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Text: During the call, you'll be hearing from Steve Moster, our president and CEO; David Barry, our president of Pursuit; and Ellen Ingersoll, our chief financial officer.
During the call, we'll be referring to certain non-GAAP measures, including loss before other items, adjusted segment EBITDA, and adjusted segment operating income or loss.
I hope you all are staying safe and healthy.
Following my opening comments, I'll hand the call over to David Barry to discuss our Pursuit business, and then I'll come back on to cover the GES business.
Before turning to the business, I, first and foremost, want to commend our team members at Viad for their resiliency, positivity, and dedication during these challenging times.
Like many businesses, we've had to make tough decisions by way of employee furloughs and wage reductions in order to protect our financial position in this unprecedented operating environment.
Nevertheless, our team members have not missed a beat in acting quickly to help maintain the health and safety of our clients, guests, and the communities we operate in as our No.
Now moving into our business.
The first two months of the quarter were largely in line with our expectations.
In March, we began to experience some operational impacts as the spread of COVID-19 began to reach all corners of the world, including some event postponement and cancellations.
There were some signs of reprieve as CONEXPO-CON/AGG took place in early March with less than 3% of the floor space affected by exhibitor cancellations and attendee registrations of more than 100,000.
However, by the end of March, travel and live event activity had essentially halted and with continued travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines in place, we are anticipating a very weak second quarter for 2020.
In response, we took swift and effective steps to bolster our company's liquidity and financial position.
We drew on our revolving line of credit to increase our cash position, and we've obtained a waiver of our financial covenants for the second quarter.
We implemented aggressive cost-reduction actions, including furloughs, mandatory unpaid time off, and salary reductions for all employees across the company.
Our executive management team voluntarily reduced its base salaries by 20% to 50%, and each of our nonemployee members of our Board of Directors has agreed to reduce his or her cash retainer by 50% for payments typically made to them in second quarter of 2020.
We have limited all nonessential capital expenditures and discretionary spending.
We have suspended future dividend payments and share repurchases.
And finally, we've made changes to our executive management team to reduce costs and prioritize client-facing team members.
In addition to some other terminations, Jay Altizer, president of GES, will be leaving the company, and I will be taking over the leadership of GES.
As many of you know, this is a position I know well, having led GES before bringing Jay on board about two years ago.
During the last two years, GES has undergone significant streamlining to improve the cost structure and create a more nimble organization, putting us in a much better position today to navigate the current environment.
While these are extremely difficult steps to take, these actions are necessary to ensure that Viad and GES can outlast the challenging road ahead.
I firmly believe the management team that's in place today is the right one to steer the company through these challenging times.
We have successfully navigated past periods of disruption with a strict focus on cash flow and liquidity, a proven playbook that we are once again turning to.
And as with other prior macro shocks, we believe this one presents us with an opportunity, if not a mandate, to rethink and reimagine how we run our business so that we can emerge in a stronger, more flexible position.
So Pursuit came into the year with lots of momentum, and we saw a very strong start to 2020.
At the end of February, revenue and EBITDA were well ahead of plan, with revenue up significantly from the prior year.
And that's largely due to our acquisition of a controlling stake in the Mountain Park Lodges and outstanding results at FlyOver Iceland.
By the middle of March, though, the effects of the global health crisis and pandemic were becoming more clear.
So working with regional health authorities in three countries, we moved quickly to both facilities and organized teams into two workstreams, one being shutdown mode and the other being post-crisis recovery.
More than anything, this decision to organize our teams along multiple workflows has given us the bandwidth to move quickly in a crisis and make good decisions.
In the past 61 days, we've supported our communities through the donation of PP&E to regional health authorities, and we fed literally thousands of team and community members through a volunteer-driven meal program.
Like all of you, we stand strongly behind emergency responders, doctors and especially nurses who are working bravely to help those who are sick, and we offer our sympathies to those who have lost loved ones.
And It's obvious to point out that most of our second quarter bookings were impacted by governmental stay-at-home orders and the overall reduction in domestic and international travel, resulting in large numbers of cancellations.
We're not isolated from the global impact on travel and hospitality, we find ourselves among many fine brands and companies that are facing these same challenges.
Safety first is and always has been our No.
It was never a question of if we would be reopening, but more importantly, how?
Last week, we launched Pursuit Safety Promise, which was constructed using material from the CDC and regional health authorities.
