Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Julie Cameron-Doe: Sure. Yes, you’re correct, Shaun. We did talk to our OpEx per day in Q4 with $2 million, which was down from $2.4 million the year prior. We worked really hard last year to preserve cash and to manage OpEx down while we were closed. So obviously, that’s not representative of how things will be necessarily moving forward. As you know, we’re fully open now and staffing full time in different F&B outlets and so on. So, where that shakes out in terms of margin, it’s really going to depend on the mix of business that comes back in that market. It’s pretty much the same answer we give when we’re asked about margin in Vegas. It’s very much mix dependent. And we don’t manage our business on margin. That’s really the outcome.

We manage to our brand, and we staff accordingly. And we’re very tight in terms of staffing. We’re very focused on doing that appropriately, and we’re very focused on — but we’re very, very focused on our service delivery centers as well.

Craig Billings: And I would just add, it’s primarily a mass mix now. So, you’re going to have — that’s inherently higher margin. And a portion of the cost savings that we implemented during the COVID period, which, thank God is long behind us, we will maintain. So, the margin profile should be healthy. So again, it’s — we’re really talking about a couple of weeks here. So, it’s a little bit early to start forecasting specific margins.

Shaun Kelley: Great. Understood. And then maybe just the follow-up. Another thing that kind of came up in the prepared remarks was the CapEx outlook in Macau, and I think you gave a pretty wide range. Can you just kind of talk about what would sort of dictate maybe the high versus the low? What are some of the different either projects that could get underway or things that could impact the outcome of the range that you discussed?

Julie Cameron-Doe: Sure. So, I think just taking a step back, if you think about our total commitment when we put through our concession proposal, we’ve committed to $2.2 billion over 10 years. And that’s — obviously, that’s a mix of CapEx and OpEx. But we’re very focused on getting the CapEx done as quickly as possible so that we can start to drive strong returns from it. The limiting factor is really the approval that we need locally to break ground and build anything. So, it’s really not in our hands. That’s why we’ve given such a wide range because from our perspective, we’re pacing towards getting through our D&D and designing everything, but we have to go through government approvals for anything that’s construction related. So, the range we gave was $50 million to $220 million.

Operator: Thank you. Our next caller is David Katz with Jefferies.

Cassandra Lee: Hi. This is Cassandra on behalf of David. You mentioned that digital was nearly broke even in the fourth quarter, excluding the — resorts. Can you discuss the upcoming launches and whether we should expect the business to inflect to profit this year?

Craig Billings: Sure. The upcoming — the most significant upcoming launch is Massachusetts, where obviously, we have Encore Boston Harbor, and I would hope and expect that we will have a reasonable market share because of that — the presence of that property as our competitors have in other markets. We are driving the business as hard as we can while being prudent. I would expect some point of inflection in late 2023, depending upon how much user — money good user acquisition we do in Massachusetts, but we have the burn at this point, really, really well under control. And again, as we talked about before, the long-term strategy is really focused on Massachusetts and positioning ourselves for iGaming, which would make the business accretive to our land-based resorts.

Cassandra Lee: Great. If I may follow up. Can you talk about your upcoming maturity? And any thoughts about tapping to the capital market now since we have seen some activity in the last few weeks?

Craig Billings: I think Julie just mentioned in the prepared remarks that we’re going to pay down our upcoming maturity with cash on the balance sheet.

Operator: Our next caller is Robin Farley with UBS.

Robin Farley: I wonder just circling back to how things are trending post Chinese New Year, obviously really strong numbers through the holiday. There’s been chatter that the drop-off in the market overall, it was a little bit more than seasonal. So, I wonder if you could sort of give your take on that. Is it reasonable to think that there’ll just be kind of increased volatility maybe around kind of shoulder periods, or I guess, how would you kind of frame that more than normal for the seasonal drop-off post the holiday?

Craig Billings: Hi Robin. Yes, I’m not sure you’ve been talking to, Frederic just mentioned that actually we’ve been performing above what we would normally see during that drop-off period.

Robin Farley: But when you say performing above, I didn’t know if that was a combination of you talked about your expenses being down, and so it could be overall EBITDA. But just wondering on the…

Craig Billings: No. He was talking business volumes.

Robin Farley: Okay. So, would you then assume that that’s a growth in market share? In other words, what’s your take on sort of the overall market volatility that maybe you’re gaining share in, it sounds like in that period, but just your take on this.