Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call of Malco Resorts and Entertainment Limited. At this time, all participants are in a 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 Miss Jenny Kim. Senior Vice President, Group Treasurer of Mauco Resorts and Entertainment Limited.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2023 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 may differ from our anticipated results. In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP measures. The 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'll turn it over to Mr. Lawrence Ho.

Thank you, Jeannie, and thank you for joining us today.

Many of you may already be aware that David Siss, our COO of Macau, has resigned. We will be conducting a thorough search process to identify and appoint a high caliber individual to steer our business forward in Macau. In the interim, Ev and I will be actively involved in the day-to-day operations of our Macau properties. As we move forward, Our focus is to ensure that Melco is leading the market in all aspects of our business through innovation and collaboration. With this in mind, we're also adding to our leadership team with new appointments in gaming operations, retail, hotels, and food and beverage. We expect these new additions to the leadership team and management changes will strengthen us as a team to secure a stronger and more competitive future. Turning back to our results. Macau continues to demonstrate its extraordinary growth potential and has shown resilience despite China's uncertain macroeconomic outlook. Visitation to Macau during this month's Chinese New Year holiday period was close to 2019 levels, and the number of visitors from China exceeded 2019. Our mass GGR and Macau Theo property EBITDA during this CNY holiday period was meaningfully higher than 2019 levels. 2023 was a year of post-pandemic recovery and the opening of new properties, the City of Dreams Mediterranean and Studio City Phase 2. The epic hotel tower at Studio City Phase 2 offers our patrons a luxury hotel product which had not been available at Studio City before, with two three-bedroom suites and villas. It is attracting a high-end customer base to the property and driving gaming demand. with the help of the new high-limit gaming area that opened in December on the second floor of the Epic Tower. The ADT generated by this customer base are at levels that had not been seen at Studio City previously, and Studio City is reaching record levels of daily mass and slot GGR. 2024 is set to be another exciting year for us. Among the various ongoing events and projects, Our residency concert series at Studio City is scheduled to start in March. We've started construction of the Cineplex at Studio City Phase 2, and we aim to bring back our award-winning show, The House of Dancing Water, by the end of the year. We will also start renovations on the Countdown Hotel to bring a new high-end luxury hotel offering to our premium mass customers. In the Philippines, City of Dreams Manila continues to generate solid earnings with significant market share gains in mass table gains and slots. City of Dreams Mediterranean in Cyprus continues to be impacted by the conflict in Israel, and it is uncertain how long this will last. However, we have seen some signs of improving demand so far this year. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff to go through some of the numbers.

Thank you, Lawrence. Our group-wide adjusted property EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 was approximately $303 million. Luck-adjusted group-wide property EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 came in at $320 million. A favorable win rate had a positive impact on COD Manila of around $3 million, while unfavorable win rates at COD Macau, Studio City, and Cypress had a negative impact of approximately $20 million. Details of these adjustments can be found in the supplementary earnings slides posted on our investor relations website. Macau OpEx increased to approximately $2.6 million per day in the first quarter of 2024 from approximately $2.5 million per day in the third quarter, in line with guidance. This was primarily due to the full quarter impact of the W Macau at Studio City, which opened in early September 2023. Turning to our balance sheet, we repaid another $200 million of our revolving credit facilities during the fourth quarter of 2023, and repurchased $100 million of bonds at Studio City via a cash tender. On a consolidated basis, we reduced debt by a total of $950 million over the course of 2023, and we will continue to focus on debt reduction into 2024. As of December 31, 2023, we had around $1.4 billion of consolidated cash on hand. Melco, excluding its operations at Studio City, the Philippines, and Cyprus, accounted for around $750 million. Of this, approximately $125 million was restricted as collateral required for concession-related guarantees issued to the Macau government. Another notable movement in our balance sheet in 4Q23 is the impairment of Altira by approximately $200 million. Altiera has faced some challenges with the change in the VIP segment, and we continue to work through the repositioning of the property. Altiera broke even in 4Q23, and we expect performance to improve in 2024. As we normally do, we'll give you some guidance on non-operating line items for the upcoming first quarter of 2024. Total depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $135 to $140 million. Corporate expense is expected to come in at approximately $20 million, and consolidated net interest expense is expected to be approximately $125 to $130 million. This includes finance liability interest of around $6 million relating to fees and payable Fees payable in relation to the Macau Government Gaming Concession and the Cypress Gaming License. And finance lease interest of approximately $6 million relating to City of Dreams, Manila. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, back to you for the Q&A.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

And we will take our first question.