As guests return to our iconic locations and our team members are present to host them, we've taken steps to ensure that we can do that safely.
And you can see all about that on the specifics on the Pursuit website.
So fast forward 60 days, looking to our iconic locations and FlyOver experiences, we're seeing the world begin to open back up.
FlyOver Iceland reopened last week in Reykjavik, and we expect to benefit from the over 30,000 units of presold product already in the hands of our Icelandic guests in that market.
And for our first weekend of operation, we handily surpassed our visit projection while maintaining a safe environment for visitors.
We appreciate the support of the Icelandic government as they've moved quickly to support both workers and businesses in this unprecedented global pandemic.
As travel restarts, we believe Iceland's thoughtful management of this public health crisis and renowned reputation as a safe destination, will position the country and our FlyOver Iceland experience well.
So let's travel to Canada, Western Canada, and we expect to begin safely opening facilities in Banff National Park and Jasper National Park at the beginning of June.
We expect visitation to be below 2019 levels with less international visitors.
However, we do anticipate more Canadians traveling within the country than usual.
To date, we have bookings in late June, and well into the third and fourth quarters of 2020.
We continue to take more every day.
For the week ending May 10, we were net positive for bookings, meaning we took more new reservations than cancellations at both the Mount Royal Hotel and the Glacier View Lodge.
Canadian government has been very industry-focused, has enacted several programs that have been super helpful, including wage subsidies of up to 75% for team members, and that's called the CEWS program.
And this has been extended to August, as well as everything from rent abatements within National Parks.
We head north to the great state of Alaska, we expect the National Parks in Denali and Kenai Fjords will open for summer 2020.
When they do, we'll be there to safely host guests and staff.
Our properties and attractions will open in Alaska on a staggered basis beginning mid-June, because we expect business levels to be impacted by the partial cancellation of many cruise departures from the lower 48.
We'll be prepared to adapt our properties and attractions accordingly.
So that means we'll shrink and expand the operating capacity of our experiences based on demand.
Down the West Coast of Vancouver, talk about Vancouver for a second.
Vancouver obviously expects that international visitation will be down from historical levels, but we do expect more Canadians will visit Vancouver and enjoy the culture and beauty of that amazing city, including FlyOver Canada.
And next, south of Montana, we expect to begin opening our facilities around Glacier National Park in June.
Over 90% of guests to this area are self-driving Americans, and so with record low gas prices and the overall safety allure of a family road trip, we anticipate attendance in Glacier will be less impacted than other locations.
In terms of future projects, we've made great progress on Sky Lagoon in Iceland and are on track for a late spring 2021 opening.
The team has been working hard on FlyOver Las Vegas.
And we've made great strides on the development of the creative product that will be shown in 2021.
But finally, we believe that the power of iconic locations will not be dimmed.
And looking back throughout history and now looking ahead into 2021, Pursuit is well-positioned to benefit from the pent-up perennial demand for iconic, unforgettable and inspiring experiences.
So back over to Steve to talk about GES.
Through February, GES performed well with overall results tracking slightly ahead of forecast.
We were looking forward to a tremendous year with strong momentum on the corporate side and an incremental $100 million of revenue from three nonannual events all set to take place this year.
Fortunately, the first of the major nonannual events, CONEXPO-CON/AGG took place as scheduled in early March before wide-sweeping stay-at-home orders and other restrictions went into place as a result of COVID-19.
As event activity essentially halted, we drew upon our logistical capabilities to help our communities in the battle against COVID.
We partnered with facilities, other contractors and members of the trade to convert four large exhibition centers in Chicago, London, New York City and Edmonton, Canada into temporary hospitals or shelters.
This was around the clockwork completed in a very short time, and we're proud of our employees for their drive and commitment to this important work.
Where we sit today, event activity has largely been canceled or postponed through July.
Exactly when large-scale events will resume remains unclear and will ultimately be determined by the lifting of restrictions by local authorities and at the discretion of the event organizers.
Just yesterday, MINExpo, one of our three major nonannual events that was scheduled to take place in Las Vegas in September, officially announced that it was postponing until September 2021.
And based on a reopening plan recently announced in Illinois, it appears unlikely that IMTS will be able to take place as previously scheduled for this September in Chicago.
That said, we do still have events on the books for the third and fourth quarter, including the International Woodworking Fair, a biannual event that is set to take place in Atlanta this August.
And we continue to receive and win RFPs for client work in late 2020 and 2021.
