Monday, August 9, 2021

Could this be the Delta Variant ?

First off, we need to understand what the Delta Variant is, many read the news but the news tends to distort information , truncate, sensationalize it, and also dont really make sense of the science. There is also some political whitewashing going on with COVID news, you would hear one set of information from one source - like the WHO, then hear a completely different set of information & suggestion from say CNBC.

The key difference between the Delta variants and others is Transmissibility. The original Wuhan Strain that was first isolated in China has an R0 of ~2.5. The Alpha Variant of this strain that became prevalent in the west has an R0 of ~4.5. The Delta variant today has an R0 of 5-9. Source

That means every 1 person infected with the Delta variant, is expected to infect 5-9 more people. This is on average and a scientific value not further tampered by human density, lifestyle, etc. There are also superspreader events that are possible hence the large variation in the R0 number.

So this means that 1 person with the Delta variant can spread it to 9 person in a worse case scenario, then that will further spread to another 9 person and so on. So that means by the 3rd layer, 1 patient infected with Delta variant would have spread it to 729 people .

For an understanding of how virulent the Delta Variant is, it has very rapidly eclipsed the Alpha variant as the dominant active variant in the US where 93% of all cases in the US are now Delta variant.

Beyond this there is also a new variant called Delta +. This is still being monitored.

The total number of cases thus far in Brunei is 406. Before this the number of cases total before community spread was less ~300.

The first COVID case in Brunei came in on 11 March 2020. The pattern of the first few days of cases was : 10 - 0 - to a peak of 26 cases followed by a descending amount of cases down to 0, interspersed with a few days of 0 cases or low count. In less than a month by 9 April 2020, we have got it down to Zero cases. I believe this would have been likely the Wuhan Strain with an R0 of ~2.5.

There are 98 active cases in Brunei right now. This represents nearly 1/4th of the total amount of cases in Brunei , all collected within this week or so. Within 3 days, we have had 8 + 17 + 42 cases reported. This is nothing like the case chart from back in March 2020. This falls into the pattern of Delta variants R0, and the original few patient zeros have not yet been isolated and traced down. Bruneis Covid Chart looks like this, which is set to spike right up with the recent cases as if its Bitcoin's price chart.

Note that the Delta variant is not yet confirmed. As per MoH's PC, they have sent it to Singapore for genetic sequencing that takes weeks. We do not actually know if it isnt Delta variant - as claimed by Athlan Ozman in BB the other day which i would surmise as misinformation.

Janet Yellen yellin about Bitcoin: "I fear it's often for illicit finance...It's an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that's consumed in processing those transactions is staggering"

I was reading articles about the Senate hearing and the people pulling strings in the background when i came across this

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/industry-events/janet-yellen-lobby-against-bitcoin

A few paragraphs below the opening came across this:

The Treasury Secretary, however, is filled with Bitcoin fear and disgust. In February, she told CNBC that she didn't see usefulness in Bitcoin and didn't think it could be used as a transaction mechanism.

"I fear it's often for illicit finance," Yellen proceeded to tell CNBC. "It's an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that's consumed in processing those transactions is staggering."

Yes ban cryptos because as we all know Fiat is NEVER used for illicit finance.

How does a person who owes 1/3rd of her net worth (7mil out of 20 mil) to banks thanks to "speaking fees" get to regulate any aspect of finance baffles me! I just needed to vent man. Hope you all are having a better day than me.

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Crypto Daily News from ZBG Exchange

1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Ahead of Senate Compromise

Bitcoin and ether remain well bid as U.S. senators reach a compromise on the crypto provision of the infrastructure bill.

Cryptocurrencies are in rally mode as bitcoin held above $45,000 on Monday. Buyers were active ahead of a U.S. Senate compromise on tax-reporting requirements for digital assets. Crypto-related stocks such as Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) moved higher in a mixed day for the overall stock market in hopes for regulatory clarity.
Ether was also well bid above $3,000 at press time and is up 21% over the past week, compared with an 18% rise in bitcoin during the same period.
Latest prices
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin (BTC) $46190.3, +5.91%
Ether (ETH) $3162.7, +6.51%
Traditional markets:
S&P 500: 4432.4, -0.09%
Gold: $1729.9, -1.88%
10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.318%, compared with 1.307% on Friday.
Bitcoin above 200-day moving average
Bitcoin pierced the 200-day moving average for the first time since April 2020, which preceded a broad crypto rally. “With bitcoin crossing above its 200-day, we think bitcoin will rally strongly into year-end,” Thomas Lee, managing partner of FundStrat, wrote in a Monday newsletter.
Forward returns tend to be bullish for bitcoin after a successful break of the 200-day moving average. Technical charts suggest the next resistance will be around $50,000 to $55,000.

2. Gary Gensler’s Insane Crypto Policy

Gensler wants to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and treat the crypto industry as something to stifle rather than support.

