美高梅國際酒店集團 (MGM) 2018 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the MGM Resorts International Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call.

Joining from -- the call from the company today are: Jim Murren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dan D'Arrigo, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Corey Sanders, Chief Operating Officer; and Grant Bowie, CEO and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Limited.

(Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Dan D'Arrigo.

Sir, you may begin.

Well, thank you, Cole, and good afternoon, and welcome everyone to the MGM Resorts International Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Call.

This call is being broadcast live on the Internet at investors.mgmresorts.com, and we have furnished our press release on Form 8-K to the SEC this afternoon as well.

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.

Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and in our periodic filings with the SEC.

Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information, updates or otherwise.

During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures in talking about our performance.

You can find the reconciliation to GAAP financial measures in our press release, which is also available on our website.

Finally, this presentation is being recorded.

And with that, I'll now turn it over to Jim.

Well, thank you, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone.

We had a good fourth quarter and end to the year, coming in above our guidance here in Las Vegas.

On a consolidated basis, our fourth quarter revenues grew 18% year-over-year and our adjusted EBITDA grew 21%, excluding certain one-time benefits.

Here in Las Vegas, our strong fourth quarter was driven by selectively leveraging our casino database and helping convention business that improved intra-quarter.

We delivered revenue growth of 6% and RevPAR growth of over 8%.

We grew EBITDA by 15% or 8% if you exclude one-time benefits, despite holding at the low end of our table games range.

Our fourth quarter margins increased 220 basis points during the quarter or by 50 basis points after that same adjustment.

This was the best fourth quarter in Las Vegas since 2007.

We have many of the premier assets across the United States, and our regional properties performed well in the fourth quarter, with revenues up 18% and EBITDA up by 32%.

We set fourth quarter revenue and EBITDA records at MGM Grand Detroit, MGM National Harbor, Beau Rivage and Gold Strike Tunica.

Over Macau, the overall gaming market grew by 9%, MGM China's revenues grew by 33% and EBITDA was up 11% as we gained market share in the fourth quarter.

Grant will be available during the Q&A, of course, to answer any questions that you may have.

Now I want to spend a few minutes on our MGM 2020 plan, which we announced last month.

As you know, A couple of years ago, when we implemented our Profit Growth Plan, we underwent an organizational transformation that resulted in key centralized business functions to create best practices across our resort portfolio.

This platform is established now and running, and we can now leverage these centralized functions.

MGM 2020 will be rolled out in phases.

We announced Phase 1 on January 3, and with the help of outside consultants, we will implement comprehensive organizational changes as we find more efficient ways to operate.

As announced, we expect Phase 1 to realize $200 million in annualized EBITDA uplift by the end of 2020.

Half of that will be labor savings, 25% from sourcing and the remaining 25% from revenue optimization.

Phase 2 is centered on the company reallocating a portion of our annual CapEx budget to technology investments.

We expect these investments to increase our revenues through a customer-centric strategy driven by data, digital and loyalty capabilities.

We expect this will yield an additional $100 million in EBITDA by the end of 2021.

Through MGM 2020, we are investing in our business to drive long-term growth.

And as we saw with PGP, we expect to see financial benefits building, and in this case, into the back half of 2019.

Accordingly, we expect to realize 1/3 of the initial $200 million of EBITDA by the end of this year, with approximately 2/3 of that coming from our Las Vegas properties.

We spent a lot of time on this.

We talked about it last May during our Investor Day.

We made it official in January.

We have the full internal team focused on this effort.

We have a strong sense of the numbers.

We know how we will achieve those numbers, and you will hear more about our progress in the near future.

Turning to this year.

We believe we're positioned well here in Las Vegas with better citywide convention expectations as well our own bookings.

We're also excited about the entertainment calendar, bolstered by great programming at Park Theater, featuring, of course, Lady Gaga, who sells out every single night.

Our business fundamentals are solid.

However, we will maintain a level of caution as we navigate through broader market volatility, a rising cost environment, trade tensions and the resulting concerns on global growth.

That said, we believe, based on what we're seeing today, that the consensus for Las Vegas Strip EBITDA for the full year 2019 seems reasonable.

As I mentioned earlier, we're making good progress on MGM 2020.

We will incur some cost in the front-end before we start to see the financial benefits, as I said, in the second half of this year.

We're excited to have Park MGM and NoMad fully open.

We view this property just like a brand-new opening and expect a normal ramp-up period over the next couple of years.

And as you know, we're making important investments in sports and entertainment that we believe will reap future benefits.

Our regional properties are off to a solid start this year.

