Caesar's Entertainment (CZR) finally sees better days ahead after the long dark period caused by the pandemic.
The company has weathered closures, capacity limits, tourists staying away, mask mandates, and the cancellation of conventions. Now, the impact of Covid, and most recently the omicron variant, has started to fade, and Chief Executive Tom Reeg delivered a positive message during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.
"Currently in Las Vegas, we are at our highest level of bookings since reopening. January and February have ramped up, it's almost like a switch was flipped, sometime late January, early February," he said on the earnings conference call.
"Our bookings are up 20% on a month-over-month basis in the FIT and casino segment. We measure gross and net pickup, so gross pickup is how many aggregate rooms are booked in a day or a week or whatever period you're looking at. Net pickup is bookings less cancellations.
"And if you look at our gross and net bookings, 9 of our top 10 days since the pandemic reopening in Las Vegas happened in February with Monday being the highest that we have seen to date."
That's huge news after a slump for not just Caesars but Las Vegas in general. As the company emerges from its dark period, Reeg expects one major thing to happen.
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Caesars Plans a Big Change on the Las Vegas Strip
During the earnings call, Reeg was asked about the company selling one of its Las Vegas Strip properties. The CEO denied that anything was imminent.
"A lot of comments about how we're about to sell Planet Hollywood if whoever knows what's happening there can call me and tell me what we're getting for that, I'd appreciate it," he said. " There are no assets for sale in Las Vegas in our portfolio."
Reeg did not, however, close the door on selling one of Caesars' Las Vegas Strip properties in the future.
"We do still anticipate selling an asset in the future, but I want to be marketing that asset off of actual performance under our stewardship, not having to build a story, build a bridge to what it's doing today versus what we think it will be doing. So I would say, based on what I'm seeing, you should expect a sale unlikely to take place in '21, probably looking at some time in '22, most likely first half," he said.
That move would come after rival MGM Resorts International (MGM) sold the Mirage and bought the Cosmopolitan.
Caesars Won't Be a Buyer, but It May Do One Thing
Caesars operates casinos in multiple states, not just in Las Vegas. Reeg sees an opportunity to expand that, but it's not likely to be through an acquisition.
"I would say [it's] unlikely that we would be a buyer of anything material that's already operating domestically," the CEO said. "If markets like New York and Texas open up to commercial casinos. We would certainly take a hard look as to whether it would make sense for us to play there."
New York state has plans to award three more casino licenses and it's possible one of those could be for a casino in New York City.
Reeg also made clear that Caesars has no plans outside the U.S.
"So we still have the Windsor management contract in Ontario. We would expect that we're going to continue to operate that. You should expect that over time that will be the extent of our non-U.S. business," he said.
