DiamondRock Hospitality Company Reports First Quarter Results

BETHESDA, Md., May 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DiamondRock Hospitality Company (the "Company") (NYSE: DRH), a lodging-focused real estate investment trust that owns a portfolio of 31 premium hotels in the United States, today announced results of operations for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.

First Quarter 2019 Highlights

• Net Income: Net income was $9.0 million and earnings per diluted share was $0.04.
• Comparable Revenues: Total comparable revenues increased 2.0% from the comparable period of 2018.
• Comparable RevPAR: RevPAR was $157.38, a 0.8% decrease from the comparable period of 2018. Excluding the JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek and Marriott Salt Lake City, which were under renovation during the quarter, the Company's RevPAR was $161.56, an increase of 1.0% from the comparable period of 2018.
• Comparable Hotel Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Hotel Adjusted EBITDA margin was 22.90%, a 143 basis point contraction from the comparable period of 2018. Excluding the JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek and Marriott Salt Lake City, the Company's Hotel Adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.03%, a 53 basis point contraction from the comparable period of 2018.
• Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $49.2 million, an increase of $5.8 million from 2018.
• Adjusted FFO: Adjusted FFO was $41.9 million and Adjusted FFO per diluted share was $0.21.
• Business Interruption Income: The Company recognized $8.8 million of business interruption income during the quarter related to the ongoing insurance claim for Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort ("Frenchman's Reef").
• Share Repurchases: During the first quarter of 2019, the Company repurchased 3.1 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $9.52 per share.

Mark W. Brugger, President and Chief Executive Officer of DiamondRock Hospitality Company stated, "First quarter Hotel Adjusted EBITDA came in just ahead of internal expectations as our asset management team successfully executed on its strategy of replacing select higher-rated business transient rooms with more profitable group business.  This strategy led to higher total revenue with robust food and beverage revenue growth of over 8%.  Additionally, early in the quarter we were able to take advantage of market dislocation to buyback 3.1 million shares at a tremendous discount to the implied net asset value of our real estate."

Operating Results      

Please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" attached to this press release for an explanation of the terms "EBITDAre," "Adjusted EBITDA," "Hotel Adjusted EBITDA Margin," "FFO" and "Adjusted FFO" and a reconciliation of these measures to net income. Comparable operating results include the Company's acquisitions for all periods presented and exclude Frenchman's Reef and Havana Cabana Key West for all periods presented due to the closure of these hotels. See "Reconciliation of Comparable Operating Results" attached to this press release for a reconciliation to historical amounts.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2019, the Company reported the following:

The Company's three 2018 acquisitions delivered strong results, with combined RevPAR growth of over 7%. The acquisitions, Cavallo Point in Sausalito, California, The Landing Resort & Spa Lake Tahoe and the Hotel Palomar Phoenix, were consistent with the Company's strategy of acquiring high barrier-to-entry resorts and urban lifestyle hotels.

Frenchman's Reef Insurance Claim Update

As previously disclosed, the Company has filed an insurance claim resulting from the hurricanes that impacted Frenchman's Reef in 2017.  The Company is in the process of rebuilding the resort following the significant damage caused by the hurricanes and expects to reopen the resort in 2020.  Under its insurance policy, the Company is entitled to be compensated for, among other things, the cost to replace the damaged property, as well as lost profits during the rebuilding period.  The Company and its insurers are currently in litigation regarding the Company's insurance claim, while continuing discussions to resolve the matter.

The Company has received approximately $91.8 million in proceeds to date under the insurance claim, which represents reimbursement for the remediation and rebuild of the damaged property, ongoing expenses and lost profits.  Even if the Company believes it is entitled to additional business interruption proceeds, it can only recognize business interruption income to the extent it reaches agreement with the insurers.  During the first quarter of 2019, the Company recognized $8.8 million of business interruption insurance income, which represents lost profits through April 2019.  In 2018, the Company recognized $16.1 million in business interruption insurance income and believes it is entitled to at least that amount for 2019. The Company continues to negotiate with its insurers for additional business interruption proceeds. The Company spent approximately $9.2 million during the first quarter of 2019 on the rebuilding of the resort.