The addition of Empire City in New York and the soon-to-be-acquired Northfield Park in Ohio further cements our leadership in the Northeast and enhances our cross-marketing efforts across our entire portfolio.

Macau is the #1 gaming market in the world.

We all know it can be volatile.

Therefore, our focus there is on increasing our market share as now all the amenities in Cotai becomes fully available.

We're pleased that our VIP junket areas are open, The Mansion high-end casino is now operational, and The Mansion, which is stunning, will soon be receiving guests.

And as we look into 2019 and beyond, we're committed to our long-term strategy and our goals remain intact.

Our 5-year capital cycle is now complete, and we will reap the benefits of these investments in National Harbor, Cotai, Springfield and Park MGM.

And today, we are reaffirming our consolidated free cash flow per share target of $3.50 in 2020.

Our Project MGM '20 gives us increased confidence in our ability to hit those targets, even in light of a more uncertain macro environment.

We continue to be focused on a fortified balance sheet with targeted consolidated net leverage of 3 to 4x by year-end 2020.

Over the past 2 decades, MGM has developed and assembled our industry's most successful portfolio of premier real estate in The United States.

And during that time, we've executed on strategies to highlight this value and have been focused on unlocking long-term value for our shareholders, and this will continue.

Our management team and the recently announced ad hoc committee remain committed to exploring and executing a real estate strategy that is most optable for MGM Resorts, one that supports our goals of enhancing free cash flow per share, maximizing the value of our owned real estate, preserving the company's financial flexibility and creating sustainable shareholder value.

Lastly, while the company is focused on targeted growth opportunities, such as sports betting in Japan's IR, we will continue to return any excess cash to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends.

In fact, we returned $1.5 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends in 2018.

And this afternoon, we just announced another increase to our dividend.

So now, let's turn it back over for Q&A.

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Joe Greff with JPMorgan.

Jim, it's great to hear you talk about the momentum not just on the Strip, but also in regionals and Macau.

But my first question or questions are more strategic in nature.

My first question relates to the ad hoc committee, the Board that was established last month.

Can you talk in broad terms about what is being evaluated, i.e., is the committee and the Board looking at things the Board has looked at before and it passed on because of timing of the circumstance?

Is it a new willingness to transact real estate that you weren't willing to do before?

How important are tax considerations today versus these considerations before?

And to what extent is MGP independent front and center in the committee's evaluation?

And then related to this, what's the timeline for when you would expect this committee to present to the Board its recommendations and when would the Board look to act upon such recommendations?

I know it's a lot here.

You think?

So let me -- I'll start.

We have -- and you've followed us a while, we've always thought about what is in the best interest of the shareholders, how can we strategically create value.

We've been doing that for a long time.

The creation of the UPREIT with MGP was born partly out of that belief that we can create value, create a new security in the triple net space, and of course, it's been very successful, brought that public at $21 a share, Dan, and it's like $30.

We've said at the time, and we remain very committed to the fact that we expect MGP to continue to grow.

In fact, we expect it will outgrow its peer group in the triple net broader sector.

And it can because it can transact with MGM unlike many others, and it can make third-party transactions done accretively as they have done since they've been public.

And through that, through the growth of MGP, we expect at MGM Resorts that our interest will decline not because we would like to sell OP units but because we expect MGP to grow.

The idea of the ad hoc committee was to accelerate and put even greater focus on the opportunities that MGM Resorts' Board believes it has in assembling the kind of real estate that we uniquely own.

We, among any other company, have the real estate throughout the United States that affords us the opportunity to evaluate on a property by property basis on how to maximize value.

In the ad hoc committee, which has already met a couple of times, I was already talking to bankers, is going to be focused on that very effort with management.

And the ad hoc committee consisting of real estate and shareholder experts are going to be working with management and the full Board to deliver their findings.

Of course, they're Board members.

The Board members have helped us as management craft our entire strategic goal.

And this is very, very exciting, but complicated.

And we're going to make sure we get it right, not for tomorrow but for the many tomorrows in the future.

I'm not going to get ahead of the ad hoc committee and give you a timetable considering it was only formed on the 24th of January, but I will say they're focused, they're expert, they'll be professionally advised and they'll be working with the full Board and management.

And we're excited about the opportunities that seems to us, we have more than any other company in our space.

And there'll be a lot more to speak to this in the coming months and quarters.

And our next question comes from Harry Curtis with Instinet.

So Jim, you talked about the probable strength and the group outlook for Las Vegas in 2019.

And according to the LVCVA data, it looks like the first quarter is strong, the second quarter's growth is even stronger.

