Feb 15, 2012
Executives
Nancy Krejsa – SVP, IR and Corporate Communications Jim Reid-Anderson – Chairman, President, CEO John Duffey – CFO Lisa Brozewicz – Keybanc Capital Markets Al Weber – COO
Analysts
Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co. Ian Corydon – B.
Riley & Co. Robert Kirkpatrick – Cardinal Capital
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Six Flags’ fourth quarter and full-year 2011 earnings conference call.
My name is MaryAnn and I will be your operator for today’s call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.
After the presentations, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator instructions).
This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.
I would now like to turn the call over to Nancy Krejsa, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Six Flags. Ma’am, you may begin.
Nancy Krejsa
Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. With me are Jim Reid-Anderson, Chairman, President, and CEO of Six Flags; Al Weber, our Chief Operating Officer; and John Duffey, our Chief Financial Officer.
We will begin the call with prepared comments and open the call to your questions. The company would like to caution you that comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws.
These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them. For a detailed discussion of these risks you may refer to the company’s annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC.
Statements made on our call today include non-GAAP financial measures, which have been reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, and included in our earnings release or other forms filed or furnished with the SEC. The company emerged from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in April of 2010, and since we believe it’s an appropriate and useful comparison, we compare full-year 2011 result to full-year 2010 results during this call, and do not distinguish between the 2010 predecessor and successor periods.
At this time, I’d like to turn the call over to Jim.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Thank you, Nancy, and good morning to everyone on the call. I’m proud to say that we finished 2011 on a very strong note, with another record quarter in terms of attendance, revenue, and profitability.
Revenue in the quarter increased a strong 13%, and this revenue growth, along with our ongoing cost management drove a $13 million or 60% improvement in EBITDA, which ended at $35 million for the quarter. In the last three months of the year, we set record attendance levels for both our Frightfest and Holiday in the Park events, generating attendance growth of 16% in the quarter.
These two programs centered around the Halloween and Christmas holidays, are extremely valuable brands for Six Flags, and our investments in them for the 2011 season, particularly Frightfest, reflects the type of revenue and profit growth we can generate through focused and targeted investment. In 2011, we built Frightfest in to our biggest and scariest event ever, and we will continue to build this national brand and our more localized Holiday in the Park brand in the future.
Throughout 2011, we went from strength to strength, overcoming some obstacles and setting numerous financial and non-financial records for the company, while building solid momentum for the future. We achieved our aspirational target of $350 million of Adjusted EBITDA, and we improved Modified EBITDA margin to 37.4%, a company record and an industry high.
We also generated $193 million of free cash flow in 2011, a record high representing a 51% increase over 2010. In addition to improving revenue growth and the efficiency of our operations, we were also laser focused on product innovation.
Our 2011 capital investments, which were targeted at delivering news in every park, along with our newly introduced Go Big marketing campaign, were key to driving attendance and revenue growth throughout the year, and also helped drive double-digit increases in season past unit sales, and a continued rebound in group sales. Because of our innovation and customer focus, in 2011, we achieved all-time high guest satisfaction ratings for our parks, including record scores for overall guest satisfaction, cleanliness, and most importantly, value perception.
These types of results are further evidence that our strategy is working, and support our belief that we have further growth opportunities for our company. Employee morale, as measured by our annual employee survey and other on-going feedback mechanisms, reached a new peak for the company in 2011.
I have mentioned to you before that our employees are our most important asset, and it’s really rewarding to see our momentum build in this area. The last operating achievement I want to highlight is regarding safety.
Safety is the foundation of everything we do, and in 2011 through appropriate focus, we achieved our best safety record yet. As a result of these and other operational and financial achievements, our shareholders earned a 52% return on their investment in Six Flags in 2011, up 182% since we emerged from bankruptcy in May of 2010.
All in all, it was an excellent year for our company, for our guests, employees, and shareholders alike. I couldn’t be more pleased with our progress to date.
Of course, the story doesn’t end here, we have plenty of opportunity for additional growth. I’ll talk more about our future a bit later in the call, but now, I’m going to turn the call over to John, who will provide details on our 2011 financial performance.
John?
John Duffey
Yes, thanks, Jim, and hello to everyone on the call. I’m going to start with a discussion on our fourth quarter performance and then provide details for the full-year 2011.
As you saw from our press release, we really had an outstanding quarter. Revenue for the quarter increased $16 million, or 12.9%.
Now, this increase was driven by a 16.3% growth in attendance, offset by 2.9% or $1.15 decline in per capital revenue. As Jim indicated, the strong attendance growth was the result of extremely successful October Frightfest and December Holiday in the Park offerings.