Does cryptocurrency need new regulatory disclosure mandates from Washington, D.C., to be of service to consumers? No, but that is what Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler is seeking.
As stated in a speech on Aug. 3, Gensler indicated he wants to double down on the same tried-and-failed approach his predecessor used. From disclosure-heavy mandates to investor-protection obsession, everything he has proposed is a regulatory version of insanity — doing the same things but expecting different results.
Under the guise of technology neutrality, Gensler seeks to force the crypto industry to heel to the SEC. As he stated, “I think former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said it well when he testified in 2018: ‘To the extent that digital assets like [initial coin offerings, or ICOs] are securities — and I believe every ICO I have seen is a security — we have jurisdiction, and our federal securities laws apply.’”
Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find a crypto innovation over which he doesn’t want to exert control. Stablecoins? Check. Exchanges? Check. Decentralized finance (DeFi)? Check.
That hasn’t gone well so far.
By any account, the commission’s crypto policy has been a mess. Former Chairman Clayton seemed perpetually perplexed by such new technologies, finally appointing a crypto “Czar” — career bureaucrat Valerie Szczepanik — in 2018. A year later she and Corporation Finance Director William Hinman produced a widely panned 13-page crypto “framework.” The document was so impenetrable, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce compared it to a highly abstract Jackson Pollock painting.

3. Several Crypto Mining Stocks Up Sharply as Bitcoin Rises Above $46K

The increase also came at a time when bipartisan support emerged for excluding miners from being considered “brokers” in the U.S. infrastructure bill.

Crypto mining stocks rallied on Monday on the recent rise in bitcoin’s price, as well as on support for an amendment to the U.S. infrastructure bill that would specifically exclude miners from additional tax reporting requirements.
BIT Mining (BTCM), CleanSpark (CLSK) and Bitfarms (BITF) were all up by double-digit percentages on Monday, rising around 21%, 12%, and 11%, respectively, while Riot Blockchain (RIOT), Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Hive Blockchain Technologies (CVE) were also up 8%, 5% and 7%, respectively. Argo Blockchain (ARBKF), which reported earnings early on Monday, however, was down 2%.
“Mining stocks currently are levered plays on the price of bitcoin,” said Michael Del Grosso, an analyst who covers Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital Asset Holdings at Compass Point Research. “All of that is occurring while the hash rate is relatively muted … because of the Chinese miner disruption, which is still taking months to shake out.”
Bitcoin was up 6% over the last 24 hours, rising from around $43,600 to more than $46,000. The rise in mining stocks also comes at a time where bipartisan support emerged for an amendment to the U.S. infrastructure bill that would exclude miners from being considered “brokers” under the crypto tax reporting provision of the bill. The U.S. Senate, however, rejected the amendment in a vote on Monday afternoon.

4. NFTs Over DeFi: OpenSea Just Overtook Uniswap on Ethereum Usage

Since last year, Uniswap has usually commanded the top spot.

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea topped the leaderboard in gas consumption on the Ethereum blockchain over the past 24 hours in a rare finish ahead of the decentralized finance (DeFi) exchange Uniswap.
Since last year, Uniswap — the largest decentralized exchange on Ethereum — has typically commanded the most in daily transaction fees, a key barometer for actual usage of the world’s second-largest blockchain.
The resurgence of NFTs from highs earlier this year, however, has helped put OpenSea in the top spot with over $1.9 million in gas spent on transaction fees in the past day. By comparison, a combined $1.57 million in transaction fees has been spent on Uniswap V2 and V3.
A slew of NFT projects have been launched in recent weeks, such as Pudgy Penguins, Sad Frogs District and Space Poggers. The projects host different types of auctions that allow users to mint a random NFT for a given amount of ether (ETH, +6.52%), the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain.

5. Crypto Coin Listings Exploded in 2021

Data aggregators have listed more than 2,000 new crypto assets in the first half of 2021.

In the first half of 2021 data aggregator CoinMarketCap added 2,655 new crypto assets to its database, bringing the total number of listed coins to 10,810, according to data shared with us.
For perspective, in 2018, during the peak of the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, CoinMarketCap listed its 2,000th asset on its website.
This year “saw a Cambrian explosion of new crypto assets largely as a consequence of several tailwinds,” said Aaron Khoo, head of listings at CoinMarketCap, referring to the evolutionary event that took place 541 million years ago when large numbers of new organisms seemingly burst into existence.

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In the future, ZBG will continue to expand its global market and provide stable, safe and fast blockchain project listing, diversified crypto assets and blockchain derivatives investment services to more blockchain enthusiasts around the world.

