Exhibit 99.2
Final Transcript
Conference Call Transcript
CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Event Date/Time: Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Nikki Sacks
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Investor Relations
Robert Copple
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Alan Stock
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS
Eric Handler
Citigroup Analyst
Barton Crockett
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Michael Savner
Banc of America Securities Analyst
Hunter DuBose
Morgan Stanley Analyst
PRESENTATION
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Jeremy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time,
Id like to welcome everyone to the Cinemark fiscal third quarter 2007 earnings conference call.
All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks
there will be a question and answer session. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Thank you. Ms. Sacks, may
begin the conference.
Nikki
Sacks Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Investor Relations
Thank you, and welcome to Cinemarks fiscal third quarter 2007 earnings call. Before we begin,
let me remind you that in accordance with the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 the company knows that certain matters to be discussed by members of
management during this call may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject
to risk, and uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual performance of Cinemark to
be materially different from the performance indicated or implied by such statements. Such risk
factors are set forth in the companys SEC filings. Today, Cinemarks CEO, Alan Stock, and CFO,
Robert Copple, will be discussing the third quarter results. I will now turn the call over to Alan.
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
Thank you, Nikki. On todays call I will comment on the industrys and Cinemarks third
quarter results, the outlook for the upcoming film slate, and provide an overview of Cinemarks
strategy.
During the third quarter Cinemarks revenues increased 63.7% quarter-over-quarter, and adjusted
EBITDA grew 87.8%. Our solid performance was driven by a strong slate of films, the performance of
our international theatres, and the integration of the Century circuit.
The revenue increase was primarily related to a 33.5% increase in attendance, a 29.7% increase in
average ticket prices; and a 20.0% increase in concession revenues per patron, all of which were
favorably impacted by the acquisition of Century Theatres that occurred on October 5, 2006.
According to industry sources, domestic box office revenues were up approximately 15% for the
quarter over last year, due to a strong and diverse slate of films with solid box office results
from films such as Transformers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Ratatouille, The
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpsons Movie and Superbad. The third quarter results differed from the second
quarter in that the second quarter was dominated by a few blockbusters, whereas in the third
quarter, there were strong contributions from a variety of mid-tier films.
For the fourth quarter, the industry box office has started slower compared to last year. The
industry box office was down approximately 13% for October but is up almost 3% for November through
November 11th. Films and attendance for the fourth quarter are typically weighted towards the
second half of the quarter. Some of the anticipated film product for the fall and holiday seasons
include: Beowulf, the next 3D film, New Lines Golden Compass, I Am Legend with Will Smith and
another installment of National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
We have started to hear the lineup for 2008, and the early read is optimistic with films such as
Disneys PIXAR film, Wall-E, a Batman installment called The Dark Knight, a fourth Indiana Jones
film with Harrison Ford, and the second installment of Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.
We continue to progress on our organic growth strategy, as we believe there is opportunity to
continue to realize strong returns on our invested capital by continuing to expand both in our
existing markets and into new ones. Year-to-date we have opened 9 theatres with 139 screens in our
domestic markets and 5 theaters with 35 screens internationally. We have sold 34 screens and closed
32 screens. We anticipate opening an additional 83 screens in 6 theatres by year end.
In our international markets, quarter-over-quarter revenues grew 20.7% and adjusted EBITDA was up
32.3%. The strong performance was driven by product and new theatre openings.
Turning to our digital strategy, DCIP, the joint venture between Cinemark, AMC and Regal, which was
formed to implement digital cinema and establish agreements with the studios for financing is
progressing. They are still in negotiations to determine the financing structure and the terms of
the virtual print free contracts. We are excited about the prospects that digital cinema offers,
and we are actively testing and preparing so that our deployment and implementation of digital
cinema is optimized and as smooth as possible from a technological and operational perspective once
the DCIP agreements are finalized. We are also optimistic about the long term prospects of 3-D, a
key opportunity of digital. We are currently using our fully digital theatre in Chicago as well as other local theatres to test
multiple 3-D technologies that are available. As previously discussed, we have a very deliberate
digital rollout strategy, as we believe we will get the most benefit by making sure the
negotiations are complete and the technology is established prior to our implementation. Since
digital is a prerequisite to 3-D, our 3-D rollout will follow our digital rollout strategy. We
currently have 39 3-D screens. We intend to begin installations in 2008 with our entire circuit
converted in approximately three to four years.
