Manchester United PLC (MANU) 2015 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Manchester United first-quarter 2015 earnings conference call.

(Operator Instructions)

We would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. Before we begin, we would like to inform everyone that this call will include estimates and forward-looking statements subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and which should be considered together with the cautionary note in our earnings release regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors in our filings with the SEC. Manchester United plc assumes no obligation to update these estimates or forward-looking statements.

I'll now turn the conference over to Ed Woodward, Executive Vice Chairman of Manchester United. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. With me on the call, as usual, are Hemen Tseayo, Head of Corporate Finance; and Samanta Stewart, Head of Investor Relations. Hemen will take you through the detailed financial results shortly, but first, I'd like to say a few words about the quarter and how I believe the strong progress we've made both on and off the pitch are indicative of our forward momentum and bright future.

As we said in our last call, there's a real feeling at the Club that we have the start of something special. While we're still evolving as a team, it is clear that our fans, like us as a Board, are excited and supportive of our players and manager, and understand that the team is heading in the right direction. Encouragingly, in addition to the world-leading players we've acquired, our First Team now includes several new players promoted from our Academy, including Blackett, McNair, Pereira, and Wilson.

Youth development is a key part of the Club's DNA, and we continue to invest in our Academy and scouting infrastructure to attract the most talented young players. According to CIES Football Observatory, Manchester United's Academy has produced more footballers currently playing in Europe's top five leagues than any other Club in the UK, with a total of 36 players, over 60% more than the UK's second Club. This is a clear indication that our efforts have paid off. As an aside, after seven games, our Under-21 team is top of the first division.

Off the field, during the quarter, we signed a record deal with Adidas, which we discussed in detail during our last earnings call. But it bears repeating that this agreement, the largest kit sponsorship ever, demonstrates clearly the unique power of our Club to transcend the industry. In addition, we also signed five other deals including Nissin, as our global noodles partner. Last week, they launched an exciting campaign, created in Japanese anime style by world-renowned animator Kazuto Nakazawa, whose artwork can also be seen in the Kill Bill movies, and features Wayne Rooney, Angel Di Maria, and Robin van Persie.

Abengoa is our first sustainable technology global partner, which will also help us enhance and develop our sustainable business practices. We also entered into a new regional partnership with the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan, which will provide a permanent Manchester United Soccer Schools presence and territory. Finally, we renewed partnerships with Maybank and Gloops. Since the end of the quarter, we've announced two new regional partners: IVC is the Club's first Chinese wellness partner, and Chi as the Club's official soft drinks partner in Nigeria.

During the first quarter, we also completed a successful transfer window. I wanted to share some interesting findings relating to the impact on players' profiles around the world by joining Manchester United. As per The Daily Telegraph's article on September 18, Manchester United commands more than 51% of the Premier League's entire global TV audience, which is watched in over 200 countries worldwide. Di Maria saw a 12-times increase in Google searches on the day of his transfer from Real Madrid. When Falcao signed to the Club, he saw a 10-times increase in searches for his name on Google compared to the day he signed for Atletico. When Daley Blind joined from Ajax in August, his total Twitter following increased by 72%, with his daily rate of increase up an incredible 50 times.

On top of the global audience, the Club has 61 million followers on Facebook, 3.8 million Twitter followers, with a cumulative total of 87 million followers across all social media. When you add in our 38 million CRM records to those statistics, we're directly in touch with over 100 million fans. The Club's media reach is further illustrated by research which suggests that for every article on our own website -- and there are about 150 of those every month -- a further 160 articles about Manchester United are written elsewhere, and 13,500 social media posts are made about the Club. This impressive multiplier effect reflects the popularity of the Club around the world.

I'll now hand it over to Hemen to go through the financials.

Thank you, Ed. I'm here to review our results for the first three months of FY15, which includes our tour to the US and the summer transfer window. As usual, unless I mention otherwise, all figures are in UK pounds sterling. As expected, year-over-year comparisons are, and will continue to be for the rest of this year, adversely impacted by our non-participation in the Champions League this season.

Our total revenue for the first quarter of FY15 was down 9.9% to GBP88.7 million, with adjusted EBITDA down 1.9% to GBP20.7 million, which exceeded consensus EBITDA primarily due to higher broadcasting revenues, cost savings in wages, and lower fixed and variable costs. Consistent with previous announcements, we have included both adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share, as we believe that in assessing the true comparative financial performance of the business, it is useful to strip out the distorting effects of debits and credits unrelated to the underlying business and then to apply a normalized tax rate of 35% for both the current and prior periods. We provide a reconciliation of this in the earnings release.

