International Game Technology PLC (NYSE:IGT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

International Game Technology PLC (NYSE:IGT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript February 28, 2023

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the IGT 2022 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results. I would now like to turn the call over to James Hurley, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

James Hurley: Thank you, and thank you all for joining us on IGT’s Q4 and full year 2022 conference call hosted by Vince Sadusky, Chief Executive Officer; and Max Chiara, our Chief Financial Officer. After some prepared remarks, Vince and Max will be available for your questions. During today’s call, we will be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees and our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The principal risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations are detailed in our latest earnings release and in our SEC filings.

During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. You’ll find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP measures in our press release, slides accompanying this webcast, and our filings with the SEC each of which is posted on our Investor Relations website. And now, I’ll turn the call over to Vince Sadusky.

Vince Sadusky: Thank you, Jim and hello to everyone joining us today. We are reporting a strong finish to 2022 with profit growth and free cash flow generation accelerating in the fourth quarter. We achieved all financial goals for the year mostly at the top end of our outlook and we returned a record $276 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We end the year with revenue and profit margins comfortably above pre-pandemic levels and leverage at its lowest level ever. We strengthened our leadership positions across all our main activities during 2022. We remain the world’s largest B2C operator of lotteries with a footprint that spans Europe, North America and Latin America as well as the leading provider of B2B lottery services and solutions for both land-based and iLottery channels.

Our eInstant content is currently driving some of the strongest iLottery growth in the market and our progressive eInstant Games recently won Lottery Product of the Year at the International Gaming Awards. The American Gaming Association recently reported 2022 was a record year for commercial gaming in the US, our largest market. Total revenue grew 14% to $60 billion with growth across all segments including a 5% increase in slot GGR. Our global gaming team maintained the leading North American slot ship share in 2022 for the fourth consecutive year and we steadily gained share in each of those years. This momentum is supported by the leading game feature patent portfolio that gets stronger every year as recognized by the Global Gaming Awards Casino Supplier of the Year for the third consecutive time.

We also won four categories at last week’s Eilers Slots Award show. That land-based success is fueling our strong position in the North American iGaming market, which we expect to build on with newly expanded capabilities and opportunities for our PlayDigital division. We also enhanced our industry-leading ESG profile in the last year with improved scores from several rating agencies and our commitment to the science-based targets initiative. I’d like to spend some time on the operating performance of each segment beginning with Global Lottery. Same-store sales strengthened progressively in 2022, reaching 7% global growth in Q4 on elevated power ball sales in the United States in addition to nice growth in Italy for both instants and draw games.

iLottery sales were up an impressive 60% in the year with even stronger growth in the second half driving a 300 basis point increase in our US iLottery market share. Total lottery same-store sales have increased at 6% CAGR since 2019. Our 2022 results confirm the market is successfully maintaining the outsized sales levels experienced during the pandemic. We believe this is directly attributable to the steady stream of innovation that we in partnership with our lottery customers continually bring to market. Some recent examples include the launch of Gong in Italy, an add-on game with a successful 10eLotto franchise that drove meaningful sales increases during Q4. We also achieved record Italy instant ticket sales in the fourth quarter, thanks to a steady lineup of new game launches including the highly successful launch of a EUR10 Super Numerissimi game.

It’s a good proof point that our strategy to innovate with higher price points is working. The velocity of iLottery growth is fueled by a rapidly expanding eInstant portfolio that is getting better with each new game launch. During the year, Bank Buster and Cleopatra Clusters established themselves as true blockbusters and our investment in R&D should support about 40 new game launches in 2023, up from 30 in 2022. The robust performance of our expanding eInstant portfolio opens an exciting new opportunity via third-party distribution arrangements. Our eInstant games are live with 12 customers worldwide, and we expect to add a half dozen more in 2023. This should maintain double-digit high iLottery growth even without any new market legislation.

On the technology front, we launched OMNIA, the company’s first truly player-centric omnichannel lottery system, as well as Infinity Instants, a revolutionary digital instant ticket printing technology during 2022. We believe OMNIA and Infinity are transformational innovations that offer powerful growth potential for the lottery industry. We also secured important new contract wins and extensions during the year, including a new 10-year instant ticket printing contract in Texas, as well as a multiyear facilities management extensions in New York and Georgia, which are among our top 10 lottery customers. The elevated lottery play levels achieved over the last few years have fueled about 500 basis points of operating margin expansion since 2019.

