Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the first quarter 2021 earnings conference call of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited. At this time, all participants are in the listen only mode. After the call, we will conduct a question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Robin Ewan, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you all for joining us today for our first quarter 2021 earnings call. On the call are Laurence 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 law. 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 are included in the earnings release. Finally, please note that our supplementary earnings slides are posted on our investor relations website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ho.

Thank you, Robin. During the first quarter, our integrated resorts continue to experience a gradual recovery in business levels. While COVID cases continue to persist throughout the world, we have benefited from the Macau and the mainland Chinese government's efficiency in addressing the global pandemic and from their measured approach towards border reopening, which have been the key factor in the ongoing recovery of the integrated resort industry in Macau and the broader Macau economy. Macau has not had any locally transmitted COVID cases in over a year. And following the guidelines outlined by the Macau government, we have provided a safe environment for our guests and team members. In Macau, our mass table games operation, which contributed the vast majority of our EBITDA in pre-COVID times, saw another quarter of sequential improvement. Similar to the fourth quarter of 2020, We reported positive property EBITDA for both our Macau operations and our overall global operations. While we continue to see improvements in our business volumes in Macau, ensuring the safety and well-being of our colleagues, customers, and the communities in which we operate remains our highest priority. We remain optimistic about the recovery in Macau and continue to expect a faster rebound and a faster growth in both the premium mass and premium direct segments, which will benefit Melco's portfolio of luxury integrated resorts. As mentioned on our last earnings call, our expectation to see the benefits of pent-up demand starting in mid to late March has materialized. Business trends continue to improve in the Philippines for most of the first quarter, and City of Dreams Manila generated positive property EBITDA, with our gaming and hospitality operations running on a limited dry run basis, as authorized by PACO for the majority of the first quarter. Unfortunately, all integrated resorts in Manila were closed in late March due to COVID concerns and are currently planned to remain closed through the end of April 2021. While there was a swift return of domestic gaming demand at Cypress casinos in the second half 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. which has remained in place throughout the first quarter of 2021 and thus far into the second quarter. Our current understanding is that the tentative date to reopen casinos, along with other sectors, will be on May 10th. 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 the new non-gaming attractions will also be added, including a Cineplex, fine dining restaurants, and state-of-the-art MySpace, and one of the world's largest indoor-outdoor water parks. On May 22nd this year, Studio City will strengthen its position as Macau's leading entertainment property with the launch of the outdoor section of the water park. To further strengthen our competitive edge in the premium mass segment in Macau, our upgrade works continue at City of Dreams, where the fully renovated Nuwa reopened at the end of March. Also at the end of March, the countdown closed down for renovation, where we will reduce the key count and transform the tower into an all-suite product with a targeted reopening in 2023. In Cyprus, a development of City of Dreams Mediterranean continues to progress. After completion, it will be Europe's largest integrated resort with more than 500 luxury hotel rooms, approximately 100,000 square feet of MySpace, an outdoor amphitheater, a family adventure park, a variety of fine dining outlets, and luxury retail. Turning to Japan, we remain committed to bringing a world-leading IR there and continue to pursue opportunities within the market. We are currently engaged with multiple potential partners, While COVID continues to present challenges in terms of aspects of process timing and travel, IR in Japan has continued to move forward and we remain convinced that Japan represents the best potential new gaming market globally. We remain patient and continue to maintain our disciplined approach with respect to all development activities, including in 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 turn the call over to Jeff to go through some of the numbers.