Golden Entertainment Inc (GDEN) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Golden Entertainment Third quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, a question-and-answer session will follow the formal remarks. Please note that this call is being recorded today.

下午好，女士們先生們，謝謝你們的支持。歡迎參加Golden Entertainment 2024年第三季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於僅聽模式，正式發言後將進行問答環節。請注意，今天此通話將會被錄音。

Now, I'd like to turn over to James Adams, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasurer, Golden Entertainment Inc.

現在，我想請 Golden Entertainment Inc. 公司財務副總裁兼財務主管 James Adams 來發言。

Thank you very much operator, and good afternoon, everyone. On the call today is Blake L. Sartini, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Charles Protell, President and Chief Financial Officer.

非常感謝運營商，大家下午好。今天參加電話會議的是創辦人、董事長兼執行長 Blake L. Sartini；以及總裁兼財務長 Charles Protell。

On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements except as required by law. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise. During the call. We'll also discuss non-GAAP financial measures in talking about our performance. You can find the reconciliation of GAAP financial measures in our press release which is available on our website.

在本次電話會議中，我們將根據聯邦證券法的安全港條款做出前瞻性聲明。除法律要求外，實際結果可能與這些聲明中預期的結果有重大差異。我們不承擔因新資訊或其他原因而更新這些聲明的義務。通話過程中。我們還將在談論我們的績效時討論非公認會計準則財務指標。您可以在我們網站上的新聞稿中找到 GAAP 財務指標的調整表。

We will start the call with Charles reviewing details of the third quarter results and the business update following that Blake and Charles will take your questions. With that. I'll turn the call over to Charles.

我們將首先與查爾斯一起回顧第三季業績的詳細資訊和業務更新，然後布萊克和查爾斯將回答您的問題。就這樣。我會把電話轉給查爾斯。

Thanks James. Starting with our financial results, we generated revenue of $161 million and EBITDA $34 million in the third quarter. Our reported prior year numbers include the results from our divested Maryland casino and distributed gaming operations. But comparing the results to our continuing operations, total revenue declined 5% and consolidated EBITDA declined 21% in the third quarter.

謝謝詹姆斯。從我們的財務表現開始，我們第三季的營收為 1.61 億美元，EBITDA 為 3,400 萬美元。我們報告的上一年數據包括我們剝離的馬裡蘭州賭場和分散式博彩業務的結果。但與我們的持續經營業務相比，第三季總營收下降了 5%，綜合 EBITDA 下降了 21%。

Our third quarter was challenging for both our casino and tavern segments. With the most significant year over year declines in July. As others have noted Las Vegas experienced record heat this summer which contributed to lower visitation at our casino properties and local taverns.

我們的第三季對我們的賭場和酒館部門來說都充滿挑戰。七月年減最為顯著。正如其他人指出的那樣，拉斯維加斯今年夏天經歷了創紀錄的高溫，導致我們賭場和當地酒館的遊客減少。

In addition, we saw continued weakness at the lower tiers of our database as those consumers have reduced their discretionary spending in the current economic environment.

此外，我們看到資料庫較低層的持續疲軟，因為這些消費者在當前的經濟環境下減少了可自由支配的支出。

Despite these challenges, we see Q3 as the lowest level of financial performance for our portfolio given October trends and our outlook for the remainder of the year. Reflecting that view, we have increased our share repurchase authorization by $100 million. So we now have over $130 million of buyback capacity to add to the $60 million we repurchased over the last two quarters.

儘管有這些挑戰，但考慮到 10 月的趨勢和我們對今年剩餘時間的展望，我們認為第三季是我們投資組合財務表現的最低水準。為了反映這一觀點，我們將股票回購授權增加了 1 億美元。因此，在過去兩個季度回購 6000 萬美元的基礎上，我們現在擁有超過 1.3 億美元的回購能力。

Now for some color on our operating segments for Nevada casino resorts revenue declined 6% and EBITDA declined 20% with most of the decline coming out of the Strat. At the Strat, our weekend occupancy was slightly up year over year. However, our midweek occupancy was down almost 6% to prior year and spend per guest also trended lower for the quarter.

現在，我們內華達州賭場度假村的營運部門收入下降了 6%，EBITDA 下降了 20%，其中大部分下降來自 Strat。在 Strat，我們週末的入住率比去年同期略有上升。然而，我們週間的入住率比去年同期下降了近 6%，本季每位客人的支出也呈現下降趨勢。

Las Vegas city wide occupancy and ADR were weaker in July, particularly from mid to lower tier properties. In addition, without direct meeting space, the Strat was unable to benefit from recovering convention business in September to the same extent as other strip properties.

7 月拉斯維加斯全市入住率和平均房價均較弱，尤其是中低線物業。此外，由於沒有直接的會議空間，Strat 無法像其他地帶飯店一樣從 9 月恢復的會議業務中受益。

For the Strat, our Q4 looks stronger than Q3 and we anticipate stable year over year performance with opportunity for growth in 2025 from returning midweek occupancy and increased spend from our core customer.

對於 Strat，我們的第四季度看起來比第三季度更強勁，我們預計同比表現將穩定，並且由於周中入住率的回升和核心客戶支出的增加，2025 年將有成長的機會。

In Laughlin, despite lower visitation and revenue, our properties increased their market share in the quarter and reduced their operating expenses. Our riverfront bingo room continued to help drive increased local business to offset lower visitation due to having one less major concert at our Laughlin Event Center.

