United Parks & Resorts Inc.

Good day and welcome to the United Parks and Resorts fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to United Parks and Resorts' fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our Investor Relations website at www.unitedparksinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release, and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Mark Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Michalczyk, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 financial results, and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors may be updated from time to time and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics, such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward-looking statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is included in our earnings release available on our website and can also be found in our filings with the SEC. Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Swanson. Mark?

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to start today by taking the opportunity to welcome Jim Michalicek, our new CFO, to the team at United Parks and Resorts. Jim has been on board with us for a few months now, and we are pleased to have him here with his strong financial background and experience in the hospitality and leisure industry. I'd also like to thank Jim Forrester for his past service as interim CFO and treasurer I'm glad both gyms are here as the team works to continue to manage this unique company and take advantage of the clear and meaningful opportunities we have to grow the business and realize substantial value for all stakeholders. Before we turn to the quarterly and annual results, I want to point out that we uploaded a presentation to our investor relations site. That includes some supplemental information that covers topics we have heard from our investors that they would like covered, as well as some other important points that we want to get across. I will refer to these slides later in my remarks. With that, let me get into our results. We are pleased to report another quarter and fiscal year of strong financial results. In the fourth quarter, we delivered near record attendance, record in part per capita, and near-record total revenue per capita, despite particularly poor weather impacting the quarter. For the full year, we delivered near-record revenue, record in-park per capita, and record total revenue per capita, despite unfavorable weather during the year. We have now grown in-park per capita for 18 of the last 19 quarters and total revenue per capita for seven straight years. Our revenue strategies are working and continue to demonstrate our pricing power and the strength of consumer spending in our parks. We have had a pretty bad run of unusually poor weather over the last couple of years. Fourth quarter and fiscal year results were impacted by meaningfully worse weather, including hurricanes Debbie in August, Helene in September, and Milton in October. We estimate that the combined impact of the meaningfully worse weather was approximately 167,000 guests in the fourth quarter and 432,000 guests for the fiscal year. Adjusting for these impacts, we estimate that fourth quarter attendance would have increased approximately 2% compared to the prior year quarter, and full year 2024 attendance would have increased approximately 2% compared to 2023. We repurchased 9.4 million shares, or approximately 15% of our total shares outstanding last year, underscoring our history of returning excess cash to our shareholders, our strong belief in the highly compelling value of our shares, and our strong cash flow generation. We are excited about the clear opportunity we have to drive meaningfully more attendance to our parks, grow total per capita spending, manage and reduce cost, and realize significant additional value from our strategic growth initiatives. We have high confidence in our ability to continue to deliver operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. We are excited about our plans for 2025, including the meaningful investments we have made across our parks and business, and an incredible lineup of new, one-of-a-kind rides and attractions, popular events, improved in-park venues, and offerings across our parks. We are pleased with our overall 2025 booking trends and are particularly happy to see our 2025 international sales growth up mid-single digits and our 2025 group bookings growth up double digits. Assuming no worse weather than we experienced in 2024, we expect meaningful growth and new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA in 2025. I want to thank our ambassadors for all their hard work and dedication as we start 2025. In 2024, we received numerous industry accolades, including SeaWorld Orlando being voted as the number three nation's best amusement park by USA Today readers. Aquatica Orlando voted as the number two for the nation's best outdoor water park by USA Today readers. Discovery Cove was awarded the 2024 Best Family Travel Award by Good Housekeeping. And Busch Gardens Williamsburg was named the world's most beautiful theme park for the 34th consecutive year by the National Amusement Park Historical Association. For 2025, we have an outstanding lineup of new rides and attractions, popular events, and new and improved in-park venues and offerings across our parks. Our rides and attractions include the following. At SeaWorld Orlando, a family-friendly, immersive flying experience taking guests on a journey to the top of the world to soar through the skies over the Arctic and dive into the icy depths. In San Diego, we have Jewels of the Sea, a captivating aquarium featuring multiple galleries, including one of the largest jelly cylinders in the country, as well as a multimedia experience. Also, Journey to Atlantis, SeaWorld San Diego's first coaster, will be reinvented. paying tribute to the original beloved version while adding new elements to create a more exciting and immersive experience than before. We have Rescue Junior at SeaWorld San Antonio, an all-new kid-friendly realm featuring animal rescue-themed rides and a water play area. In Busch Gardens Williamsburg, we have The Big Bad Wolf, The Wolf's Revenge, the longest Family Inverted Coaster in North America will take riders through over 2,500 feet of track at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. We have Wild Oasis at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, an all-new realm featuring the sights and sounds of the rainforest, a newly reimagined drop tower featuring digital sound effects, and an interactive water play wonderland. a multi-level climbing canopy, and an all-new multi-species animal habitat for up-close encounters. At Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, we will be celebrating the 45th birthday celebration. This birthday celebration will kick off in the spring of 2025, featuring furry birthday fun all spring and summer long. Fan favorite entertainment across the park will be transformed with birthday-themed visits, including the return of the spectacular fan-favorite Sesame Street Birthday Parade. And finally, at WaterCountry USA, we have High Tide Harbor, an all-new multi-level water play structure designed for families to explore together. This exciting area features over 100 interactive water elements, including cannons, sprayers, and tipping fountains, ensuring endless fun for kids of all ages. With vibrant and dynamic water activities, High Tide Harbor promises to be the ultimate family-friendly destination for staying cool. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased 0.8 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $37.7 million. In 2024, we repurchased 9.4 million shares of common stock, or approximately 15%, of total shares outstanding at a total cost of approximately $482.9 million. The board and company strongly believe our shares continue to be materially undervalued. We have confidence in our business, our growth prospects, and the value of our assets. Any reasonable way you look at it, we feel we are materially undervalued and that there is significant upside opportunity in our current share price. Our balance sheet continues to be strong. Our December 31st, 2024 net total leverage ratio is 2.94 times, and we had approximately $798.4 million of total available liquidity, including approximately $115.9 million of cash on the balance sheet. This strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to operate it and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. Now, turning our attention to the slides that we posted, as I mentioned earlier, we have created a presentation that addresses certain topics we have heard from our shareholders that they would like to be covered and some important points that we would like to get across. So going to slide five, the disciplined capital allocation strategy, On this slide, we have outlined our capital allocation strategy, which is consistent with what we shared last year. We have a thoughtful and clear capital allocation philosophy, where we consider the highest and best use for our excess capital across four buckets. The first bucket, investing in the business. The second bucket, debt pay down. The third bucket, M&A. And the fourth bucket, return capital to shareholders. Investing in the business is focused on three areas, continuing our ongoing maintenance spend to ensure our parks are well-maintained, continuing our cadence of new rides, attractions, shows, and events in our parks, creating new reasons to visit, and identifying and executing on high-conviction, high-ROI initiatives. As you see on the next page, we expect to typically spend approximately $150 million to $175 million per year on core capex and up to $50 million per year on expansion and ROI capex. Looking at debt paydown, we are comfortable with current leverage levels and expect further deleveraging from future EBITDA growth. Given our low leverage levels and the current cost of debt, paying down debt is not a current priority. Regarding M&A, we will opportunistically pursue M&A when attractive opportunities present themselves, but at present, no M&A opportunities are currently contemplated. The company has and will continue to aggressively return capital to shareholders when it makes sense to do so in the form that makes the most sense. We have repurchased over $1.5 billion in shares since January of 2019, which is about 32 million shares, about 38% of the shares outstanding. For the avoidance of doubt, the Board, the larger shareholder, and management believe our shares are materially undervalued and that buybacks remain attractive. The Board is working through governance and other related dynamics to allow for a potential new buyback authorization. Finally, as you know, the Board is highly aligned with shareholder interest. Turning to the next slide, slide number six, disciplined capital spend strategy. We have a clear and disciplined capital spend philosophy that is also consistent with what we presented last year. As a reminder, we think about capital spending in two buckets, the first bucket being core capex and the second being bucket being expansion and ROI CapEx. We estimate that our core CapEx will typically run between $150 and $175 million on an annual basis. This is spend that we estimate supports growth in revenue and EBITDA in line with long-term base business expected growth rates. This amount includes maintenance CapEx and new rides and attractions CapEx. We estimate that our expansion and ROI capex will run between approximately zero and $50 million on an annual basis. This is the spend that supports growth in excess of normalized levels and includes high conviction projects with 20% plus ROI unlevered cash on cash returns, including revenue generating and cost savings projects, park expansions, new properties, et cetera. In total, we expect normalized capex of approximately $150 million to $225 million on an annual basis. Turning to slide seven, capital spend update. This slide provides some more color on our 2024 capital spend and on our expected 2025 capital spend. As discussed in prior calls, given our significant excess cash flow generation in recent years, Our board challenged us to pursue more than our normal cadence of ROI projects in 2023. As such, we spent significantly more on ROI CapEx in 2023 than we would normally spend and took on more projects than we would typically take on. Some of these projects were completed on schedule and delivered the expected ROI. Others were delayed due to some combination of weather and us taking on more projects than we probably should have. As discussed on previous calls, this led to certain operational disruptions in certain periods in some of our parks and was a headwind to performance in certain parks at certain times. Good news is we learned from our experience in 2023 and we adjusted our approach in 2024. There were some remaining planned projects that we committed to in 2023 that we finished up in 2024 that took our 2024 ROI CapEx roughly $20 million above the high end of our normalized ROI spend target. In 2025, we currently expect to spend approximately $225 million of capex split between $175 million of core capex and $50 million of expansion and ROI capex. We feel very good about these ROI projects and have high conviction on their impact in 2025 and beyond. Turning to slide eight, our 2025 attraction lineup. On this page, we highlight our new ride and attraction lineup for 2025 that we are particularly excited about. It's among one of the best lineups we have ever had. On slide nine, capital spend significant free cash flow generation. We lay out the significant discretionary free cash flow generation of our business. The slide speaks for itself. and shows the high free cash flow conversion of our business and over $400 million of normalized levered free cash flow that this business should be expected to generate on an annual basis. Turning to slide 10, strategic initiatives update. Let me speak to some of our current strategic initiatives. First, on hotels, we continue to be excited about the opportunity we have and have discussions with and have ongoing discussions with potential partners you're taking our time to make sure we optimize the outcome here and no longer expect to have our first hotel open in 2026 we will keep you updated on the status of discussions and timing in the coming quarters second point is on real estate monetization as you know we own over 2,000 acres of valuable land and including approximately 400 acres of unused land. There are discussions with potential partners on ways to unlock and or monetize this land so as to realize appropriate value for shareholders. We will update you on our progress over the coming quarters. The third point is around sponsorships. We have been working over the past several months on various sponsorship opportunities that leverage our valuable assets and customer database. We expect this opportunity could eventually exceed $20 million in high margin revenue, of which we expect to realize mid to high single digits in 2025. The fourth point is on international. We continue to be in discussions with partners on this front in various geographies and look forward to sharing more with you in the near future. The fifth point is around IP partnerships. We are in discussions with various partners to bring globally recognized IP to our parks via new rides, attractions, and or exciting activations. And finally, the sixth initiative