How do you compare that to what you see on your books so far by [comparison]?

And if you could give us some color by quarter.

I'll turn that over to Corey on the convention side.

Yes, I think, hey, Harry, throughout the year, our convention business is pretty solid.

We have a lot of it -- most of it's on the books already.

But on a cadence by quarter, we're seeing improvement in every quarter that -- compared to last year.

Obviously, the first quarter is going to be our strongest as it always has, but all the other quarters look pretty good for us also.

Okay.

And Jim, just a follow-up on that.

The question that inquiring minds want to know is that do you have any bid for giving some indication of what RevPAR in the first quarter might look like...

Nice try, Harry.

Dan, do you want to give a view on what we think about in terms of that kind of guidance?

Well, sir, I will.

Thanks, Harry for the question.

Clearly, we've been, Aaron, Cathy and myself, the whole team here have been talking to a lot of you all, both on the buy side and the sell side and really, as you all know, we've been seeking that counsel and that guidance and that input for quite some time.

There's one real common thread that really came through in most of those conversations, which was really getting to the longer-term vision story and goals that we're trying to achieve and attain here from a company standpoint.

So we're going to continue to give you a lot of color.

Obviously, Corey just gave you a lot of color around the convention business.

We're going to continue to give you a lot of insight into the baseline business and what we're seeing.

But getting into kind of quarterly specifics has not worked out too well for us.

So we are going to continue to kind of focus on the long term.

As you will get a chance to go through the deck that we posted, which has a lot of information in it, you will see that we are reaffirming our 2020 $3.50 per share free cash flow guidance, as well as some of our EBITDA targets in 2020.

Obviously, Jim commented on the consensus numbers for the year.

And we feel that gives the investment community a lot of good data points to be aligned with management on what we're trying to achieve here.

And my second question I wanted to shift to Macau, a real quick question for Grant.

Grant, you had very strong revenue growth, up 33%.

EBITDA growth was shy of that.

Was that due more to mix, more VIP mix?

And as we look ahead, how would you expect that flow-through to look as we get into the back half of this year, particularly when the Mansion opens?

Yes.

The margin actually is about where we would have expected, but you're correct, there is obviously mix effect, particularly with the introduction of the junkets into Cotai.

And clearly, now that we're stabilizing the Cotai operation, that focus we had to put on cost management becomes important and critical to us.

So in terms of the go-forward, we're in that phase of just locking everything down.

In terms of the Mansion, clearly, we are excited that we're bringing it all on board and getting all of those assets generating.

And so as a result of that, we are -- well, I am very positive in terms of how we are now building that momentum.

Also excited that we're starting to see stabilization and business opportunities reemerging in Macau because there's, I've already always indicated, we see this as a 2 property strategy, and we want to drive the importance of both properties.

So yes, we're confident that we can improve margin.

We still give the guidance that we look to the mid- to upper 20s in terms of margin performance.

And our next question comes from Shaun Kelley with Bank of America.

Just going to the slide deck and some of the longer-term goals that you guys provided.

I believe you did mention it for the Las Vegas Strip on an adjusted property basis, you're now expecting to see a 32% to 33% margin in 2020.

Could you maybe at high level give us what your sort of backdrop or assumptions would be to necessarily attain that?

I know a piece of it clearly has to be the 2020 plan where a lot of those savings will come from, the Las Vegas operations.

But so what do you need maybe from a top line perspective to actually achieve that?

Or do you think you can get there in even a fairly kind of low or benign top line environment?

Shaun, it's Dan here.

I'll start and if anybody else has anything.

I think when you kind of look at it, obviously, MGM 2020 is an important component of that strategy and how we get to those targeted numbers.

It gives us definitely a higher level of confidence in getting there in terms of that margin and EBITDA target.

When you look at what we're assuming, we're assuming kind of more or less the market is kind of status quo.

That low kind of single-digit top line growth and really kind of honing in on what we can control in terms of margin, continuing to use the tools that we've used in the past from a cost standpoint as well as the team, as you saw in the fourth quarter, did a great job in terms of yielding our rates up, filling the buildings with the most profitable customers we can put into the rooms.

And we're going to continue deploy that strategy going forward.

And so it's -- from a top line standpoint, we're not looking at a Herculean lift, but it's pretty much status quo.

That's perfect and helpful, Dan.

And then, my follow-up would just be on the 2020 plan.

With the kind of the 1/3 of the contribution you're expecting to occur this year, is that -- is the total contribution going to be net of the investments in the first half?