Adjusted net income then was GBP4.2 million compared to GBP2.2 million in the first quarter of FY14, due primarily to profits from the disposal of player registrations, lower wages, as well as lower fixed and variable costs, partially offset by lower revenues and higher amortization. I won't walk through every line item but will address the items that we believe are worth highlighting on this call.

Matchday revenues were down GBP4.2 million, primarily as a result of the non-participation in the Champions League and an early exit from the Capital One Cup which resulted in one fewer domestic Cup home game. Broadcasting revenues declined to GBP2.5 million, again primarily due to non-participation in the Champions League in the current season.

Commercial revenues were down GBP3.1 million, primarily as a result of two things. Firstly, a less lucrative preseason tour this year, where we played one fewer game than in our tour to Asia last year. And, we didn't have complete freedom regarding the sale of associated sponsorship rights. Secondly, lower Nike guaranteed revenue and profit share. Despite the lower revenues, however, we were very pleased with the summer's tour to the US, where we set a US record for the largest attendance at a football match with 109,318 enthusiastic fans at the Big House in Michigan and won the International Champions Cup tournament.

Turning to the income streams within the commercial sector, sponsorship revenue increased GBP1.1 million, or 2.4%, primarily due to an increase in our shirt and other sponsorships, partially offset by the reduced tour revenue I referred to earlier. Merchandising apparel and product licensing revenues declined GBP2.9 million, or 27.1%, due to the reduction in Nike guaranteed revenue as a result of non-participation in European competitions in the current season and the extended final period of the partnership, which ends on July 31, 2015. And thus 12 out of the remaining 13 months will be recognized in FY15, with the final month being recognized in the first quarter of FY16.

Mobile and content revenue decreased GBP1.3 million due to the expiration of a small number of our partnerships in territories that we've decided to keep clean as part of our broader digital media strategy. During the quarter, total operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, were down 10.4%, with wages down 6.6% due to the mix of players in and out of the First Team and no step-up in payments associated with Champions League participation.

Other operating expenses declined 18.8%, due to a reduction in domestic gate share costs as a result of no home Capital One Cup game this quarter and favorable FX movements. During the quarter, we also generated GBP18.3 million from the disposal of player registrations, compared to GBP1 million in the first quarter of FY14, which primarily related to the sale of Danny Welbeck. Net finance costs for the quarter were down GBP3.7 million, primarily due to a foreign exchange loss of GBP3 million on the retranslation of US dollar bank accounts in the prior-year quarter.

Overall then, we generated an operating profit of GBP14.2 million in the year, an increase of 53% over the same period last year, and a profit for the period of GBP8.9 million compared with a marginal loss last year. Based on our first-quarter results and current visibility, we remain confident that we will achieve our previously stated guidance for FY15 of revenue of between GBP385 million to GBP395 million and adjusted EBITDA of GBP90 million to GBP95 million.

I will now turn the call back over to Ed for closing comments.

Thank you, Hemen. I just want to spend a couple of minutes on some of the reasons we're excited about our future. Recent announcements demonstrate the value of content continues to rise. Last month alone, three new broadcasting deals were announced around the world: first of all, the Bundesliga four-year deal with 21st Century FOX is up 61%; the ITC deal with Star India and Star Middle East is up 150% versus the previous deal; and NBA, an eight-year deal with ESPN and TNT is up an incredible 187%.

The deals I just listed are a few examples of how the value of live sports programming has grown dramatically in recent years, primarily due to changes in how television content is distributed and consumed. We look forward to getting further news on the total Champions League rights for the 2016 to 2019 seasons, as well as the new domestic English Premier League deal for 2017 to 2020 seasons. We believe we'll have good clarity on those rights packages in the first half of calendar 2015, with the International Premier League rights following thereafter.

People are sometimes surprised when we say that the US is the biggest emerging market when it relates to football. Let me give you some interesting stats from NBC this season. The opening weekend set streaming records with over 8.9 million minutes watched, which is up 56% from the same weekend last year. This ranks as NBC Sports Networks' most watched Premier League weekend, with unique visitors up 42% from last year.

Also, the game between Manchester United and Chelsea on October 26 set an NBC record for the most viewed Premier League match across NBC Sports since a broadcaster began televising the Premier League. So, as we've stated before -- the value of content is rising, sports is the must-have content, and football is the number one sport.

Last year, we were very focused on the Adidas negotiations, and a lot of the Club's resources, including staff across various departments, were consumed with that partnership. With the deal successfully concluded and announced in July, our commercial team is now very focused on other initiatives, including the continuous growth of our sponsorship pipeline and our development of the full strategy for the rights that will revert to us in August 2015 including retail, eCommerce, mono-branded products, and soccer schools. We also remain very active on our additional media strategy. We believe this opportunity could be very significant and look forward to sharing our plans with you soon.