In summary, I am pleased with our performance during the third quarter as we continue to deliver
strong and competitive operating results. We are optimistic about the upcoming holiday releases and
by remaining focused on our profitability, developing our new theatre pipeline and preparing for
digital deployment, I am confident that we will continue to drive cash flow and deliver attractive
returns over the long term. And with that Ill turn the call over to Robert to discuss the quarter
in more detail.
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Thanks, Alan. I will review our third quarter financial performance in more detail and discuss
our balance sheet.
Before I address the details of our third quarter results, as a reminder, we acquired Century
Theatres in October of 2006. Century added 1,017 screens in 77 theaters to our existing domestic
theater base. Century had a higher average ticket price and higher average concession per cap than
Cinemark as a result of the mix of markets in which the Century theaters are located.
During the third quarter, we increased our admissions revenues 73.3% to $308.0 million and our
concession revenues 59.8% to $144.3 million. As a result, our total revenues increased $183.5
million to $471.5 million, a 63.7% increase. This increase was driven by attendance growth of 33.5%
in 2007 over 2006, an increase in the average ticket price to $5.11 in 2007 from $3.94 in 2006,and
an increase in concession revenues per patron to $2.40 in 2007 from $2.00 in 2006.
On a segment basis for the quarter, our U.S. operations generated revenues of $377.6 million, a
79.6% increase over 2006. This increase is after the impact of the change in our other income
attributable to advertising revenues received from NCM as a result of the modification of our
exhibitor services agreement.
Our international operations increased revenues 20.7% to $93.9 million.
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Film rentals and advertising cost were $166.8 million for the third quarter of 2007. While our
domestic film rental and advertising costs as a percentage of box office revenues decreased 40
basis points our worldwide film rental and advertising costs increased 30 basis points to 54.2% due
to the increased relative weight of our domestic business to our overall business as compared to
the prior year.
Concession supplies cost were $22.5 million for the third quarter of 2007 compared to $15.0 million
for the third quarter of 2006. Our concessions supply cost as a percentage of concession revenues
decreased 100 basis points to 15.6%, primarily due to the increased relative weight of our domestic
business to our overall business as compared to the prior year.
For the quarter, salaries and wages increased as a percentage of revenues to 9.7% from 9.5% in
2006. This increase was primarily attributable to the increase in federal and state minimum wages.
As a result of the increase in revenues, the Companys adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of
2007 increased to $116.0 million from $61.8 million for the third quarter of 2006. As a result of
our strong revenue performance and operating leverage we were able to increase our EBITDA margin
320 basis points to a 24.6% margin for the quarter from a 21.4% margin in 2006.
Our domestic adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 107% during the third quarter to $94.7
million. This was after the impact of the reduced revenues and adjusted EBITDA that resulted from
the changes to the exhibitor service agreement with National CineMedia.
International adjusted EBITDA increased 32.3% to $21.3 million.
We recorded a $3.6 million loss on early retirement of debt, including premiums paid and the
write-off of unamortized debt issue costs, related to the repurchase of $47.0 million of our senior
discount notes during the quarter.
Net income before taxes for the quarter was $36.7 million. As I discussed in our second quarter
earnings call during which we reported an income tax benefit, the benefit began to reverse in Q3
resulting in an abnormally high effective rate for the current period.
