Melco Resorts & Entertainment : Q4 2020 MELCO RESORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT (PDF)

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Q4 2020 Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd Earnings Call

EVENT DATE/TIME: FEBRUARY 25, 2021 / 1:30PM GMT

CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS

Lawrence Ho Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - Founder, Chairman & CEO Geoffrey Stuart Davis Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - Executive VP & CFO

David Ross Sisk Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - COO of Macau Resorts & Property President of City of Dreams-Macau Timothy Mazik Melco Resorts & Entertainment - Director of Finance

CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS

Hay Ling Ng BofA Securities, Research Division - Research Analyst Joseph Richard Greff JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD K. Y. Cheung Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division - MD Praveen Kumar Choudhary Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD Sean Ng American Century - Research Division

PRESENTATION

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited.

(Operator Instructions)

Today's conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Timothy Mazik. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Timothy Mazik Melco Resorts & Entertainment - Director of Finance

Thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2020 earnings call. On the call are Lawrence Ho, Geoff Davis, Evan Winkler, and our Property Presidents in Macau, Manila and Cyprus.

Before we get started, please note that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provision of federal securities laws. Our actual results could differ from our anticipated results.

In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP measures. A definition and reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release.

Finally, please note that our supplementary earnings slides are posted on our Investor Relations website.

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Lawrence.

Lawrence Ho Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - Founder, Chairman & CEO

All right. Thank you, Tim, and hello, everyone. During the fourth quarter, our integrated resorts continued to experience a gradual recovery in business levels. Despite increasing COVID cases throughout the world, thanks to both the Macau and the Mainland Chinese governments' measured and prudent approach towards border re-opening, we have not seen any locally transmitted COVID cases in over 300 days.

Benefiting from the resumption of visa issuance, our Macau mass table games operation, which contributed the vast majority of our EBITDA in pre-COVID times, saw notable sequential improvements from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. We reported positive Property EBITDA for both our Macau operations and our overall global operations.

We remain optimistic on the recovery in Macau and continue to expect increased visitation in the near-term. Earlier this week, with the removal of the remaining 2 cities on Macau's "medium risk" list, all quarantine restrictions were lifted for those traveling from mainland China to Macau. More notably, there are no quarantine restrictions for those mainland Chinese citizens who are returning from Macau.

In Macau, while we continue to see improvements in our business volumes, ensuring the safety and well-being of our colleagues, customers and the communities in which we operate remains our highest priority. We continue to expect a faster rebound and faster growth in both the premium mass and premium direct segments, which will benefit Melco's portfolio of luxury integrated resorts. Our current expectation is that we'll begin to see the benefits of pent-up demand starting in mid-to-late March.

Business trends continued to improve in the Philippines, and City of Dreams Manila generated positive Property EBITDA, with our gaming and hospitality operations running on a limited "trial run" basis, as authorized by PAGCOR.

While there was a swift return of domestic gaming demand at Cyprus Casinos in the third quarter of 2020, an increasing number of COVID cases led the Cyprus government to announce a second lockdown during the fourth quarter. This resulted in a partial closure of our casinos from November 13 and a full closure from December 1.

Despite the global pandemic, Melco remains committed to its global development program. Our next major project in Macau is Studio City Phase 2, where construction is on-going. Upon completion, the Phase 2 expansion will increase Studio City's hotel room inventory by approximately 60%, with 2 new hotel towers offering approximately 900 luxury hotel rooms and suites. Gaming spaces will be expanded, and new non-gaming attractions will also be added, including a Cineplex, one of the world's largest indoor/outdoor water parks, fine-dining restaurants, and state-of-the-art MICE space.

To further strengthen our competitive edge in the premium mass segment in Macau, our upgraded works continue at City of Dreams, and the fully renovated Nüwa is expected to open at the end of March. We plan to close the Countdown in the near-to-medium term, reducing the key count and transforming the tower into an all-suite 5-star product, with a targeted re-opening in 2023. The renovation at the Countdown will give us 5-star offerings across all towers at City of Dreams, further enhancing our position as the leading premium property in Macau.

In Cyprus, our development of City of Dreams Mediterranean continues to progress. After completion, it will be Europe's largest integrated resort, with [more than] (corrected by the company after the call) 500 luxury hotel rooms, approximately 10,000 square meters of MICE space, an outdoor amphitheater, a family adventure park, a variety of fine-dining outlets and luxury retail.

