Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the call, we will conduct a Q&A session. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Timothy Majic. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Timothy Majic Thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2020 earnings call. On the call are Lawrence Ho, Jeff 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.

All right. Thank you, Tim. And hello, everyone. During the fourth quarter, our integrated resorts continue to experience a gradual recovery in business levels. Despite increasing COVID cases throughout the world, thanks to both the Macau and the mainland Chinese government's measured and prudent approach towards border reopening, 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 improvement from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. We reported positive property EBITDA for both 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 renewal of the remaining two 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 volume, 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 segment, which will benefit Nausul's portfolio of luxury integrated results. Our current expectation is that we'll begin to see the benefits of pent-up demand starting in mid to late March. Business trends continue to improve in the Philippines, and City of Dreams Manila generated positive property EBITDA with our gaming on hospitality operations running on a limited trial run basis as authorized by PACOS. While there was a swift return of domestic gaming demand in Cypress casinos in the third quarter of 2020, an increasing number of COVID cases led the Cypress government to announce a second lockdown during the fourth quarter. This resulted in a partial closure of our casinos from November 13th and a full closure from December 1st. 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 ongoing. Upon completion, the Phase 2 expansion will increase Studio City's hotel room inventory by approximately 60%, with two 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 Cineflex, one of the world's largest indoor-outdoor water parks, fine dining restaurants, and state-of-the-art MySpace. 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 NUA 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-street five-star product with a targeted reopening in 2023. The renovation at the countdown will give us five-star offerings across four towers at City of Dreams, further enhancing our position as the leading premium property in Macau. In Cypress, Our development of City of Dreams Mediterranean continues to progress. After completion, it will be Europe's largest integrated resort with over 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 Malco'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 transaction enabling us to overcome near-term challenges while investing for the future. With that, I turn the call over to Jeff to go through some of the numbers.