在勞克林，儘管客流量和收入較低，但我們的飯店在本季增加了市場份額，並減少了營運費用。我們的河濱賓果遊戲室繼續幫助推動當地業務的成長，以抵消因勞克林活動中心舉辦的一場大型音樂會減少而導致的遊客減少。

For Nevada local casinos, revenue declined 7% and EBIDA declined 15% where we saw increased seasonality compared to recent years and decreased spend from our lower tier customers. Our Arizona Charlie's Decatur property was further impacted by disruption from room renovations which were completed mid-September, the largest revenue and EBIDA percentage declines in our Nevada local casinos continue to come from our smaller Arizona Charlie's Boulder property which caters to our most value-oriented guests.

內華達州當地賭場的收入下降了 7%，EBIDA 下降了 15%，與近年來相比，季節性增加，低層客戶的支出減少。我們的亞利桑那州查理迪凱特酒店受到9 月中旬完成的房間裝修中斷的進一步影響，我們內華達州當地賭場收入和EBIDA 百分比下降幅度最大的仍然來自我們規模較小的亞利桑那查理博爾德酒店，該酒店迎合了我們最注重價值的需求客人。

While our par casinos remain stable year over year, we expect stable year over year performance in Q4 for all our local properties which will be helped by the Las Vegas promotional environment moderating. For the third quarter, Nevada tavern revenue declined 2% and EBIDA declined 29% with margins negatively impacted mostly as a result of the elevated initial operating expenses associated with our seven new taverns and the last mandated Nevada minimum wage hike in July.

雖然我們的標準賭場年比保持穩定，但我們預計我們所有本地物業在第四季度的同比表現將保持穩定，這將得益於拉斯維加斯促銷環境的緩和。第三季度，內華達州酒館收入下降 2%，EBIDA 下降 29%，利潤率受到負面影響，主要是由於我們七家新酒館的初始營運費用增加以及內華達州最後一次在 7 月份強制提高最低工資。

Our tavern customers were also impacted by extreme summer heat and less discretionary spending. We typically see our new tavern stabilizing within 9 months to 18 months of opening or acquisition and we expect these last seven to follow the same pattern.

我們的酒館顧客也受到夏季酷熱和可自由支配支出減少的影響。我們通常會看到我們的新酒館在開業或收購後 9 個月到 18 個月內穩定下來，我們預計最後七家酒館也將遵循相同的模式。

With regards to our capital structure, we continue to maintain one of the best balance sheets in the gaming industry with our net leverage at approximately two times EBIDA and $240 million of availability under our revolving credit facility.

就我們的資本結構而言，我們繼續保持著博彩行業最好的資產負債表之一，我們的淨槓桿率約為 EBIDA 的兩倍，循環信貸額度下的可用金額為 2.4 億美元。

Since selling our non core assets at premium multiples last year, we have repaid over $500 million of debt and returned nearly $150 million to shareholders, through a combination of share repurchases and dividends including over $80 million since the end of Q1. Between August and October, we have repurchased approximately 950,000 shares combined with the almost 1 million shares we purchased in Q2. We have repurchased nearly 2 million shares over the last six months representing 7% of our outstanding shares and 9% of the free flow.

自從去年以溢價倍數出售我們的非核心資產以來，我們已經償還了超過5 億美元的債務，並透過股票回購和股息的結合，向股東返還了近1.5 億美元，其中自第一季末以來，我們已經償還了超過8000 萬美元。8 月至 10 月期間，我們回購了約 95 萬股股票，加上我們在第二季購買的近 100 萬股股票。過去六個月，我們回購了近 200 萬股股票，佔已發行股票的 7% 和自由流通股的 9%。

After increasing our buyback authorization, we have $131 million of availability for share repurchases which can be funded by cash from operations as well as our undrawn revolving credit facility. We continue to believe that our portfolio of wholly owned casinos and local taverns will benefit from the favorable long term demographic and economic trends in Southern Nevada. And we see significant value in continuing to acquire our own equity at this time.

增加回購授權後，我們有 1.31 億美元的資金可用於股票回購，這些資金可以透過營運現金以及未提取的循環信貸額度來提供。我們仍然相信，我們的全資賭場和當地酒館組合將受益於內華達州南部有利的長期人口和經濟趨勢。我們認為此時持續收購自己的股權具有重要價值。

While we do evaluate strategic opportunities as they arise, it will be a high bar for acquisitions given our current valuation and we anticipate continuing to meaningfully buy back stock absent more compelling alternatives that concludes our prepared remarks. I are now available for questions.

雖然我們確實會在出現策略機會時對其進行評估，但考慮到我們目前的估值，這將是收購的一個很高的門檻，並且我們預計，如果沒有更引人注目的替代方案，我們將繼續有意義地回購股票。我現在可以回答問題。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue, you may press star and two. If you would like to remove your question from the queue for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while we poll for questions.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，我們現在將進行問答環節。如果您想提問，請按電話鍵盤上的星號和一。確認音將表示您的線路已在問題佇列中，您可以按星號和二號。如果您想從使用揚聲器裝置的參與者群組中刪除您的問題，可能需要在按星號鍵之前拿起聽筒。女士們先生們，我們將稍等片刻，然後進行投票提問。

Barry Jonas, Truist Securities.

