Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Daniel Politzer: Got it. And then just switching to Thailand. Maybe could you talk a little bit about that opportunity potentially? I know it’s quite early days, but just high level in terms of timing, project size, how competitive do you think this process would be? Any incremental color would be great. Thanks.

Craig Billings: Sure. Yeah. It’s very, very early. I mean, first things first, we need to understand that the regulatory structure, the licensing structure, the bidding structure, etc., are all going to be consistent with other jurisdictions that are considered best-in-class. I personally think they will be based on the information that we have to date. But that’s really a condition precedent to our further involvement. It’s an interesting market for the reasons that I described in my prepared remarks, lots of great infrastructure, a very strong tourism sector today. And I think it will be a competitive process. I think in any market like that, that has those dynamics. I think you’re going to find a lot of folks that are interested in being there, and we are very confident in our capabilities given the strength of the portfolio as it exists today and the talent that we have in this business.

Daniel Politzer: Got it. Thanks so much.

Craig Billings: Sure.

Operator: Thank you. Our next caller is John DeCree with CBRE. You may go ahead.

John DeCree: Hi. Good morning, I mean, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. First one, maybe, Craig, you introduced some new renderings and photos of Al Marjan in front of the ATM conference here in Dubai. Curious if you could remind us capital — total capital contribution and budget or construction cost? And if that’s changed at all since you’ve kind of updated the renderings for that project?

Craig Billings: Sure. The total budget is around $4 billion. Budgets move here and there, but no substantial movement. Our capital contribution will be round numbers, call it, $900 million, that heavily depends on the construction leverage. So we’re in the midst of figuring that out now. But you can figure something like 50-50 debt to equity and then we would be 40% of the equity.

John DeCree: Got it. Understood. That’s helpful. Thank you. And then maybe one back domestically to get a little granular, perhaps in Las Vegas on the quarter. You called out February. We knew that was going to be an event driven month. But I was wondering, if you could kind of parse out with January and March, look like to give some color on April coming out of the quarter quite strong. But as you kind of size up 1Q, any comments about January and March, specifically relative to year-over-year in terms of performance.

Craig Billings: Sure. What I would say is this. February, as we called out, it would be — was, of course, the strongest month of the quarter. And then, in rank order, it would be March and January.

John DeCree: Got it. Understood. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next caller is Robin Farley with UBS.

Robin Farley: Great. Thanks. I wonder if you could just touch on anything for Al Marjan that has to happen from a regulatory perspective approval at any level. If the construction were done tomorrow before it can actually start operating the casino, just to clarify that. Thank you.

Craig Billings: Sure, Robin. Just like other jurisdictions, there are regulatory requirements that are required before we can open the doors. And so we expect that we will meet those regulatory requirements and receive the necessary approvals in due course.

Robin Farley: But is there anything from a perspective in terms of anything that has to be legalized at any level or separate from just what we have to do to meet licensing?

Craig Billings: We’re not building on spec, put it that way. So I think you’ve seen — hopefully, you’ve seen that they have created a federal regulatory body of the GCGRA in order to license and issue license operators and issue regulations associated with gaming. The GCGRA’s activities are ongoing, and we are aware of what they are, and we’ll get all the necessary approvals in due course.

Robin Farley: Okay. Thank you.

Craig Billings: Sure.

Operator: Thank you. Our next caller is Ben Chaiken with Mizuho. You may go ahead.

Benjamin Chaiken: Hey. Just one quick one in Macau. The Wynn Macau property, your mass hold was around 19% for the second quarter in a row after holding below normal for a long period of time. Do you think the current gaming volumes at this property are enough to have more normalized variability in hold, such as what we’ve seen in the last few quarters? Any color there would be great. Thanks.

Craig Billings: Sure. And then we held high subsequent to the end of the quarter. It really is just a function of the normal ebb and flow of the game. A lot of that has to do with the volume of high-end play. And so there’s really nothing — there’s really not a lot to see there and over time, hold will normalize.

Benjamin Chaiken: Thank you. Appreciate it.

A – Julie Cameron-Doe: Operator, we’ll take one last question also before..

Operator: Thank you. And the last caller comes from David Katz with Jefferies. You may go ahead, sir.

David Katz: Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to just touch on Las Vegas, given the [Technical Difficulty] on the market given the available resources that you have. I just wonder under what circumstances you might look at developing some of the excess volumes you have in Las Vegas and what would have to happen moving forward.

Craig Billings: Thanks, David. You were chopping up there a bit, but I think I got the gist of your question. I think you were addressing the development opportunities in the land that we have here. But we do — we have a very substantial land bank in Las Vegas, as you know. And the reality is that we are replacing choices now from a development perspective. We’ve got the projects going on in the UAE. By the way, we will have a land bank there as well. We’re obviously looking at New York. We are considering Thailand as that process evolves. And so we have a lot of things in the hopper at the moment that are going to meaningfully increase our EBITDA and our free cash flow base. We are always considering particularly the adjacent land on the strip as a potential development opportunity, but we really want to see how some of these other things play out.

David Katz: And that was the nature of my question is sort of what would have to happen for you to want to move forward on Las Vegas? Would some of these have to fall out or just move forward and this comes right after that. I think that was just a nuance to what I was trying to get at. Thank you.

Craig Billings: Sure. Yeah. So the reality is, it’s many things. So what happens in the macro economy, what happens to borrowing cost, what happens to the cost to build, and then what are our other opportunities? How many of those opportunities can be pushed through our design and development team at any given point in time. So it’s a — I don’t know 5D question, I guess. I don’t know if you can get into the fifth dimension. But there’s a lot of questions there. And right now, we’re focused on New York. We’re observing Thailand, and we’re in the midst of constructing in the UAE. So we like our development pipeline at the moment. We like our future EBITDA and free cash flow profile at the moment. So stay tuned.

David Katz: Thank you.

Craig Billings: Sure.

Julie Cameron-Doe: Thank you and thank you, operator. With that, we’ll bring this call to a close. We thank you for your interest in the company and look forward to talking to you again next quarter.

Craig Billings: Thanks, everybody.

Operator: And thank you for participating on today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.

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