So there are definite signs that the live event industry is ready for a comeback as circumstances permit.
We are closely monitoring commentary and decisions made by local governments to understand how they intend to handle the reintroduction of exhibitions and conventions in their economic reopening plans.
While we wait for those decisions, we have effectively hibernated GES by leveraging its high variable cost model to minimize operating costs, while retaining the ability to reactivate parts of the company as business returns.
We expect certain sectors will return faster than others, including pharma and technology, which are two of our strongest verticals on the corporate side of our business.
We are taking this opportunity to design and build a better business, one that's more profitable, less asset-intensive, and more focused on our clients' future needs.
Our focus continues to be on transforming our exhibition business, which is the largest part of our revenue today and driving share gains in our corporate business, while smaller competitors struggle to stay alive during this challenging time.
When we begin to restart GES, we will do so with the future in mind and expect to emerge leaner, more nimble and more client-focused.
As a service business, we have a highly variable, largely labor-based cost structure, which allowed us to act very quickly when the COVID-19 restrictions began occurring.
Both business segments were able to flex down very quickly as conditions weakened.
At Pursuit, we immediately reduced more than half of our costs and still have additional cost levers to pull if conditions do not begin to improve in the coming months.
We can expand and contract the operating capacity of our experiences based on fluctuating business levels, which is a core competency for us, given the normal seasonal demand patterns of this business.
At GES, more than two-thirds of our costs are entirely variable with an even larger percentage able to be quickly adjusted based on business demand.
We essentially entered a hibernation mode until events return, reducing our semi-variable cost by approximately 70%, and we stand ready to quickly turn the faucet back on as events return.
In addition to reducing our costs, we took a variety of other steps to preserve cash.
We significantly reduced or eliminated planned capital expenditures, including both nonessential maintenance and small growth capital projects, and we slowed the pace of the two Pursuit FlyOver projects in development.
We amplified our focus on working capital management, we engaged in productive dialogues with landlords and local tax jurisdictions to eliminate or defer spending where possible and we received some benefits from various government relief programs, including wage subsidies offered in Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands, as well as U.S. payroll tax deferrals available under the CARES Act.
We believe we have an adequate cash position and balance sheet to weather the near-term impacts of COVID-19.
At March 31, our cash balance was $130.5 million, and in early April, we drew the remaining $33 million down on our revolver, bringing our total cash at the beginning of the second quarter to approximately $163 million.
Given the swift and deep cost savings actions we've taken, we have significantly reduced our operating costs and expect our cash outflow during the second quarter will approximate $40 million.
This assumes continued collection of outstanding receivables, minimal new revenue, and no postponed events coming back in the quarter.
As it relates to our revolving credit facility, we were in compliance with all financial covenants at the end of the first quarter, and we have already received a waiver of financial covenants for the second quarter.
This waiver, combined with our cash position, gives us important breathing room to negotiate longer-term covenant relief and line up additional sources of capital as we prepare for COVID impacts to persist into the third quarter and perhaps beyond.
We are working closely with our lender group and outside advisors to ensure that Viad is sufficiently capitalized to withstand the downturn and emerge in a position of strength, with Pursuit poised to continue its pre-COVID growth trajectory.
As David mentioned, we believe experiential trips will rebound more quickly than large events, and this economic downturn may ultimately bring interesting investment opportunities we hope to be able to pursue.
Now switching over to our preliminary first-quarter results, which were in line with our pre-announcement in mid-March.
First, let me comment on the preliminary nature of these results.
The impact of COVID-19 has necessitated additional asset impairment testing, which we are currently working through.
We do not expect the noncash impairment charges to impact cash flow, debt covenants or ongoing operations.
However, we do expect the impairment charges to have a material impact on the final GAAP financial results presented in our Form 10-Q, which we expect to file no later than June 15, 2020.
Preliminary revenue was $306 million, up 7.1% from the 2019 first quarter primarily due to positive share rotation of approximately $57 million at GES, partially offset by show postponements and cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
January and February were in line with our original expectations, while March was impacted by postponements and cancellations resulting from virus concerns, causing us to reduce our original guidance for the first quarter and withdraw our full-year guidance.
GES revenue was $292.5 million, up $17.6 million or 6.4%.
This growth was largely due to the occurrence of a nonannual CONEXPO-CON/AGG trade show in early March before the COVID effects were fully felt.
Pursuit revenue was $13.5 million, up $2.9 million or 26.8%.