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August 10, 2021

Welcome to the Church of Bitcoin - Thousands gathered in Miami to talk about the OG cryptocurrency — but instead of your typical finance conference, it had the feeling of a fringe religious event

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/bitcoin-conference-miami-religious-church-1194744/

Bitcoin Rallies Defiantly as Senate Infrastructure Battle Hits a Snag

Contention over the crypto provision in the infrastructure bill continues. Today on “The Breakdown,” NLW brings the latest, including:

· Consensus mechanism confusion

· A weekend stalemate

· The emergent power of the crypto industry

The Bulls are back?

The amendment proposed by Sen. Rob Portman included an odd preference for proof-of-work over any other consensus mechanism. After significant pushback from the crypto community on this specific detail, the amendment was changed to cover all consensus mechanisms. But in a head-scratching turn of events, the amendment was updated once more to include proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, but no other mechanisms.

Sunday came with its own set of blockers, including a conflict around prioritization of the crypto provision versus other legislation that needs attention. Though the weekend brought little resolution, the debate continues and there is still time for a positive resolution. Will policymakers come to an agreement on one of the proposed amendments in time?

https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/coindesk-podcast-network/bitcoin-rallies-defiantly-senate-infrastructure-battle

AMC Q2 2021 EARNINGS CALL HIGHLIGHTS

The ones in bold are the ones i think are the most positive.

Beat EPS expectation by 25.66% (-0.96 expected, -0.71 actual)
Beat Revenue expectation by 16.38% ($382.11M expected, $444.7M actual)
They do not have to start paying back debt until 2023 with the majority owed in 2026 giving them time to refinance and to gain revenue to pay it off.
300K shareholders have signed up for their Investor Connect program.
Adam Aron said his tweets have been viewed 72 million times.
No dividends for at least 1 year because their debt agreements do not let them issue any until they pay them. If they are in a better situation next year they will take a look at dividends.
They increased ticket prices by 5% and haven't seen any resistance from customers.
Adam Aron announced he will ask the board to accept a new policy where Insiders are not allowed to sell any granted shares for 1 year. In addition he will be required to hold 8 years worth of his salary in shares at all times. Other senior members will be required to hold 6, 4, and 2 years worth of their salary based on their title. He said this is so that they will be invested in the stock price of the company. But he said AMC takes up a significant amount of his personal portfolio so to diversify his portfolio he will pass off the ability to a third party to sell excess shares of AMC based on predetermined parameters towards the end of the year.
Claims due to their sanitizing procedures no customer has caught Covid in their theaters so far.
They said they have 2 theaters with VR and plan to open a third in New Jersey.
Adam Aron said they will not be adding an AMC mascot but are working on their branding this year. They will look into offering merchandise but said they have to determine the logistics of shipping to 600 theaters and see if it will be profitable.
AMC will accept Bitcoin, Apple Pay, and Google Pay by the end of the year in USA!!!
Adam Aron said they did an analysis of adding drive in theaters but determined it would be bad financially. He said the size of the parking lot needed for the number of customers would be expensive and that drive in theaters are seasonal. In colder states they don't go to them in the winter and in the summer the sun is out too long so they would only be able to show a couple shows a day which would not be worth the investment.
They said the UFC events brought in significant revenue and they look forward to showing more UFC events. But the other major sport leagues would not give them the rights to show their events in theaters so UFC only for now. They do have 2 upcoming concert events this month and if they go over well they would like to do more.
Food revenue is up 42% over Q2 2019, they said they would have been happy with 2-3%
They have $2.03 billion in liquidity, 2x what they had in Q1 and the most they have ever had.
Closed 74 theaters that lost money. Have bought/leased 6 more high grossing theaters from Arclight theaters to replace them including 2 in LA that are in the top 1% of highest grossing theaters in USA. They are in talks to acquire 4 more theaters.
They said the President of Epic Games is on their board and they are in talks with them to do something. Adam Aron also said he is open to working with Gamestop on gaming events but he hasn't talked to them yet to see if they are open to it.
They announced they have an agreement with Warner Brothers to show all their movies through 2022 exclusively in theaters for 45 days before they go to streaming. They are in talks with all other major movie studios for similar deals!!!

I can already tell the shills will start spreading FUD in the comments that Adam Aron is working for Shitadel because he said he might sell some of his excess shares at the end of the year to diversify his portfolio. I would remind you he hasn't sold any shares since coming to AMC and has only gifted some to his children. The fact he is going out of his way to propose that all of the board members be required to hold several years worth of their salary in AMC stock is to show that he believes in AMC. He also only has 758k shares to my knowledge and he needs to keep at least $12 million worth for the 8 years salary worth so at current prices he could sell half at most. ~375k shares is not gonna drop AMC's price noticeably if the third party sells them.

If i missed anything put them in the comments for others to see. STAY STRONG APES! UNITED WE GET RICH DIVIDED WE FALL!

AMC Q2 Earnings Call Recap

Just a small recap of the Q2 AMC Earning calls.