Your first question comes from the line of George Choi from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thank you very much for taking my question. Hi, Lawrence. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Evan. I have a couple of questions, if I may. Firstly, the numbers are suggesting that you guys have lost market share in 2023. I'm just wondering what you guys plan to do to regain your fair market share. And my second question is on capital allocation. Would you please remind us what your capital allocation priorities are? Is there any chance of a dividend resumption? That's all I have. Thank you very much.

All right. Hi, George. It's Lawrence. So, you know, I think clearly, you know, we had lost share in 2023, and I think that's part of the reason for our management change as well. You know, I think Post-COVID, you know, David did a great job for us during COVID in terms of trying to survive. But, you know, post-COVID, I guess, you know, we've continued to, you know, cut too deep to the bone in terms of operating expenditure and how we conduct our business. And, you know, I'm glad that, you know, Chinese New Year, we've had a very strong Chinese New Year so far. And as I said in the prepared remarks, we're substantially above 2019 levels. Our mass GGR was up over 22% from 2019 Chinese New Year. So things are moving in the right direction, even without the recent management changes. So City of Dreams invented the premium mass segment over 10 years ago. And so the goal for us is to really reclaim the crown in the premium mass sector. And in order to do that, you know, I think we need to work together as a team and with some of the new recent appointments to, you know, improve the quality of our offering. You know, I think, frankly, post-COVID, you know, looking around, you know, we really did, you know, cut way too much of our offering out there. I think that's why we lost some share from that basis. So I think that is being addressed. We have done it. a million times in the past, and we've enjoyed having the pole position in premium mass for a very long time. So I think the goal is to really reclaim that. I guess your second and third questions were more... Well, I think capital allocations are our number one goal this year. I'll let Jeff elaborate. Our number one goal continues to be debt reduction. So I think that's, you know, our main focus. Of course, we have our maintenance capex and some of the stuff maybe Jeff can.

So clearly the mandate is debt reduction is the number one priority from a capital allocation standpoint. At the same time, we are looking for capital light opportunities to expand the portfolio. But, yeah, the key laser focus will be on debt reduction.

Well, I think in line with that as well, you know, I think frankly nobody has any other than perhaps Galaxy that none of the operators really have any major, major CapEx projects in Macau because all the land has been used up. I think for us, you know, as we continue to improve the product offering, we'll look at areas that we can, you know, minor projects that can improve those, but I wouldn't say there are any major CapEx on the horizon. And with regards to our Macau government investment tender commitment, I think out of the six, we've always had, I think it's public knowledge that we had the lowest amount. And I'm pleased to say that we were the only one last year that fulfilled our full amount. And so I think going forward, even with the additional 20% addition, we'll you know, we're comfortably below everybody else.

That's very good, Khaled. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question. I was hoping you could comment on your OPEX expectations going forward, given that from your recent comments, you guys are probably going to enhance some of the services for your guests. So how should we be thinking about OPEX for the balance of the year?

Hi, it's Jeff. I'll take the question, and thank you for the question. So as you know, for For the fourth quarter, we came in at $2.6 million per day. And going forward, we had highlighted that with the opening of the House of Dancing Water by the end of the year, that's likely to increase our daily OPEX by about $100,000 a day. In relation to some of the measures that Lawrence mentioned about be some customer-centric enhancements that we're considering. I think over the course of 2024, but not immediately, we have somewhere in the neighborhood of another 100,000 per day of enhancements.

Got it. Perfect.

If I may follow up with an additional question, I know that you guys you know, classify your premium mass customers in several tiers and that, you know, you highlighted some encouraging data regarding, you know, recent performance in the golden week. Is there a tier within your premium mass that is doing slightly better or ahead that the rest of ones? Are they, you know, back to pre-pandemic levels, perhaps a little bit higher? How should we think about, you know, the different, you know, tiers that make up your premium mass business?