And then as we move into, I guess, 2020, would we expect some of the upfront investments or -- which I'm primarily thinking in my head are consulting-type costs, will those burn off at some point, meaning either things that you have to -- they're not necessarily run rate expenses?

Just help us to understand those 2 dynamics.

Yes, sure.

So the 2 goals, both Phase 1 and Phase 2 are net of the expenses.

We need to kind of get the ball rolling on -- in both of those phases as we look at it.

There obviously will be both operational and capital.

As you go through the deck, you'll see there's probably in our capital number this year, there's about $75 million of incremental spend for these projects that we're looking at on the technology side, and those will come with a return ascribed to them as well.

So it is net, and we will be as transparent as possible in going through this over the upcoming quarters.

So you make sure you have all the numbers for your analysis.

And you're right.

It will burn off as we go throughout the year into next year.

And our question comes from Felicia Hendrix with Barclays.

So Jim and Dan, in the past, you guys have said as you were over the past few quarters, reflecting upon your guidance conundrum, you have said that you guys don't give -- do such a great job with guiding out past 1 quarter, the quarter that you're in.

So can you just help us understand the confidence in the full year EBITDA guidance you gave us in your prepared remarks?

Well, a couple of things.

One is I necessarily wouldn't hang my head on that being official guidance.

What we're looking at is obviously, the current estimates that are out there.

And again, they seem reasonable from that perspective in looking at the 2019 period.

And also, not a good job.

We have half of the baccarat business in this market.

We're bigger than our top 2 competitors combined.

We have over 42,000 hotel rooms, but it is a market that's very dynamic.

And so we're trying to give color, but recognizing the fact that this is not a global company in the sense of spreading all of our assets all around the world.

We're giving you very specific color as to Las Vegas, and I don't think anyone does a better job than us.

I think it's been a dynamic market.

I'm just using words you guys have used in the past.

And then, I wanted to circle back to the committee to evaluate your real estate portfolio.

And I know it's really early stages, and perhaps just in this release and the way that it's out there just could evolve over time.

But I'm just trying to wrap my arms around the whole process of evaluating your real estate portfolio because when you think about your real estate portfolio, it's really 3 wholly-owned assets on the Strip and your JV in CityCenter, right, because Springfield is already kind of called for.

And so I'm just trying to -- for my own analytical purposes, trying to see what benefit you might get from selling those assets beyond potentially issuing a special dividend or maybe holding that cash to use for CapEx for Japan because your balance sheet even without that will get to your optimal levels.

I think everyone would, based on the guidance that you have for the next few years.

So I'm just -- can you help us understand what evaluating your real estate portfolio really means because you don't really have a lot of real estate left?

Sure.

Well, we don't have a lot of assets left, but we have a tremendous amount of real estate value.

I'm sitting in a building that's worth billions right now.

Well, yes, you have those 2, right?

And that could generate -- exactly, but it's just kind of -- I guess, what I'm really trying to get at is how could that be strategically benefit -- beneficial for your evaluation in the longer-term shareholders beyond, perhaps a special dividend or something like that?

Right.

Thank you.

I mean, that's the question that we are working on here at management and the full Board.

And the reason why we created this committee is really to create some real focus on evaluating what are very complex decisions that get into our balance sheet, get into our -- the tax basis of assets, get into our growth forecasts.

And because we have the talent on our Board, specific around real estate, and because they've been willing to give their time, I felt as part of management and as part of the Board that it would be beneficial to all of us to accelerate our thinking and our knowledge accumulation as to what we should do.

But I don't want to -- I want to be very clear on this.

The ad hoc committee, as part of the Board, is focused on the same strategic goals as the entire Board and management to reduce our leverage, to drive our free cash flow, to create the quantum of cash that we believe we're going to use because we believe we're going to win in Japan to be able to allocate the cash to the shareholders, while concurring with our leverage targets.

And so you're absolutely right, we only have a few assets that are wholly-owned today by MGM Resorts.

We have a joint venture that is very valuable, that we have said, we would like to strategically rationalize in the future.

And we have the ROFO asset in Springfield.

And when we look at all those properties and those ideas with outside advisers, and I feel really good about it, frankly, because it will allow management to work with a very expert group of people, and our shareholders want to know and we want to let them know what is in the best interest of the shareholders from the standpoint of maximizing value.

And I thought this would be a great way that identifies the seriousness, the focus that the company has on our unmatched portfolio, both in terms of what we own outright and what we own through MGP, and how it is that we look at those 2 entities and our joint ventures to maximize value.

And that's really why we set up the committee.

And as I said, they've already met.

They've been interviewing bankers.

They're very focused.

And I've been really happy with the output so far.