巴里·喬納斯 (Barry Jonas)，Truist 證券公司。

Hey guys. I appreciate the comments on. Hey, Charles, I appreciate your comments on M&A but maybe you could just talk about what you're seeing out there. How rich of an environment is there for assets you'd be interested in and then I'd be curious to get your thoughts on the sale lease back model. You have a slide in the deck is always just curious. Any updated thoughts given where valuation sits today? Thanks.

嘿夥計們。我很欣賞的評論。嘿，查爾斯，我很欣賞你對併購的評論，但也許你可以談談你所看到的情況。您感興趣的資產有多麼豐富的環境，然後我很想了解您對售後回租模式的想法。甲板上有一張幻燈片總是讓人好奇。今天的估值有什麼最新的想法嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, I'll take, I'll take a bit of the first part, and Blake may want to comment on the second. I think from an M&A perspective we have not seen a lot out there. That's compelling for us. I think when you look at the M&A landscape right now, there's still a bit of a disconnect between buyers and sellers around the big ass spread on not so much necessarily maybe the multiple but more on. And I think that as we look into next year, I think there's going to be a lot more visibility around stabilization of operations, as well as the benefit of declining interest rates, which should help the M&A environment.

是的，我會接受，我會接受第一部分的一些內容，布萊克可能想對第二部分發表評論。我認為從併購的角度來看，我們還沒有看到太多。這對我們來說很有說服力。我認為，當你看看現在的併購格局時，買家和賣家之間仍然存在一些脫節，圍繞著巨大的價差，不一定是倍數，而是更多。我認為，當我們展望明年時，我認為營運穩定以及利率下降的好處將會更加明顯，這應該有助於併購環境。

Yeah, in addition to that, look, I do not think it's overstating that we are in active mode right now, looking at all of our potential strategic alternatives and that includes, I think in our investor deck we provide some math around the value of our real estate, and how that may drive value certainly in our share price given that our math shows our rocky is really free if you buy our shares.

是的，除此之外，我認為我們現在處於積極模式並不誇張，我們正在考慮所有潛在的戰略選擇，其中包括，我認為在我們的投資者平台中，我們提供了一些關於價值的數學計算。

So again, we're in active mode in regard to particularly I'll tag on to Charles' comments in the M&A segment. You know, we're looking for whole core assets. There are not many of those out there. There's a limited inventory, I think of whole core assets. They are out there. But that would be our preference in terms of moving the needle for valuation and golden given our strength of our balance sheet and so on. But we are considering all, we're active in considering all alternatives at this point.

因此，我們再次處於積極模式，特別是我將關注查爾斯在併購部分的評論。你知道，我們正在尋找完整的核心資產。那裡的人並不多。庫存有限，我認為是整個核心資產。他們就在那裡。但鑑於我們的資產負債表實力等，這將是我們在推動估值和黃金方面的偏好。但我們正在考慮一切，目前我們正在積極考慮所有替代方案。

Great, that's helpful and then just as a follow up, also appreciate the commentary on the consumer, and certainly the summer heat and seasonality. But curious if you saw any impact from the election in any of your segments, and now that's over. Have you seen or would you expect to see any improvements related? Thank you.

太好了，這很有幫助，然後作為後續行動，也欣賞對消費者的評論，當然還有夏季的炎熱和季節性。但很好奇您是否看到選舉對您的任何細分市場產生任何影響，但現在一切都結束了。您是否已經看到或您期望看到任何相關的改進？謝謝。

Yeah, I think historically around these major federal elections, presidential elections every four years, we do see consumers in the short term prior to the election. You know, pulling back if that's the right term but certainly cautiously spending before and some and a little bit after so much like seasonality. All those these elections, these broad elections only come around every four years. We do see a pattern of consumers pulling back. Certainly in the short term before the elections occur.

是的，我認為從歷史上看，圍繞著這些重大的聯邦選舉，每四年一次的總統選舉，我們確實會在選舉前的短期內看到消費者。你知道，如果這是一個正確的術語，那麼可以撤回，但在之前和之後一定要謹慎支出，就像季節性一樣。所有這些選舉、這些廣泛的選舉每四年才舉行一次。我們確實看到了消費者退縮的模式。當然是在選舉前的短期內。

Great. Thank you so much.

偉大的。太感謝了。

Thank you.

謝謝。

David Bain, B. Riley Securities.

大衛‧貝恩 (David Bain)，B. 萊利證券 (Riley Securities)。

Great. Thank you. Hi, Blake and Charles. I'm just hoping we can unpack the margin stability or opportunity from three key results. It seems like multiple segments will improve to flat year over year in Q4. So I assume you meant EBITDA there. And is that a function of higher revenue and some bounded margins? I understood the commentary on the tavern with the seven coming online and those normalizing longer term, but maybe across the rest of the portfolio would be helpful.

偉大的。謝謝。嗨，布萊克和查爾斯。我只是希望我們能夠從三個關鍵結果中揭示利潤穩定性或機會。似乎第四季多個細分市場將與去年同期持平。所以我假設你指的是 EBITDA。這是收入增加和利潤有限的結果嗎？我理解對小酒館的評論，其中七個即將上線，以及那些長期正常化的評論，但也許對投資組合的其餘部分會有幫助。

Yeah, I think it quite frankly, the only asset that from a margin perspective remains a bit challenged will be the Strat as we look into Q4. And that really has to do with the latest culinary union contract that we signed earlier this year.