This interim tax fluctuation is primarily caused by a combination of our first quarter goodwill
impairment charge related to the change in the NCM exhibitor service agreement coupled with the
first quarter gain recognized upon NCMs IPO. For the nine months ended 9/30/07 our effective tax
rate is 32.8%. We anticipate an abnormally high effective rate in Q4 as well to bring the effective
rate to a higher percentage for the full year.
Accordingly, income tax expense was $60.1 million, resulting in an effective tax rate for the
quarter of 163.8% of pretax income. Cinemarks cash pay rate is approximately 40% including state
taxes. As a result of the large tax allocation to this period, we recognized a net loss of $23.4
million, or $0.22 per diluted share. To compare to analyst earnings per share estimates you would
generally need to normalize our effective tax rate and adjust for the loss on the early retirement
of debt.
Looking briefly at our balance sheet, our cash position was $333.1 million at the end of Q3 and
total long term debt was $1.535 billion resulting in net debt at quarter end of approximately $1.2
billion. Coupled with our strong EBITDA this level of net debt results in a relatively low leverage
ratio.
At September 30, 2007, our total domestic screen count was 3,606 screens, 12 of which are in
Canada. During the quarter we opened 2 theatres with 32 screens, and closed 2 theatres with 19
screens. As of September 30, 2007, the Company had signed commitments to open four new theaters
with 62 screens in domestic markets during the remainder of 2007, and open 12 new theaters with 168
screens in domestic markets subsequent to 2007.
Our total international screen count at September 30, 2007, was 990 screens. During the quarter we
opened 2 theatres with 14 screens. As of September 30, 2007, the Company had signed commitments to
open two new theaters with 21 screens in international markets during the remainder of 2007 and to
open two new theaters with 15 screens in international markets subsequent to 2007.
Year-to-date, we have invested approximately $110 million in capital expenditures with $82.9
million on new construction and $27.1 million in CapEx maintenance. Included in the CapEx
maintenance was $2.8 million related to the rollout of NCMs digital distribution technology to the
Century Theatres and approximately $2.5 million related to the deployment of our new Point of Sale
system. The POS system is designed to expand the information we gather from our theatres and
includes networking for our digital rollout. Additionally, we have received approximately $14.0
million in gross proceeds from the sale of 2 theaters and other land parcels, resulting in net
CapEx to date of $96 million.
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
We expect our gross total CapEx before disposition proceeds for the full year to be between $150
million to $160 million, which includes approximately $35 to $40 million for CapEx maintenance.
We paid a partial dividend of $0.13 during the third quarter and we declared our first full
quarterly dividend this morning of $0.18 per common share. The dividend will be paid on December
18, 2007, to stockholders of record on December 3, 2007. The quarterly dividend is consistent with
the disclosures in our final prospectus in which we disclosed our intention to pay a quarterly
dividend of $0.18 per share of common stock subject to the discretion of our Board of Directors.
Finally, I would like to update you on the use of proceeds from our IPO. As I mentioned, during the
quarter we repurchased $47.0 million aggregate principal amount at maturity of our 9 3/4% senior
discount notes. Additionally, subsequent to quarter end we purchased an additional $22.2 million
aggregate principal amount at a maturity of our 9 3/4% senior discount notes. While we intend to
continue to use the proceeds to pay down our long-term debt, given the current state of the debt
markets, we are proceeding at a slower pace than originally anticipated. We intend to
opportunistically utilize the funds to reduce our debt while still optimizing our debt structure.
In closing, I would like to say that we look forward to the continued strength of the industry box
office which, combined with Cinemarks operational quality, should continue to produce attractive
returns and drive cash flow. We will now be glad to answer your questions.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Operator
(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first
question comes from the line of Eric Handler.
