Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Colin Mansell from CBRE Institutional Research.

Colin Mansell: Just one follow-up from me on Studio City. The entity is delevering quite nicely and you guys have been proactively paying down debt there, which has been great to see. Maybe just thinking a little bit more medium term, how do you guys see the capital structure there evolving further? There’s a little bit left to go I think, on the ’25 and the secured notes, I think are called all right now. So just how are you guys thinking about sort of the medium term trajectory on that balance sheet composition?

Geoff Davis: I think we’ve put ourselves in good shape to address the ’25 maturities down to 300. I think that’s very manageable. As we said in the prepared remarks, we are looking at a variety of different alternatives, secured, unsecured, potentially having a bank facility in place. I think we have a number of good alternatives and an ability to drive some incremental cash flow into the maturity. So feeling very comfortable about that and think that we are moving towards more of a normalized capital structure that eventually will include some sort of lending facility into the property in addition to our secured and unsecured notes. So everything is on the table. And I think you’ve seen us address the capital markets in a very opportunistic way, and we will continue to do that on both sides, both Melco and over at Studio City.

But we’re feeling very good about the balance sheet holistically, particularly after the three transactions that we recently completed with the extension of the bank loan, the tender offer at Studio City and the recently completed high yield issuance.

Ronald Leung: And actually, one quick follow-up, if I may. Just going back to Sri Lanka. I understand the rationale given the proximity to India. But I guess, what other source markets or feeder markets I think, are important in your guys’ thesis there, whether it’s local or other jurisdictions that are seeing a decent amount of inbound tourism? I guess how do you guys think about other feeder markets and the importance that was relative to just the proximity to India?

Geoff Davis: Well, I think India is definitely the most interesting feeder market and I think there’s very significant potential there. Of course, there is some level of domestic spending as well. But of course, our goal will be to address those feeder markets in India and more broadly in the region. But we think the market potential there significantly exceeds where we are today with the existing operators in the market. So a combination of local and domestic but very heavily skewed towards international when we think about where the growth can come going forward. So in our view, the international market could probably be something like two thirds to one third in that ballpark of international to domestic. And that we think that City of Dreams Sri Lanka from a GGR perspective can be comfortably in the $200 million to $250 million of GGR on a run rate basis with Phase 1 of our casino development there, and the Phase 1 ties to the $125 million of anticipated CapEx for the casino fit out.

Operator: Now we’re going to take our next question and it comes from the line of George Choi from Citi.

George Choi: So now that you have set your foot in Sri Lanka, does it change or your interest level and the opportunity in Thailand?

Lawrence Ho: So I think we’re always on the look out for these opportunities are once in a lifetime, so we’re looking at it. I think together with like the rest of the industry, I’ve always said for the past 28 years, the two greatest opportunities are Thailand and Japan. So we’re looking at it and we’ll see what happens.

Geoff Davis: Maybe just to supplement, though. Obviously, the way we address the Thailand market would track to where we are in terms of balance sheet repair. So still a focus on the balance sheet. But we do think we can address the balance sheet while still having a healthy development outlook as well, but just in a capital light manner for at least the near term and then over time as we make progress towards balance sheet repair, we can think about more robust involvement in a market like Thailand. But we’re very interested and we think it’s a fantastic market and we will be pursuing that opportunity aggressively.

Operator: There are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jeanny Kim for any closing remarks.

Jeanny Kim: Thank you, operator. And thank you, everybody, for participating in the call today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator: So that concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participation. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.

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