是的，坦白說，從利潤角度來看，唯一仍然面臨挑戰的資產將是 Strat，因為我們正在研究第四季。這確實與我們今年早些時候簽署的最新烹飪工會合約有關。

As we look at the other assets, we see stabilization both on the revenues and the cost structures within that business. Some of it specific to changes we're making if you look down in Laughlin, focusing a bit more on the locals in our strategy of going to smaller scale entertainment and in the locals that are here in Nevada, we really just see stabilization of the spend while we continue to manage costs in that business.

當我們審視其他資產時，我們看到該業務的收入和成本結構都趨於穩定。其中一些具體是我們正在做出的改變，如果你往下看勞克林，在我們的小型娛樂戰略中更多地關注當地人，而在內華達州的當地人中，我們真的只是看到了穩定的情況支出，同時我們繼續管理該業務的成本。

You mentioned the taverns already. And I think with respect to the Strat, the Strat will Ebb and Flow with the occupancy of the town and what's going on along the strip corridor. And so we're basically a derivative of that without any of our own direct group meeting space. The one thing we do have is we have an elevated cost structure. It's reflected in our views for Q4 that are generally out there with all of you right now. So we feel confident in our statements about Q3 being the low point for the portfolio.

你已經提到酒館了。我認為，就斯特拉特來說，斯特拉特將隨著城鎮的佔用以及沿地帶走廊的發展而起起落落。所以我們基本上是它的衍生品，沒有任何我們自己的直接小組會議空間。我們確實擁有的一件事是我們的成本結構較高。這反映在我們對第四季的看法中，現在大家普遍都同意這一點。因此，我們對第三季是投資組合低點的說法充滿信心。

Okay. And also, the Q4 commentary was helpful for this, but maybe if you could speak to F-ONE and the Super Bowl Comp in Q1. And how that translates not just to the strap but the Las Vegas portfolio generally.

好的。而且，第四季度的評論對此很有幫助，但也許您可以在第一季與 F-ONE 和超級盃比賽進行交談。而這不僅體現在錶帶上，也體現在拉斯維加斯的整體產品組合上。

Yeah, the F-ONE Comp is you know, we've made adjustments obviously to our approach last year, certainly on the spend side. So we're going to make significant improvements in regards to what we spent to try to drive traffic to the properties that's going to result in a positive. I think generally city wide we're hearing, it's going to be a tough comp one last year.

是的，F-ONE Comp 是你知道的，我們去年對我們的方法做了明顯的調整，當然是在支出方面。因此，我們將在花費方面做出重大改進，以嘗試增加酒店的流量，從而產生積極的效果。我認為，我們普遍聽到，去年的比賽將是一場艱難的比賽。

Given ticket prices are low, we're hearing room rates are lower. We've gone out and partnered with the downtown folks to do a kind of a weekend festival that weekend to try and drive some of that customer inertia downtown with entertainment bands, pop ups and those kinds of things.

鑑於票價較低，我們聽說房價也較低。我們出去與市中心的人們合作，在那個週末舉辦了一場週末節日，試圖透過娛樂樂隊、快閃店和諸如此類的活動來推動市中心的一些顧客慣性。

So we're well much better positioned for F-ONE this year than we were speaking for ourselves last year certainly from a cost standpoint. And it is a tough comp in Q1 with Super Bowl. Super Bowl was big for us last year. I think it was big for the city last year. So we're going into Q1 knowing that's going to be a tough comp.

因此，從成本角度來看，今年我們對 F-ONE 的定位比去年我們自己所說的要好得多。第一季與超級盃的比賽非常艱難。去年超級盃對我們來說很重要。我認為去年對這座城市來說意義重大。因此，我們進入第一季時就知道這將是一場艱難的比賽。

And it gives us a sense of magnitude of Super Bowl. It was worth about a million dollars. And so from my perspective as we talk over the course of the quarter. We think there's many other drivers that overcome that between the tavern stabilizing between increased occupancy and things that are going on at the Strat. We feel fine in terms of fading that Comp.

它讓我們感受到超級盃的規模。它價值約一百萬美元。從我的角度來看，當我們在本季進行討論時。我們認為，還有許多其他驅動因素可以克服酒館入住率增加和 Strat 發生的事情之間的穩定之間的關係。我們對褪色方面感覺很好。

Okay, great. Thanks guys.

好的，太好了。謝謝你們。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jordan Bender, Citizens JMP.

喬丹·本德，公民 JMP。

Good afternoon, everyone. With Atomic Golf up and running. Has there been any thoughts around? If something else incremental could fit into the excess land between the Strat and Atomic Golf that could help drive more foot traffic, I guess. To both properties.

大家下午好。隨著原子高爾夫的啟動和運作。周圍有沒有什麼想法？我想，如果 Strat 和 Atomic Golf 之間的多餘土地能夠容納其他增量內容，這將有助於增加人流。到這兩個屬性。

Yeah. Look atomic. It's no secret. We've been talking about. Atomic Golf has been slow to ramp up. Before I talk about the additional potential development on property near us or adjacent to us, I still believe atomic remains a modern competitive facility. It's a $70 million facility. And regardless of the slow ramp which it is ramping, it's still going to continue to be a relevant and significant asset next to our property. It's a world class asset in terms of physically what it offers. So we're long term bullish on that in regards to the adjacent property, I think between the Strat and atomic is too narrow.