Eric
Handler Citigroup Analyst
Hi. Thanks, a couple quick questions for you guys. First, if you take away Century, what would
your core attendance growth have been for the quarter? Secondly, when you look at the current state
of the currency markets, is that changing your thinking regarding Latin America in terms of being
more opportunistic? And then last, with the writers strike going on and all the late night
television shows going dark do you think thats having an impact a little bit on attendance as they
dont have that venue now to use for promotions? And if so, are you seeing studios trying to do
anything to try to drive some incremental attendance?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Let me take a shot at the first couple, and Alan can catch the strike. Eric, Im not sure if I
can properly answer your question. If I understand right on the first one you were trying to get
some comparability on attendance on kind of our core group and maybe focusing on Cinemark. Because
we dont separate Cinemark now from the Century assets and then obviously in prior quarters last
year we did not have Century assets, its not easy to do, what I can tell you overall is that we
did perform attendance domestically in line with what weve seen industry statistics to be. We feel
like our first run theaters did increase attendance year-over-year looking at the overall circuit
that made sense with respect to what weve seen in the industry. Starting next quarter obviously I
wont have to phrase things that way anymore. We will have pure comparability from now on. I
apologize you having to go through that up to this quarter, but thats about as detailed as I can
get there.
On Latin America, we are clearly benefiting from the weakness of the dollar in terms of exchange
rates. We still see great opportunities in Latin America. We dont see the economies going down at
all. If anything we see them continuing to strengthen, especially in the Brazilian corridor, we
think trade is going very well. We think that currency will hold if not continue to strengthen. So
we think our international assets are, one, performing extremely well on their own and will
continue to do so and continue to have good expansion opportunities. And we will pursue those
opportunities just like we have in the past. We have always looked at them in terms of when
opportunities present themselves, mostly in malls and if the developer develops a mall, we will
pursue those, and to the extent the currency can continue to help us thats one benefit in our
circuit with having an international presence.
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
I think your last question, Eric, on the writers strike, you pose an interesting thought in
whats happening in the TV and television market, does that drive customers to the theater.
Although its a little early to tell whether that really is the case it certainly could be a
positive benefit that we gain, although we certainly dont advocate a strike and hope it will get
resolved in a short manner as it typically has in the past. Really the key for us and always will
be is the quality that weve got in our theaters. We know that as a result of the anticipation of
the strike a lot of the studios have already stock-piled a lot of films, so we know there is for us
a lot of product that is slated to come out through this next year, year and a half. So we feel
like we are in pretty good shape and hopefully the strike can get revolved in a timely manner.
Eric
Handler Citigroup Analyst
Great. And just as a quick refresher, when did the Century acquisition close last year, so we
know?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Early October.
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
October 5th.
Eric
Handler Citigroup Analyst
October so you are pretty much right on with the impact is diminimus on a year over year
basis?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Thats correct.
Eric
Handler Citigroup Analyst
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Barton Crockett
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. Great. Thank you very much. I wanted to just follow up on a little bit on the pro forma
question that Eric had. I mean I understand that you are not really going to give us a whole lot
more than the attendance kind of pro forma domestically, but I was wondering about internationally,
excluding currency impacts, can you give us some sense of what the change was in box office and
concession revenue overall? And then also on a per screen and per attendee basis, if you can give
us that, And then additionally just in terms of trying to parse this out a little bit tonight so
that we can deal with people tomorrow, if you can give us a little bit of the breakdown, domestic
and international on concession and admissions.
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Barton, I appreciate your call, and Ill address it the best I can. As weve said, we do have
some limited information we can get on pro forma, so I will give was I do have. Im not sure Im
answering you quite in the order you looked at, I think one of your questions was generally on FX.
FX
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
did benefit us, we still did very well on the international side. We break out attendance
separately. Attendance was up, if you actually do the math without rounding you do the real math it
was up about 5%, when you round its 4.2% or so. But if you take the exact numbers that are printed
in our Q, which will be available first thing in the morning, its actually in the Q to go out
right now, but since SEC is closed, it will happen in the morning. You will find out 4.2%, maybe a
little less than what some people have reported domestically. That has more to do with the timing
of film releases in international markets. If you look at overall international to date, its up
attendance wise about 3% for the trailing nine months or for the last nine months, which I think
you will find is ahead of what most people have reported their attendance numbers being for the
last nine months. So thats a little bit of a timing issue.