is around a variety of other areas, including our mobile app, CRM, park enhancements, and technology investments all which we expect will help drive growth in the near term and over the coming years. Turning to the next slide, titled Epic, this next slide is a slide that covers a recent favorite topic of discussion, the coming opening of Universal's Epic Universe Park in May of this year. First off, we're excited about the opportunity related to the opening of Epic Universe and welcoming our new neighbor. Second, we expect the park to be a great park and a great addition to the Orlando market. Third, we expect the opening of the park to lead to strong visitation to the Orlando market. Fourth, as we have indicated in the past, we welcome investment in the Orlando market, which we believe in benefits the entire market. It is because of this type of investment that Orlando is the most visited city in the United States. attracting approximately 75 million visitors annually, up from approximately 40 million visitors 25 years ago. And fifth, like others, we have been preparing for the opening of EPIC and are confident in our ability to get our fair share of visitors in the market. Lastly, we are really excited about our new revolutionary immersive arctic flying experience attraction we will be opening this year in Orlando, and our other planned new and exciting elements we will be introducing to our Orlando park and announcing soon. Turning to slide 12, this next page shows how we have grown our EBITDA over the last 50 plus years as more capital was invested in the Orlando market and more and more parks were built and opened. Again, we welcome investment and we expect more investment in the coming decade and more visitation to the market and will be a benefit for market participants. Turning to slide 13, this is around the meaningful opportunity to grow attendance by returning to historical levels. We have shown this slide before. If we return total attendance to 2019 levels, that would be approximately 5 percent growth in attendance compared to 2024. If we return attendance to 2008 levels, our historical high, that would represent approximately 18% growth in attendance compared to 2024. If we achieve attendance levels where each park returns to its historical high level of attendance, that would represent a 25% increase in attendance compared to 2024. The point here is we have clear and ample opportunity to grow attendance just by returning to levels we have previously achieved, ignoring population growth, sector share gains, et cetera. Slide 14, drivers of future attendance growth. On this slide, we lay out a roadmap of how we think about attendance growth beyond returning to historical levels. We have several ways we plan to grow attendance. First, one would be benefiting from population growth. with our addressable markets growing in excess of U.S. national average. The second one would be improving our marketing effectiveness, including growing awareness, increasing conversion, and optimizing our media spend. Third, creating new reasons for people to visit, such as new and expanded rides, attractions, events, and shows. Fourth, growing our season pass base and visitation per member. Fifth, realize the benefits of our CRM build-out and optimize the strategy around that. Sixth, increase our focus on group sales across youth, corporate, and other buyouts. Seven, renewed focus on international sales and the continued recovery in international visitation. Eighth, developing and growing our loyalty program And finally, number nine, executing on our strategic initiatives. Overall, we have confidence in our near-, mid-, and long-term strategy with respect to these drivers. Slide 15 talks about the drivers of per-cap growth. On this slide, we show expected growth for admissions and in-park per-caps. You can study these slides on your own as they are fairly self-explanatory. The takeaway is that we have We are confident and believe our current per caps are sustainable and have further upside. We think about growing our per caps in line with inflation and then beyond inflation through our inherent pricing power and the various initiatives we lay out on these pages. Importantly, on the admissions per cap slide, while we expect to grow admissions per cap at these rates over time, we are first and foremost targeting total revenue growth. As such, there may be from time to time times when we choose to focus on growing attendance versus growing admissions per caps. The next slide, slide 16, talks about cost efficiency and cost reductions, and it outlines our current cost efficiency and reduction initiatives. As you can see on this page, we have currently identified approximately $75 million of cost efficiency and reduction initiatives, which includes $40 million that we have identified in prior years and are working on in 2025, and $35 million in new initiatives we will work on in 2025. Of this $75 million, we expect $50 million of realized cost savings in 2025, with the remaining cost savings being achieved in 2026. along with other cost initiatives we develop over the course of this year. As you know, cost discipline and management has been and will continue to be a relentless focus of our management team, and we have a track record of delivering on these activities. Slide 17 is the United Parks and Resorts Illustrative Adjusted EBITDA. This is a slide we've previously discussed in past years. As a reminder, this illustration is not meant to be guidance. It is just meant as a simple illustration to show what we believe the earnings power of this business would be at 2019 attendance levels and if we return to 2008 historical peak attendance levels while growing our total per capita revenue along with the cost-saving opportunities and strategic initiative opportunities we have noted. As you can see from the illustration, this business has the potential to do between $1 billion and $1.2 billion of adjusted EBITDA under those scenarios excluding cost inflation. Again, just a reminder, this is not guidance, but rather a simple illustration. As we have said before, Our business model is fairly simple and not complicated. If we get a little attendance growth, a little per cap growth, and we remain disciplined and focused on cost management, the EBITDA potential of this business is substantially higher than what we achieved in 2024. The next slide, United Parks Valuation Overview, outlines the current public market valuation of our shares. As you can imagine, this page makes us quite frustrated. Public market is currently valuing our company at around seven times forward EBITDA and around 11 times forward unlevered free cash flow and at around a 12% levered free cash flow yield. We operate in an industry that historically was valued at over 11 times EBITDA and we strongly believe And we strongly believe we deserve to trade at a much higher multiple than seven times EBITDA. Also, we should note these forward multiples are based off of Wall Street consensus estimates, which are below our internal plans and expectations. The next slide talks about trading at significant discount despite outperformance. And on this slide, I think it points out something that continues to be frustrating, our performance compared with leisure, hospitality, and entertainment company peers. As you can see, we have outperformed, in many cases significantly so, our peer groups, and yet trade at the lowest multiple of any of our peers. Again, this continues to be incredibly frustrating to us. The next slide talks about the implied future stock price. We simply show here what our implied share price would be if we traded in line with our peer groups or at discounts to our peer groups. Any reasonable way you look at it, we feel we are materially undervalued and that there is significant upside opportunity in our current share price. So, let's go to slide 21, the key takeaways, and I'll close with those. The first one, we had strong 2024 performance despite unusually bad weather. The second one, we have a disciplined capital spend strategy with approximately $150 million to $225 million in normalized annual CapEx spend. Third, we have significant discretionary free cash flow generation. Fourth, we have meaningful upside opportunity from executing on strategic initiatives such as hotels, real estate, international licensing, IP partnerships, and sponsorships. Five, we are positioned to opportunistically benefit from increased visitation to the Orlando market. Six, we see a path to $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA with multiple levers to drive value and further upside. And seven, we believe the company is extremely undervalued despite significant outperformance relative to peers. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jim to discuss our financial results in more detail. Jim.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As Mark said at the outset of his remarks, I also want to take this opportunity to thank Jim Forrester for the work he did in the interim CFO role for the company. But moreover, his personal assistance in transitioning me into this role has been both gracious and an invaluable resource. Before getting underway, I just want to say how pleased and proud I am to be part of the team at United Parks. If not obvious before Mark's comments and the slides prepared by the team, he certainly put an exclamation on the opportunities and value we have in front of all of us. This is an incredible company with a remarkable group of ambassadors complete with valuable and irreplaceable assets and a differentiated experiential business model. The company has accomplished a significant amount historically, but I can tell you, having only been here for a few months, we have only scratched the surface in terms of realizing this company's full potential. I cannot be more excited to get after the meaningful growth opportunities that Mark alluded to earlier in the call and to deliver increased value for our shareholders and all stakeholders. With that, let me turn to our financial results. During the fourth quarter, we generated total revenue of $384.4 million, a decrease of $4.6 million, or 1.2% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The decrease in total revenue is primarily a result of a decrease in attendance, partially offset by an increase in total revenue per capita. Attendance for the fourth quarter of 2024 decreased by approximately 79,000 guests, or 1.6% when compared to the prior year quarter. The decrease in attendance was primarily due to meaningfully worse weather, largely due to Hurricane Milton, compared to the prior year quarter. As Mark mentioned, the combined impact of the adverse weather was approximately 167,000 guests. Adjusting for these impacts, attendance would have increased approximately 2% compared to the prior year quarter. Total revenue per capita increased 0.4 percent. Admission per capita decreased 1.9 percent, and in part per capita spending increased 3.5 percent. Admission per capita decreased primarily due to the impact of lower pricing on certain promotional admission products when compared to the prior year quarter. In part per capita spending improved primarily due to pricing initiatives when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Operating expenses increased $2.6 million, or 1.4%, when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase in operating expenses is primarily due to increased non-cash adjustments when compared to the prior year quarter. Selling general and administrative expenses increased $4.8 million, or 10.6%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase in selling, general, and administrative expense is primarily due to increased marketing initiatives compared to the prior year quarter. We generated net income of $27.9 million for the fourth quarter compared to net income of $40.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $144.5 million, a decrease of $6 million when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBIT had declined due to a decrease in revenues and increase in expenses used to calculate adjusted EBIT relative to the prior year quarter. Looking at our results for the fiscal year 2024 compared to 2023, total revenue was $1.73 billion, a decrease of $1.3 million or 0.1%. Total attendance was 21.5 million guests. a decrease of approximately 59,000 guests, or 0.3%. Net income for the year was $227.5 million, a decrease of $6.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $700.2 million, a decrease of $13.3 million, or 1.9%. Now turning to our balance sheet, as Mark mentioned, we further strengthened our already strong balance sheet and liquidity position. As of December 31, 2024, we had approximately $798.4 million in total available liquidity, including $115.9 million of cash on the balance sheet. Our net total leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 2.94 times. This gives us considerable flexibility to continue to invest and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. In December, we refinanced our term loan B, locking in a more favorable interest rate that will save the company approximately $8 million in annual interest expense going forward. Earlier this year, we also increased the size of our revolver by $310 million, providing us even more access to liquidity to take advantage of potential opportunities. Under our $500 million repurchase authorization from the Board during the fourth quarter, we repurchased 0.8 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $37.7 million. For the fiscal year 2024, we repurchased 9.4 million shares of common stock, or approximately 15% of total shares outstanding. at a total cost of approximately $482.9 million. Our deferred revenue balance as of the end of December was $152.7 million, a decrease of approximately 1.9% when compared to December of 2023. As a reminder, our deferred revenue balance contains a number of products that include ticketing, vacation packages, annual and seasonal passes, and ancillary products. We also continue to see many pass holders who have been with us for at least a year who transitioned to month-to-month payments at the completion of their initial pass commitment. This month-to-month revenue does not show up in deferred revenue and demonstrates continued pass holder loyalty. Our year-over-year pass base was higher through the end of the fourth quarter 2024. Our year-end 2024 pass base, including all past products, was up 0.4% compared to year-end 2023. Last quarter, we launched our best past benefits program ever for 2025, which has led to low single-digit increases in past prices, which we expect will drive a strong pass base for the remainder of the year. We spent $26.2 million on CapEx in the fourth quarter of 2024, of which approximately $22.3 million was on core CapEx and approximately $3.9 million was on expansion or ROI projects. For 2024, we spent $248.4 million on CapEx, including $177.7 million on core CapEx and $70.7 million on high conviction growth and ROI projects. For 2025, we expect to spend approximately $225 million of CapEx, $175 million on core CapEx, and approximately $50 million on CapEx for growth and ROI projects. And we believe this represents a normalized spending basis with expectation to spend $150 to $175 million on core CapEx, rides, attractions, and maintenance. and up to $50 million on ROI growth capex with a clear and supportable return. With that, let me turn the call back over to Mark, who will share some final thoughts.