Acquired additional theaters to add to their arsenal.
Gaming, Concerts, and Sporting events will be held at theaters around the world (Mention of possible GME + AMC partnership?? Correct me if I'm wrong)
Earnings were beat by a healthy margin
By year end, AMC will have the tech to accept Bitcoin for movie tickets and concessions online at all US Theaters.
Will be more proactive in investing in crypto related services.
Additional Investor Connect perks
AA Twitter activity has astronomical numbers of engagement from users worldwide.
$0.50 Increase of admission ticket prices due to rising costs
Universal x AMC exclusive theatrical screenings and bond continues to be strengthen
Warner Bros. theatrical movie screenings will be held at AMC 45 days before being sent to at home screenings/services such as HBO.
New Policy for the board/insiders: AA required to hold a number of owned or granted shares at least equal to 8 years of his salary, CFO required to hold 6 years of his salary, Executive VP required to hold 4 years of his salary, Senior VP required to hold 2 years of his salary.
AA has not sold one share of AMC stock out of his 5 full years of him running AMC even though it represents more than 3/5 of his total annual compensation. He promises to not sell any AMC shares even in September when he is able to after lock up period.
10B51 Plan implemented by AA himself for himself.
AA says dividends will be decided possibly by next year due to cash management and strategically using their resources wisely.
AA says that there will not be a mascot as of YET, but says to check the marketing in the next couple of weeks. (HINT HINT: Possible Oogaa Booga Vibes??)
No Drive in Theaters.
2 Billion in liquidity as of right now
AMC merchandise possibly in the near future? Very tricky to handle sending merchandise to 600 locations and having to hold inventory.
Bowling, Family Dining, Arcades, VR, etc have already been experimented on by AMC, but the implementation would be costly and might be something to venture into after being able to generate enough capital to support these types of perks and experiences.
Food & Beverage sales up 44%!!!

That's everything that I was able to scrounge up listening to the earnings call. I know we didn't hear things about shorts or a share recall, etc but regardless, still a lot of vital information and definitely good information! If you have anything else that you want to add that I missed, please feel free to leave it in the comments!! LFG Apes. This earnings call has been the best we've heard this year. Lets keep the positive sentiment going! I'm very bullish off this earnings call. 🚀🦍

AMC Q2 Earnings Summary

$AMC Earnings: EPS: -$0.71 vs. -$0.91 expected BEAT

Revenue: $444.7M vs. $341M expected BEAT

Key Points from Adam Aron:

More than 10,000 individual AMC investors listening to webcast.
Quarter 2 ending liquidity is at a NEW 100 year high: $2 Billion in liquidity (double Q1 mark)
Food and Beverage sales per patron up 44%
EBIDA loss of $144M
Overall ticket admission rev in US vs 2019 pre pandemic is only 29% of 2 years ago levels. Currently Q3 is 45% of what it was in Q3 2019, trend line shows improvement.
Capacity utilization was 41% in Q1 vs 2019 Q1, Q2 61%, 68% in Q3 (all vs 2019 numbers)
European theatres, Q1 of 2021 2% of Q1 2019 levels,Q2 was 18%, Q3 is now 57% of 2019 levels.
Capacity in Europe, Q1 53%, Q2 56%, Q3 69% (nice) (again vs 2019 numbers)
They believe cash will become positive in Q4 of this year.
AMC has NO debt maturities until 2023, and most do not come before 2026, gives AMC time to deleverage and refinance.
Americans went to movie theatres "1 billion times" in 2019.
AMC added 2 of Los Angela's highest grossing cinemas (2nd and 5th highest grossing theatres)
AMC has added 10 new theatres, 8 of the 10 are former Arc Light locations
In 2021, AMC will open 12 new build theatres around the world.
Ideas from shareholders: Concert movies, E-sports, Sporting Events
"I cannot count how many times our shareholders have asked us to partner with GameStop... more to come"
About Crypto, Adam is on a SPAC board, acquiring Arquip (might have spelled wrong), with his new knowledge AMC is formally announcing to accept Bitcoin for payment for movie tickets if purchased online.
They are writing code to accept Apple Pay and Google Pay.
AMC Investor Connect, 300,000 shareholders have joined thus far
According to twitter analytics, Adams tweets have been read over 72M times (Silverback shit).
Deal with Warner Bros exclusive theatrical window of 45 days in 2022. (Cannot be streamed or viewed at home during that time)
Adam recommending to the board that he as CEO be required to hold owned or granted shares up to 8 years of his salary (about $12 million dollars)
Adam has not sold a single share, states he did not sell in March when he could have and in June when he could have.
10B51 plan, says it goes to independent 3rd party to sell shares for him if they see fit to diversify wealth as he is becoming 67 years of age in September (would be sold over months).

