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8/3/2022
today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. Thank you. You may begin your conference.
Thank you, Rex, and good morning to everyone. My name is Michael Russell, Corporate Director of Investor Relations for Cedar Fair. Welcome to today's earnings call to review our 2022 second quarter results and at June 26th, as well as trends we are seeing through this past Sunday, July 31st. Earlier this morning, we distributed via wire service our earnings press release, a copy of which is under the news tab of our investors website at ir.cedarfair.com. On the call with me this morning are Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair President and CEO, and Brian Witherow, our Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, I need to remind you that comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those described in such statements. For a more detailed discussion of these risks, you may refer to the company's filings with the SEC. In compliance with the SEC's regulation FD, this webcast is being made available to the media and the general public, as well as analysts and investors. Because the webcast is open to all constituents and prior notification has been widely and unselectively disseminated, all content on this call will be considered fully disclosed. With that, I'd like to introduce our CEO, Richard Zimmerman. Richard?
Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Let me start today's call by saying I am extremely proud of our team and all that we've accomplished so far this season. Our team's commitment to delighting guests and operating the best parks in the industry has allowed us to achieve record performance coming out of the pandemic. Based on our results over the first half of the year and the strength of long-leaved indicators, I've never had more confidence in our business than I do right now, and I'm excited to see how much fun we can create for our guests and our associates over the balance of the season and into next year. My confidence in the business is driven by several factors. First, and most importantly, are our guest satisfaction scores. Guest satisfaction ratings at our parks this season have been among our highest ever, validating the investments we've made and the initiatives we've implemented to broaden and improve the guest experience. The quality of the guest experience is a direct driver of guest spending which remains at record levels and continues to grow. Second is our overall financial performance. On a trailing 12-month basis through the end of the second quarter, we've generated $509 million of adjusted EBITDA, which surpasses our record performance of 2019. Third, our long lead indicators have never looked better. For the 2022 season, We sold 3.2 million season passes, surpassing 3 million units sold for the first time in company history. This year's total units sold is up more than 20% from our prior record of 2.6 million units sold back in 2019, and at much higher prices. Resort bookings are also pacing well ahead of pre-pandemic levels, allowing us to reap the benefits of the investments we've made to refresh and expand our resort offerings. These strong trends position us well for the balance of the year, particularly considering that we produce roughly 80 percent of the company's adjusted EBITDA in the third and fourth quarter. Finally, the strength and pace of our performance over the first half of the year, combined with our recent monetization of Cedar Fair's valuable real estate in Santa Clara, California, has enabled us to deliver on several key priorities, including reducing net leverage, and establishing a well-defined capital allocation policy to return capital to our unit holders. I'll share more about the importance of these initiatives prior to taking your questions, but I want to emphasize that we have successfully paid off the equivalent of 75% of the pandemic-related debt we took on when our parks were forced to close in 2020. As we continue working towards our net debt target of $2 billion, We believe we are well positioned to achieve net leverage of less than four times adjusted EBITDA by year end. Before I turn things over to Brian to review our financial results in more detail, let me share some additional thoughts on Cedar Fair and why we're so excited about the remainder of the 2022 season and beyond. As we work to get back to pre-pandemic levels, we sharpened our focus to ensure we are meeting or exceeding our most important business objectives. It's especially rewarding to see how the decisions we've made, the capital we've invested, and the initiatives we've deployed over the last few years have resulted in better experiences for our guests and better results for all Cedar Fair unit holders. The breadth and scale of our properties continue to lead the industry. Our extensive offering of unique, high-quality dining options and premium experiences are being wholly embraced by our guests. and our resort properties remain popular destinations for the family staycation, which appears to be in full swing once again in 2022. While it's rewarding to see our revenue channels performing well, I'm equally pleased with how our park GMs have responded to the additional challenge of managing costs in such an inflationary environment. Labor costs are more than half of our operating cost structure. So driving EBITDA growth requires a more efficient utilization of labor, something our teams have successfully executed against this year. I'll wrap up my opening remarks with a few comments about our recent real estate transaction. Just after the close of the second quarter, we sold approximately 117 acres of land located in Santa Clara, California. The land upon which our Great America Park is located was sold for approximately 2.7 million per acre, a significant premium compared to our cost to purchase the land three years ago. While a difficult decision, selling the land at Great America was a generational opportunity to capitalize on a very attractive real estate market, while at the same time allowing us to continue to operate the park for the foreseeable future. The monetization of the real estate also enables us to strategically accelerate our capital allocation priorities, returning capital to all unit holders, and making Cedar Fair a much stronger company going forward. I'll pause here so that Brian can review our financial results in more detail. Brian?
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