Hey, Ricardo. So I think, you know, the recovery has been pretty broad-based when you refer to premium masks. You know, of course, you know, infrastructure, you know, although visitation from China is rising, you know, infrastructure isn't totally back yet. So I think, if anything, that's affecting more of the general masks or grind masks. But with regards to premium math, it's pretty across the board in terms of the various sectors that we have. So I wouldn't say there is one or two sectors that is over-indexing or under-indexing.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of John Decree from CBRE. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe just to start with a housekeeping item for Jeff. If I missed it, I apologize. Did you give or could you give CapEx expectations for 2024?

Sure. You didn't miss it. For 2024, we're looking at CapEx of approximately $360 to $375 million. Great.

Thanks, Jeff. And then maybe to revisit earlier question a little bit, some of the comment you had made around pursuing some asset-light opportunities to expand the portfolio. Curious if you can elaborate a little bit on that, and I guess we kind of think in the context of some larger markets that some of your peers and global casino operators are looking at? Particularly the UAE is very topical right now, so curious if there's other markets or anything you can kind of elaborate on, things that you're looking at externally.

Well, I think it's a bit early as well, so I think given we're still climbing out of COVID holes, I think we're looking at some smaller potential projects, but Nothing, I think, that's ready to be announced. But in terms of the longer-term, bigger projects like UAE or the Thailands, I think we're kicking the tires like everybody else. But as we learn from the Japan process, these things usually take a... It's a multi-year process.

That's fair. Okay. Thank you, Lawrence. Thanks, Jeff.

Thank you. We will take our next question.

Your next question comes from the line of Carl Choi from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Thank you. Two questions.

First, coming back to the question of the new appointments that you mentioned, could you elaborate a little bit on, apart from obviously GGR market share, what are some of the key sort of metrics So the KPIs that you're hoping that the new operations people that you're bringing in can achieve this year. And second, can you just talk a bit about the competitive environment? I think on the last call, it was mentioned that reinvestment rate was a little bit elevated, perhaps in relation to the fact that premium mass has recovered a little bit faster. So what's the latest in terms of reinvestment rate? And also just curious, some of your peers are rolling out the RFIDs. tables. Is there any plan to do so over at your portfolio as well? Thanks.

Hey, Carl. I think maybe I'll take it and Evan wants to add some color. Our RFID tables are coming next month, so we're quite excited to have them. But again, it's going to be a rolling process. I think we're getting them for the first time. There's going to be a learning curve. But, you know, I think we're excited to see, to make use of the full potential of these RFID tables. And I think, you know, in terms of reinvestment, you know, the market is very competitive. I think if you look at our competitors' results as well, you know, I think you can see it. So I think for us, as part of the new plan is, you know, how do we You know, Melco was always the innovator in terms of product offerings and the service level and being guest-centric. So it's about how do we spend the reinvestment wisely rather than, you know, just purely giving things away. So, yeah, I think that's, you know, I think if you look at the appointments that we have, you know, we are reestablishing our strategic analytics and strategic marketing units. You know, we're adding in retail. We're adding in hotel and food and beverage. These are all guest-centric, guest-facing experiences that we really care about. So I think that will, you know, it's been a great solution for us in the past, and I think it will continue to work in the future. I don't know if Evan would want to... Sure.

To continue on what Lawrence articulated, we brought in three senior hires. All of that is really focused on how we're looking at our gaming operations and how do we really get greater efficiency in terms of our spend there, where we're allocating our resource, how we're driving the floor, floor layouts. And so we're looking at that to, again, not just improve our GGR, but also improve some of our efficiency and allocations here as we look at player reinvestment, etc., On the retail front, obviously, we have a luxury player at COD and a luxury retail footprint. It's an area that is a focus of improvement. We feel that bringing in someone who's got deep, long-term relationships with these key luxury brands is going to help us enhance that offering. That probably is not a today, tomorrow thing, but as we continue to evolve the retail experience, both at COD and SC, And then we brought in a VP of Hotel F&B at COD to just make sure that from a guest and customer experience that we are leading the market once again across all fronts in terms of picking up on some of the OPEX likely to get someone similar at some point here in the future at SC as we look to enhance our bench strength in those areas. In addition, as Lawrence articulated, we've reoriented our sales force under a central point so that we have more centralized focus around the customer experience and customer journey. And we're also doing that in our premium areas as well. And so I think from top to bottom, the view here is that we've reoriented again back to being customer centric in our approach. and making sure that we are leading and innovating across the premium category. The belief is that's going to help us regain the market share, but obviously along the way we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that is efficient in terms of how we're allocating the resources to those efforts.