Q&A Session:

Plans to offer a dividend again? Cannot pay a dividend until a year from now at the earliest, we know they are on shareholders mind, will take this seriously and will look into it when AMC is viable to do so.
Will AMC consider partnering with GameStop for gaming competitions? Willing to do so, they are happy to reach out to see if GME has interest.
Will AMC think about doing drive in theatres? Already went through an analysis, they are not a good economic idea. A lot of asphalt required, viewing is not great, also drive-ins are seasonal, unlikely AMC will ever do this.
How is AMC preparing for possible COVID surge? Has not been a single transmission of COVID to an AMC guest (partnerships with Clorox), continuing safety protocols. Does not believe there will be another lockdown due to vaccination rates.
Are there ways you are considering reducing debt without issuing new shares? Some debt is currently at a discount, could possibly buy it back at a discount. If they purchase some debt back earlier than expected they may be able to purchase at a discount.
How does AMC plan to combat streaming releases for movies? Deal with Warner Brothers (noted above) committing to 45 day theatrical release, also having other conversations with studios about this same topic. Stresses importance of marketing, says they have "a few tricks" up their sleeves.
Would you consider selling AMC merch? Would consider it, its intriguing. They have to make sure it sells so they aren't stuck with inventory.
Could live theatre events (Broadway, concerts?) be shown at AMC theatres? Yes along with gaming and sporting events.
Can you make AMC mascot a gorilla? Interesting question, he was a bit flustered lol. He says to watch how AMC marketing comes up in the future.
Has AMC considered partnering with movie studios to produce their own films? Yes they have, and recently. AMC was in a joint venture with the production team that produced Spotlight (Oscar winner), but he notes making movies is very capital intensive, notes again that AMC should have issued more shares for ideas like this and to have a greater cash load.
Would AMC keep holding viewing parties for mainstream sports? Adam hopes so, in talks with other major sports leagues, many of which not wanting to give rights to movie theatres. UFC has been successful and it is possible for that to continue, also looking into College Football.
Have you considered expanding into family experience, bowling, arcade, restaurant, etc.? AMC does have some dine in theatres currently (about 70), they have experienced with some VR at some theatres, again he says its extremely capital intensive (notes this would likely need more shares to be issued).

Analyst Questions:

Is there an updated view on when AMC will return to 80-90% of 2019 levels? He hopes $5.2Billion in industry box office in 2021. Pre-Covid (2019), 5 years previous, box office exceeded $11 Billion, 5 years prior to that box office exceeded 10B, past 17 years box office has exceeded $7-8B. No definitive answer but says likely 2023-2024 for higher and normal box office numbers.
Where is increase in F&B costs coming from? (sorry I was actually doing work and missed this answer lol)

Cheers guys!!!.

Silverback's News and Questions from Today's Call

Summarized AMC News from the Silverback himself - TLDR but....A LOT OF BANANAS

2 Leases to add to fleet of theatres. 2 of LA highest grossing theatres - to open later this month. However, can confirm today that this might be 10 additional theatres. 6 new Letter of Intents (LA, Chicago, Atlanta) and in negotiations for 4 additional locations with 8 of the 10 coming from former Ark locations - BANANAS
New Theatres - In 2021 will have opened dozen new build theatres globally. 3 new theatres in 2021 - AMC Porter Ranch and Montclaire are in top 25 grossing theatres in the US. New AMC dine-in Sunnyville is doing amazing well and in 94th percentile of highest grossing in US - BANANAS
First 2 UFC Matchups drew significant attendance. 2 concert movies will show across country later this month. Optimistic that alternative programming can grow the company in future years and chasing it at heart. Hoping to engage with sporting leagues to obtain rights to show more sporting events. For gaming opportunities, president of Epic Games is president and can't count # of times that shareholders have asked to partner with GameStop. MORE TO COME ON THIS - BANANAS
Increased blockchain knowledge, AMC will have info and technology to accept BitCoin as a payment for movie tickets and concessions if purchased online at all of US theatres. Also in prelim. stage of exploring how AMC can further participate in the crypto universe. MORE DETAILS TO COME WHEN PLANS ARE MORE FIRM - BANANAS
IT programming of BitCoin, writing code to accept apple and google pay for online purchases. New payment methodologies can be implemented by YE - BANANAS
New Shareholders, in June introduced AMC Investor Connect that received a lot of attention. Offers shareholders full stub benefits. 300K shareholders have joined. Goals to improve communications with shareholders and to convince individuals to become added customers of theatres. Made discounted offers for participants and setting up advanced screenings for these members. - BANANAS
According to Twitter analytics, AA tweets have been read 72M times. In addition, AA is actively following 2K people interested in AMC to get better sense of thoughts. - BANANAS
Labor costs going up in US = rising costs. Noticed that there is little price resistant to increased pricing at theatres. Imposed 5% admissions ticket price ($0.50) increase at many of theatres but will meaningfully strengthen the bottom line - BANANAS
AMC just reached formal agreement with Warner Bros. to show all 2022 movies, importantly respecting 45 day window before showing in home. Gratifying that WB is now embracing exclusive theatrical window and pleasing to be working harmoniously with WB once again. Active dialogue with every studio on this topic and hearing considerable support that exclusive window is an important way to build large, successful franchises. Will keep us posted as things turn out. - BANANAS
Proposing that AA as CEO be required to hold a number of shares at least equal to 8 years of his salary which would be $12M ownership stake in AMC of owned or granted AMC shares. CFO would be required to hold 6 years of his salary. Exec. VP would be required to hold 4 years of salary and Sr. VPs asked to hold 2 years of salary. Board to consider proposal as new policy at next regularly scheduled meeting. AA hasn't sold 1 share of AMC stock in 5 years he has been running company. - BANANAS