是的。看起來原子。這不是什麼秘密。我們一直在談論。原子高爾夫的發展緩慢。在我談論我們附近或毗鄰的財產的額外潛在開發之前，我仍然相信原子仍然是一個現代的有競爭力的設施。這是一個耗資 7000 萬美元的設施。儘管增長速度緩慢，但它仍將繼續成為我們財產旁邊的相關且重要的資產。就其提供的物理功能而言，它是世界級的資產。因此，我們長期看好相鄰屬性，我認為 Strat 和atomic 之間的範圍太窄。

We tried to push that closer to the building to make it convenient for cross walk traffic, but we do have 5.5 acres of developable asphalt, flat land across the Strat, which is desirable. We're getting a lot of inquiries into what could possibly be put there. We're trying to fit a highest and best use concept in there that would drive more traffic to the property. So absolutely, we have adjacent property that with the ability to put some attractions on there that would benefit the Strat.

我們試圖將其推近大樓，以方便人行橫道交通，但我們確實有 5.5 英畝的可開發瀝青、橫跨 Strat 的平坦土地，這是理想的。我們收到了很多關於那裡可能放什麼的詢問。我們試圖在那裡融入一個最高和最佳使用的概念，這將吸引更多的人流到該物業。所以絕對，我們有鄰近的房產，有能力在那裡放置一些景點，這將使 Strat 受益。

I'd say we're also working on development of extra amenities inside the building. So we have approximately 150,000 square feet of available space on a mezzanine level of the Strat. And so we're working with some third parties to bring some experiential type attractions to the property that we think help drive traffic as well.

我想說，我們還在致力於開發大樓內的額外設施。因此，我們在 Strat 的夾層上擁有約 150,000 平方英尺的可用空間。因此，我們正在與一些第三方合作，為飯店帶來一些體驗式景點，我們認為這也有助於增加客流量。

Great. Thank you. And then Charles, just on the follow up as we approach kind of year one of a dividend being paid. Is there any cadence or parameters we should be thinking about in terms of, does that go up? Is it based off a payout, a yield, etcetera?

偉大的。謝謝。然後是查爾斯，在我們接近支付股息的第一年時進行跟進。我們是否應該考慮任何節奏或參數，是否會上升？它是基於支出、收益率等嗎？

Yeah, I mean, look, we've talked and thought about it almost as constant dollars a bit out the door with the fluctuation based on the amount of equity we could buy back into the company. In other words, when we get to this one-year anniversaries, we'll take a look and see what's our projected cash flow going forward. You know, how do we think about how much stock we bought back and how that translates into overall cash outflow. But clearly we the dividend to us is to be a constant piece of our cash flows going forward and we look to increase that as we get in the next year.

是的，我的意思是，看，我們已經討論和思考過它幾乎就像恆定的美元一樣，根據我們可以回購公司的股權數量而波動。換句話說，當我們到了一周年紀念日時，我們將看看我們未來的預期現金流量是多少。你知道，我們如何考慮回購了多少股票以及如何轉化為整體現金流出。但顯然，我們的股利將成為我們未來現金流的一個恆定部分，我們希望在明年增加股利。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

David Katz, Jefferies LLC.

大衛卡茨，傑富瑞有限責任公司。

Hi evening everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I just want to make sure that I'm processing all the commentary properly. We're talking about potentially activating some of the excess land one way or the other. And we're also potentially talking about a sale and lease back with the proceeds necessarily be used for capital returns, or is there a range of potential uses just for the purposes of this exercise?

大家晚上好。感謝您回答我的問題。我只是想確保我正確處理所有評論。我們正在討論以某種方式激活一些多餘土地的可能性。我們也可能討論出售和回租，所得收益必然用於資本回報，或者是否僅出於本次練習的目的而存在一系列潛在用途？

Yeah, so I think the purpose of highlighting the value of the real estate is to illustrate what Blake had discussed earlier, which is if you look at any reasonable multiple of a rent stream that is in excess of the total enterprise valuation of the company as it sits here today. So from our perspective, clearly undervalued in terms of the combination of the Opco as well as the real estate. So that's why quite frankly, we're confident in increasing the share buyback very meaningfully, we have $130 million of availability on that buyback. It represents a little bit over half of our revolving credit facility.

是的，所以我認為強調房地產價值的目的是為了說明布萊克之前討論過的內容，也就是說，如果你考慮超過公司總企業估值的租金流的任何合理倍數，今天它就坐在這裡。因此，從我們的角度來看，Opco 和房地產的組合顯然被低估了。因此，坦白說，這就是為什麼我們有信心增加非常有意義的股票回購，我們有 1.3 億美元的可用資金用於回購。它占我們循環信貸額度的一半多一點。

And we could use that as we see the opportunity within the market to do, we will have consistent buyback through Q4 and we're going to be doing that you into the future. But I think you're not going to see us do a sale lease back to fund other development that you're not going to see as a strategic alternative. I think to the extent that we are trading at levels that where the discount remains for a prolonged period. And I think some people might point out that it has, but we've been in a challenging interest rate environment which I do not think has helped read multiples.