This is despite increased R&D investment to support important initiatives like iLottery. And while the 35% operating profit margin is aligned with our 2025 target, there is room for more margin expansion with continued industry growth. Moving on to Global Gaming. Focused product and market strategies drove significant revenue and profit gains during 2022. A nearly 30% increase in revenue drove operating profit five time higher on improved service margins and disciplined cost control, despite significantly higher supply chain costs. 2022 OI and EBITDA margins each exceeded 2019 levels. We ended the year with record levels on important KPIs including global ASPs and US and Canada unit shipments. Much of this progress came from an expanding portfolio of successful MLP games, with Wolf Run Eclipse and Egyptian Link being some of the top-performing titles.

There is further opportunity for IGT to achieve increased share of the MLP market and we have an exciting pipeline of new games coming to market this year. The broad acceptance of our PeakDual 32, PeakSlant 49 and DiamondRS cabinets, in addition to our new poker cabinet offerings is another important driver of the leading US and Canada ship share we maintained for the fourth consecutive year. Demand for the DiamondRS is outpacing our ability to build units, reflective of the substantial stepper replacement cycle this cabinet offers. The global installed base achieved annual growth for the first time in several years. Outside of the US and Canada, the installed base has been on an upward trajectory for some time. That momentum accelerated in 2022 on expansion in Latin America and Greece.

In the middle of the year, there was an inflection that drove the US and Canada installed base higher, marking what we believe is an important milestone for IGT. The improvement was fueled by the success of new WAP and MLP games, such as Wheel of Fortune High Roller, Prosperity Link and Money Mania, and was complemented by stronger yields. We expect continued installed base growth as we look to the future, both for the US and Canada and for the rest of the world. Today, we believe our global gaming segment has never been stronger. There are many avenues of growth over the next several years across product categories and geographic regions. Those top line opportunities should drive continued operating leverage, as we progress towards our 2025 margin goals.

There is a lot of excitement at PlayDigital, the new name and brand for our Digital and Betting segment. The change is reflective of the seamless iSoftBet integration and the expanded capabilities and future opportunities for the segment. PlayDigital delivered over 25% revenue growth and a 50% increase in operating profit in 2022. This is a great achievement considering the elevated investment in talent and R&D we made during the year, in addition to absorbing iSoftBet integration costs. The nearly $70 million in EBITDA and 32% EBITDA margin generated in 2022 are impressive levels for a relatively new business with a compelling growth outlook. We are on pace to double new online casino game launches to over 65 per year. In 2023, those new launches will include digital versions of our most popular land-based WAP and MLP games, such as Prosperity Link and Money Mania.

We will also introduce several top-performing iSoftBet games in the US and Canada over the next few weeks. Soon, we will launch Wheel of Fortune Casino the first brand-led online casino in the US through our long-standing relationships with BetMGM and Sony Pictures Television. It is an exciting and unique omnichannel offer leveraging one of the most successful and iconic slot brands. With a greatly expanded portfolio of over 250 proprietary games and a world-class aggregation platform able to distribute thousands more, we can now develop exclusive game assortments and targeted marketing campaigns for specific customers and markets. We launched the first two iSoftBet games in Ontario in Q4 to great player acceptance and are working our way through the regulatory process in the US.

The first launches of IGT iGaming titles through our more robust global distribution network will begin with Greece and Romania later this year. In sports betting, we had 16 new installations across 11 jurisdictions in 2022 and we’re now powering over 80 sportsbooks. FanDuel and Rhode Island, our two largest sports betting customers, had their best years and we just came off record Super Bowl betting with smooth operational performance for our customers. There is a lot more opportunity for us to expand our customer base with our best-in-class hardware technology and trading service solutions, especially as new states go live. PlayDigital’s SaaS-like business model means that profit margins should expand as we gain scale. You can see the attractive margin dynamics in the 2022 results, a period that included elevated investments to support our growth objectives.

The strength of our 2022 performance is a result of important strategic transformation at IGT over the last three years. In that time, the company recognized by global product responsibility — or I’m sorry reorganized by global product responsibility, simplifying our organizational structure and financial disclosures. We monetized non-core assets at attractive valuations and significantly reduce structural costs. At the same time, we made important investments in growth, especially in the B2B, iGaming and iLottery space. Our actions coupled with the strong cash flow generation of the business, enabled us to reduce our debt and leverage, greatly improving our credit profile, which now stands at crossover investment grade with the recent Fitch rating.