Mark. Thanks, Jim. Before we open the call to your questions, I just have some closing comments. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we came to the aid of over 100 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 41,000 animals including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. Again, I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. We're excited about our ongoing and upcoming events this quarter, including Mardi Gras at our SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks, Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld parks, and the Food and Wine Festival at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. I want to thank our ambassadors for their efforts during our recent holiday season and their preparation for our current and upcoming events this spring. Needless to say, we continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful long-term growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and in our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that we expect will lead to meaningful increased value for stakeholders. Now, we can take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. We ask that you limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up and to return to the queue for any additional questions you may have. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Steve Wazinski with Steevil. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. So, Mark, if we could start with your commentary about how you guys are thinking 2025 is going to be – A record year for EBITDA, assuming weather is normal. And I guess that we went back to this time last year. I think we kind of heard the same commentary. And obviously, you guys didn't make that. And it seems like mostly due to weather. So I guess my question is, even if we assume weather is normal for the year. you know, is it still possible to achieve record EBITDA given the, you know, the opening of Epic, which, you know, Mark, you talked about in your prepared remarks and, and maybe, you know, how you guys are thinking about the impact from Epic or, you know, maybe help us think about how other new park openings impacted or, you know, really didn't impact your assets in Orlando.

Yeah. Hey, Steve, I can, I can help you with that question. I mean, I think with Epic, you know, Look, it's a great opportunity for us. The park is relatively close to where we're located, and I think what excites us is the opportunity that we have to pick off the number of people that we expect are going to come visit that park and in Orlando. So seeing that type of high-quality, great asset investment into a market that we're a significant participant in we view as a positive so I think you know that bringing more people here here is a good thing right we just then have to execute on on our plans and I talked about some of the things that we're doing one would be obviously the the new ride that we have here in Orlando we're really excited about that and there's going to be more coming out about that soon But it's a ride that you get at SeaWorld. It has an animal component to it, and I think that's one of our things. We are a differentiated product than the universal parks. We are, I think, a better value. We have a good value proposition. And those, among lots of other things, give us confidence that we can continue to participate in the market growth. We showed that slide in the deck there that, you know, we've been here since the early 1970s. And if you think about all the things that have opened over that time, and we have continued to participate in the EBITDA growth of the market. So, you know, putting that all together, I do think we can continue to grow in 2025, as you noted, and certainly we're going to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us.

