is the maintenance CapEx for both properties, MGM Macau and Cotai. And if we have further investment overseas, then we will also need to spend some money on that one.

Very good. And what is the maintenance, like the rough maintenance?

Around 50.

5-0?

Yes.

Very good. And you mentioned -- I mean you mentioned the international. So MGM senior -- like MGM Resorts in the U.S. has said specifically on Taiwan, if the company decided to pursue an opportunity there, they would do it -- sorry, Thailand. Thailand. They would pursue that investment through MGM China. I guess what is that -- what's the driver behind that strategy? How do you think that -- would you think those 2 businesses would work well together in terms of the sharing of customers between Macau and Thailand?

So yes, correct. So our largest shareholders, MGM Resorts, together with our largest single shareholder, Ms. Pansy Ho, we both -- I mean they're both very interested in the Thailand bidding process. And the reason is because it's in Asia. And that's why if being successful, you will be under MGM China umbrella. So unlike the Japan, Japan under MGM Resorts. The attractiveness is the synergy given the distance. And also we, MGM China and Macau, we understand the Asian customers, the preference. And like we can always -- and it's also a very close distance between Macau and Thailand.

Very good. Well, we've already used up half the time. I said it was going to be less than that. Are there any questions? Do we have any questions in the audience? I think we hit on all of them. All right. I think we're good. Vivian, thank you so much for making the trip. I know you've already had a bunch of meetings today.

Thanks, James, and thank you all.

All right. Thank you. Everyone, have a good rest of the day.

Thank you.