We have also enhanced shareholder returns by reinstating a dividend and establishing the company’s first-ever share repurchase program. These changes have transformed IGT into a company with a higher growth prospect and better profit profile than before the pandemic. It’s required a lot from the team who has remained intently focused on the task at hand. We’ve increased investment in our team by hiring new talent, especially in critical digital and technology functions and by funding important initiatives such as career development, DEI and other recognition and engagement programs. Results are encouraging with attrition down significantly in the advancement of a winning culture. I want to thank the team for all their efforts to build a stronger IGT.

This strategic transformation puts us on a solid path to deliver on our long-term goals. This is clear in the 8% constant currency revenue growth, we achieved in 2022. We expect to build on that momentum this year and are entering 2023 from a position of strength with good trends across business segments. Q1 2023 is off to an encouraging start for lottery with accelerated growth in Italy lottery sales and elevated US jackpot activity. For gaming, we have a robust Q1 unit sales funnel and we also expect continued installed base growth. PlayDigital momentum should be maintained even in the absence of new iGaming jurisdictions, as we leverage our newly expanded game development and distribution capabilities. Now, I’ll turn the call over to Max.

Max Chiara: Thank you, Vince, and hello to everyone joining us on the call today. Our solid revenue and profit growth in 2022, in addition to robust cash flow generation, is a testament to our ability to overcome significant headwinds, most notably from adverse currency rate movements and significant supply chain constraints. The results are even more impressive on a constant currency basis. As a result, we were able to meet the high end of our outlook on all key financial metrics for the full year, with a strong finish to the year as Q4 came in above expectations. On slide 11, we have provided a high-level summary of our fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results, with comparisons to the prior year. In the quarter, we generated over $1 billion in revenue, up 4%, as reported, and 8% at constant currency, driven by strong global same-store sales growth in lottery, record US and Canada unit shipments and global ASP in gaming and a 56% increase in PlayDigital revenue, fueled by growth in both iGaming and sports betting activities.

Strong operating leverage drove operating income up 24% or 30% at constant currency to $230 million. This yielded an operating income margin of 21%, 200 basis points above the high end of our outlook, primarily due to stronger performance across segments. For the full year, we generated $4.2 billion in revenue, up 3%, as reported, and 8% at constant currency on significant year-over-year growth in gaming and PlayDigital. A robust and resilient margin profile in Global Lottery, coupled with very strong operating leverage in Global Gaming and PlayDigital drove operating income to $922 million, up 2%, as reported, and 9% at constant currency. Changes in some below operating income items, including reduced interest expense and the normalization of the tax rate contributed to significant accretion in adjusted EPS to almost $2 per share.

This is reflective of the company’s considerably improved earnings power. During 2021, we realized over $200 million in structural cost savings versus 2019 under OPtiMa 1.0. At our Investor Day in November 2021, we introduced OPtiMa 2.0, a program designed to deliver an incremental $150 million in structural profit improvement by the end of 2023 compared to 2019. I’m pleased to report that we have already achieved two-thirds of the target at the end of 2022, with over $50 million realized in lower interest expense and improvement to the effective tax rate dropping to 30%. Going forward, the effective tax rate net of FX and discrete items is expected to remain in the low mid-30% range. Additional savings from operational excellence and margin improvement initiatives should fully materialize once supply chain headwinds and inflationary cost increases normalize.

Now, let’s review the results of our three business segments. Global Lottery generated $639 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, down 7% as reported, but up 8% at constant currency if we adjust the perimeter for the sale of Italy commercial services in September 2022. Global same-store sales grew 7% on strong sales for the record $2 billion Powerball jackpot in November and a nice recovery in Italy, where same-store sales increased 3%. iLottery sales was 84%, with strong growth in existing markets, as well as contributions from Belgium. Terminal sales in West Virginia and robust instant ticket sales, including the popular Cash Blitz game in Texas, drove higher product sales. Operating income rose 6% at constant currency to $216 million in the fourth quarter.

