A huge jump in real estate sales propelled Vail Resorts, Inc. to record revenue, EBITDA and net income in the year ended July 31. Epic late snow, a boom in foreign tourism and higher ticket prices also helped. But the nation’s largest operator of ski resorts forecast its resort revenues for the upcoming season will decline between 4.6% and 13.3%, while resort profits could fall by 26% to 42% due to the shaky U.S. economy.
MTN said net income rose a whopping 48.2% to $91 million for the year ended July 31, excluding a favorable one time legal settlement. Revenues rose 22.5% to $1.15 billion. Earnings from real estate operations, which swung from a negative EBITDA of $2.5 million in 2007 to EBITDA of $45.9 million in 2008, drove most of the gains.
“We set new records for our fiscal 2008 Mountain, Resort and Real Estate revenue; Mountain, Resort and Real Estate Reported EBITDA and net income,” said CEO Robert Katz. “Our total skier visits were down 0.4% for the season; however, excluding the early season period from the beginning of the ski season until December 23, 2007, our total skier visits were up 4.1%.”
MTN is projecting full year Resort reported EBITDA, the combination of its Mountain and Lodging segments that best reflects outdoor recreation driven tourism spending, to range from $200 million to $220 million. That compares to $230.8 million in FY 2008. Net income is forecast to range from $60 million to $76 million, compared to $102.9 million last year.