On a sheer operating basis, taking out FX, I think box is generally up domestically about 15%. We
are just about on top of that, internationally maybe just slightly less, only because of the timing
of the way the attendance hit, but within a few percent. With respect to growth, we do in our Q
reflect revenue per screen, not necessarily box per screen, but revenue per screen. For the quarter
international is up 15.1%, domestic was up 23%. Hopefully that gives you some idea there. When you
get the international detail it will all be in the Q because we do segment. When you look at
domestic, just trying to give comparability, I can give you the growth with respect to the ticket
price and concession price on a pure on a relative pro forma basis. Ticket price was up 9.2%
domestically, and concession price was up 7.4%.
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. All right. And with the Q out tomorrow morning Im sorry that I had
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
close of day and we would have had that out, but we were trying to get this call done that
will give you more information
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. But then switching gears a little bit on the screen builds going into next year you gave
us some of the contracted totals. But I was wondering can you give us a sense of how many screen
closures you might have next year? And just overall should the net screen growth next year be less
than this year, which seemed like it was that was my impression coming into this report, I was
wondering if thats still a valid assumption.
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Sure,
generally weve told people that we would increase screen count 200 to 250 screens a year
and then we close probably 30 to 50 screens a year, so you are somewhere in that 200 to 220 range.
That would still be what we perceive. We definitely when we started out the year maybe early on
we try to look forward in 2008. We felt it might be a little slower in terms opportunities. We
definitely are seeing enough to fill the slate that should be in line with the numbers I just gave
you.
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. Alrighty. And then switching gears here a little bit on the comments about the debt and
the buy back for the focus on the capital structure, if the credit markets are weaker it would seem
to maybe make it a little bit cheaper to buy back your debt, is there a new issuance thats maybe a
complicating factor there? I was wondering if you could elaborate what is the constraint on that
point?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
What we are trying to do is take advantage of what you said is opportunistically going into
the market when we see weakness and buy our bonds. If you look at how our bonds have traded since
our last quarterly call, they actually popped up and stayed up and in the last probably two weeks
they have come back down, two to three weeks, as the market weakened a little bit. And so we looked
out there, we looked at opportunities to buy, we actually pursued some bonds and yet if we just can
just get the price right and when the bonds did come back we bought them. So to your point, I mean,
there is a market that gives us opportunity, but we are trying to make sure we are making it as
economical on us as possible. The other side of it though is clearly that the debt markets are more
difficult to enter into. If we were to use all of our current cash to pay down our
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
debt and then went and borrowed the money, that could increase our cost of capital. And so we are trying to
balance our availability of cash with opportunities we think might be out there in the acquisition
market over the next year, as well as opportunistically buying down our debt.
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. And then one final thing and I will step aside. In terms of the 3D you guys said you are
looking at the different technologies in Chicago, I guess. And theres been some discussion about
the rate that Real D might be charging for their system which seems to be the most widely adopted
at this early point. Do you have any thoughts about the appeal of lets say a Real D system over
the others and the ability to get that at a price that makes sense for the theaters companies, any
early thoughts on that at this point?
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
Im not sure, Barton. Theres a whole lot of change from what we earlier talked about.
Certainly what we are doing today and as I described is were evaluating those systems and trying
to determine is there indeed any differences or advantages or cost. It is still too early at this
point in time because some of them are under production phases. We actually havent even really
seen a whole lot of material yet on the Dolby system. And so we need to let those folks get their
technology a little further down the path and understand where they are going and where those
prices are going. So its a little early to the tell yet where that is going. Obviously, the reason
Real D is talked about is they have the head start. They have the most systems that are out there
today, but we feel ourselves that we certainly have to do justice to all of them and evaluate them,
and I think thats what will happen again as we are doing that today and as we continue over the
next several months to continue that evaluation process.
