Vail Resorts, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Vail Resort's first quarter 2022 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Kirsten Lynch, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2022 first quarter earnings conference call. I am pleased to be with you today on my first earnings call as Chief Executive Officer. Joining me on the call this afternoon is Michael Barkin, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that some information provided during this call may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, as described in our SEC filings, and actual future results may vary materially. Forward-looking statements in our press release issued this afternoon along with our remarks on this call, are made as of today, December 9th, 2021, and we undertake no duty to update them as actual events unfold. Today's remarks also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures are provided in the tables included with our press release, along with our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, were filed this afternoon with the SEC and are also available on the investor relations section of our website, www.valeresorts.com. With that said, let's turn to our fiscal 2022 first quarter results. We are pleased with our results for the quarter, which exceeded our expectations. Performance at our Australian resorts during the first quarter was negatively impacted by COVID-19 related limitations and restrictions, including stay at home orders, and periodic resort closures throughout the quarter. We were able to reopen our Australian resorts for the last few weeks of the ski season, resulting in favorability relative to our expectations. Our Tahoe resorts were negatively impacted by the Kaldor fire, which resulted in the early closure of our summer operations in the region. Aside from these unique challenges, we continued to see strong demand throughout the quarter which we believe highlights our guests' continued desire for outdoor experiences. Turning now to our 2021-2022 North American season pass sales and early season indicators. Pass product sales for the North American ski season increased approximately 47% in units and approximately 21% in sales dollars through December 5th, 2021. as compared to the period in the prior year through December 6, 2020, without deducting for the value of any redeemed credits provided to certain North American pass holders in the prior period. Pass product sales through December 5, 2021 for the 2021-2022 North American ski season increased approximately 76% in units and approximately 45% in sales dollars as compared to the sales for the 2019-2020 North American ski season through December 8, 2019, with past product sales adjusted to include Peak Resorts past sales in both periods. Past product sales are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying an exchange rate of 78 cents between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar in all periods for Whistler Blackcomb past sales. We are very pleased with the results of our season pass sales, which continue to demonstrate the strength of our data analytics capabilities and the compelling value proposition of our past products, driven in part by the 20% price reduction in passes for the 2021-2022 season. We expect that the total number of guests on all advanced commitment products this year will exceed 2.1 million, including all past products for our North American and Australian resorts, representing an increase of approximately 700,000 pass holders from last year and an increase of approximately 900,000 pass holders from two years ago. For the full pass-fail season, we saw strong unit growth from renewing pass holders and significantly stronger unit growth from new pass holders, which includes guests in our database who previously purchased lift tickets or passes but did not buy a pass in the previous season, as well as guests who are completely new to our database. Our most significant unit growth was from our destination markets, particularly in the Northeast. And we also had very strong growth across all of our local markets. We have focused on growing our destination passholder base as we have expanded our network. And over the course of the last two years, we have nearly doubled the number of advanced commitment guests from those markets. Our absolute unit growth was led by our core Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass products. And we also saw very strong growth from our Epic Day Pass products, including Strength and our new Epic Day Pass Limited products, which offer a lower price point for guests not planning to ski at select resorts as we continue to refine our product offering to help move more guests into advanced commitment products. Compared to the period ended December 6, 2020, effective pass price decreased 17% despite the 20% price decrease we implemented this year and the significant growth of our lower-priced Epic Day Pass products, which continue to represent an increasing portion of our total advanced commitment product sales. We significantly outperformed our original expectations for pass sales relative to the estimates we provided when we announced the 20% price decrease in our passes. which was driven by the significant increase in new pass holders and guests trading up to higher value passes. We are encouraged by the indicators of demand heading into the 2021-2022 North American ski season with strong leisure travel demand indicators. Our strong pass sales provide visibility into the robust demand for guests to visit our resorts in the year ahead. Lodging bookings at our U.S. resorts for the upcoming season are trending ahead of pre-COVID-19 levels for the 2019-2020 season, while lodging bookings at Whistler Black Home are lagging 2019-2020 bookings, which we anticipated due to the impact of travel restrictions on international visitors to the resort. Based on historical averages, around half of the bookings for the winter season have been made by this time. so it is important to note that our lodging bookings represent a small portion of the overall lodging inventory around our resort. Our early season conditions have been challenging across the network, resulting in delayed openings and limited open terrain. Many of our resorts are very recently experiencing snowfall and colder temperatures that have been more conducive to snowmaking, which we expect will allow us to expand our open terrain soon. Despite the challenging early season conditions, the success of our advanced commitment strategy allows us to secure a significant amount of our demand and revenue ahead of the season, which creates significant stability for our business. We remain dedicated to continuing to improve the guest experience, reduce wait times, and communicate transparently with guests, especially given the excitement and demand for travel this coming season. As announced on November 16th, we have taken additional steps to prioritize the on-mountain experience of pass holders this season, including limiting lift ticket sales during the three most popular holiday periods, deploying a new operating plan, which includes significantly improving how efficiently we load lifts and gondolas, launching a new daily forecast of lift line wait times in the Epic Mix app, and investing in new lifts and expanded terrain to reduce wait times in order to ensure skiers and riders have an experience of a lifetime at our resorts this season. We are thrilled to welcome guests to all of our resorts as the 2021-2022 North American ski season kicks off with several transformational enhancements to the guest experience. In Colorado, we completed a 250-acre lift-serve terrain expansion in the signature McCoy Park area of Beaver Creek, further differentiating the resort's high-end family-focused experience. We also added a new four-person high-speed lift at Breckenridge to serve the popular Peak 7, replaced the Peru lift at Keystone with a six-person high-speed chairlift, and replaced the Peachtree lift at Crested Butte with a new three-person fixed-grip lift. At Okemo, we completed a transformational investment, including upgrading the Quantum lift to replace the Green Ridge three-person fixed-grip chairlift. In addition to these investments that will greatly improve uplift capacity, We have invested in company-wide technology enhancements, including a number of upgrades to bring a best-in-class approach to how we service our guests through our customer service channels. Now I would like to turn the call over to Michael to further discuss our financial results, our fiscal 2022 outlook, and the Seven Springs acquisition announcement.