Great. The couple is very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of Joe Graff from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, Lawrence. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Evan. You obviously talked, as others have, about a strong Chinese New Year's, which is encouraging. Can you talk about, and maybe you didn't, I missed it, but I don't think you did. Can you talk about your views on how you performed in January in relation to the market and as well as in the balance of February outside of Chinese New Year's. You can maybe talk about, you know, GGR as a percentage of 2019 or EBITDA per day or some performance metric outside of, you know, what's been undoubtedly a strong Chinese New Year period.

Hey, Joe.

You know, I think our, you know, the results do, you know, fluctuate month to month. And I think clearly the reason that we wanted to make a management change at this time was that we felt we were losing share. And more important to us is not so much the top line market share. That has never really been the case that we cared about. It was really about EBITDA. But I think month to month, it does fluctuate. Even premium direct VIP, with the win rate, you know, seriously affects that. But I think more importantly, and something actually I was surprised that nobody has really been too focused on, was the additional of the two new Chinese cities that will start accepting visitors on March 3rd. You know, both Xi'an and Qingdao are two massive cities with over 10 million people and with high disposable income. So I'm actually really excited about that. And I think with our you know, guest-centric, you know, and the restructuring that we're doing, you know, I think we should be able to capture a lot of that going forward with the growth. And also, don't forget, there hasn't been any new individual traveler, you know, IBS cities in the last 15, 20 years. So if anything, this is a very strong sign of things to come.

Great. That's helpful, Florence. And then the search that's underway right now to replace David, when do you think that search will be complete and you'll have somebody, whether that's an external, I'm presuming it's an external person, but when that person could be on board?

Well, you know, I think for us, you know, with the new additions and the restructuring, you know, that's probably going to keep us busy for the next couple of months. You know, I think both Evan and I are going to be much more actively involved during that time. I think it's important that we want to find the right candidate going forward. You know, we had a great eight-year run with David, but I think, you know, the next candidate, you know, I think really needs to followed the DNA of Malco and what made us great all the years before, which was focused on luxury and amazing, extraordinary guest experiences.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions. I would like to hand back to Jenny Kim for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you for participating in our call today.

We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call.

Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. you Thank you. Thank you. So let's get started. Thank you. Music Music you

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in the fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call of Malco Resorts and Entertainment Limited. At this time, all participants are in a 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 Miss Jenny Kim, Senior Vice President, Group Treasurer of Mauco Resorts and Entertainment Limited.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2023 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 may differ from our anticipated results. In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP measures. The 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'll turn it over to Mr. Lawrence Ho.

Thank you, Jeannie, and thank you for joining us today.

Many of you may already be aware that David Siss, our COO of Macau, has resigned. We will be conducting a thorough search process to identify and appoint a high caliber individual to steer our business forward in Macau. In the interim, Ev and I will be actively involved in the day-to-day operations of our Macau properties. As we move forward, Our focus is to ensure that Melco is leading the market in all aspects of our business through innovation and collaboration. With this in mind, we're also adding to our leadership team with new appointments in gaming operations, retail, hotels, and food and beverage. We expect these new additions to the leadership team and management changes will strengthen us as a team to secure a stronger and more competitive future. Turning back to our results. Macau continues to demonstrate its extraordinary growth potential and has shown resilience despite China's uncertain macroeconomic outlook. Visitation to Macau during this month's Chinese New Year holiday period was close to 2019 levels, and the number of visitors from China exceeded 2019. Our mass GGR and Macau Theo property EBITDA during this CNY holiday period was meaningfully higher than 2019 levels. 2023 was a year of post-pandemic recovery and the opening of new properties, the City of Dreams Mediterranean and Studio City Phase 2. The epic hotel tower at Studio City Phase 2 offers our patrons a luxury hotel product which had not been available at Studio City before, with two three-bedroom suites and villas. It is attracting a high-end customer base to the property and driving gaming demand. with the help of the new high-limit gaming area that opened in December on the second floor of the Epic Tower. The ADT generated by this customer base are at levels that had not been seen at Studio City previously, and Studio City is reaching record levels of daily mass and slot GGR. 2024 is set to be another exciting year for us. Among the various ongoing events and projects, Our residency concert series at Studio City is scheduled to start in March. We've started construction of the Cineplex at Studio City Phase II, and we aim to bring back our award-winning show, The House of Dancing Water, by the end of the year. We will also start renovations on the Countdown Hotel to bring a new high-end luxury hotel offering to our premium mass customers. In the Philippines, City of Dreams Manila continues to generate solid earnings with significant market share gains in mass table gains and slots. City of Dreams Mediterranean in Cyprus continues to be impacted by the conflict in Israel, and it is uncertain how long this will last. However, we have seen some signs of improving demand so far this year. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff to go through some of the numbers.