Barton
Crockett JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst
Okay. Great. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Savner.
Michael
Savner Banc of America Securities Analyst
Hi. Good evening. Thanks, guys. I will just follow up with the same as Eric and Barton on that
first question. And I understand you dont want to get into pro forma numbers but maybe
qualitatively. So my question specifically is, if we just do the very quick and basic math also
your attendance and screen numbers it looks like call it 2.8% growth of attendance per screen,
maybe a little bit higher when you factor into the closings, but in that range.
So qualitatively can you tell us what the offsetting factor was that would bring your attendance
per screen number down because would it seem like Century in anything would give you an artificial
boost since youve already told us that those were better performing screens relative to the core.
So that should have been additive to that number. So you mentioned something, I think it was Alan
or maybe it was Robert, but about the first run screens. Is there something going on at the second
run screens thats depressing your attendance per screen during the quarter, or was there extremely
robust well above industry average ticket pricing increases that might have factored in? Im just
again, just qualitatively how we think about that.
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Two things. One. When youre looking at it, I dont know if you are looking at domestic versus
international or
Michael
Savner Banc of America Securities Analyst
Just domestic.
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© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Just domestic. Okay. When you look at our domestic again kind of bigger picture in reiterating
what you just mentioned, on our first run basis we feel like our attendance is up where it should
be in line with what weve seen our peer group and what the industry has published. As you know we
do have some second run theaters, and while its not a very big piece of our portfolio in terms of
bottom line, those do put a lot of attendance through it and I think as some of the other theaters
companies have said with the product from Q2 hitting Q3 and just overall hitting the economy the
way it has been working, the second run theaters are down some. Clearly, it didnt hit us on bottom
line. We leveraged our first run theaters very well. We operated them extremely well, and thats
why you saw our EBITDA go up as well as it did. You saw the margins move up. So the vast majority
of our income comes from first run. The second run theaters are probably something less than 3% of
the bottom line, so its not a meaningful number. But on attendance it is a bigger number, so it
distorts what it looks like our attendance change is when you get down, as youre comparing a
theatre-by-theatre basis, because they are a bigger piece of our overall theaters and its a bigger
piece of our attendance. Does that help?
Michael
Savner Banc of America Securities Analyst
Yes, that does help. Clearly you were referencing what Carmike said last week it appeared
their second run theaters were brought down their apples-to-apples questions. So I guess two
questions. One, is that a business youre rethinking about in the current environment? Is it less
attractive to you today than it was a few years ago? If it is and if the answer is, no, its still
attractive and still additive to what you are doing from a largest perspective, do you think its
something that you might want to consider breaking out separately as you report quarters just so
you dont get penalized for the wrong reason, or so we can get some more granularity. I guess
thats more of a comment than a question, but the first one was a question.
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Yes. Sure. Michael, because its not a significant or significants even too strong of a word,
its less than 3% of our bottom line, TLCF, so its not meaningful to break out separately. It does
as you said might distort the top of minor numbers. Obviously, this quarter is going off a little
bit, we think thats going to be a bit of an abnormality. We dont think youre going to
continuously see that on a long term basis. If discount settle at some level, it really wont throw
the numbers off any more. If anything the opportunity could be if we do see a recession in the U.S.
historically when things slow down thats when the discounts really take a life of their own and
thats a great niche to be in. And our discounts are profitable. We like that business. Its not
one that weve really grown, but it is an alternative use to some of our theaters and again its
been profitable for many years. Weve been good at it and if it continues to bring in a good
revenue well do it. I mean it is generally theaters that will go off-line over time. They tend to
be the older theaters that lease life will be coming up and so as we look at those if we can renew
them profitably well do it and if not they will slowly move off of our portfolio.