Operating income margin of 34% in the fourth quarter and 35% for the full year are already aligned with the 2025 target range. Global Gaming continues to deliver strong financial results, with significant year-over-year increases in revenue and profit in both the fourth quarter and full year periods. Q4 revenue of $389 million rose 21% with double-digit gains across service and product sales categories, driven by demand for IGT game offerings, new cabinet solutions and add-on services. Product sales were especially strong in the quarter, with global unit shipments up 29% to about 9,500 units. Record US and Canada shipments of nearly 7,500 units were propelled by a 73% increase in unit shipped to casino customers. Q4 marked the fourth consecutive quarter of US and Canada unit shipment exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

We also achieved record global ASPs of $15,500. The global installed base rose over 1,000 units sequentially in the fourth quarter, predominantly driven by higher placements in Latin America and Greece. The US and Canada installed base was up slightly, but underlying growth including the placement of over 370 units and up from Bally, was offset by the conversion to sale of about 500 units to Bally’s, in advance to the launch of the Rhode Island VLT joint venture. Those units were part of the 1,500 units contributed by Bally to the joint venture on January 1, 2023. Pro forma for the Rhode Island JV, IGT’s global installed base of more than 51,000 units, has recovered to its pre-pandemic level. We have included more details on the scope and accounting treatment of the Rhode Island JV in the appendix, of today’s presentation.

Significant operating leverage drove operating income up nearly 90% to $68 million and operating income margin to 17.6%, a record quarter period. On a full year basis, operating profit rose over 5 times to $242 million, exceeding 2019’s level, on increased service margin and high-margin IP royalties in the first half of the year, and despite higher supply chain costs. In the absence of those supply chain headwinds, the margin would have been about 450 basis points higher. PlayDigital achieved record financial results in the fourth quarter and full year periods. Revenue increased 56% to $65 million in Q4, propelled by organic growth, market expansions and iSoftBet acquisition. Sports betting also increased on strong FanDuel and Rhode Island performance.

Operating income increased to $17 million and operating margin rose to 25.5%, helped by strong top line growth, lower-than-expected jackpot expense and despite integration costs and continued investment in Thailand and R&D, to fund the future of this high-growth business. For the full year, revenue increased 27% to more than $200 million. Strong operating leverage resulted in 51% profit growth with operating income reaching $50 million, and the margin expanding almost 400 basis points. Cash flows were very strong in 2022, with nearly $900 million in cash from operations and $582 million in free cash flow, generated from outstanding operational performance and ongoing discipline around capital management including, increased investments for future growth of about $80 million, year-over-year.

Cash from operations included, a $50 million escrow payment related to the DDI/Benson matter. Excluding this payment, we achieved the high end of our outlook for cash from operations and with capital expenditures, lower than expected at $317 million, free cash flow exceeded our expectations. We expect to pay the remaining $220 million for the DDI/Benson matter sometime this year, pending final court approval of the agreement. This settlement is anticipated to have an after-tax impact on 2023 cash flow, of about $155 million. We delivered a record $276 million to shareholders in 2022, including over $160 million in cash dividends and $115 million for the repurchase of 5.4 million shares, at an average price of about $21 and change per share.

$145 million remains outstanding, under the current repurchase authorization. We strengthened our credit profile in 2022, with debt reduction of over $770 million. Net debt leverage improving nearly half, a turn to a record low 3.1 times and we increased our liquidity. And this work continues in 2023, with a redemption of $61 million in the 5.35% notes due in 2023, and the today announced make-whole redemption of $200 million of the 6.5% US dollar notes, due 2025 and €188 million of the 3.5% euro notes due 2024. This leaves us in a nice position, with no meaningful near-term debt maturities. Our good progress is reflected in the BB+ issuer credit rating with a stable outlook and an investment grade, BBB- rating on our senior debt from Fitch, who highlights our conservative leverage and leading share in core gaming end markets specifically, in lottery.

Total liquidity improved to $2.4 billion at year-end, which includes $1.8 billion in additional borrowing capacity from undrawn credit facilities. Our outlook for the full year and first quarter of 2023 is here on Slide 18. For the full year, we currently expect to generate revenue of approximately $4.1 billion to $4.3 billion, operating income margins of 21% to 23%, cash from operations of between $900 million and $1 billion and capital expenditures ranging from $400 million to $450 million. Our outlook assumes low single-digit same-store sales growth in global lottery, as sales are now growing off a higher base. Same-store sales are expected to be stronger in the first half of the year, given the large multi-jurisdiction jackpot activity we had in the back half of 2022.

While large jackpots can certainly happen again, we don’t plan for them in our forecast. Global Gaming is expected to continue its momentum supported by higher year-over-year unit shipments, ASPs and installed base units. Double-digit top line growth is forecasted for PlayDigital as well. The full year operating income margin includes about 100 basis point negative impact, half of which is from higher depreciation associated with returning to more normal investment in the gaming installed base. The other half relates to the previously disclosed Italy restructuring program which is mostly expected in the back half of the year. We also have about a $25 million increase in D&A associated with a new multiyear IP license agreement which we capitalized in our asset base.