我們可以利用這一點，因為我們看到了市場上的機會，我們將在第四季度進行持續的回購，並且我們將在未來這樣做。但我認為您不會看到我們透過出售租賃來資助您不會將其視為戰略替代方案的其他開發項目。我認為我們的交易水準使得折扣可以長期維持。我認為有些人可能會指出確實如此，但我們一直處於充滿挑戰的利率環境中，我認為這無助於讀取本益比。

And so as we see the rate cuts that happened today and we anticipate rate cuts in the future. It's our belief that multiples get better and cap rates get better from a real estate perspective. And we're going to let that play out as we get through next year.

因此，當我們看到今天發生的降息時，我們預計未來也會降息。我們相信，從房地產的角度來看，本益比會變得更好，資本化率也會變得更好。明年我們將讓這種情況繼續下去。

Totally agree and totally sensible. If I can follow that up and just, I know we've talked about these things before. But does the field of play, I assume it includes potential mergers or other, when Blake says we're active, does the field of play include corporate type activities like that?

完全同意並且完全明智。如果我能跟進，我知道我們之前已經討論過這些事情。但是，我認為，當布萊克說我們很活躍時，比賽領域是否包括潛在的合併或其他活動，比賽領域是否包括類似的公司類型活動？

Yes. Yes. I mean, I'm sure it's frustrating to our investors and to those that follow the company, it's frustrating to see we get no credit for the real estate whatsoever. So, within that context, we're frustrated with the valuation and we are sitting in a good position with a strong balance sheet, fully owned real estate and a well run company to look at all alternatives. So, yes, corporate merger, we're active in looking at all things that may potentially drives significant value to our current portfolio.

是的。是的。我的意思是，我確信這讓我們的投資者和那些關注公司的人感到沮喪，看到我們的房地產沒有任何信用，這令人沮喪。因此，在這種情況下，我們對估值感到沮喪，但我們處於有利的地位，擁有強大的資產負債表、全資擁有的房地產和營運良好的公司，可以考慮所有替代方案。所以，是的，公司合併，我們正在積極研究可能為我們當前的投資組合帶來重大價值的所有事情。

Great. I appreciate it and thank you.

偉大的。我很感激並謝謝你。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, David.

謝謝，大衛。

Chad Beynon, Macquarie Asset Management.

貝農 (Chad Beynon)，麥格理資產管理公司。

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, how you doing? I wanted to touch on the direct business at the Strat, which has been a nice success story for you guys. How high do you think that can go or just how do you think about the optimal mix there? Thanks.

嘿，下午好。感謝您提出問題。嘿，你好嗎？我想談談 Strat 的直接業務，這對你們來說是一個很好的成功故事。您認為可以達到多高，或者您如何看待那裡的最佳組合？謝謝。

Yes. So we've worked pretty hard and when we first took over the property, the OTA mix was about over 70%, 72% to 74%, 75%. That's down now to between 60% to 65%. And we think we could keep moving that lower. I mean, ideally, we'd like it to be about 50% of the property. So we're doing a lot of things in terms of boosting our direct booking business, working more closely with the city wide conventions and selling blocks of rooms into this citywide, and doing a little bit better job capturing customer data once, even though they may have booked up an OTA once they get on the property, being able to send them return offers directly rather than through the OTA. So we are pretty excited about that journey. It's a slow journey, but it's a good one and there's no sign in the property from doing that.

是的。因此，我們非常努力地工作，當我們第一次接管該物業時，OTA 比例大約超過 70%、72% 到 74%、75%。現在已降至 60% 至 65% 之間。我們認為我們可以繼續降低這個水平。我的意思是，理想情況下，我們希望它佔財產的 50% 左右。因此，我們正在做很多事情來促進我們的直接預訂業務，與全市範圍的會議更密切地合作，並向全市範圍內銷售大塊房間，並在一次捕獲客戶數據方面做得更好一些，即使他們他們可能在入住飯店後就預訂了OTA，從而能夠直接而不是透過OTA 向他們發送退貨報價。所以我們對這趟旅程感到非常興奮。這是一段緩慢的旅程，但卻是一段美好的旅程，而且酒店裡沒有任何跡象表明這樣做。

Yeah. I would just add to that I think you said it very well. We continue to see bright spots at the property. We are aggressively marketing the casino and seeing improvement in parted play. We're seeing improvement in revisitation, people revisiting the property which prior to our ownership was pretty much non existent. We just for a metric that may or may not be relevant in today's environment. But if you look at 19, our ad Rds are still up approximately 20% today over 19 levels, our occupancy is down a bit, but weekend is up, but the midweek is where Charles continues to talk about our upside. So there's a lot of data points in the property that are going in the right direction. We're kind of taking it an inch at a time, but it is going in a positive direction.

是的。我想補充一點，我認為你說得很好。我們繼續看到該物業的亮點。我們正在積極行銷賭場，並看到分開遊戲的情況有所改善。我們看到重訪方面有所改善，人們重新訪問了在我們擁有之前幾乎不存在的房產。我們只是為了一個在當今環境中可能相關也可能不相關的指標。但如果你看看 19，今天我們的廣告 Rds 仍然比 19 的水平上漲了約 20%，我們的入住率略有下降，但周末有所上升，但周中 Charles 繼續談論我們的優勢。因此，該房產中有很多數據點都在朝著正確的方向發展。我們有點一步一步地前進，但它正在朝著積極的方向發展。

Understood, appreciate the color there. Just turning to taverns. In terms of growing the number of your taverns as we look to next year, do you anticipate adding locations at the same rate as you have this year? You know, just any color on how you see the opportunities set there would be great.