That's super helpful.

And Grant, just quickly any early comments on Chinese New Year?

Well, for us, the most pleasing is the Chinese New Year this year is actually our second.

We had an anniversary, so it's really our first year.

It was solid for us.

A lot of traffic in the city.

It looks like the bridge has driven a lot of traffic.

Probably hasn't, as we see across our channel checks, converted into gaming revenue but we're also seeing indications that the play is extending longer.

So we're well into the 10th day now in the play, and particularly in that upper end of the market is pretty positive.

So I would expect that definitely for us, it's been a good holiday period, continuing on from the fourth quarter for us.

But from the city, I think it's probably solid, lots of traffic but I'm not expecting that there's significant spikes in GGR.

I'd just reiterate comments I've made in the past.

I think we're now starting to find it from gaming play when we get into these big holiday seasons where we're clearly, we're getting a lot of footfall and a lot of traffic into the city.

It's not necessarily -- it's probably more likely to be leisure visitors as opposed to strictly, say, more gaming leisure.

And maybe I should bring up Chinese New Year over here in Las Vegas, anticipating the question.

I think we highlighted, didn't we in the deck?

We had a very high hold percentage last year.

And we're not holding to that level right now, number one.

And secondly, there are few players that just did not come to the United States, partly due to the government shutdown, some other logistical issues.

We lost some groups to places like Sydney and London.

So we can thank our total government for that, but we have -- still have good play in town.

And as I said earlier, as of last year, at least we're 49% of the entire baccarat business in Las Vegas.

And so I feel like we have a good feel for what's going on here, but I would say at this point in time, we're going to be below what we earned last year for Chinese New Year as a result of the whole delta and fewer customers in town.

And our next question comes from Carlo Santarelli with Deutsche Bank.

If I could and maybe Corey is best with this.

With respect to the mix for 2019, I know last year -- or I should say 2018, you guys made a concerted effort to kind of expand your casino occupied room nights.

As you think about 2019 and acknowledging, it sounds like your in-house and obviously citywide group is going to be a little bit better, so I would expect that to increase a little bit.

Is the objective to continue to grow what, I think, is like a mid- to higher teens casino base at present?

Yes.

I think, look, we constantly look at the market and look what our competition is doing.

I think there's opportunities to grow that base.

From a customer gross profit per room night, they are definitely higher than some of our other segments.

In particular, our focus is not just on the convention, but also improving the transient side of it, and as you mentioned, the casino side.

The one challenge we're having now that we see the market is on the leisure side and especially on the land-only.

And we're seeing customers potentially going to Europe and other areas, but I think by increasing our casino database, it will help us offset some of loss in those areas.

But in general, we think there's still opportunities to move this a few percent and be much more profitable as a company.

Great.

And Corey, just to kind of follow-up on what you said.

One of your competitors earlier this earnings season referred to Las Vegas as a marketer's market, and I'm assuming that, that's kind of dovetails with what you just noted on the leisure business.

Are you guys seeing any kind of heightened promotional activity in Las Vegas around that leisure business?

Look, I don't think it's any different than what it has been.

When you don't have a base of convention or other events happening in town, that segment has always been very competitive.

I don't see much of a difference in the offers going out there.

They are always pretty rich and that the amount of I'm seeing actually this lower this year than what was happening in the third quarter.

And the next question comes from Thomas Allen with Morgan Stanley.

So there's lot of focus from investors on your Strip margins and seeing progress there.

Consensus has your margins up every quarter in 2019.

Does that make sense?

Or based on your previous comments, should they more hockey-stick in the second half '19 and into 2020?

Thomas, this is Dan.

Obviously, factoring the comments we made on Chinese New Year's and hold, we did hold pretty high in the first few quarters last year more towards the high end of that range, so that always impacts.

And when we do our modeling, we're using can of midpoint of our range kind of numbers.

So that's going to impact a part of that margin.

But you're correct, in that as MGM 2020 begins to ramp up in the back half the year, that's going to help the margins in terms of a third and fourth quarter from that perspective as well as some of the burning off of some of the expenses of the upfront cost for the initiatives.

And the ramp of Park MGM and our convention business.

Helpful.

And then, just on the topic of ramping.

Can you talk about -- give any incremental color on how you see Springfield performing to date and how do you think they're probably going to ramp and any other properties that are ramping right now?

Sure.

Did you want to go?

[You go now.]

We both know.

I was just there, beautiful property and great unbelievable feedback we get from customers from the gaming commission in Massachusetts, from the elected officials.

And our food and beverage operations are ahead of target.

Our hotel business is ahead of target.