Thanks, Kirsten, and good afternoon. As Kirsten mentioned, we are pleased with our first fiscal quarter performance. Net loss attributable to Vail Resorts was $139.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, compared to a net loss attributable to Vail Resorts of $153.8 million in the same period in the prior year. Resort reported EBITDA was a loss of $108.4 million in the first fiscal quarter, which compares to resort reported EBITDA loss of $94.8 million in the same period in the prior year. Both periods continued to be negatively impacted by COVID-19 and related limitations and restrictions. Additionally, the prior year period included the recognition of $15.4 million of lift revenue associated with the expiration of the credit offers that were made to 2019-2020 past product holders in connection with COVID-19 related closures. We remain focused on our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our liquidity position remains strong, and we are confident in the free cash flow generation and stability of our business model. Our total cash and revolver availability as of October 31st, 2021, was approximately $2.1 billion, with $1.5 billion of cash on hand, $417 million of revolver availability under the Vale Holdings Credit Agreement and $220 million of revolver availability under the Whistler-Blackcomb Credit Agreement. As of October 31st, 2021, our net debt was 2.6 times trailing 12 months total reported EBITDA, and we exited the temporary waiver period under the Vale Holdings Credit Agreement effective October 31st, 2021. I'm also pleased to announce that our board of directors has declared a cash dividend on Bell Resorts common stock. The dividend will be 88 cents per share of common stock and will be payable on January 11th, 2022 to shareholders of record on December 28th, 2021. This dividend payment equates to 50% of pre-pandemic levels consistent with our prior quarter cash dividend and reflects our continued confidence in the strong free cash flow generation and stability of our business model, despite the ongoing risks associated with COVID-19. Our board of directors will continue to closely monitor the economic and public health outlook on a quarterly basis to assess the level of our quarterly dividend going forward. Moving now to our fiscal 2022 outlook. Given our first quarter results and the indicators we are seeing for the upcoming season, we are reaffirming our resort reported EBITDA guidance for fiscal 2022 of $785 million to $835 million that was included in our September earnings release based on the assumptions incorporated at that time, including foreign currency exchange rates. Our guidance includes an estimated $2 million of acquisition-related expenses specific to Seven Springs, but does not include any estimate for the closing costs, operating results, or integration expense associated with the Seven Springs acquisition. which is expected to close later this winter. We are encouraged by our very strong pass sales heading into the season, our favorable first quarter results, and the strong demand we are seeing across leisure travel and in our U.S. booking trends. It's important to note that our growth in pass sales is expected to be partially offset by reduced lift ticket sales as we continue to successfully convert guests from lift tickets to pass products. Additionally, we anticipate modest offsets from limiting lift ticket sales during the three most popular holiday periods across our North American resorts to prioritize access for pass holders. Early season conditions have been challenging, resulting in delayed openings and limited terrain across many of our resorts. And we anticipate that these conditions will have a negative impact on our results leading up to the holidays. But the North American ski season has just begun with our primary earnings period still in front of us. There continues to be uncertainty regarding the ultimate impact of COVID-19 on our business results in fiscal year 2022, including any response to changing COVID-19 guidance and regulations by the various governmental bodies that regulate our operations and resort communities, as well as changes in travel and consumer behavior resulting from COVID-19. Our guidance for fiscal year 2022 assumes normal weather conditions, excuse me, assumes normal weather and conditions from the holiday period onward and no impact from incremental travel or operating restrictions associated with COVID-19 that could negatively impact our results. The company revised its segment reporting to move certain dining and golf operations from the lodging segment to the mountain segment, consistent with how those operations are managed. The expected result of this reporting revision is a shift of approximately $6 million from lodging reported EBITDA to mountain reported EBITDA for our fiscal 2022 guidance relative to our guidance that was included in our September earnings release. This shift has no impact on expected net income attributable to Vail Resorts or resort reported EBITDA. We were thrilled to share our announcement yesterday that we entered into an agreement to acquire Seven Springs Mountain Resort Hidden Valley Ski Resort, and Laurel Mountain Ski Area in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Seven Springs is a leading regional destination in western Pennsylvania, serving guests in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. These resorts create yet another opportunity for us to bring skiers and riders into the Vail Resorts network, providing guests with the opportunity to ski close to home and at world-class destination resorts on the same pass product. We will be acquiring Seven Springs for a purchase price of approximately $125 million, subject to certain adjustments. We estimate that Seven Springs will generate incremental annual EBITDA in excess of $15 million in the company's fiscal year ending July 31st, 2023, which includes approximately $5 million for the 418-room Slopeside Hotel and its associated conference facilities and lodging operations. The ongoing capital expenditures associated with the Seven Springs operations are expected to be approximately $3 million per year. We plan to add access to the three resorts to our Epic Pass products for the 2022-2023 North American ski season. The transaction is expected to close this winter. I'll now turn the call back over to Kirsten.