*****Questions Submitted with Greatest Shareholder Interest from Say Platform*****

Dividends - Are some commitments to debt issuance such that they can't pay dividend until about 1 year from now. Do know that they are on minds of shareholders and will take this seriously when they have ability to make these.
Partnering with Gamestop - certainly willing to do so and seems to AA that it is an interesting idea that has floated in and happy to reach out to GME to see if they have interest
Consider re-establishing drive-ins? - AA asked same question last July and went through exhaustive analysis and came to conclusion that they are bad economic idea (i.e. Asphalt, viewing experience isn't the same, seasonality from weather and lighting).
Preparation for large-scale COVID surge? - Most proud of preventing catastrophe and the safe-clean protocols that were developed. No transmission of COVID to AA's knowledge and staying committed to safe and clean protocols to continue to operate. In addition, can hope that there may not be a large scale COVID surge that would force a similar lock-down.
Reduction of debt without dilution? - May be able to buy back debt and deferred rent at discount if willing to pay with $1.8B of unrestricted cash or unused Credit Facility
AMC plan to combat releases on streaming platforms - pleased that Warner Bros. has decided to move away from daily releases. Private Convos. with every major studio and a lot of consensus that exclusive theatrical window is good way to build major motion piture franchises. Studios will do what is in their financial interest so they are making sure that marketing programs are as vibrant, powerful and potent as they can possibly be. AMC been marketing leader for past 5 years and have a few tricks up their sleeves coming, hopefully driving audiences to see more BANANAS.
AMC Merchandise? - Would consider selling. Intriguing, but complicated to send to 600 retail locations and make sure they aren't stuck with inventory that make it less profitable but plan to take a hard look at it
Experimenting with concert movies and in discussions with major musical talent about whether this could become a permanent line of business. Not a new concept. Opportunity here and they plan on chasing it.
Mascot a Gorilla?! - Interesting but not sure. He knows why we ask and will probably go without a mascot. A lot of branding work going on and they intend to be the strongest marketing company around over the next weeks, months and years.
Partnering with movie studio to produce own films? - Have considered and the notion of making exclusive content is interesting. About 5 years they were in joint venture with operator to co-fund Open Road films (Spotlight movie which won Oscar). Making of movies is risky business as they aren't cheap and take capital. AA Personally thought it would be wise to sell more shares to raise more equity to build up the war chest to entertain these capital intensive ideas. Was clear to AA that SH base is split on dilution.
AMC hopes to continue holding UFC type events. Have talked to major sporting leagues, but not willing to grant rights just yet. Holy grail would be if they could secure rights with one of 4 major leagues to show events. Some collegiate football would be a powerful draw to AMC. Experimented 2 years ago with NFL games and categorically and seeing an NFL game on 40 ft screen is amazing. If they can secure the rights affordably, it would be a big hit
Expansion to more of a family environment (i.e. bowling, arcade, dining, etc.) - Have experimented with some of thus (70 dining locations). Couple of years back expanded with hot menu items. Would be pretty inexpensive to put in a laser tag parlor, but a full blown entertainment center would require a lot of capital amongst multiple locations. Ideas like this one is a reason to raise more capital.

*****Analyst Question*****

Industry admission revenue - updated view on where this can get to in 2022 or 2023, what has changed in the crystal ball? Can we get back to peak levels? ---- $64,000 question?! Put out a number for 2021 to hope industry gets back to $5.2B in 2021, which is fairly sizable recovery in 2H. If you look at industry box office, pre-COVID in 2019, the 5 years before were all >$11B. Estimates have been all over the map. Nobody's crystal ball is good enough to know. 2022 likely to still be transitional year and will likely settle back in to 2023/2024

1A. Food and beverage strength from per cap stand-point, where is this coming from? Mobile ordering? Mix of products and have prices been taken up similar to ticket pricing? --- When people are coming back, people are eager and happy and want the whole BANANA. 4 equal contributing drivers causing F&B to increase... 1) mobile ordering is appreciated and is in place at all locations 2) raised prices 3) people buying more items and 4) more people are going to concession stand and buying