Capital Expenditures

The Company invested approximately $21.1 million in capital improvements at its operating hotels during the three months ended March 31, 2019.  The Company expects to invest approximately $125 million on capital improvements at its hotels in 2019.  Significant projects in 2019 include the following:

• Hotel Emblem San Francisco: The Company completed the repositioning and rebranding of Hotel Emblem in January 2019, which is now part of Viceroy's Urban Collection.
• JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek: The Company completed the renovation of the hotel's guest rooms and meeting space during the first quarter and expects to renovate the public space later this year.
• Sheraton Suites Key West: The Company expects to complete a comprehensive repositioning renovation of the hotel, which will include upgrades to the resort's entrance, lobby, restaurant, outdoor lounge, pool area and guestrooms. In order to minimize disruption, the renovation is expected to occur from August to November, the hotel's slowest period of the year.
• The Lodge at Sonoma: The Company expects to enhance the overall resort to close the rate gap with the luxury competition in the market, including adding a restaurant by Michael Mina and enhancing the spa to a luxury level.
• Vail Marriott: The Company expects to complete the second phase of the hotel renovation, which includes the upgrade renovation of the spa and fitness center. The scope of this project is consistent with the Company's multi-phased strategy to renovate the hotel to a luxury standard in order to position it for an upbranding in 2021 and close the rate gap with the luxury competitive set.
• Worthington Renaissance: The Company expects to renovate the lobby and complete a return-on-investment repositioning of the restaurant outlets during the third quarter of 2019.

Balance Sheet

As of March 31, 2019, the Company had $36.5 million of unrestricted cash on hand and approximately $1.0 billion of total debt, which consisted of property-specific mortgage debt, $350.0 million of unsecured term loans and $60.0 million of borrowings on its $300.0 million senior unsecured credit facility.  Subsequent to March 31, 2019, the Company borrowed $30.0 million on its senior unsecured credit facility.

Share Repurchase Program

During the first quarter of 2019, the Company repurchased 3.1 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $9.52 per share for a total purchase price of $30.0 million.  The Company has repurchased 6.5 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $9.50 per share since it began repurchasing shares in December 2018.  The Company has $188 million of remaining authorized capacity under its $250 million share repurchase program.

Guidance

The Company is providing annual guidance for 2019, but does not undertake to update it for any developments in its business. Achievement of the anticipated results is subject to the risks disclosed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Comparable RevPAR growth assumes all of the Company's hotels were owned as of January 1, 2018, but excludes Havana Cabana Key West for January 1 to March 31, 2018 and 2019, Hotel Emblem for September 1 to December 31, 2018 and 2019 and Frenchman's Reef for all periods.

The Company is maintaining its 2019 guidance, which was previously provided in connection with the reporting of its 2018 results in February 2019.  The Company continues to expect the full year 2019 results to be as follows:

The guidance above incorporates business interruption insurance income related to Frenchman's Reef of only $8.8 million, which is less than the $16.1 million recognized in 2018.  The Company believes it is entitled to at least $16.1 million of business interruption insurance income for the full year 2019, but the insurers have only agreed to $8.8 million at this time, which represents lost profits through April 2019.  The Company continues to negotiate with its insurers to recover all of the amounts to which it believes it is legally entitled, but the timing of a resolution is uncertain.  The following chart provides a quarterly comparison of income received from business interruption insurance in 2018 and projected for 2019:

The Company expects approximately 29.0% to 30.0% of its full year 2019 Adjusted EBITDA to be earned during the second quarter of 2019.  The Company expects acceleration of RevPAR growth in the second and third quarters due to the benefit from recent renovations, asset management initiatives at newly acquired hotels and a favorable comparison from the 2018 merger integration challenges and union strike at the Westin Boston.