Our gaming business is slower but ramping.

We actually saw the almost exact same thing at National Harbor as we built into a brand-new market for us.

So we expect that, given the quality of the assets and the people working there and the word-of-mouth marketing, we're going to be a little bit more tactical in marketing and reminding people that we are there, particularly leading up to a competitor in Everett that's opening up in the second half of this year.

But we view its operating future very much the same as what we've seen in a different scale with a smaller investment up there than in National Harbor, but what we've seen in our other new properties.

And our next question comes from Stephen Grambling with Goldman Sachs.

I guess, first a follow-up on the real estate and ad hoc committee.

You mentioned reducing leverage in the response to another question as a first kind of priority and thinking about monetizing real estate.

How would you think about the appropriate leverage ratio for asset-light OpCo relative to one with underlying real estate?

I think that's going to be part of what the committee does.

As we evaluate the asset intensity of MGM Resorts and understanding the fact that MGP is a triple net and MGM Resorts is and always will be responsible for the capital that we continue to invest into those properties, which has been very successful, we're going to make sure that MGM Resorts' balance sheet meets the objectives that we've laid out and is as durable as possible.

And I think we've made this very clear before.

We're not going to be in a situation we found ourselves back in '08 on the eve of a global recession.

We're going to be more conservatively postured.

We are increasingly aware of what's going on around the world, global trade tensions, slowdown, RevPAR declines and reductions of RevPAR guidance at hotel companies.

And so we're going to take all that on board with an eye toward making sure that we have that fortuitous balance sheet, that we are delivering on the beacon that is $3.50 of free cash flow in 2020.

And anything that we do with our real estate portfolio or what we own of MGP will have to fit very squarely within those strategies.

That's clear.

I may be changing directions a little bit.

We've seen more news circulating out of Japan on the integrated resorts side.

Can you just provide whatever color you can on how you're thinking about the opportunity, including the next key milestones and any evolution in your expectations?

Sure, I will.

We've had -- so a lot of progress in Japan.

We've been there, as you know, longer than anyone else.

The government is literally still traveling around the world, learning best practices in terms of how to implement a proper RFP process as well as the regulatory framework.

We have a large team there in both Tokyo and Osaka.

We just recently opened up an office in Osaka.

We've committed now to the Mayor and to the Governor of Osaka that MGM is adopted in Osaka first strategy.

We're focusing our considerable resources on Osaka.

The government itself have said that they'll likely come out with rules and policies this year, July, August of '19.

Osaka has a prefecture.

We believe its RFP will come out soon thereafter.

And we think at this point in time, our guess is that an operator will be selected by Osaka by early 2020.

The next step for Osaka or any other jurisdiction is to go to the central government.

We know, we think, Osaka will be one of the 3 concessions that will likely be granted, but we know that central government has to select Osaka and its operator.

That probably happens maybe 12, 18 months after Osaka itself picks its operator.

And remember that Osaka's goal is to have an IR opened by 2025.

That's when the World Expo is in Osaka.

So we have been very active.

That's why you don't hear Bill Hornbuckle on this call because he is in Japan right now, and we're focusing our energies there.

We've been developing consortium partners, exciting programming, getting ready for our RFP submission.

We have no illusions to the fact that it will not be competitive, it will be highly competitive.

But I think the cards are stacked in the favor of those who are prepared, who have been working hard, who will have the best program, the best strategy, the best understanding of the country, of the prefecture, and I like a lot MGM's chances.

That's great.

One last quick one if I could.

Just can you give us any sense for how forward trends are unfolding at Park MGM as you get past the renovations?

And has anything changed in your expectations of how this property's returns will ultimately shake out?

Yes, I mean, a lot -- we have -- it was a busy fourth quarter at Park MGM, multiple, multiple elements opened up throughout the quarter, both in terms of the food and beverage venues, in terms of the nightclub, in terms of the residency for Lady Gaga.

All that is right on track, and we've been building in the early days, of course, only couple 1.5 months into right on track from what we've talked about in terms of our return on investment goals.

We're highly confident we're going to achieve them.

The property is completed now, easily has been opened and is doing extraordinary revenue on a daily basis.

The other restaurants are very successful.

The shows are selling out every single show.

The ADR is moving up quite rapidly, both at Park MGM and at NoMad.

We're still transitioning the customers from the old Monte Carlo customer to a Park MGM and a NoMad customer.

So that is the ramp component of it, but our [gems] scores or our customers scores are through roof in terms of the attractiveness of the property -- and Corey, do you have anything to add?

