Heard On... SeaWorld Entertainment's Q2 2021 Earnings Call

© SeaWorld Entertainment

SeaWorld Entertainment also recently has their 2nd quarter 2021 earnings report, and in short it seems they've had a very strong year so far.  The company's full report is available at this link, filled with tons of financial details.  As with the other operators there are really no good comparisons to 2020, so instead the company did do some comparing to 2019 - pre-pandemic days.  The conference call also had some details which we will take a look at here.

• In the 2nd quarter attendance was 5.8 million, down 10.1% from 2019's level.  Revenues were a record $439.8 million, up 8.3% from 2019.  That translated to a record net income of $127.8 million, up 142.7% from 2019 and EBITDA was a record $218.8 million, up 46.2% over 2019.  Revenue per capita was $75.71 in 2020, up 20.5% from 2019's levels. 

• Looking at the first six months of the year attendance was 8 million, down 18.1% from 2019.  Revenues were $611.7 million, down 2.4% from 2019, net income was $82.9 million, up from $67.2 million in 2019 and EBITDA was $244 million, up from $77.9 million in 2019.  Those are some very substantial increases in net revenue and EBITDA.  

© SeaWorld Entertainment

• In terms of liquidity, the company had $615.8 million in cash and $312 million in available borrowings for a total of $927.8 million.   Free cash flow for the quarter was $200 million and $203.1 million for the first six months of the year.

•  With regard to the strong performance the company notes that they credit their "pricing and product strategies," strong consumer demand and higher realized pricing in the parks.  They feel there is still room to further grow revenues and EBITDA in the future especially as both international and group business returns.

•  The rest of the year looks promising as well, outside of any further pandemic issues.  The park's Halloween and Christmas events are still planned for this Fall and Winter.  Both SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld Dan Diego will put on Howl-O-Scream for the first time this year as well.  They also plan to include additional operating days in the 2nd half of 2021 versus 2019.

© SeaWorld Entertainment

•  Right now all the company's parks are open and without attendance restrictions in place.  

 

•  In July SeaWorld Entertainment saw attendance down just 7% over 2019 and revenues up 13% over 2019.  If they ignore the lack of international guests and groups they might be 2 or 3 percent up over 2019 in July.

 

•  In development news, they still plan to open Sesame Place San Diego in 2022 and their partnership to create SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is on track to complete construction by the end of 2022.  They are also "closely" studying opportunities to add hotels nearby or on the land of some of their parks.  They also have their eyes open to potential additional international developments.

 

•  They have also debuted a new app for many of the parks which lets guests "navigate the park, order food, make purchases, and check schedules and wait times."  These apps will allow for better marketing in the future as more people use them.  They have also selected their new CRM system provider, and are migrating data to it.

 

© SeaWorld Entertainment

•  They have focused heavily (like Cedar Fair) on raising in park per caps through new venues, they give examples such as a new ice cream parlor, coffee shop and several new bars in the parks that are moving that needle.  

 

•  With regard to capital expenditures the company spent $29.7 million in the quarter and for all of 2021 they plan to spend between $120 million and $150 million.  This is down from prior pre-pandemic years.  With so much cash on hand right now they are working with the company's board to release some funds for capital spend on items like "venue refreshments" and other upgrades to the parks.  They also have their eyes open to any potential acquisitions that might come along, and also hotel developments.  Sadly, no update was given on plans to open all the new rides they built that are still sitting there, such as Iron Gwazi or Pantheon - but with record results in many areas it is no surprise they are sitting on these new rides for now.