Okay. Thanks for that, Mark. That's good color. And then, Second question, Mark, you made an interesting comment on slide 18. You say in that box there, you guys think 2025 and 2026 Wall Street consensus is significantly below your internal plan and expectations. So I'm not sure this is even a question, but, you know, just want you to maybe, you know, opine a little more about, you know, what that means or maybe a better way to ask this is, you know, what do you think Wall Street is getting wrong or underestimating with, you know, estimates at this point?

Well, I think we showed on that slide, and I'm going to flip to it, but I think the consensus for next year was, like, not even $700 million. So, I mean, we – I couldn't – it is – I'm sorry. The consensus for next year is $701 in adjusted EBITDA. I mean, that would just be totally unacceptable for us to achieve that, and we would have – I can tell you our internal plans and expectations are – and obviously significantly higher than that. We have to execute on those plans. But I think, you know, it's all the things I went through that I think when you step back and add them all up, there's a lot of value in this business. There's a lot of things we are doing to try to drive that value. And I'm not sure it's always readily understood. So we're just pointing out, I mean, if we would be incredibly disappointed if we did not outperform these consensus estimates. And I think I would encourage you to, and I know you do, Steve, I'm not saying you in particular, but just everyone to review, you know, the strategies, the strategic initiatives, our history of growing per caps, 18 out of the last 19 quarters for in-park per cap, seven years in a row for total revenue per cap. I mean, there's things we're doing I think have established a pretty good track record. We just have to continue to execute on those.

Okay, gotcha. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it. Yep.

The next question comes from James Hardiman with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. This is Sean Rooney on for James. What can you tell us about 1Q trends so far? specific weather headwinds or anything like that to call out so far this year?

Yeah. Hey, uh, yeah, I think the, the first quarter, I mean, it's pretty well reported. I think January was, you know, abnormally cold and in, in Florida, I think the coldest we had since 2010. And I think we've seen some improvement in that obviously in February, but, you know, I would say overall, um, you know, very, um, And I can tell you, I mean, our attendance is up on a day-to-day basis through this past Sunday. So, you know, we see growth there. We'll continue to see what develops the rest of the quarter. January and February obviously are relatively small months in the quarter. And then, you know, you've got to factor in you have a negative Easter shift that's going to occur later on this quarter. That will hurt Q1. but benefit Q2. So once you get through the end of April, it all normalizes out. But if you're looking at Q1 in particular, that'll be a headwind and then a positive in Q2 when Easter shifts to Q2.

Got it. And then just curious about if you've seen any evidence of or have any expectation for visitation deferral at your Florida parks ahead of EPIC openings?

Yeah, I mean, I think what I can say is, you know, people are going to come, we believe, to Orlando more so than when that park opens. I think right now, you know, I don't know that we see a clear deferral or anything. I think what I would remind you is we get a lot of our tenants from the state of Florida. We get a good portion of our tenants from people that are local or nearby to the Orlando area. So we're not fully or wholly dependent on a domestic traveler or an international traveler, which might be a little bit different than some of our competitors in the Orlando market. We get a good amount of attendance from Florida. So we'll see what develops, but we're excited for the opportunity, obviously, of having more people in the market.

The next question comes from Thomas Yeh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and thanks for all the additional color from the slides. I thought the 75 million annual visitor number for Orlando is interesting. Mark, the response to the last question suggesting that that's in addition to the existing local market that you typically penetrate, and do you have any expectation of how much that market expansion will occurs from new competition coming in this year. And maybe just as it relates to your strategy, should we expect an emphasis on growing revenues through attendance versus per capita this year? Since there potentially would be some more appetite, I'd imagine, to run more promotions on the edge to drive more visitors and capture some of the incremental market. And then as a follow-up, any updates on any anticipation for marketing support or labor wage dynamics to think about as we think about kind of modeling the expense growth for the next year?

All right. Sure. Let me try to unpack a couple of those questions. So first on pricing, I think, again, take a look at the slide we shared. But, look, our goal every year is to grow pricing, right? But our main focus is driving total revenue. So as we said, we're going to focus on driving total revenue. We might be promotional at times, but we do think over time we can grow pricing. And so that's our goal, but there may be times that we focus more on total revenue. And then you've got a lot of mixed components that can impact your per caps as well. But the focus is on growing total revenue, and that's what we'll continue to focus on. As far as the market, I mean, again, we do get here in Orlando a lot of our visitation from people that are in Florida or close to Florida. Having said that, I mean, we get maybe 25% or so of our attendance at the big park somewhere at SeaWorld Orlando. In that range is domestic tourism. A lot of those people we know drive here. Some fly here. So there's an opportunity to still capture incremental people that come here. So it's not like we don't have any tourists visit our park. We do. I don't want to imply that we don't. And those are the folks that we have to, I think, do a good job of picking off. And, again, compelling product, differentiated product, value proposition that we feel good about, the new rides, events, other things we're going to be doing in our parks in Orlando this year. You add all those things up, and that's what gives us confidence that if we execute like we think we can, we should get some share, like you said, of the increased visitation to the market. And I think finally you asked about wage and things like that, wage pressures perhaps I think is what you were asking about. Look, we have a simple definition. kind of way we look at it, we know there's going to be cost pressures in certain things every year, right? Every year you're going to have some things that are growing more than others. And our goal with our cost savings initiatives and reductions is to try to offset those as much as we can. And if you look at, I think, 2024 versus 2023, if you look at the cost that we use to calculate adjusted EBITDA, we manage those to a very low growth rate. So I think we demonstrated that we can manage our cost and either use those savings to offset other areas that are growing more than we'd like or make reinvestments in other areas. So I don't know if I want to comment on anything specifically, but that's our general view on that.