We saw very strong season pass attendance in the quarter, which put downward pressure on our per caps. Admissions per capita revenue declined $0.36 as pricing gains were offset by higher mix of season pass attendance.
However, as a result of the strong attendance, admission revenue increased $8 million, or 14.2%, and in-park spending increased $8 million, or 16.8%. In-park per capita spending grew by $0.07.
Sponsorship revenue declined by $800,000 or 6.9% in the quarter, as a result of the migration away from no or low-margin deals that we have referenced in prior quarters. Accommodations revenue at our Great Escape Hotel and Water Park increased 4.9%.
We continue to see a favorable trend in cost of products sold, which represented 17.6% of in-park revenue versus 19.8% in 2010. Our cash operating and SG&A expenses of $99 million increased $3 million in the quarter versus prior year.
The increase was primarily due to higher labor cost and marketing investments in our expanded Frightfest and Holiday in the Park offerings. Cash operating and SG&A expenses as a percent of sales, decreased by 678 basis points.
Our EBITDA performance in the quarter was a record for the company. The strong revenue growth contributed to an Adjusted EBITDA of $35 million versus $22 million of Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing an increase of $13 million, or 60% over prior year.
Now to put this in perspective, just two years ago in 2009, we had an Adjusted EBITDA loss in the fourth quarter of $7 million. The Modified EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter was 21.4% versus 14.5% in 2010, an increase of 695 basis points.
The fourth quarter pretax loss included a nonrecurring $47 million loss on debt extinguishment, as a result of our December debt refinancing and $20 million of noncash stock-based compensation expense. Switching to the full-year 2011 performance, total revenue increased $37 million or 3.8% over 2010, as the result of a 5.9% increase in admissions revenue and a 3.3% increase in in-park revenue, offset by lower sponsorship and licensing fees.
Total guest per capita revenue was $39.33, an increase of $1.78 with admissions per cap up $1.24 or 5.9%, and in-park per caps up $0.54 or 3.3%. Cost of products sold decreased $2 million versus prior year, even with a $13 million increase in in-park spending, and represented 18.7% of in-park revenues, versus 19.7% in 2010.
This favorability is a result of purchasing and efficiency program initiated during the year, and the more favorable mix of products with higher margins. Cash operating and SG&A expenses decreased $20 million in 2011, driven by the cost reduction efforts that were put in place in the third quarter of 2010, offset by investments in our expanded Frightfest and Holiday in the Park offerings.
Cash operating and SG&A expenses in 2011 were 55.1% of revenue versus 59.3% in 2010, a 414 basis point improvement. We were extremely pleased to achieve Adjusted EBITDA of $350 million in 2011, representing an increase of $55 million, or 18.7% over 2010.
Modified EBITDA margin of 37.4% is now an industry high, and compares to a margin of 33.1% in 2010, and 24.4% in 2009. Total capital spending in 2011 was $91 million or 9% of revenue.
We continue to believe that capital spending at 9% of revenue is the appropriate level for our business going forward. We were also pleased with the recent debt refinancing that we closed in December.
Assuming current LIBOR rates, the refinancing reduces our annual cash interest cost by approximately $13 million and extends our debt maturities to 2018. In addition, it provides us with the flexibility to make restricted payments, including dividends and share repurchases, up to $250 million in 2012, as long as our liquidity, which includes both our cash on hand and available revolver remains above $250 million.
In 2013 and beyond, we can make restricted payments up to the amount of the prior year’s excess cash flow, as long as our liquidity is above $175 million. Full-year cash earnings per share, which we believe is a better reflection of our earnings versus reported GAAP EPS, due to fresh start accounting and our 1.1 billion operating loss carried forward, was $3.51.
Now if you adjust for the 13 million in lower interest cost I just referenced, pro forma cash earnings per share for 2011, was $3.81. We purchased 452,000 shares of the company’s stock for $18.5 million in the fourth quarter, under the $60 million stock repurchase program approved by the Board in February 2011.
This took our total purchases to $60 million in 2011. As you saw from our press release in early January, the Board authorized an incremental $250 million of share repurchases over the next four years.
Reported net debt as of December 31 was $726 million, which consisted of gross reported debt of $957 million, less cash of $231 million. The company is in a very good position with significant cash on hand, no outstanding borrowings on its revolver, and a net leverage ratio at December 31, 2011, up 2.1 times.
So in summary, we are extremely pleased with the fourth quarter and full-year performance, with a strong Frightfest and Holiday in the Park, we were able to fully offset the attendance softness we incurred in the third quarter as a result of the poor weather and finish the year flat with attendance. Our on-going strategy to improve yields and enhance product offerings, as well as the continued focus on cost management, has resulted in record EBITDA, strong cash flow generation, and positions us well as we head in to 2012.
