Vail Resorts, Inc. said that while lift tickets sales, skier visits and retail spending snapped back in late December as snow finally arrived at its ski resorts, it will likely be unable to make up for business lost early in the season due largely to warm weather and lack of snow.
The company reported higher metrics for the ski season through Jan. 13, 2013 compared to the comparable season-to-date period ended Jan. 15, 2012.
The figures are adjusted as if Kirkwood, which was acquired in April 2012, was owned in both periods. The reported ski season metrics do not incorporate the recently acquired urban ski areas of Afton Alps and Mt. Brighton. The data mentioned in this release is interim period data and subject to fiscal quarter end review and adjustments.
Highlights
- Season-to-date total lift ticket revenue at the Company’s seven mountain resorts, and including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was up approximately 4.3% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
- Season-to-date ancillary spending outpaced our growth in skier visitation, with ski school revenue up 2.9% and dining revenue up 9.0% at the company’s seven mountain resorts, and retail/rental revenue was up 7.7% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
- Season-to-date total skier visits for the Company’s seven mountain resorts were up 2.0% compared to the prior year season-to-date, including higher utilization by season pass holders.
“The growth in season-to-date visitation and ancillary on-mountain revenue is a reflection of a very strong holiday season which saw double-digit percentage increases in visitation, ski school revenue, dining revenue, and retail/rental revenue, said Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer. Unfortunately, as we discussed in our early December earnings release, this was partially offset by very weak results in the period from the start of the season through mid-December, when conditions at our Colorado resorts were very poor and highly unusual. We were very pleased to see that once more typical conditions arrived at our resorts, we saw very strong visitation and guest spend. In fact, a number of our resorts broke visitation and revenue records during the holiday period. All of this bodes well for the remainder of the season.”
Fiscal year 2013 guidance
Commenting on fiscal 2013 guidance, Katz continued, “While we are very pleased with our strong holiday season performance, the challenging early season contributed to season-to-date results that were below what we had anticipated in our guidance originally issued in September 2012. As a result, we do not believe we can fully make up those shortfalls during the remainder of our fiscal year.
Fiscal 2013 Guidance | |||||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
For the Year Ending | |||||||
July 31, 2013 | |||||||
Low End Range | High End Range | ||||||
Mountain Reported EBITDA (1) | $ | 234,000 | $ | 244,000 | |||
Lodging Reported EBITDA (2) | 8,000 | 13,000 | |||||
Resort Reported EBITDA (3) | 244,000 | 254,000 | |||||
Real Estate Reported EBITDA (4) | (17,000) | (9,000) | |||||
Total Reported EBITDA | 227,000 | 245,000 | |||||
Depreciation and amortization | (130,000) | (131,500) | |||||
Loss on disposal of fixed assets, net | (500) | (1,100) | |||||
Investment income | 500 | 600 | |||||
Interest expense, net | (34,000) | (34,000) | |||||
Income before provision for income taxes | 63,000 | 79,000 | |||||
Provision for income taxes | (24,090) | (30,090) | |||||
Net income | 38,910 | 48,910 | |||||
Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests | 90 | 90 | |||||
Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. | $ | 39,000 | $ | 49,000 | |||
- Mountain Reported EBITDA includes approximately $9 million of stock-based compensation.
- Lodging Reported EBITDA includes approximately $2 million of stock-based compensation.
- Resort Reported EBITDA represents the sum of Mountain and Lodging. The Company provides Reported EBITDA ranges for the Mountain and Lodging segments, as well as for the two combined. Readers are cautioned to recognize that the low end of the expected ranges provided for the Lodging and Mountain segments, while possible, do not sum to the low end of the Resort Reported EBITDA range provided because we do not necessarily expect or assume that we will actually hit the low end of both ranges, as the actual Resort Reported EBITDA will depend on the actual mix of the Lodging and Mountain components. Similarly, the high end of the ranges for the Lodging and Mountain segments do not sum to the high end of the Resort Reported EBITDA range.
- Real Estate Reported EBITDA includes approximately $2 million of stock-based compensation.