I appreciate the color. Thank you.

The next question comes from Lizzie Dove with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Thanks for taking the question. The opportunity on the slides was interesting. I think you called out the kind of returning to 2008 attendance or peak attendance, which is, you know, pretty significant growth from where we are now. I'm curious what has been the gating factor to getting there in recent years? Maybe international is part of it, but I do think that the international deployments are actually up now versus 2019, and what the kind of key pathways are to kind of at least get a little bit closer to that.

Yeah, thanks, Lizzie. I can help you with that question, and you're right. It's an illustration, like you said, so not meant to be guidance or anything like that. But I think the point there is we once achieved – the attendance numbers we showed. And kind of unpacking that, some of the headwind more recently here has been obviously the international. So while international is improved over 2023, it's still down to 2019, probably in the range of for the full year period, you know, 30% or actually probably more than that, 35, 36% down for the full year of 24 versus 19. So, you know, if you go back, we talked in the past that international back in 2019 was about 10% of our attendance. So that, you know, translates to over 2 million people. So if you're still down, you know, mid 30s, percent in that, that's a pretty meaningful decline still that could be a tailwind ahead of us, right? And we've seen, as I said in my prepared remarks, the bookings coming out of that internationally are up. And we saw in the fourth quarter of 24 better performance in international versus 19 than we had seen in kind of more recent quarters. So I think we're we're headed in the right direction. We have, uh, more, more, more to go though, obviously. And then I think the other opportunity is really, um, capturing more attendance in the summertime. And I think there's opportunities there, uh, with, with some of our events, our attractions, our shows, that type of thing that should, should, um, you know, allow us to have the opportunity to do that. We've got to execute on, uh, obviously, and to your point, we, we, um, we need to demonstrate that. So summer is another opportunity we have to capture some attendance on a go-forward basis.

Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. And then I guess just moving on to the kind of capital allocation and strategic optionality side of things, you know, you mentioned possibility of another buyback authorization. Leverage has picked up, but there is also, you've said, the opportunity for, you know, some sort of real estate monetization. I guess looking over the next couple of years, if you could help me put those pieces together, especially with, I think, cash taxes going up in 26 of how the kind of capital allocation priorities kind of stack your comfortability, but leverage and maybe some more details around, you know, the potential for like real estate monetization.

Sure. So I think, you know, I think we laid out how we think about the four buckets of kind of capital allocation priorities. But specifically, I'll take your question on kind of the monetization of real estate. So there's really two ways to look at real estate, right? So you've got the use of the land. So you could use it, you know, for park expansion. You could use it for hotels. You could put shopping or housing, you know, all the things that you could consider using your excess land for. As we've laid out in our presentation, we've talked about hotels, we've talked about other new rides and attractions. Those are just things we can do to make that land more valuable and hopefully lead to better results for us. The other one would really be the underlying value of the land. One of the points we've been making a little bit more recently here and specifically today because we don't believe it's maybe fully understood by people, is we have quite a bit of excess land and undeveloped land. So, again, you could use that land for various things, as I already mentioned, but you also have the value of that land. And our land is in markets that, you know, I think most people would find desirable to be in. So is there a way to monetize the underlying value of that land, like you said, with a sale leaseback or something like that, And I think those are things that are interesting to consider. I think you're obviously well aware of our board makeup with the heavy influence from private equity, and they work closely, Hillpath does, and I can tell you I think the board gets quite a few inbounds on ways we could value, unlock the value of that land, and it's something that we're just sharing with you that we're open to considering those things I don't have anything specifically to share, but I don't know that people appreciate the value of our land, and that's really the point we're trying to get across.

I'll just remind you, too, that we did refinance at the end of the year, so that created some additional cash savings on interest. Despite some cash taxes that will come into play starting more so next year and the following year, we still have a high-class problem and incredible free cash flow. with a lot of opportunities at hand that Mark just alluded to. So despite a little bit more headwind on the cash tax side out next year, we still have a lot of free cash flow and a lot of opportunity to put money to work here and return for shareholders.

Got it. Thank you.

The next question comes from Ben Chaykin with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. A lot of detailed commentary in the prepared remarks in the deck. It's very helpful. Thanks. Maybe just to follow up on pricing, how do you think about growing admission per caps 2% to 5% annually per the deck? And I ask this in the context of results for 23 and 24, which are below that range, I guess. Was 24 simply mixed? And if so, how much? Or is it more kind of a product-led 25 and beyond that gives you confidence? And then one quick follow-up. Thanks.