Thank you, Lawrence. Our group-wide adjusted property EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 was approximately $303 million. Luck-adjusted group-wide property EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 came in at $320 million. A favorable win rate had a positive impact on COD Manila of around $3 million, while unfavorable win rates at COD Macau, Studio City, and Cypress had a negative impact of approximately $20 million. Details of these adjustments can be found in the supplementary earnings slides posted on our investor relations website. Macau OpEx increased to approximately $2.6 million per day in the first quarter of 2024 from approximately $2.5 million per day in the third quarter, in line with guidance. This was primarily due to the full quarter impact of the W Macau at Studio City, which opened in early September 2023. Turning to our balance sheet, we repaid another $200 million of our revolving credit facilities during the fourth quarter of 2023 and repurchased $100 million of bonds at Studio City via a cash tender. On a consolidated basis, we reduced debt by a total of $950 million over the course of 2023, and we will continue to focus on debt reduction into 2024. As of December 31st, 2023, we had around $1.4 billion of consolidated cash on hand. Melco, excluding its operations at Studio City, the Philippines, and Cyprus, accounted for around $750 million. Of this, approximately $125 million was restricted as collateral required for concession-related guarantees issued to the Macau government. Another notable movement in our balance sheet in 4Q23 is the impairment of Altera by approximately $200 million. Altera has faced some challenges with the change in the VIP segment, and we continue to work through the repositioning of the property. Altera broke even in 4Q23, and we expect performance to improve in 2024. As we normally do, we'll give you some guidance on non-operating line items for the upcoming first quarter of 2024. Total depreciation and amortization expense is expected to be approximately $135 to $140 million. Corporate expense is expected to come in at approximately $20 million, and consolidated net interest expense is expected to be approximately $125 to $130 million. This includes finance liability interest of around $6 million relating to fees payable in relation to the Macau Government Gaming Concession and the Cypress Gaming License, and finance lease interest of approximately $6 million relating to City of Dreams Manila. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, back to you for the Q&A.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And we will take our first question. Your first question comes from the line of George Choi from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thank you very much for taking my question. Hi, Lawrence. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Evan. I have a couple of questions, if I may. Firstly, the numbers are suggesting that you guys have lost market share in 2023. I'm just wondering what you guys plan to do to regain your fair market share. And my second question is on capital allocation. Would you please remind us what your capital allocation priorities are? Is there any chance of a dividend resumption? That's all I have. Thank you very much.

All right. Hi, George. It's Lawrence. So, you know, I think clearly, you know, we had lost share in 2023. And I think that's part of the reason for our management change as well. You know, I think post COVID, you know, we did, you know, David did a great job for us during COVID in terms of trying to survive. But, you know, post COVID, I guess, you know, we've continued to cut too deep to the bone in terms of operating expenditure and how we conduct our business. And I'm glad that Chinese New Year, we've had a very strong Chinese New Year so far. And as I said in the prepared remarks, we're substantially above 2019 levels. Our mass GGR was up over 22% from 2019 Chinese New Year. So things are moving in the right direction, even without the recent management changes. So City of Dreams invented the premium mask segment over 10 years ago. And so the goal for us is to really reclaim the crown in the premium mask sector. And in order to do that, I think we need to work together as a team and with some of the new recent appointments to improve the quality of our offering You know, I think, frankly, post-COVID, you know, looking around, you know, we really did, you know, cut way too much of our offering out there. I think that's why we lost some share from that basis. So I think that is being addressed. We have done it, you know, a million times in the past, and, you know, we've enjoyed having the pole position in premium mass for a very long time. So I think the goal is to really reclaim that. I guess your second and third questions were more... Well, I think capital allocation, our number one goal this year, I'll let Jeff elaborate. Our number one goal continues to be debt reduction. So I think that's, you know, our main focus. Of course, we have our maintenance capex and some of the stuff maybe Jeff can.

