SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:SEAS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: And the next question comes from James Hardiman with Citi.

James Hardiman: So I mean the cost-controls continue to be really impressive. I guess, most significantly on the SG&A line. Can you just walk us through some of the big buckets that you’ve been able to bring down, right? Revenue is up a bunch since 2019, that SG&A line is down almost 50%. Maybe just walk us through what’s in that, what did you cut and what’s left to cut?

Marc Swanson: James, so I can take that question. Look, there’s — there’s some — I think, as Jim said in his remarks, there’s some items like stock comp in there as well, which certainly had an impact for the quarter. But yes, beyond that, we have a number of initiatives around looking at our spend with vendors and marketing and things like that. So really, just across the company, all our efforts around cost are not only applied to the parks, they apply to the corporate center as well. And we’ll continue to work on that, obviously, and that’s something. But there is a little bit more detail in Jim’s remarks as far as some of the noncash expenses were down a little bit, too.

James Hardiman: Okay. And then sort of along those lines, I mean, obviously, results have been extremely impressive, particularly on the cost front. Normally, you’d say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But you guys did a pretty big management shakeup here. Maybe speak to the rationale behind something that’s aggressive. And I guess there have been a couple of notes in your filings, the Q and the previous K about weaknesses in internal controls, does this address that in any way?

Marc Swanson: I think what I would tell you is we’re — as I said in my prepared remarks, we’re excited for the different roles that we have — that we’ve created. Chelle sitting here at the table with me. I can tell you, she’s certainly excited about the transformation efforts that she’s leading. I think, obviously, it’s something with her background that I think she will be very good at and certainly get sort of an opportunity to really dive into that more so than previously. Obviously, and then with the co-Chief Parks Operations officers, we’ve put 2 very experienced leaders in those roles and they can get out to our parks a lot more often and make sure that we’re driving the standards and the efficiencies that we want to see across the company.

And I couldn’t be more excited about that, obviously. And then as you heard with Jim’s background as our interim CFO, we have someone who brings a lot of park knowledge to the role, which I already see the benefits of having somebody who’s run the finance operations at among our biggest parks here in Orlando and what he brings to the table there. So we’re excited about kind of mobilizing the team and how we’re going to move forward.

Operator: And the next question comes from Philip Cusick with JPMorgan.

Philip Cusick: If you can talk about CapEx. I think you’ve gone from about $200 million to $250 million to $300 million. Can you talk about the timing of ride launches through the year? How do you expect sort of any marketing spend and launch costs to be shaped and anything as you go beyond ’23 as well?

Marc Swanson: Phil, I can take that question. Look, there’s the CapEx spend and Jim can maybe give you some specific examples here when I’m done sharing, but we talked a lot in his comments about some of the additional efforts we have around some spending in ROI areas like whether it’s new venues, aesthetics, technology enhancements, efficiency efforts, whatever it may be. And really, that’s — the reason we can do that, as you can imagine, is the strong cash flow that we’ve been generating. So we’re putting that — some of that cash flow to work in the business, and we’re excited about those opportunities. I think as far as the — your question on the ride launches, we just opened the ride down in Tampa. Some of the other rides will be coming online here in the coming weeks and months.