Selected Quarterly Comparable Operating Information

The following table is presented to provide investors with selected quarterly comparable operating information.  The operating information includes the Company's 2018 acquisitions for all periods and excludes Havana Cabana Key West for January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2018, Hotel Emblem for September 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018 and Frenchman's Reef for all periods.

Earnings Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss its first quarter results on Thursday, May 9, 2019, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET).  To participate in the live call, investors are invited to dial 844-287-6622 (for domestic callers) or 530-379-4559 (for international callers).  The participant passcode is 2986858. A live webcast of the call will be available via the investor relations section of DiamondRock Hospitality Company's website at www.drhc.com or www.earnings.com.  A replay of the webcast will also be archived on the website for one week.

About the Company

DiamondRock Hospitality Company is a self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT) that is an owner of a leading portfolio of geographically diversified hotels concentrated in top gateway markets and destination resort locations.  The Company owns 31 premium quality hotels with over 10,000 rooms. The Company has strategically positioned its hotels to be operated both under leading global brand families such as Hilton and Marriott as well as unique boutique hotels in the lifestyle segment.  For further information on the Company and its portfolio, please visit DiamondRock Hospitality Company's website at www.drhc.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws and regulations. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "project," "forecast," "plan" and other similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions and forecasts of future results. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made, including statements related to the expected duration of closure of Frenchman's Reef and anticipated insurance coverage. These risks include, but are not limited to: national and local economic and business conditions, including the potential for additional terrorist attacks, that will affect occupancy rates at the Company's hotels and the demand for hotel products and services; operating risks associated with the hotel business; risks associated with the level of the Company's indebtedness; relationships with property managers; the ability to compete effectively in areas such as access, location, quality of accommodations and room rate structures; changes in travel patterns, taxes and government regulations which influence or determine wages, prices, construction procedures and costs; and other risk factors contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. All information in this release is as of the date of this release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We use the following non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful to investors as key measures of our operating performance: EBITDA, EBITDAre, Adjusted EBITDA, Hotel EBITDA, Hotel Adjusted EBITDA, FFO and Adjusted FFO. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance in accordance with U.S. GAAP.  EBITDA, EBITDAre, Adjusted EBITDA, Hotel EBITDA, Hotel Adjusted EBITDA, FFO and Adjusted FFO, as calculated by us, may not be comparable to other companies that do not define such terms exactly as the Company.

Use and Limitations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Our management and Board of Directors use EBITDA, EBITDAre, Adjusted EBITDA, Hotel EBITDA, Hotel Adjusted EBITDA, FFO and Adjusted FFO to evaluate the performance of our hotels and to facilitate comparisons between us and other lodging REITs, hotel owners who are not REITs and other capital intensive companies. The use of these non-GAAP financial measures has certain limitations. These non-GAAP financial measures as presented by us, may not be comparable to non-GAAP financial measures as calculated by other real estate companies. These measures do not reflect certain expenses or expenditures that we incurred and will incur, such as depreciation, interest and capital expenditures. We compensate for these limitations by separately considering the impact of these excluded items to the extent they are material to operating decisions or assessments of our operating performance. Our reconciliations to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures, and our consolidated statements of operations and cash flows, include interest expense, capital expenditures, and other excluded items, all of which should be considered when evaluating our performance, as well as the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures.

These non-GAAP financial measures are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. They should not be considered as alternatives to operating profit, cash flow from operations, or any other operating performance measure prescribed by U.S. GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing our operations that we believe, when viewed with our U.S. GAAP results and the reconciliations to the corresponding U.S. GAAP financial measures, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business than could be obtained absent this disclosure. We strongly encourage investors to review our financial information in its entirety and not to rely on a single financial measure.