明白了，欣賞那裡的顏色。只是轉向酒館。就我們預計明年增加酒館數量而言，您預計會以與今年相同的速度增加酒館數量嗎？你知道，任何能反映你如何看待那裡的機會的顏色都會很棒。

No, I think we had some unique opportunities in the marketplace to acquire some brands and some locations that we think long term will be very beneficial to the portfolio going forward. We're more focused on developing ground up. And so we look to add 1 to 2 next year and then going forward after that, it's probably in the 3 to 4 range.

不，我認為我們在市場上有一些獨特的機會來收購一些品牌和一些地點，我們認為從長遠來看這將對我們的投資組合的未來非常有利。我們更專注於基礎開發。因此，我們希望明年增加 1 到 2 個，之後可能會增加 3 到 4 個。

The only thing I would add to that, to for a little more color is we're bullish on that greenfield Charles talks about 1 to 2. We are solely looking for what we call five star or premier locations only, to further grow the portfolio we're having success in providing an inventory of these solid locations for us going forward. And those locations as Charles said, 1 to 2 a year and still those new locations versus the acquired locations which admittedly have taken us longer to ramp up, those new build locations still provide a 25% cash on cash return when we build them. So we're very, very confident we will continue in that direction.

我唯一想補充一點的是，我們看好查爾斯談論的 1 比 2 的綠地。我們只是在尋找所謂的五星級或頂級地點，以進一步擴大我們的投資組合，我們已經成功地為我們的未來提供了這些可靠地點的庫存。正如Charles 所說，這些地點每年1 到2 個，而且仍然是那些新地點，與收購的地點相比，我們確實花了更長的時間來擴大規模，這些新建地點在我們建造時仍然提供25%的現金回報。所以我們非常非常有信心我們會繼續朝這個方向發展。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

John DeCree, CBRE.

約翰‧德克里，世邦魏理仕。

Hey, guys, I think most of mine have been answered, but maybe one follow up on the tavern discussion and particularly the new build and then properties required to take, I think up to about 18 months to stabilize. Can you give us a little bit more color on that life cycle? I mean, when you bring a new property into the system, a new tavern or opening ones that typically lose money, and then break even and then moving into profitability. And I guess the follow up is given the seven or so that you've spoke about earlier, kind of came online at different times where we are kind of in that life cycle today. And think about kind of inflection to profitability and maybe margin enhancement across that business overall.

嘿，夥計們，我想我的大部分問題都已經得到解答，但也許對酒館討論的後續討論，特別是新建築以及所需的房產，我認為最多需要 18 個月才能穩定。您能為我們提供更多有關該生命週期的資訊嗎？我的意思是，當你將一個新的財產引入系統時，一個新的酒館或新開的酒館通常會虧損，然後收支平衡，然後開始盈利。我想後續行動會給出您之前提到的七個左右，在不同的時間上線，而我們今天處於這個生命週期。並考慮獲利能力的變化，以及整個業務的利潤率的提高。

Yeah. So when we typically open a ground up tavern, we're spending between $2million and $3 million and it's usually on the shorter end of that scale of ramp up, call it the 9 to 12 month range. We usually have in the location where we potentially do not have a lot of other locations and there's not the competition around. So they ramp faster and we staff them with people that came out of our existing tavern. So they know the process, they know our methodology, they know our brands and they know our marketing.

是的。因此，當我們通常開設一家小酒館時，我們會花費 200 萬至 300 萬美元，而且通常處於該規模的較短一端，稱之為 9 至 12 個月的範圍。我們通常在可能沒有很多其他地點並且周圍沒有競爭的地方設立。因此，他們的發展速度更快，我們的員工都是來自我們現有的酒館。所以他們知道流程，他們知道我們的方法，他們知道我們的品牌，他們知道我們的行銷。

And we very quickly see those ramp to 25% to 30% cash on cash as Blake mentioned. With the acquisitions, depending on the staff that we acquire, that could either be shorter or longer. In this case, for these two brands, it's longer. So we have basically turned over the entire staff in the six locations we've acquired. Now, we've put in new staff and we're seeing the fruits of that in terms of that ramp up as we're getting into the into Q4 right now.

正如布萊克所提到的，我們很快就會看到現金現金比例上升到 25% 到 30%。透過收購，根據我們收購的員工，這可能會更短或更長。這樣的話，對於這兩個品牌來說，就更長了。所以我們基本上已經調動了我們收購的六個地點的全部員工。現在，我們已經聘請了新員工，隨著我們現在進入第四季度，我們正在看到其成果。

So we're confident that those will get there. They're a little bit, there's some different brands from what we've had in the past. So we like that, we actually opened our new build with one of those brands. So it adds a little diversification to the portfolio, but it's just taking us a little bit longer to get them up to our standard.

所以我們有信心這些將會實現。它們有點，有一些與我們過去的品牌不同的品牌。所以我們喜歡這樣，我們實際上用這些品牌之一開設了我們的新建築。因此，它為投資組合增加了一點多樣化，但我們只是需要更長的時間才能讓它們達到我們的標準。

Understood. Thanks for that color, Charles. That's all for me. Appreciate it guys.