Yeah, I mean, Ben, I'll just kind of go back to some of my prepared remarks. I mean, we're, you know, we have a focus on growing pricing. We know pricing's probably been a little more aggressive over the last couple of years, and we got to find that right balance at times. And then you've got the mixed factors that you noted. But, you know, I think what I can tell you is we test and optimize things. We try to find that right balance of growing price and still growing attendance. There's going to be times, though, that we, you know, we're going to maybe be at odds with per cap because we like the revenue or attendance play that comes with a certain price point. So, but when we have opportunities, we will look to, you know, take advantage of those. We also do quite a bit of work around dynamic pricing, which I think is something that we continue to refine and, you know, learn from and optimize going forward. So there's multiple ways to look at it. I think the key takeaway is over the, you know, medium to long term or over time, however you want to think about it, we believe we can get pricing. A key, I guess, I think a key tenet of that is we continue to invest in our parks and continue to give people reasons to visit with new things. And I think most of us would agree that having new things to come and see and And experience, generally, you're going to be okay paying more for that. So we'll continue to make those investments, which should support our pricing strategy as well. That includes not only the attractions, but even the venues in our parks. We've upgraded restaurants and gift shops and other things, bars and whatnot in our parks that, again, give people reason to come and spend money in our parks.

Got it. Very helpful. And then one quick modeling question. Can you remind us what the cost bucket saves were in 24? If I recall, I think it was around $50 million as well. And then related to that, the $50 million cost saves for 25, is that a function of any estimated top line or is it unrelated to top line trends?

Unrelated to top line trends, these are areas that we've had targeted for the past couple of years in different studies that we've been doing to and working with the team really across the board from cost of sales, labor, operating expenses, administrative areas. So, um, it's a continuation of a plan that we've been marching against. And, uh, you know, so there's some gross cost saves that we have in there. Um, we're doing it strategically and thoughtfully to match it off against our spending levels and trying to deploy some of that money back into marketing initiatives that Mark mentioned. So, uh, We could put the money back to work into growth, and if some of it drops to the bottom line, that's great also. But it's a continuation of the program that we've had.

Am I right that 24 was also around $50 million or close to it? Yeah, approximate.

Thanks. The next question comes from Michael Swartz with Truist. Please go ahead.

Hey, everyone. Good morning. Maybe just to follow up on Ben's question there about cost savings, I think the last time we talked, you had pointed to or alluded to something like $25, $30 million in cost savings that were anticipated to flow through in 25. Now it sounds like it's $50 million. Do you have any color on what some of those incremental cost savings that you've identified might be?

Yeah, so I'll just – One comment on the flow-through aspect. We hope some flow-through, but a lot of this is on a gross basis and offsetting some of the spending and other investments we're making. In terms of incremental, the place where we continue to have a lot of focus has been on the labor side. So I think we've been very thoughtful. We've gotten the same pressures other people have gotten across the market on some rates. Uh, and, uh, in all the markets that we operate in with minimum wages and some rate increases, but we've been very good about thinking through the, uh, side of the supply demand side of when there's peak times, we have been able to move labor quickly and swiftly, and we have been able to pull it back. Um, so I, uh, I, you know, I think that labor item has continued to be favorable for us, uh, and we've managed it extremely well. There's some things on the purchasing side, some utilities. that we've added about getting smarter and working with some of our utilities providers. So there's different pockets across the board in each of the areas that I mentioned at the outset. No one specific, though, that's driving it overarching. Okay, that's helpful.

And then just a second question, maybe a point of clarification. I think you had responded to an earlier question just around the first quarter trends, and I think, Mark, you said that on a day-to-day basis attendance is up. I don't think there would be any reason, at least that I would know, of the operating days to be different versus last year. So is that another way of saying that just attendance is up year-to-date through the last weekend?

Yeah, I was just quoting because we're kind of mid-month. So typically mid-month we look on a day-to-day basis. So we are up. There's puts and takes each month, but through Sunday, like I said, on a day-to-day basis, we're up.

Okay. And any way to think about the Easter shift as we're modeling here? If I look back, I think a couple of years ago, a handful of years ago, when we had this three-week shift in Easter between the first quarter, second quarter, it was something like 150,000, 175,000 visits that shifted out. Is that the right way to think about it? I'm just trying to get a general sense.

Yeah, I think you're in the right range there. And when we get on the phone with you guys next quarter, we'll have We'll have that number, but I think you're in the right range. It'll come out of Q1, so it'll be a negative to Q1 and then a benefit to Q2. Okay, great. Thanks.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mark Swanson for any closing remarks.

All right. Well, thanks, everyone. I appreciate you allowing us to take a little extra time to get through the slides. But on behalf of Jim and I and the rest of the management team here at United Parks and Resorts, I want to thank you for joining us. As you heard today, we're confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value for stakeholders. So thank you again, and we look forward to speaking with you all next quarter.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.