The other thing is getting that upfront door open has been a big plus, and we're seeing the casino numbers we were hoping to see at this stage in the game.

As Jim mentioned, the food and beverage numbers are where we expected as are the hotel numbers.

Just transitioning that customer, which we think will take some time, but the acceptance of the property has been amazing and all you have to do is walk through there on any event night and just see what the potential for that property is.

Here is an amazing thing, I don't know if you've talked about this.

But before we built the park, before we built the plaza and T-Mobile, the traffic counts on the east side of the Strip were profoundly higher than they were on the west side of the Strip.

Now it's completely the opposite to the point that the county is building a bridge, so that people stop trying to run across from the east side to west side.

I don't know when that bridge is going to be done, but it's underway right now.

That's really the last element.

It's not in our control, that's a county project.

But to give you a sense of the traffic flows now on the west side of the Strip as a result of T-Mobile, the Park, the improvements in New York, New York and obviously, the improvements to Park MGM.

The bridge is supposed to be done around summer.

Summer.

Yes.

The bridge in summer.

And our question comes from John DeCree with Union Gaming.

Just one from me, Jim.

Wanted to get your thoughts on sports betting industry.

You've very been deliberate and quick in choosing your partners, sports leagues, your technology partner and GVC, and it seems like we hit a little bit of a roadblock with the latest opinion from the DOJ that seems aimed at inhibiting the industry.

Just wondering if you had an initial view on the path forward?

And I guess, more specifically, has it changed MGM's thinking at all in the near term or if is it still full throttle on the interactive and sports betting side for your company?

Yes, first on the second part, there's latest missive from the DOJ is perplexing is an understatement.

And if read as words, it would mean that Powerball as it exists in 44 states in the United States isn't illegal anymore.

And so it's just we think an absurdly, poorly written and unenforceable opinion.

And I don't think anyone in the industry, the gaming industry, the sports betting industry feels any differently.

As it relates to our strategy, we have -- we're really excited.

We're proud of what we've done.

I think we talked about this before, but we felt the pillars of success would be the following: We wanted to make sure that we had the right technology, in-house, scalable, evolving technology, and we knew we didn't have it, and we didn't want to buy it off the shelf, and we did not want to buy a company and that led us to the robust negotiations and the conclusion of joint venture with GVC and that is working out extremely well, strongly from an MGM perspective, and I think the GVC would say the same.

We have a leader there.

They're scaling up their operations.

They're sourcing the headquarters.

They're building staff.

So we feel that, that was the right decision not only from a technology perspective but to get the in-game betting analytics, which are really vital to real success.

That's one.

Secondly, we wanted to develop an extraordinarily robust, trusted relationship with customers, which is why -- before we did almost anything else, we started reaching out to a targeted number of the leagues.

Those league partnerships, which we've announced, have resulted in manifest opportunities for us.

The NBA as an example.

Because of that partnership, you're going to see a far more exciting longer-lived summer league activity out here this year, which I think tremendous more attendance, viewership interest as one example.

The MLB partnership.

In addition to working with MLB and their advanced analytics through their dot-com channels, has also resulted in some exciting Japan opportunities for us as MGM is hosting a number of the roadshow events that MLB is doing in Japan, leading up to some games that teams like the A's and the Mariners are playing against themselves and against Japanese teams.

The NHL, with their puck and play, and of course, with our -- the proud ownership of, at least as a town, of the Golden Knights has led to other relationships outside of that.

So these league relationships at the bigger league level and even at right now a micro level with the Alliance of American Football, which was launched last weekend, has resulted in interesting technology play, which is how we view that involvement with AAF.

That's working out, I think, extremely well, but early days.

The rollout state-by-state is, as expected, frustratingly slow, tortured, unclear, not transparent.

Some states, we believe have done it well.

Some states have done it very poorly.

And as a mix, everywhere in between and there are several major markets states right now that are exploring that right now.

Our sports betting app is doing well.

Our sports books, young as they are, in some cases, only temporary, as in the case of Mississippi are at or above what we thought they would do.

So I think I would call this very competitive.

Some really smart companies in this space competing against us.

They too have made a progress.

The Caesars transaction with Turner I think was a clever and smart one.

I think you'll find our company going down other paths or it may be similar paths, but everyone has viewed this as a good opportunity.

But I think I have to say from our perspective at MGM, we view sports betting as a larger opportunity than simply betting on sports.

We look at it as a total interactive experience, which is why you'll see us talking more about social games, digital ventures and a big part of bringing in an outside consultant that we talked about in our digital strategies around 2020.

That second phase that we've talked about is going to be in not only in the interactive space but around sports.

