Vail Resorts net income increased 30.5%
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Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. was $149.8 million for fiscal 2016, an increase of 30.5% compared to fiscal 2015 or 46.6%, excluding the $12.6 million after-tax non-cash gain on the Park City litigation settlement in fiscal 2015.
Resort Reported EBITDA was $452.6 million for fiscal 2016, an increase of 29.5%, excluding the $16.4 million non-cash gain on the Park City litigation settlement in fiscal 2015.
Season pass sales through September 18, 2016 for the upcoming 2016/2017 U.S. ski season increased approximately 24% in units and 29% in sales dollars versus the comparable period in the prior year.
On August 8, 2016, the Company announced that it signed an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. The Company continues to expect the acquisition to close this fall pending Whistler Blackcomb shareholder and Canadian regulatory approval.
The Company issued its fiscal 2017 guidance range and expects Resort Reported EBITDA to be between $480 million and $510 million, excluding results from Whistler Blackcomb and any transaction-related or integration costs.
Rob Katz, chief executive officer, said, "We achieved another year of record-breaking results with significant growth across our business.
"We are very pleased to complete the year with Resort Reported EBITDA of $452.6 million, which included $1.4 million of transaction expenses related to the pending Whistler Blackcomb acquisition. Our results were driven by the strength of our network and excellent results across all of our resort locations.
"Our season pass program continued to drive both growth and stability with season pass revenue increasing 21.5% compared to the prior year, including a full season of Perisher season pass revenue in fiscal 2016.
"We experienced another outstanding year in Colorado with visitation and guest spending outperforming last year's results. In Park City, we met our very high expectations following our capital transformation last summer that combined Park City and Canyons into the largest mountain resort in the U.S.
"Tahoe results rebounded strongly as favorable weather conditions helped to reactivate visitation in the region. We officially launched Epic Discovery at Vail and Heavenly this summer, driving significant increases in visitation and revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year.
"Our summer business will continue to grow as we further build out activities at Vail and Heavenly and officially launch Epic Discovery at Breckenridge next summer.
"Finally, we continue to execute our strategy with a focus on disciplined cost management which played a critical part in achieving Resort EBITDA Margin for the year of 28.7%, a 300 basis point expansion compared to fiscal 2015, excluding the non-cash gain on the Park City litigation settlement in fiscal 2015.
"With a strong high-end U.S. consumer, we are continuing to leverage our growing network of resorts and sophisticated marketing strategies to drive higher visitation and yields across our Mountain segment.
For fiscal 2016, total Mountain net revenue increased 18.2% to $1.3 billion. Total skier visits, including a full year of Perisher results, increased 18.5%, while total U.S. skier visits increased 13.2%.
Total Effective Ticket Price ("ETP") increased 3.5%, driven by season pass and lift ticket price increases across our resorts, partially offset by higher visitation per pass. Our ancillary businesses also experienced growth with ski school, dining and retail/rental revenue, up 13.5%, 19.8% and 10.0%, respectively, compared to the prior year.
"Fiscal 2016 was another strong year for our Lodging segment with net revenue increasing 7.9% and Lodging Reported EBITDA increasing 30.0% compared to fiscal 2015, including $3.5 million of Lodging Reported EBITDA associated with the termination of the Company's management agreement with Half Moon Resort in Jamaica.
These improvements were primarily driven by a 210 basis point improvement in occupancy and a 3.5% growth in average daily rate ("ADR"), resulting in an 8.8% improvement in revenue per available room ("RevPAR") compared to the prior year. Our Lodging segment benefited from increased visitation at our mountain resorts during the ski season as well as continued growth in summer visitation."
"We generated $22.0 million of Net Real Estate Cash Flow in fiscal 2016. For the full fiscal year, we closed on five units at Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail, three Crystal Peak Lodge units in Breckenridge and two One Ski Hill Place units in Breckenridge.
"During the fourth quarter we closed on two units at Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail and one unit at Crystal Peak Lodge. Subsequent to the end of fiscal 2016, we closed on the sale of a land parcel at the base of Breckenridge for $9.25 million.
"As of September 23, 2016, we have four units at Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail and two units at One Ski Hill Place remaining to be sold and approximately $94.7 million of real estate held for sale and investment associated with land parcels at our resorts."
"Our balance sheet continues to be very strong. We ended the fiscal year with $67.9 million of cash on hand and $75.0 million of borrowings under the revolver portion of our senior credit facility. As of July 31, 2016, we had available borrowing capacity under the revolver component of our credit facility of $252.8 million.
Our Net Debt was 1.4 times trailing twelve months Total Reported EBITDA, which includes $323.1 million of long-term capital lease obligations associated with the Canyons transaction.
I am also very pleased to announce that our board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on Vail Resorts' common stock.
The quarterly dividend will be $0.81 per share of common stock and will be payable on October 25, 2016 to shareholders of record on October 7, 2016. Additionally, the Company repurchased 485,866 shares for a total of $53.8 million during fiscal 2016." ■