Now I’d like to turn the call back over to Jim.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Thanks very much, John. 2011 was an extremely gratifying year for the entire Six Flags team.
After celebrating our 2011 success, we rapidly began working to deliver another action-packed season in 2012, while simultaneously keeping our sights set on our 2015 aspirational goal of $500 million of Modified EBITDA, or $5 in cash earnings per share. As we drive toward our aspirational goal, we will build upon our initial progress on initiatives to improve ticket yields, increase attendance, grow in-park sales and other forms of revenue, while carefully managing our operating cost.
We are especially excited about our 2012 lineup of new attractions, since it will be the first full-year that our capital investments are tied directly to our long-range plan. We announced our new attractions last September 1, and they are all on track to open as scheduled this spring.
These new additions will be the primary focus of our Go Big marketing campaign, which has been highly successful in reaching our targeted guest. By taking our 2012 new capsule and related communications up one more notch last fall, we once again generated double-digit increases in fall season pass sales, which is positive news as we enter the 2012 season.
In addition, the debt refinancing in December positions us very well, allowing us to maintain an appropriate leverage ratio, reduce cash in trans cost and provide flexibility to return excess cash flow to shareholders. Our capital allocation strategy at Six Flags is simple; our top priority is to consistently invest in our parks, and we target to spend 9% of revenue in CapEx every year, to ensure our parks maintain their excellent condition, and that we continue to deliver exciting new rides and attractions for our guest, in every park, every year.
After meeting our relatively small debt repayment obligations, we believe it is prudent to return excess cash flow to shareholders by stock buybacks and recurring dividends. With this capital allocation strategy in mind, our Board authorized a four year, $250 million stock repurchase plan in January, followed by a tenfold increase or $2.40 per share annual dividend that we announced last week.
These actions speak to the confidence that both our directors and management team have in the future of six flags, and of course to our alignment with shareholders. The core of our success has been our clear and focused business strategy.
We are squarely focused on the regional theme park industry and our key imperatives are delighting our guest, generating innovative news in every park every year, optimizing the efficiency of our operations, developing a high performance culture, delivering safety and quality in everything we do, and of course, creating shareholder value. If we can execute well on these key imperatives, I have no doubt that Six Flags will continue to be a great place to invest, and work, for many years to come.
MaryAnn, at this point, could you please open the call up for any questions?
Operator
(Operator instructions). Our first question comes from Ian Zaffino of Oppenheimer & Company.
Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co.
Great, thank you, very good quarter. My question would be, I know the whole thesis and the whole story has always been reducing the discounts, but at the same time you are trying to push season pass sales which is the right thing to do, it is very profitable.
But they seem to be kind of offsetting and I guess as us analysts kind of track this by kind of revenues per capita and that is something that we plug into our model, but you really do have these two offsetting inputs. You know, is there a better way to, per se, to look at the company and kind of follow how you are progressing, or maybe if you take kind of your Project 500, you know, what type of revenue per caps are you expecting at that point, what type of attendance levels are you expecting at that point, just to kind of help us really think about the company and with all of your progress.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Ian, we are not going to provide detailed guidance around attendance or per caps looking out to 2015. I think you know that.
But I will try to address your question as clearly as I can. You know, we have said that we believe that there is an opportunity around pricing, longer term, and we have been executing on that basis, and we continue to do so.
We’ve also said, though, that we really see a very a big opportunity around season passes and that, you know, this in itself will provide tremendous revenue and profitability growth for the company for the future. Unfortunately, if you are in a position where you achieved tremendous success in season pass, that will place some pressure on your per cap, but at the end of the day, it’s really not going to matter because with that success comes incremental revenue and profitability along the lines that we saw in Q4 that more than offsets any of that downward pressure.
So I’m sorry I can’t provide you with specific numbers to help your model, but I would say that double-digit increase is in season pass has proven to be very positive for the company.
Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co.
Okay, and then also, in your commentary I didn’t hear you mention anything about the snow storms in the Northeast. I know you’ve mentioned weather, but I think your referring to how hot Texas weather in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter you also were faced with some weather and I guess you – I don’t know if you addressed that and what was kind of the attendance impact from that?
Jim Reid-Anderson
There definitely was an effect, and Al, would you like to just comment on fourth quarter?
Al Weber
Yes, Ian. As you’re mentioning, we has snow in the last weekend of October at a couple parts of Northeast.
Obviously, that has an impact in the business, but overall, if you look at the quarter, the weather was generally on par with weather in the previous year. So if you look at the overall quarter, it wasn’t a benefit or a hindrance in the business.