This is a seasonally slow quarter for Pursuit and although we began to feel the effects of COVID-19 during late March, Pursuit finished the quarter with higher revenue than 2019, largely due to strong pre-COVID results from our acquisition of Mountain Park Lodges and our new FlyOver Iceland attraction.
Preliminary net loss attributable to Viad was $10.6 million versus $17.8 million in the 2019 first quarter.
And preliminary net loss before other items was $8.5 million versus a loss of $10.2 million in the 2019 first quarter.
This non-GAAP measure excludes impairment and restructuring charges, acquisition, integration and transaction-related costs, and attraction start-up costs, as well as a legal settlement recorded in the 2019 first quarter.
Preliminary adjusted segment operating loss was $8.4 million versus a loss of $11 million in the 2019 first quarter, and adjusted segment EBITDA was $6.9 million, up $4.7 million from the 2019 first quarter.
The increase in adjusted segment EBITDA was primarily due to higher revenue at GES and the elimination of performance-based incentives partially offset by increased seasonal operating losses at Pursuit driven by the June 2019 acquisition of Mountain Park Lodges and the opening of FlyOver Iceland.
GES adjusted segment EBITDA was $19.1 million, up from $10.9 million in the 2019 first quarter.
And Pursuit adjusted segment EBITDA was negative $12.2 million versus negative $8.8 million in the 2019 first quarter.
The second quarter will be extremely difficult, but our quick move to reduce variable expenses into increased liquidity will help protect our financial position.
We've essentially been in hibernation mode since early in second quarter, maintaining the lowest level of expenses we prudently can, while we wait for the slow resumption of travel and events.
At Pursuit, as you know, the seasonally strongest period is June through September.
And as David said, we believe the business will be the first to recover and are beginning to see signs of this.
GES is expected to take longer, although we are hopeful that as certain locations begin to lift restrictions, events will start to take place again during the third quarter.
We've controlled the factors we can control.
We've reduced expenses, prudently managed our balance sheet and maintained very close contact with our lending partners.
We are in a good financial footing to manage through a brutal second quarter and hope to emerge in the third quarter with growing visitation and bookings at Pursuit and the cessation of cancellations for future events at GES.
And now I'll hand the call back to you, Steve, for your concluding remarks.
In closing, the spread of COVID-19 affected our overall results for first quarter and we anticipate continued impact in the near term as planned events further unfold, air travel remains at a bare minimum for the time being, and the state-by-state regulations continue to shift.
We expect GES will experience a patient Rebound, whereas Pursuit will see more benefit in the short term as stay-at-home orders are lifted and domestic regional travel resumes.
As Ellen shared previously, we have taken swift steps to bolster our near term liquidity, and we are prepared to take other prudent steps to ensure we weather the storm.
We have an experienced management team that has navigated through previous downturns and are more than capable of leading this company through this uncertain time.
We see the current environment as an opportunity to reimagine the demand side of our two business segments and map out where we believe to be the most profitable pockets of opportunity and growth as we exit this downturn.
We anticipate making some strategic changes to the business in order to better facilitate the evolving needs of our clients, better serve our guests and provide significant value for our stakeholders as we improve our competitive position in a post-COVID-19 universe.
And we believe in the longevity and resiliency of our business, exhibitions, conferences and corporate events are a vital part of the economic engine, facilitating sales, networking and education and a relatively low-cost and high-impact way.
The replacement of live events by virtual events has been tested in the past and will likely be tested again.
But even in the most productive of virtual worlds, we do not believe that face-to-face meetings will go away.
They may change and our industry will change along with it.
In our GES business, we will focus on shrinking our footprint and choosing which markets we want to be in and which ones we don't.
On the Pursuit side, iconic location and experiences cannot be replaced, and people will not choose to stay at home indefinitely.
We will once again venture out to explore the world in its amazing places perhaps with pent-up demand.
More than ever, we believe that experiences will be more valuable than things.

user
viad q1 revenue rose 7.1 percent to $306 million.
q1 revenue rose 7.1 percent to $306 million.
suspended future dividend payments and share repurchases.
executive management team voluntarily reduced its base salaries by 20% to 50%.
eliminated all non-essential capital expenditures and discretionary spending.
fully drawn on our revolving line of credit to increase our cash position.
obtained a waiver of our financial covenants for q2.
implemented aggressive cost reduction actions, including furloughs, mandatory unpaid time off, and salary reductions for all employees.

assistant