So clearly the mandate is debt reduction is the number one priority from a capital allocation standpoint. At the same time, we are looking for capital light opportunities to expand the portfolio. but the key laser focus will be on debt reduction.

Well, I think in line with that as well, I think frankly nobody has any other than perhaps Galaxy. None of the operators really have any major, major CapEx projects in Macau because all the land has been used up. I think for us, as we continue to improve the Product offering, we'll look at areas that we can, you know, minor projects that can improve those, but I wouldn't say there are any major capex on the horizon. And with regards to our Macau government investment tender commitment, you know, I think out of the six, we've always had, you know, I think it's public knowledge that we had the lowest amount. And I'm pleased to say that we were the only one last year that fulfilled our full amount. And so I think going forward, even with the additional 20% addition, we're comfortably below everybody else.

That's very good, Khaled. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will take our next question.

Your next question comes from the line of Ricardo from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question. I was hoping you could comment on your OPEX expectations going forward, given that from your recent comments, you guys are probably going to enhance some of the services for your guests, so how should we be thinking about, you know, OPEX for the balance of the year?

Hi, it's Jeff. I'll take the question, and thank you for the question. So, as you know, for the fourth quarter, we came in at $2.6 million per day, and, you know, going forward, we had highlighted that with the opening of the House of Dancing Water, by the end of the year, that's likely to increase our daily OPEX by about 100,000 a day. In relation to some of the measures that Lawrence mentioned about being some customer-centric enhancements that we're considering, I think over the course of 2024, but not immediately, we have somewhere in the neighborhood of another 100,000 per day of enhancements.

Got it. Perfect.

If I may follow up with an additional question, I know that you guys, you know, classify your premium mass customers in several tiers and that, you know, you highlighted some encouraging data regarding, you know, recent performance in the golden week. Is there a tier within your premium mass that is doing slightly better or ahead that the rest of ones? Are they, you know, back to pre-pandemic levels, perhaps a little bit higher? How should we think about, you know, the different, you know, tiers that make up your premium mass business?

Hey, Ricardo. So I think, you know, the you know, the recovery has been pretty broad-based when you refer to premium mass. You know, of course, you know, infrastructure, you know, although visitation from China is rising, you know, infrastructure isn't totally back yet. So I think, if anything, that's affecting more of the general mass or grind mass. But with regards to premium mass, it's pretty across the board in terms of the various sectors that we have. So I wouldn't say there is one or two sectors that is you know, over-indexing or under-indexing.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of John Dicree from CBRE. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe just to start with a housekeeping item for Jeff. If I missed it, I apologize. Did you give or could you give CapEx expectations for 2024? Sure.

You didn't miss it. For 2024, we're looking at CapEx of approximately $360 to $375 million.

Great. Thanks, Jeff. And then maybe to revisit... earlier question a little bit, some of the comment you'd made around pursuing some asset light opportunities to expand the portfolio. Curious if you can elaborate a little bit on that. And I guess, you know, we kind of think in the context of some larger markets that some of your peers and global casino operators are looking at, particularly the UAE is very topical right now. So curious if there's other markets or anything you can kind of elaborate on things that you're looking at externally.

Well, I think it's a bit early as well. So, you know, I think given, you know, we're still climbing out of COVID holes. You know, I think we're looking at some like smaller potential projects, but nothing I think that's, you know, ready to be announced. But in terms of the longer term, bigger projects like UAE or the Thailand, you know, I think we're kicking the tires like everybody else. But As we learn from the Japan process, these things usually take a, you know, it's a multi-year process.

That's fair. Okay. Thank you, Lawrence. Thanks, Jeff.

Thank you. We will take our next question.

Your next question comes from the line of Carl Choi from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, thank you. Two questions.

First, coming back to the question of the new appointments that you mentioned, could you elaborate a little bit on, apart from obviously GGR market share, what are some of the key sort of metrics, sort of KPIs that you're hoping that the new operations people that you're bringing in can achieve this year? And second, can you just talk a bit about the competitive environment? I think on the last call, It was mentioned that reinvestment rate was a little bit elevated perhaps in relation to the fact that premium mass has recovered a little bit faster. So what's the latest in terms of reinvestment rate? And also just curious, some of your peers are rolling out the RFID tables. Is there any plan to do so over at your portfolio as well? Thanks.