THANK YOU AA you fucking GOAT APE - SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES!@

#AMCEarningsDay Well, CEO Adam Aron said it best in the call....in short AMC Crushed Earnings in Q2, AMC Looks to Accept Bitcoin RESUME #AMC #AMCSQUEEZE

Analysts called for a loss per share of 94 cents. The company is reporting an actual

loss of just 71 cents.
Revenue estimates called for $382.25 million. AMC posted actual revenue of $444.7 million, beating estimates by over 15%. However, that’s still well off of 2019’s Q2 revenue of $1.5 billion.
The net loss for the second quarter stands at $344 million, compared to Q2 2020’s net loss of over $561 million.
Cash flow for AMC in the second quarter was $251.7 million. Last quarter’s cash flow stood at $324.8 million.
Attendance at AMC theaters in the second quarter was well over 22 million. The first quarter saw about 6.8 million customers in its theater seats. International markets saw over 4 million attendees.
Speaking on the fears of direct-to-streaming services, Aron did not seem swayed. The CEO says that while many think streaming will kill theaters, people said the same things about VHS and DVDs. He also is bullish on the vaccine’s effects at keeping the U.S. from another lockdown, flouting both of the biggest talking points of AMC bears.
In addition to the two previously announced Los Angeles-area theaters, the company is adding eight more theaters in major markets.
The company is also chasing alternative content for its theaters; Aron says in addition to in-theater concert experiences, the company will be working on bringing live sports to its theaters, as well as possible gaming events alongside GameStop (NYSE:GME).
Finally, the company is breaking into cryptocurrency in a massive way. The company will be accepting Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) in its theaters before the end of the year.

AMC will be “chasing” a partnership with GAMESTOP and will be accepting Bitcoin as payment by years end!

IM FEELING BULLISH AS FUUUUUUCK! Listening to the call as we speak! First of all AMC smashed earnings!

CEO AA literally just announced he heard our cry to partner with GameStop. He is “chasing” said partnership to expand AMC revenue opportunities!

ADDITIONALLY! By YEARS END AMC will accept Bitcoin as a form of payment!!!!!!

Of the many things AA is announcing, 10 new theaters was on the list!!

We also getting advanced screenings for investor connect members! AMC is also looking to partner with sports and gaming leagues to offer exclusive events at AMC. ALL Warner Brother films will be shown at AMC 45 days before home release! What’s that mean? We gonna have better quarters from here on out. AMC is also looking to gain studio access to produce their own movies!

AA is also proposing that the board own MORE shares (you know, the ones that don’t exist) and it will be voted on at the next meeting. He intends to propose that he own 12 million USD!

He states that his intentions are the same as ours, to increase AMC share holder value.

LET THE ROCKETS BE FUELED! AMC’s BEST DAYS ARE AHEAD!!!!

The answer to Timothy B’s question about dividends- AMC cannot pay a dividend until about a year from now! BUT it’s not off the table!!!! AMC is planning to pay off all of their debt first.

BOOM BOOM CANDLE BABY!

[AMC Earnings Call Transcript] Rough Transcript of AMC Q2, 2021 Earnings Call - Everything Discussed, Answer to Ape Questions via Say Technologies, Analyst Questions

Warning: This is a ROUGH transcript of the Q2, 2021 EArnings call with CEO Mr. Adam Aaron and CFO John Merriweather

This is Earnings Release PDF: https://s25.q4cdn.com/472643608/files/doc_financials/2021/q2/FINAL-2Q-Earnings-Press-Release-20210809-1440-v.F.pdf

This is Press Release -> https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210809005776/en/

Earnings Call ROUGH Transcript

Introduction to CEO & Chairman Adam Aaron

AMC Earnings Call

$1.8 Billion of Liquidity via Cash Reserves ( $2 Billion of liquidity when including $200 Million revolving line of credit)

Soaring Food & Beverage revenues per patron

Relentless Focus on Cost Cutting

Well ahead of expectations

(continuing, CEO Adam Aaron)

AMC crushed it

Revenues - $444.7 Million

44.1% higher revenues of food and beverages per patron

Q2, 2021 vs 2 years ago (2019)