This does not affect operating income but does impact EBITDA positively. Cash from operations is expected to increase year-over-year on improvements in working capital including lower interest and cash tax payments. Despite an estimated after-tax cash outflow of about $155 million related to the DDI/Benson matter. Given broader macroeconomic uncertainty and expectations of the potential recession or economic slowdown, our outlook is consistent with a somewhat cautious view on the back half of the year including the potential for a weaker US economy. We have a resilient business with high recurring revenue streams that are mostly backed by long-term contracts and we maintain an agile cost structure. For the first quarter, on the back of positive early trends across our three business verticals, we expect to deliver revenue of approximately $1 billion and operating income margins of 22% to 24%.

This outlook implies a sequential improvement in operating income from Q4. Moving quickly to the conclusion of my prepared remarks. Let me summarize by saying 2022 was another year of significant accomplishments with strong financial results that met the high-end of our expectations. We greatly enhanced our credit profile with debt and leverage reduced to the lowest level in company history and we returned record capital to shareholders. As Vince mentioned, we have good momentum heading into 2023 across business segments with enhanced prospects for profitable growth. We have increased our financial strength and flexibility which positions us well for the future as we continue to advance towards achieving our 2025 goals. That concludes our prepared remarks.

Operator, will you please open the line for questions.

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Q&A Session

Operator: The floor is now open for your questions. . Our first question comes from the line of Carlo Santarelli from Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Carlo Santarelli: Hey, everyone, good morning and thank you. Guys, if you wouldn’t mind, could you talk a little bit about how you foresee margins across primarily the lottery and gaming segment as we move into 2023. Obviously, supply chain issues costs played a role last year scale revenue levels kind of back to pre-pandemic levels at least or moving in the right direction, especially on the gaming side. Just talk a little bit about the puts and takes. And maybe Max, if you could kind of quantify the totality of the jackpot benefits for 2022, just to get a sense of kind of what we’re looking at from a comparison perspective in 2023?

Max Chiara: Yes. Hi, Carlo. Good morning. Let me start from the end. So €“ and take the jackpot impact out of the way. So effectively, we’ve got now three consecutive quarters of more than $1 billion jackpot. In Q3, we got $10 million of positive impact in Q4, we got about $20 million of positive impact. And now we expect for January Q1, a positive impact of between $5 million and $10 million. As you know, the advertised level of jackpot has increased as a result also of the significant interest rate hikes happened during 2023. So that obviously, facilitates increased momentum into that game. But please keep in mind that Jackpot represent only 10% of total US sales in lottery and we earn our regular 1% to 1.5% on those sales.

Having said that, when we look into the margin progression towards our 2025 goals by segment. So as we said several times during the year that lottery is already sitting well in between that range 33% to 36%. In insight, the sale of the commercial service business in Italy which was running at a lower average margin will have a positive impact to our margin all in all. And so we expect to continue to make progress on that figure as far as lottery is concerned. And again, keep in mind that we don’t project high jackpots achievement in our forecast. As far as gaming is concerned, the progression in the margin is kind of assumed as a result of two phenomena. One, our increased penetration in the different markets, where we compete as a result of the strong game offering; and two, as we anticipate the supply chain headwinds to start abate in 2023, not completely, but meaningfully to improve the margin.

So we expect the margin to be probably up a couple of points year-on-year in 2023. But what I will mostly focused on is the exit margin of 2023, which in our idea is probably going to be above 20% on OI. So we expect an improvement during the year to basically continue to march toward our 2025 target of 28% to 30%. And finally for D&B, this business has continued to surprise us on the upside quarter-after-quarter. It now has a meaningful $70 million EBITDA generation on a full year basis. We have an OI margin that sits right about in the mid-20s and we expect that margin to continue to improve towards our target of 30-plus and we anticipate to be able to hit the 30-plus well ahead of 2025. Thank you.

Carlo Santarelli: Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Please proceed.

Chad Beynon: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Nice quarter and outlook. First, I wanted to ask about PlayDigital. In your 2023 outlook you talked about double-digit revenue growth. Wondering if you could talk about some of the bigger market opportunities. And then I was wondering now that you’ve had this business under your belt, if some of your other global relationships could help benefit this business to maybe even be higher than that. I know you talked about some of the game launches but just trying to get a sense of what markets we should focus on and kind of where the upside could be. Thanks.