明白了。謝謝你的顏色，查爾斯。這就是我的全部。很欣賞你們。

Yes.

是的。

Carlo Santarelli, Deutsche Bank.

卡洛桑塔雷利，德意志銀行。

Hey, Charles, Blake. Thank you for taking my question. Charles, I just wanted to kind of understand a little bit when you talked about the Nevada casino segment, and I believe you also mentioned it with respect to the local segment a Q4 that you expected to be stable year over year. And I just kind of want to understand what you meant with the stable comment. I'm assuming you don not mean you would anticipate they would be flat year over year, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.

嘿，查爾斯，布萊克。感謝您回答我的問題。查爾斯，當您談到內華達州賭場細分市場時，我只是想了解一點，我相信您也提到了您預計第四季度將同比穩定的本地細分市場。我只是想了解你的穩定評論是什麼意思。我假設你並不是說你會預期它們會逐年持平，但也許我誤解了。

Yeah, for Q4 year over year flat, right? Other than the Strat, which is in my commentary, and in the commentary my reference is really to the locals. So that's our local properties in our casinos out. In Pump Laughlin should be the same way. I think Strat should be a little bit down year over year given where we are from a labor expense perspective.

是的，第四季同比持平，對嗎？除了我的評論中的 Strat 之外，在評論中我提到的實際上是當地人。這就是我們賭場的本地屬性。在 Pump Laughlin 中應該也是同樣的方式。我認為考慮到我們從勞動力支出的角度來看，Strat 的業績應該會比去年同期下降。

But that's all will be better than Q3.

但這一切都會比第三季更好。

Yes.

是的。

Yes. Okay. Okay. And then just, it might have been nuanced and I might not have exactly understood it correctly. But when you talked about the disconnect between buyers and sellers, you made the point that it was not necessarily a difference in pricing, in bid, ask it was more of a difference in earnings or EBITA cash flows. Is the perception then from a buyer's perspective that sellers are looking for a multiple off a business that's flat or growing, and buyers just are kind of looking for things to continue to kind of slightly kind of erode? Or what exactly is that dynamic you were referencing?

是的。好的。好的。然後，它可能是微妙的，我可能沒有完全正確地理解它。但當您談到買家和賣家之間的脫節時，您指出這不一定是定價、出價、問價方面的差異，更多的是收益或 EBITA 現金流的差異。那麼，從買家的角度來看，賣家是否會認為賣家正在尋找持平或成長的企業的倍數，而買家只是在尋找繼續略有侵蝕的東西？或者你所指的動態到底是什麼？

Yeah, I would say the dynamic probably not as specific is that buyers are looking at like we would look at a more conservative EBITA to underwrite in the future. You know, you depending on what sellers may be offering, whether they're offering double digit, growth rates. And we're saying we're not going to get there or they're offering more flat and we think we should be a little bit more conservative. I just think that there's more conservatism, at least from our perspective as a buyer than what we're seeing in the situations we've looked at from a seller perspective.

是的，我想說，動態可能不那麼具體，買家正在考慮像我們會考慮更保守的 EBITA 來承保未來。你知道，你取決於賣家可能提供什麼，他們是否提供兩位數的成長率。我們說我們不會到達那裡，或者他們提供更多的公寓，我們認為我們應該更保守一點。我只是認為，至少從我們作為買家的角度來看，比我們從賣家角度看到的情況更加保守。

Okay. That makes sense. Thank you for the clarification. Thanks guys.

好的。這是有道理的。謝謝您的澄清。謝謝你們。

Thank you.

謝謝。

David Bain, B. Riley Securities.

大衛‧貝恩 (David Bain)，B. 萊利證券 (Riley Securities)。

Oh, great. Thank you. Sorry for this. This question may be a little off track given the tavern discussion that we're kind of clearly centered around Las Vegas. But have there been any new thoughts around tavern business expansion outside of Nevada? I believe you still have the J&J relationship if I'm not mistaken and you got the proven model. And I would think the brand opportunity as well.

哦，太好了。謝謝。對此感到抱歉。鑑於我們顯然以拉斯維加斯為中心的酒館討論，這個問題可能有點偏離軌道。但是，在內華達州以外的酒館業務擴張方面有什麼新想法嗎？如果我沒記錯的話，我相信您仍然與強生有關係，並且您擁有經過驗證的模型。我也認為品牌機會。

That's actually a very good question. So when we exited the route business, both in Montana and Nevada, I think on prior calls, I referenced the fact we have not exited our potential for remaining in the distributed business through operating the brick and mortars or brands either that we have or new brands. I think that's an opportunity for us. Yes. And although nothing is eminent, I think there's a path for us to do that.

這實際上是一個非常好的問題。因此，當我們退出蒙大拿州和內華達州的航線業務時，我認為在先前的電話中，我提到了這樣一個事實：我們尚未透過經營我們擁有的或新的實體或品牌來放棄繼續保留分佈式業務的潛力。我認為這對我們來說是一個機會。是的。儘管沒有什麼突出的事情，但我認為我們有一條途徑可以做到這一點。

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

好的，太好了。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference of Golden Entertainment Inc. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝各位，女士們、先生們，Golden Entertainment Inc. 的會議到此結束，感謝您的參與。現在您可以斷開線路。