So, in summary, we're excited about the year ahead, both on and off the pitch. We look forward to sharing our [comparatives] with you in 2015. With that, I'll hand it back to the operator. We're ready to take your questions. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

Matthew Walker, Nomura.

I've got a few questions, please.

The first is on wages and other operating expenses. Wages down 6%, other operating expenses down 18% in the quarter. Can we extrapolate that for the full year? I think if we do so, particularly on other operating expenses and we extrapolate the revenue trend of say minus 9%, 10%, we certainly get to higher EBITDA than you're forecasting. So if you could explain why that isn't the case, that would be helpful.

Secondly is on transfers, particularly around defense. I think on the last call you said you weren't intending to deploy much CapEx in the transfer window. Has that position changed? Or do you think it's likely to change?

Lastly, on Ofcom today, they opened an investigation into how the Premier League rights are sold. They possibly will ask the Premier League to sell more games. They are going to look into talking to supporter's groups about possible effects on attendance. I appreciate that it's quite early, but can you give us some thoughts on those things? Thanks.

Hi, Matt.

With respect to the first question. Then Ed will take the second two. On wage and OpEx. Firstly, wages are never -- they're never in straight lines through to the four quarters. Largely because of the timing of when players come in and come out, you can't extrapolate Q1 for the -- across the rest of the year. So don't do that. We continue to believe that the guidance that we gave will remain in line with respect to that piece.

With respect to variable and fixed costs, again, at this stage, we would not suggest extrapolating. Part of the reason for the change in that line is, there's an element of FX in there, together with phasing. So actually, there is an element of catch-up clearly with respect to our fixed costs, in particular. It's very hard to note precisely when that they will land. But with the visibility that we've got at the moment, we expect those to still be in line with where we are expecting for the full year.

So at this stage, we would suggest and hence reiterating guidance, keeping those lines as you've got them and just assuming a shift in phasing.

Okay.

Okay. Your second question on transfers. Nothing has changed in terms of what I communicated at the last call. We're not looking to enter the market for short-term fixes; however, we have targets that we are looking at for next summer. Should any of those become available in January, which is obviously rare, we will consider acting. But I think in terms of expectation setting, we will need to recognize that's a low probability.

Your third question relating to Ofcom, we note the announcement today. We saw it. We expected it, frankly, following the Virgin Media complaint.

We welcome the fact that Ofcom intends to ask all Clubs and fan groups for their views. This is a very wide ranging matter.

We will be responding. I think our motivations will be what's best for the Club and for the fans. But all I can say really at this point is, we'll continue to support the Premier League and the principal of collective selling. I think we have to watch this. We'll give you a bigger update when we know a bit more in three months.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alexander Mees, JPMorgan.

My questions, I have two.

The first one just with regard to the US. You refer to it as one of the key emerging markets. I think given the increased interest in football after the World Cup and your very successful preseason tour, I wondered if you could comment on any opportunities you're seeing for commercial agreements to follow in the wake of that, as you develop in the US?

The second question relates to a comment that was made on the last call, with regard to one of the attractions of the Adidas deal being the improved global distribution -- the global reach of Adidas. I wonder if you could just share your thoughts on what that means in practice for the Club going forward? Thank you.

Sure. Hi, Alexander.

So the first question, US opportunities. I mean, I think if you look at our P&L, you can see a lot of touch points really in terms of what can happen here. Tour, you mentioned obviously is a major one, we regularly have successful tours in the US.

I think if you strip it down, there's a sponsorship opportunity, both companies in the US are looking to grow their businesses internationally in particular in Asia. That's a major market for us. There are regional opportunities in the US.

The final two, I'd say, would be digital media. If you look at that, the US is developing market interest levels in soccer, as we've discussed, have been increasing materially over recent years. Obviously, the GDP and how accessible fans are there in terms of smartphones and being online, we think there's a big opportunity.

The final one, I'd say, which may be did more low hanging fruit, is actually merchandise. If you look at Europe and the US as a total sports industry, they're a similar size in terms of sponsorship and media. But actually the merchandising industry in the US is much, much bigger. That's a cultural difference. But we believe by making our shirts and products more accessible to our fan base in the US, we'll see some meaningful growth coming through there.

That's a good link, I think, into your second question which was related to Adidas in terms of distribution. I can't go into detail in terms of the contract. All I can say is that, through the process of the negotiations, we believe there will be greater reach of our distribution network that Adidas will bring to bear; therefore, our products will be more available to our fans around the world on a breadth and depth basis. But I can't go into detail, if that makes sense.

That's great. Thank you, Ed.

Thank you.

There are no further questions at this time.

Okay. Well thanks so much everybody. We look forward to speaking to you in February.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you very much for participating. You may now disconnect.