Michael
Savner Banc of America Securities Analyst
Great. Thanks very much.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Hunter DuBose.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Hi, guys. I have a few questions for you. The first one is, given the film numbers for the
first quarter, what guidance can you give us regarding the sequential movement in average ticket
prices, concessions per cap and film costs, both domestically and internationally?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Well, I one thing, I dont know if it has so much to do with film product in our case as
just the timing of when we increased our prices. Our prices last year were up and our pricing this
whole year have been up beyond what historic standards have been. I think normally in our industry,
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Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
box office tends to be up in the 2% to 3% range and as we reported quarter-over-quarter we
definitely exceeded that significantly. Our price increases generally at a box level and for that
matter the concession happens twice a year, it generally happens in the November/December time
frame and then will also occur in the May time frame, and our price changes are based on what we
are seeing in the market both from our competitors and what the market itself is doing. If we do
see gas prices go up and other pushes on peoples use of the dollar, we will obviously consider
where how that might impact what our prices might be able to increase.
So, timing wise Id say based on history we will have a little bit of a hit in Q4 from where our
prices have been because thats when some of our prices went up last year. We did increase them
again in May of this year so that will carry through this, the fourth quarter. So you might see a
slight decrease, I would say, from what you are seeing this quarter. I dont think it will be as
substantial. We look to international to run the same way. We increase it this time of year and
then well review it again in May.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Okay. Thanks. And on film costs?
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
Again, I dont think film costs or any of our basic structures would significantly change. We
you always have to look at that stuff over a longer period of time. You cant isolate any
particular movie or anything because those are all up and down. So I dont know that we see any
significant changes one way or the other in film costs going forward.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Okay. Now in your earlier remarks you mentioned that you are planning to let your 3D roll-out
follow the D Cinema roll-out. Can I infer correctly from that that the 39 screens you currently
have is likely to remain pretty much constant for the foreseeable future until the December ramp
starts to happen?
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
That is correct. Yes. We do not anticipate adding any more at this time until we get that
digital cinema rolling.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Got it. Okay. You also mentioned earlier being remaining open to M&A opportunities. Can you
give us an update on what the M&A landscape looks like? Are there attractive small circuits
actively marketing themselves right now, and what would be some of the barriers to actually keeping
a transaction from happening at this point?
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
Well, as weve always started, there are certainly people that are out there that are
interested in selling their companies, primarily smaller regional type circuits. There is nothing
at this point in time that we have anything far enough along or definitive on that we can announce
at this point in time. But our criteria has always been to compare the quality of the theater
circuit and really what theyre asking for it and what were going to pay for it. So our job right
now as we continue to evaluate those is just to determine whether we can buy them at a price thats
attractive enough to make that acquisition justifiable. So at this point in time and as we always
have done we continue to evaluate and determine if there are things that are out there. There
certainly could be. I dont know if again theres anything to the size and scale and nature of what
have weve found with the Century circuit, but there potentially could be some smaller acquisitions
that are intriguing for us, again, based on the right price.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Okay. And then my final question is, separate from your current opportunistic reduction of
your debt, what is sort of a longer term target leverage ratio we should be thinking about?
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Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Robert
Copple Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CFO
Hunter, I would generally say its probably ranging somewhere between, comparing it to EBITDA,
would be three to four times, the midpoint of three and a half. It will obviously fluctuate as we
build up cash. Some will go down. If we are investing that cash well, it should stay somewhere in
that range and as long as we have the opportunities to continue to expand with new builds we will
use the excess cash and build the theaters. But it with the idea that thats kind of a sweet
point between the three and four.
Hunter
DuBose Morgan Stanley Analyst
Got it. Okay. Great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
We would now like to turn the call back over to Alan Stock.
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
So no further questions?
Operator
No, sir.
Alan
Stock Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CEO
Alright. Well, we would like to thank everyone for your participation today, and well look
forward to a to talking with you next quarter. Thank you very much. Bye.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes todays conference. You may now disconnect your line.
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Thomson Financial.
Final Transcript
Nov. 12. 2007 / 5:00PM ET, CNK Q3 2007 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
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