EBITDA, EBITDAre and FFO

EBITDA represents net income (calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP) excluding: (1) interest expense; (2) provision for income taxes, including income taxes applicable to sale of assets; and (3) depreciation and amortization.  The Company computes EBITDAre in accordance with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("Nareit") guidelines, as defined in its September 2017 white paper "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization for Real Estate."  EBITDAre represents net income (calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP) adjusted for: (1) interest expense; (2) provision for income taxes, including income taxes applicable to sale of assets; (3) depreciation and amortization; (4) gains or losses on the disposition of depreciated property including gains or losses on change of control; (5) impairment write-downs of depreciated property and of investments in unconsolidated affiliates caused by a decrease in value of depreciated property in the affiliate; and (6) adjustments to reflect the entity's share of EBITDAre of unconsolidated affiliates.

We believe EBITDA and EBITDAre are useful to an investor in evaluating our operating performance because they help investors evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (primarily interest expense) and our asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization, and in the case of EBITDAre, impairment and gains or losses on dispositions of depreciated property) from our operating results. In addition, covenants included in our debt agreements use EBITDA as a measure of financial compliance. We also use EBITDA and EBITDAre as measures in determining the value of hotel acquisitions and dispositions.

The Company computes FFO in accordance with standards established by the Nareit, which defines FFO as net income determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, excluding gains or losses from sales of properties and impairment losses, plus real estate related depreciation and amortization. The Company believes that the presentation of FFO provides useful information to investors regarding its operating performance because it is a measure of the Company's operations without regard to specified non-cash items, such as real estate related depreciation and amortization and gains or losses on the sale of assets.  The Company also uses FFO as one measure in assessing its operating results.

Hotel EBITDA

Hotel EBITDA represents net income excluding:  (1) interest expense, (2) income taxes, (3) depreciation and amortization, (4) corporate general and administrative expenses (shown as corporate expenses on the consolidated statements of operations), and (5) hotel acquisition costs. We believe that Hotel EBITDA provides our investors a useful financial measure to evaluate our hotel operating performance, excluding the impact of our capital structure (primarily interest), our asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization), and our corporate-level expenses (corporate expenses and hotel acquisition costs).  With respect to Hotel EBITDA, we believe that excluding the effect of corporate-level expenses provides a more complete understanding of the operating results over which individual hotels and third-party management companies have direct control.  We believe property-level results provide investors with supplemental information on the ongoing operational performance of our hotels and effectiveness of the third-party management companies operating our business on a property-level basis.

Adjustments to EBITDAre, FFO and Hotel EBITDA

We adjust EBITDAre, FFO and Hotel EBITDA when evaluating our performance because we believe that the exclusion of certain additional items described below provides useful supplemental information to investors regarding our ongoing operating performance and that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted FFO and Hotel Adjusted EBITDA when combined with U.S. GAAP net income, EBITDA, FFO and Hotel EBITDA, is beneficial to an investor's complete understanding of our consolidated and property-level operating performance.  Hotel Adjusted EBITDA margins are calculated as Hotel Adjusted EBITDA divided by total hotel revenues.  We adjust EBITDA, FFO and Hotel EBITDA for the following items:

