PlayAGS, Inc. (NYSE:AGS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So I think what you’re seeing there is a bit of, outside of the normal cadence of convert to sales, mostly opportunistically, by that user lose it type capital that’s available. And you did ask, like, hey, I’d say, rather, we’ll be consistent in the way that we approach. I don’t like to use term pruning, but optimization we will continue to optimize, we have an installed base, that rivals, many operators, many regional operators, don’t even have as many slots as we have out there in game ops. So, obviously, it’s our responsibility to keep that up. And I think that will be rather consistent. And bearing in mind when we say being good custodians of CapEx, we have a little bit more latitude when we have games like we’ve had on Spectra 43. And now what we’re seeing on Spectra 49, and even some new games that I mentioned, on Orion Curve, which is, a little bit of an older cabinet, we have a little bit more latitude, because with the game performance being higher, it’s, I’d say, easier to be good custodians of the CapEx or the cash of our investors.

So I think overall, relatively consistent, but some are called better opportunities.

Jeff Stantial: Okay, great. That’s apple. Thank you, David. And then turning to the capital allocation looks like you ended the quarter with about $44 million cash on hand. Kimo, do you have a number in mind? For minimum cash, given your R&D initiatives and some of the macro uncertainty that we continue to deal with or I guess, approached differently? Should we have kind of a rough timeframe in mind for when to expect free cash flow to start to be allocated to pay down on your term loan? Thanks.

Kimo Akiona: I think as far as like a minimum cash level, we’re pretty comfortable where we are now, we’ve never given you like an exact number, right. But I think we’re pretty comfortable where we are now. I think, again, like just being focused on building the cash position as we move forward, which gives us like, more flexibility, right. So I think, yes, is there an exact number or we’ll make that decision? I think I wouldn’t give you that number now. And we’ll see where and as we put the decision making in the sausage maker, right. We’ll figure out when is the right time to start paying down debt. I think what’s more exciting right is that we build the cash position, we continue to execute and headed on this path of where we’re going, what’s more exciting, I think there’s going to be get to an event where we can perhaps reprice or refinance our debt structure, right?

And maybe, obviously, target lowering our cash interest expense. So that’s something that, we’re pretty focused on executing on something like that at this point.

Operator: Our next question comes from Barry Jonas from Truist.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey, guys, this is [inaudible] on for Barry. Thanks for taking our questions. There’s been some regulatory noise in Mexico around a potential ban of slot machines. Can you talk about what you’ve heard on this? And what you see as the likelihood of this happening?

David Lopez: Yes, we hear about stuff like this. We think we see this periodically in Mexico. And I think I’m, what am I coming up on 26 years in gaming. And this is not the first time it’s come around is something that has been talked about, I think sometimes it’s used as a little bit of political saber- rattling, prior to elections, nothing that we consider to be a serious conversation. We’re pretty dialed into it needless to say, and there’s a lot of interested operating parties down there that are very big companies that have not indicated that anything like this would be serious.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. Thanks for that. And then just taking a step back, in the past, you’ve guided to an adjusted EBITDA margin range of around 45% to 47%. Do you see a path to returning to margins at that level at some point? And if so, what would that path look like?