Obviously, the last weekend was a little interesting and surprising, but all in all, it was a very solid quarter for the weather standpoint, which allowed us to generate incremental attendance compared to previous year.
Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co.
Okay, great, thanks again and good job.
Al Weber
Thanks Ian.
Operator
Our next question is from Ian Corydon of B. Riley & Company.
Ian Corydon – B. Riley & Co.
Thank you. A couple kind of follow-up questions, just looking at the strong increase in attendance in the fourth quarter and understanding it looks like you were able to bring a bunch of season pass holders into the park for the holiday promotions, does that success impact at all your thoughts on your ability to grow your attendance more meaningfully than you’ve guided to in the past in the coming years?
Jim Reid-Anderson
Ian, it’s a great question, but again we won’t provide any guidance on attendance. I think the approach that we’ve always tried to take in describing, you know, how we come at this is that through our innovative marketing and innovative capital programs, new shows, and we’ve got a fantastic lineup for 2012, we believe we are going to pull guests into the park.
It’s going to happen as we continue to build on the momentum that we’ve seen. However, we try not to plan on that basis, we plan on a very conservative basis, so that in the P&L and the balance sheet against that.
If that attendance comes in much stronger then that’s a wonderful upside to have. So we’re not going to predict what the attendance will be, we assume it’s moderate and we work very hard to get the highest possible return on attendance and on our bottom line in cash flow.
Al Weber
And just a point clarification on the attendance growth for the quarter, we actually did see very good attendance growth on our one-day tickets as well. We were just referencing the higher mix of season passes relates to the downward pressure on the per caps, but in both areas we saw very good growth.
Ian Corydon – B. Riley & Co.
Got it, and so, it sounds like the plan going forward is still to try to continue to increase the ticket per capita, and you did get a nice increase for the year. So that’s still the plan and, you know, if that ends up being offset by attendance at the end of the day, you still get it to where you want to be?
Al Weber
Ian, this Al, and that is correct, we can obviously manage these things together, the season pass business as well as non-season pass, and the do – the season pass is an upsell from a single-day visit, but all in all, we do think we can move success with both areas going forward.
Ian Corydon – B. Riley & Co.
Okay, and my last question was on the cost of goods sold, you did mention a nice improvement there and it seems like, you know, the improvement really came in the fourth quarter, if you could just give any more detail around what you’ve done there and what the opportunity is, that would be helpful.
Al Weber
I think it’s – you can look at it in two separate areas; one is just initiatives that we continue to take on, you know, around our purchasing buying power, taking advantage of that to lower our overall cost, like we’ve been successful on that all year. And then the second is just in terms of the mix, we saw a pretty nice movement in the fourth quarter, in particular, shifting to the mix of higher margin products.
Ian Corydon – B. Riley & Co.
And that’s – that mix shift was that driven by actions that the company took or was that just something that happened?
Al Weber
Yes, I think it’s really actions that the company took in terms of just, you know, having better offerings.
Ian Corydon – B. Riley & Co.
Okay, great, thank you.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Thanks Ian.
Operator
Our next question is form Lisa Brozewicz of Keybanc.
Lisa Brozewicz – Keybanc Capital Markets
Hi, guys. Congrats on the nice quarter.
My first question, what percentage of season pass sales are completed by say the end of February, beginning of March for the total year?
Jim Reid-Anderson
We don’t give those numbers out, Lisa. And obviously, they can vary year to year.
Lisa Brozewicz – Keybanc Capital Markets
Okay, and then can you just remind us, what was the magnitude of price increases for the 2012 season? And then if you could talk about any major regional rate increases that you may have had?
Jim Reid-Anderson
Lisa, was your question 2011 or 2012? I didn’t hear the question fully.
Lisa Brozewicz – Keybanc Capital Markets
2012.
Al Weber
Lisa, this is Al. We have increased the front-gate attendance modestly in a number of the parks, as is traditional on a year-to-year basis.
A lot of the yield though, per capita increase that we have the last year or so is generated by being a little smarter about our discounting and fencing these promotions in off non-peak. So it’s really the mix of discount that really drives the yield forward, as well as some modest price increase.
Jim Reid-Anderson
You asked about regional difference as well. Al talked about modest increases at the gate and when he’s describing that, they tend to be in the long maybe $2 range.
We also looked at season pass pricing and there, there were, you know, modest increases, except in a couple of area on the East Coast, specifically Great Adventure. We felt that our season pass pricing was just too high, so we actually reduced that.
And there are a couple of smaller examples like that. But on the whole, we moved up.