• Non-Cash Lease Expense and Other Amortization: We exclude the non-cash expense incurred from the straight line recognition of expense from our ground leases and other contractual obligations and the non-cash amortization of our favorable and unfavorable contracts, originally recorded in conjunction with certain hotel acquisitions. We exclude these non-cash items because they do not reflect the actual cash amounts due to the respective lessors and service providers in the current period and they are of lesser significance in evaluating our actual performance for that period.
• Cumulative Effect of a Change in Accounting Principle: The Financial Accounting Standards Board promulgates new accounting standards that require or permit the consolidated statement of operations to reflect the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle. We exclude the effect of these adjustments, which include the accounting impact from prior periods, because they do not reflect the Company's actual underlying performance for the current period.
• Gains or Losses from Early Extinguishment of Debt: We exclude the effect of gains or losses recorded on the early extinguishment of debt because these gains or losses result from transaction activity related to the Company's capital structure that we believe are not indicative of the ongoing operating performance of the Company or our hotels.
• Hotel Acquisition Costs: We exclude hotel acquisition costs expensed during the period because we believe these transaction costs are not reflective of the ongoing performance of the Company or our hotels.
• Severance Costs: We exclude corporate severance costs, or reversals thereof, incurred with the termination of corporate-level employees and severance costs incurred at our hotels related to lease terminations or structured severance programs because we believe these costs do not reflect the ongoing performance of the Company or our hotels.
• Hotel Manager Transition Items: We exclude the transition items associated with a change in hotel manager because we believe these items do not reflect the ongoing performance of the Company or our hotels.
• Other Items: From time to time we incur costs or realize gains that we consider outside the ordinary course of business and that we do not believe reflect the ongoing performance of the Company or our hotels. Such items may include, but are not limited to, the following: pre-opening costs incurred with newly developed hotels; lease preparation costs incurred to prepare vacant space for marketing; management or franchise contract termination fees; gains or losses from legal settlements; costs incurred related to natural disasters; and gains from insurance proceeds, other than income related to business interruption insurance.

In addition, to derive Adjusted FFO we exclude any fair value adjustments to derivative instruments.  We exclude these non-cash amounts because they do not reflect the underlying performance of the Company.

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures

EBITDA, EBITDAre and Adjusted EBITDA

The following tables are reconciliations of our GAAP net income to EBITDA, EBITDAre and Adjusted EBITDA (in thousands):             

Hotel EBITDA and Hotel Adjusted EBITDA

The following table is a reconciliation of our GAAP net income to Hotel EBITDA and Hotel Adjusted EBITDA (in thousands):        

FFO and Adjusted FFO

The following tables are reconciliations of our GAAP net income to FFO and Adjusted FFO (in thousands):

Reconciliation of Comparable Operating Results

The following presents the revenues, Hotel Adjusted EBITDA and Hotel Adjusted EBITDA Margin together with comparable prior year results, which includes the pre-acquisition results for our 2018 acquisitions and excludes the results for closed hotels (in thousands):

Comparable Hotel Operating Expenses

The following table sets forth hotel operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 for each of the hotels that we owned during these periods.  Our GAAP hotel operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 consisted of the line items set forth below (dollars in thousands) under the column titled "As Reported."  The amounts reported in this column include amounts that are not comparable period-over-period. In order to reflect the period in 2019 comparable to 2018, the amounts in the column titled "Adjustments for Acquisitions" represent the pre-acquisition operating costs of The Landing Resort & Spa and the Hotel Palomar for the period from January 1, 2018 to February 28, 2018 and Cavallo Point for the period from January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2018.  The amounts in the column titled "Adjustments for Closed Hotels" represent the operating costs for all periods presented of Frenchman's Reef and Havana Cabana Key West. Both Frenchman's Reef and Havana Cabana Key West closed in early September 2017 in advance of Hurricane Irma. Havana Cabana Key West reopened in April 2018 and Frenchman's Reef remains closed.  We provide this important supplemental information to our investors because this information provides a useful means for investors to measure our operating performance on a comparative basis.  See the column titled "Comparable."

 These non-GAAP financial measures are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP in this release.  They should not be considered as alternatives to operating profit, cash flow from operations, or any other operating performance measure prescribed by GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing our operations at our hotels that we believe, when viewed with our GAAP results and the reconciliations to the corresponding GAAP financial measures, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business than could be obtained absent this disclosure. We strongly encourage investors to review our financial information in its entirety and not to rely on a single financial measure. In particular, we note the pre-acquisition operating results set forth in the column titled "Adjustments for Acquisitions" were obtained from the respective sellers of the hotels during the acquisition due diligence process.  We have made no adjustments to the amounts provided to us by the respective sellers.  The pre-acquisition operating results were not audited or reviewed by our independent auditors.

SOURCE DiamondRock Hospitality Company