Turning to Japan, we want to highlight our commitment to bringing a world-leading IR there, and continue to pursue opportunities within the market. While the process in Japan has been delayed and remains complex, it has renewed momentum as jurisdictions are again initiating RFP processes. We remain convinced that Japan represents the best potential new gaming market globally. At the same time, we remain patient and will maintain our disciplined approach with respect to all development activities, including Japan.

Finally, I remain confident in Melco's medium- and long-term growth prospects. I believe Macau is still the most attractive integrated resort market in the world. Our balance sheet was further strengthened by our recent capital market transactions, enabling us to overcome near-term challenges, while investing for the future.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Geoff to go through some of the numbers.

Geoffrey Stuart Davis Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - Executive VP & CFO

Thanks, Lawrence. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we reported Group-wide Property EBITDA of approximately $53 million, while luck-adjusted EBITDA came in at $49 million.

A favorable VIP win rate positively affected EBITDA at COD Macau and COD Manila by approximately $9 million and $1 million, respectively.

At Studio City and Altira, EBITDA was negatively affected by an unfavorable VIP win rate by approximately $4 million and $1 million, respectively. On a consolidated basis, overall results were positively impacted by approximately $5 million. Details of these adjustments can be found in the supplementary earnings slides posted on our Investor Relations website.

In addition to the VIP win rate fluctuation, our performance was also affected by our bad debt provision. During the fourth quarter of 2020, we incurred a bad debt charge of approximately $23 million, as compared to a bad debt charge of approximately $12 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. On a year-over-year basis, the change in the bad debt provision negatively affected EBITDA by approximately $11 million.

Additionally, our fourth quarter 2020 EBITDA was positively impacted by a $16 million bonus reversal.

Turning to our balance sheet, to optimize our capital structure, in January, Studio City issued $750 million of 5.00% senior notes due in 2029. The proceeds were used to refinance the $600 million of 7.25% senior notes due in 2024, with the remainder of the proceeds raised to be used for Phase 2 CapEx and general corporate purposes. The transaction reduced our average borrowing rate and extended our maturity profile, with Studio City's next material debt maturity not until 2025.

Also in January, Melco utilized favorable market conditions to tap the 5.375% senior notes due 2029 for an additional $250 million. The tap was priced at 103.25 of par, which resulted in an effective borrowing rate of approximately 4.9%. At the end of December, we had approximately $1.8 billion of cash on hand. Pro-forma for the capital markets transactions in January, our cash balance would have been approximately $1.9 billion. When combined with our undrawn revolver facilities in Macau and Manila of approximately $2.0 billion, this implies pro-forma available liquidity of approximately $3.9 billion at the end of December.

To provide more clarity on our capital structure, Melco, excluding our operations at Studio City, the Philippines, and Cyprus, had cash of approximately $900 million and gross debt of approximately $4.1 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020.

As we normally do, we'll give you some guidance on non-operating line items for the upcoming quarter.

Total depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $145 million to $150 million; corporate expense is expected to come in at approximately $20 million to $22 million; and consolidated net interest expense is expected to be approximately $94 million to $98 million, which includes finance lease interest of $11 million relating to City of Dreams Manila and $4 million of capitalized interest.

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, back to you for the Q&A.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Operator

(Operator Instructions)

We have the first question from the line of Joe Greff from JPMorgan.

Joseph Richard Greff JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD

Lawrence, your tone today is probably, at least to us, is the most optimistic in at least a year and your comments about your expectations for increased visitation in the near term and more recovery in the mid to late part of March has caught our attention. Can you talk about what's rooting this increased optimism relative to just 3 months ago? And how much -- I mean we obviously had some clear positives recently with travel restrictions easing. How much of this optimism is rooted in, I guess, more traction or ease coming from visa issuance from Mainland China?

Lawrence Ho Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited - Founder, Chairman & CEO

Sure. Joe, why don't I [discuss on] (corrected by the company after the call) a high level, and I'll pass it on to David to give more of the details. Well, I think our optimism really comes from seeing what happened with the tail end of Chinese New Year and seeing how strongly that pent-up demand was coming back even last week. And also as there are no more cities on the quarantine list from Mainland China, and beginning of March always has the major political two session meetings. I think after that, there are just many