Lisa Brozewicz – Keybanc Capital Markets
Okay, great. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is from Robert Kirkpatrick of Cardinal Capital.
Robert Kirkpatrick – Cardinal Capital
Thank you, and good morning. As a shareholder, I’d like to say thank you to the Board and the companies for the capital return program.
But with respect to the dividend, I wondered whether or not there was some thought given to the payout ratio. And then secondly, with respect to it, I was wondering what the American Tax Policy implications where as you debated between a dividend and a larger return of capital through a share repurchase program?
Thank you.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Well, thanks for the feedback. With regards to a payout ratio, obviously within the board we discussed various aspects, but we are not disclosing a payout ratio on the dividends.
We – when we look at the number for this year, we are, you know, we described a $0.60 per quarter or $2.40 dividend. John described earlier that if you adjust the 2011 cash flow, cash EPS, you end up at about $3.81 per share, that’s in the 60 to 65% range, which the board felt very comfortable with, but that’s not setting a base or any form of ratio.
We will look at this every single quarter and every year and determine what the right payout will be for the company. With regard to the tax, John, do you want to describe that?
John Duffey
You know what, as it relates to the tax, we absolutely did take a look at that, but I’ll be honest with you, you know, that could change in the future. So you know, we looked at it from the standpoint of what we thought was the appropriate cash dividend to be paying out.
Robert Kirkpatrick – Cardinal Capital
Okay, and then a follow up on a different area. With your capital spending program really being in full effect for the full year coming up, how are you going to measure the effectiveness of the spending on a park-by-park basis?
Jim Reid-Anderson
It’s a great question, Rob, and I’m going to have Al talk in detail. But a very high level, you know, we have implemented at the company a really great analysis of capital programs on an ROI basis and we force rank the top projects.
Al can describe maybe in a little bit more detail what we do and then how we go back and measure.
Al Weber
Rob, this is Al. Getting our capital spend at 9% of revenue really covers three big buckets.
It has asset maintenance, IPS, in-park spending, as well as ROI, as well as new marketable product. As Jim mentioned in his comments earlier, this is the first in 2012 that the product selection really fits within our over-a-long-range plan that we completed last year that had been done a number of years.
So the product that’s selected for the long-range plan really is focused on a park-by-park basis looking at history and the future opportunities and addressing market gaps or specifics that we feel will drive the business forward from an attendance and revenue standpoint. That’s a relatively detail process that starts at a park level that bubbles up that we consolidate corporately.
So we’ve spent a lot of time detained in the field, we’ve spent a lot of time identifying key product in the field that will drive the business forward, and match the opportunities that we believe in the short and long term.
Jim Reid-Anderson
And then, we post audio basically as a team. We go back and look at how different cap projects have worked, Rob.
And one of the beauties of this company is that we have almost 2,000 shareholders who work for the company. And the leadership team, the park presidents are all shareholders, so there’s a great interest in ensuring that the money we spend it spent very, very wisely.
Robert Kirkpatrick – Cardinal Capital
So for example, in a given park, you would look at the goal of the particular capital spending, which might have been, in this particular park, to attract more families, and you would then look at the increase in family, perhaps ticket sales or something like that and that’s how you would evaluate the effectiveness of that particular subsection?
Al Weber
Yes, and in terms of individual year measurement, that is a good example, Rob, but of course, now, but what’s important to remember, we have to look into sort of multiple years moving forward. It isn’t just a one-year, one-slot evaluation.
We do look at demographics, we look at market origins, we do have a very, very intensive view on the demographics coming to the park on a weekly basis. So we do match and look at what movement has occurred based on not just the capital, that’s one of the pieces, also we – by media, we have created this design to energize a certain piece of the market.
So holistically, we look at the movement and the initiative against that as an evaluation. But it is a multi-year view.
Robert Kirkpatrick – Cardinal Capital
Great. And then also the shareholder one, the comment that I noticed that both Jim and John had exercised options and retained the shares and that’s also appreciated by the shareholders.
Thank you.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Thanks, Rob.
Operator
(Operator instructions). At this time, there are no other questions.
Jim Reid-Anderson
Okay, thank you, MaryAnn. Well, you know, when you look back, 2010 was a very good year and 2011 was outstanding.
But I do want you to know that we really are looking forward to what I would describe as an epic 2012 season. Our goal is to continue to pleasantly surprise our guests and shareholders.
We hope you take the opportunity to visit one or more of our parks this year. And as always, I really want to thank you for your continued support of our company and management team and I look forward very much to talking to you soon.
Take care.
Operator
This does conclude today’s conference call. You may disconnect your phones at this time.