Hey, Carl. You know, I think maybe I'll take it and Evan wants to add some color Our RFID tables are coming next month, so we're quite excited to have them. But again, it's going to be a rolling process. I think we're getting them for the first time. There's going to be a learning curve. But I think we're excited to see, to make use of the full potential of these RFID tables. I think in terms of reinvestment, Um, you know, the, the market is very competitive. I think if you look at our competitors results as well, you know, I think you can see it. Um, so I think for us as part of the new plan is, you know, how do we, you know, Melco was always the innovator in terms of product offerings and the service level and being guest centric. So it's about how do we, um, spend the reinvestment wisely. rather than just purely giving things away. I think if you look at the appointments that we have, we are reestablishing our strategic analytics and strategic marketing unit. We're adding in retail. We're adding in hotel and food and beverage. These are all guest-centric, guest-facing experiences that we really care about. I think that will You know, it's been a great solution for us in the past, and I think it will continue to work in the future. I don't know if Evan would want to... Sure.

To continue on what Lawrence articulated, we brought in three senior hires. All of that is really focused on how we're looking at our gaming operations and how do we really get greater efficiency in terms of our spend there. where we're allocating our resource, how we're driving the floor, floor layouts. And so we're looking at that to, again, not just improve our GGR, but also improve some of our efficiency and allocations here as we look at player reinvestment, et cetera. On the retail front, obviously, we have a luxury player at COD and a luxury retail footprint. It's an area that is a focus of improvement. We feel that bringing in someone who's got deep long-term relationships with these key luxury brands is going to help us enhance that offering. That probably is not a today-tomorrow thing, but as we continue to evolve the retail experience, both at COD and SC. And then we brought in a VP of Hotel F&B at COD to just make sure that from a guest and customer experience that we are leading the market once again across all fronts in terms of picking up on some of the OPEX likely to get someone similar at some point here in the future at SC as we look to enhance our bench strength in those areas. In addition, as Lawrence articulated, we've reoriented our sales force under a central point so that we have more centralized focus around the customer experience and customer journey. And we're also doing that in our premium areas as well. And so I think from top to bottom, the view here is that we've reoriented again back to being customer-centric in our approach and making sure that we are leading and innovating across the premium category. The belief is that's going to help us regain the market share, but obviously along the way we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that is efficient in terms of how we're allocating the resources to those efforts.

Great. The cover is very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of Joe Graf from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, Lawrence. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Evan. You obviously talked, as others have, about a strong Chinese New Year's, which is encouraging. Can you talk about – and maybe you didn't. I missed it, but I don't think you did. Can you talk about your views on how you performed in January in relation to the market and as well as in the balance of February outside of Chinese New Year's? You can maybe talk about GGR as a percentage of 2019 or EBITDA per day or some performance metrics. outside of what's been undoubtedly a strong Chinese New Year period.

Hey, Joe. I think the results do fluctuate month to month, and I think clearly the reason that we wanted to make a management change at this time was that we felt we were losing share, and more important to us is not so much the top-line market share. That has never really been the case that we cared about. It was really about EBITDA. But I think month to month, it does fluctuate. Even premium direct VIP, with the win rate, seriously affects that. But I think more importantly, and something actually I was surprised that nobody has really been too focused on, was the additional of the two new Chinese cities that will start accepting visitors on March 3rd. Both Xi'an and Qingdao are two massive cities with over 10 million people and with high disposable income. So I'm actually really excited about that. And I think with our guest-centric and the restructuring that we're doing, I think we should be able to capture a lot of that going forward with the growth. And also, don't forget, there hasn't been any new individual traveler IBS cities in the last 15, 20 years. So if anything, this is a very strong sign of things to come.

Great. That's helpful, Florence. And then the search that's underway right now to replace David is, When do you think your search will be complete and you'll have somebody, whether that's an external, I'm presuming it's an external person, but when that person could be on board?

Well, you know, I think for us, you know, with the new additions and the restructuring, you know, that's probably going to keep us busy for the next couple of months. You know, I think both Evan and I are going to be much more actively involved during that time. I think it's important that we want to find the right candidate going forward. We had a great eight-year run with David, but I think the next candidate really needs to follow the DNA of Malco and what made us great all the years before, which was focused on luxury and amazing, extraordinary guest experiences.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions. I would like to hand back to Jenny Kim for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you for participating in our call today.

We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.