Bluegreen Vacations reports Q4 EPS ex-items 61c vs. 59c last year

Reports Q4 revenue $238M vs. $203M last year. Number of guest tours increased 1% to 58,632 from 57,796 in the prior year quarter. Alan Levan, CEO, commented, "We believe our record sales performance throughout 2022 is evidence that the appeal of the Bluegreen Vacation Club to our target customer base is stronger than ever. In the fourth quarter of 2022, our sales team generated a fourth quarter record $186.5 million of system-wide sales of VOIs, which was a 12% increase over the prior year quarter. The increase reflected both an increase in our sales efficiency, as demonstrated by the 7% increase in our sales volume per guest, and a 1% increase in guest tours over the prior year quarter. Our sales of VOIs are driven by the success of our marketing programs, and Bluegreen’s marketing to new customers generally begins with the sale of a vacation package to a prospect. During the fourth quarter of 2022, we sold 46,002 vacation packages, a decrease from the 53,721 we sold in the fourth quarter of 2021, a decrease we believe reflected the continued effects of a challenging labor market which affected staffing levels and resulted in increased turnover and consequently impacted package sales at our marketing kiosks. The decrease is also reflecting lower traffic in the retail locations where we operate. As we begin 2023, one of our objectives is to increase the efficiency of our marketing spend and to accomplish this, we will seek to increase our VOI sales and also lower our new customer acquisition cost. In connection with this objective, in December 2022 we vacated certain marketing locations that were difficult to staff and/or were under-performing. As a result, we incurred a charge of $6.6 million, which we add back to Adjusted EBITDA. Overall, the demand for vacations by Bluegreen Vacation Club owners has been and remains strong and we believe our core strategy of primarily offering a ‘drive-to’ network of resorts will continue to serve as a growth driver. However, we cannot predict the future impact of general economic conditions, including higher interest rates, inflationary trends, and labor availability, on our operations. From a balance sheet perspective, we believe that we are well positioned to help navigate various economic conditions with approximately $175.7 million of unrestricted cash on hand and $430.5 million of conditional availability under our lines of credit and receivable purchase facilities as of December 31, 2022. We also believe we have a level of protection from rising interest rates as 42% of our outstanding debt is at fixed interest rates. As always, we are focused on growth and profitability over the long term, while at the same time delivering memorable vacation experiences to our owners."