That's really helpful.

And just one smaller [kind of] question on sports, if I could.

You gave a little commentary about Chinese New Year.

I think we're pretty close to overlap with Super Bowl, but wondering if you had some comments on how your properties felt during that event this year?

Yes, that's a good -- thanks for bringing that up.

I should've brought that up.

We had a good Super Bowl at MGM Resorts.

We could add -- we could have made more money with different outcomes, but I guess it shows the power of having a lot of liquidity and a lot of handle on the game and we did better this year than we did last year on the game itself, profitability on the game.

The challenge for us this year for everybody is the Super Bowl and Chinese New Year is almost right on top of each other as opposed to last year where they were almost 2 weeks apart, like 1.5 weeks apart.

So we had challenges around high-end room product, we had challenges around activity and then exacerbating that in the case of Chinese New Year's is the fact that some folks just didn't feel like coming to the United States because of any number of reasons, but it was a good Super Bowl, and we made more money than we did last year.

And Cole, can we please have the last question?

Sure thing, and that will come from Robin Farley with UBS.

Most of my questions have been answered or at least asked.

So just a couple of quick ones.

One is where did convention mix end coming in for 2018?

And I, know you made some general comments about 2019, but I don't know if you -- how much [longer] your convention mix will be?

And then, also had a question on last year at your Analyst Day, you talked about kind of some future potential capital projects, one of which was kind of reorienting the MGM Grand property kind of opening up -- opening it up to the Strip a little bit more.

Just wondering if you have any time frame around that or are capital projects like that kind of on hold while your Board committee looks at different options for real estate.

So, Robin, this is Corey on.

Convention, in 2018, we ended up under 18%.

And for this year, we expect to be above that amount.

On the project at MGM, those projects usually take a long time to get them right and figure out.

So we think there's an opportunity there with the West Wing, planning there, getting the right product, the right mix in, seeing what's happening in that Park MGM, also seen some of the other investment in town.

We think it gives us time to really figure out what to put in there that could be successful, and so we keep planning, and when we have more news to announce, we'll give it to you.

And I guess, I would add, too, Robin, that our overall NOI CapEx number hasn't changed.

Anything that we have talked about in terms of potential projects are in that number.

There aren't any incremental additional capital spends that will come.

In the case of the Grand is illustrative of the levers that we have to pull.

We don't have to do anything.

We can evaluate -- sometimes, we evaluate for quarters and years and do nothing because the market moved away or we have different capital ideas.

We're not very close as to what we're going to do there at this point in time.

What we did say, which I think we should focus on over the next couple of quarters, is capital that we will spend within that limit that we've set for ourselves will be allocated more than it has in the past to technology.

And the combination of the capital and the OpEx around our digital ventures area in 2020 will be taking a priority.

And if we do that properly, and we think the money is there, our outside consultants think it's absolutely there.

It's like opening up a new property without all the attendant responsibilities and future capital needs that a new property represents.

So we see more opportunity on the capital side now that we are very happy with our portfolio, given our leading position here in Las Vegas, given the fact that we are now done with those major projects that add more engines for free cash flow to really evaluate everything through the lens of our why, but also through the lens of do we spend capital on technology that can drive business in a much higher-margin way?

And the answer is yes.

And this concludes our question-and-answer session.

I would like to turn the conference back over to the MGM management for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you.

First, I want to, on behalf of the whole team here, thank you for joining us today.

Obviously, we had a clear beat in the fourth quarter, but a strong finish to a challenging year, but a year that was not without a lot of rewarding achievements.

We opened Cotai.

We opened Springfield.

We opened Park MGM.

A lot of our regionals hit profit records.

We talked about PGP today because it provides the framework to think about 2020 and lay the foundation for it and that centralized expertise is going to -- we're confident allow us to achieve these project targets that we talked about.

And the investments we talked about today in sports and technology, we're also confident is going to achieve really exciting long-term growth for the company.

The whole interactive space is going to be large, and we expect to be dominant.

Our development cycle is over.

Our new resorts give us more free cash flow engines.

And we're going to use that free cash flow and harvest it to hit the net leverage targets and return it to the shareholders.

And most importantly, that free cash flow target that we set out quite a while ago, that $3.50 a share in 2020, is the beacon that drives all of our tactics here at the company.

And that's a goal we absolutely intend to achieve.

And in the meantime, as I said, I don't think there's any company in the world better positioned to win in Japan, and we intend to do that.

And with that, thank you very much for joining us, and we'll always be around for your questions.

The conference has now concluded.

Thank you for attending today's presentation.

You may now disconnect.