SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:SEAS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Marc Swanson: Yes. I can take that question. I think it’s — as we do more work and more time on this and have more people kind of dedicated to these efforts, it’s kind of like you said, we’re able to, I think, firm up some of these numbers, have a better sense of what’s doable. So you’re seeing some of that in those numbers, obviously. So we said $30 million to $50 million. We showed you the $50 million and obviously, we have plans. Our goal is to always be identifying additional cost savings and we have some teams now that can help do that.

Operator: And the next question comes from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt.

Barton Crockett: Okay. I wanted to ask about the CapEx outlook. As I understand it, you’re looking at it meaningfully higher CapEx spend in 2023 and your CapEx spend in 2022 is already elevated. And a lot of that, I thought was going into the secondary park opening out in San Diego. So I’m just wondering since it’s already opened, what — can you be more — little bit more specific about what’s driving the increase in 2023? And is that kind of a peak? Or does it keep going up into 2024 and beyond as you start building more hotels? And I thought the international was capital-light, but maybe there’s some spend there.

Marc Swanson: Yes. Barton, it’s Marc. I can try to help you on that question. So again, I’d reference you back to Jim’s comments that we said the core would be $150 million to $180 million. And again, that’s going to be your new rides, your attractions and things like that in the park. And then we said for 2023, the ROI would be $100 million to $120 million to get us to the $250 million to $300 million. Again, that second bucket is — I would not think of that as like permanent in nature. It’s going to be dependent on what type of ROI opportunities we have. As you noted, if there’s other things that we pull in over time, whether it’s the timing of hotels, new parks, things like that, they would fall into that bucket. But again, it’s going to be dependent on things that we identify and execute on or new opportunities for expansion, things like that. And we’ll try to continue to provide some updates at the appropriate time going forward.

Barton Crockett: Okay. I mean that — just to lean on that a little bit. I mean that would be, I think, the highest CapEx total between the essentially maintenance and the expansion, maybe ever as a public company or certainly in many years. So a big kind of change in your stance on opportunities there to invest. And are these investments that we would expect to get any sense of return next year? Or is this really spend for ’23 and see the return in later periods?

Marc Swanson: Well, a couple of comments. So I mean, one, I mean we’re also generating — I mean we’re at record adjusted EBITDA. So the cash flow we’re generating is allowing us to obviously reinvest in the business. And I think Jim made a really good comment about some of the projects we did in earlier years, refreshes that only take months to do, not years to do, and they have an impact in that given year when you refresh a restaurant or venue or a bar or something like that, we can see that impact more quickly than something that takes multiple years. So I do think there’s certainly benefits to 2023 from the CapEx we’re spending now. Those things all come online at different times. So the full run rate is not necessarily going to occur this year.

But as those things open, we would expect to get the benefit. I think we are just seeing opportunities. We have more people who are kind of uncovering those opportunities, if you will. And we’re also clearly generating the cash to be able to pursue those opportunities. So there’s a little bit more for you.

Operator: And the next question comes from Paul Golding with Macquarie Capital.