Net Loss of $334 Million

EBITDA loss of $154 Million

71 cents per share loss

Earnings slowly growing back

2019 vs 2021 -> Quarter 1 was 13% of what it was 2 years ago in Q1

2019 vs 2021 -> Quarter 2 was 29% of 2 years ago in Q2

2019 vs 2021 -> Quarter 3 was

So far, first weeks of Q3 45% of our 2 years ago level

Growth from Q1 to Q2 to Q3

13% to 29% to 45%

Capacity Utilization Growth

41% in Q1, 2021 of 2 years ago

61% in Q2

68% in Q3, of 2 years ago

Europe Growth

Q1, 2021 -> 2% of 2019 Levels

Q2, 2021 -> 18% of 2019 Levels

Q3, 2021 -> 57% of 2019 Levels

Capacity Utilization in Europe

53%

56%

69%

Delta Variant

Vaccinations will continue to rise

Vaccinations is very important for AMC

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT

Expectation is that Q4, 2021 - Cash Flows will turn positive

Cash Flows will turn positive

$5.2 Billion box office for the year in 2021

Estimate Q4, 2021

People claiming that AMC is under threat because of Debt and focusing on Size of Debt Load

Truth is different but they don't mention it because Does not fit their narrative

AMC has Laddered that Debt

No Debt Maturities AT ALL until 2023

Most of our Maturities do not come before 2026

(Editorial Note: NONE of AMC Debt is due before 2023 and MOST of it only become due 2025 and 2026 and later)

This gives us considerable time to strengthen our company, refinance our liabilities

And hopefully in better times

Those who were absolutely convinced AMC would file for bankruptcy

We have proved them wrong

Those who continue to forecast the demise of the theater business, or perhaps just the demise of AMC

Streaming will kill theaters - that is the conventional wisdom

Conventional Wisdom is wrong

Radio was going to kill

VCRs

DVDs were going to kill Movie Theaters

2019 - one Billion times Americans went to the Box Office

2019 - $43 Billion Dollars (for what?) (Editorial Note: Missed what this figure was for)

At AMC, we intend with all of our might and brains and hearts and sinews to prove those procastinators and prognosticators wrong

********* Switches to CFO

CFO John Merriweather (British)

Q2 Global Attendance More than 3 times of Q1

77% below 2019 (which quarter?)

However, utilization is not as low

Actively managing show times to optimize efficiency of our operations

Comparisons to 2019 and 2020 are not particularly meaningful

Certain metrics are very positive and very encouraging

Average ticket prices up 15%

Food & Beverages up 42% in 2021 vs 2019

$7.13 per person

International

Ticket - X%

Food 33%

Significantly higher percentage of guests choosing to purchase our concessions

Balance Sheet

$2.023 Billion dollars of total liquidity

$1.811 Billion dollars of unrestricted cash

$212 Million dollars under revolving credit facility

Record Liquidity Level

Made possible by Equity issuance + selling Theaters in Lithuania

Q2 - reduced cash burn rate

$85 Million per Month cash burn rate

Q1 - $120 Million per Month cash burn rate

Improvement due to

Higher box office collections

Better cost cutting

Lowering Debt servicing costs (not clear on this point)

$40 Million per month in Q2 if you consider debit servicing costs etc (so they are saying cash burn rate would be lower if they were not servicing their debt load) (paying more now I'm guessing to make things better for the future)

$1.8 Billion Cash Liquidity

Capital Allocation

Balanced approach to Capital Allocation

Ensuring we have sufficient liquidity to withstand any bumps around the road as industry recovers from Covid Pandemic

Strengthening our balance sheet by Reducing Debt Load

Strengthening XXX (what?)

Opportunistically pursuing Opportunities

Ways that are most beneficial for the long term strength of the business

We expect going forward that we will choose to pay cash interest This will lead to reduced debt load

Thoughtful actions to reduce our debt balance

We will manage our theater portfolio

Close money losing opportunities

Opportunistically pursuing attractive money making locations

Still CFO John Merriweather

Deferred Rent Obligations

$422 million

$55 million Paid Deferred rent of another $55 Million (Not sure??? what this was)

We anticipate of 2nd half of 2021 will be significantly higher As we continue to pay off deferred rent debt load

We continue to focus substantial part of our cash reserves of maintaining our Debt Load

Net Capex for 2021 is expected to be

$100 to $120 million

Results and Financial Position at the end of Q2

Quite remarkable

All our theaters are open

Back log of exciting movies

Record levels of Liquidity

Back to Silverback CEO Adam Aaron

*** Mr. Adam Aaron

AMC is ready and Starting playing on Offence again -> 10 Items

Item 1: Arc Light and Pacific Theaters -> executed 2 leases with Rick Caruso to add to AMC fleet of theaters 2 of La's 5 highest grossing theaters

2nd and 5th

Americana

Pacifica at The Grove

New Number is TEN - not just 2, adding TEN new theaters (all in good markets)

6 picked up

3 LA 2 Chicago 1 Atlanta

4 more - advanced negotiations

8 of 10 are from Arc Light and Pacific Locations

Item 2: 2021 AMC will open about a dozen new theaters that were underway before Covid hit

US - 3 new theaters

AMc Porter Ranch

AMc Dine In Mont clair

Among top 25 grossing US Movie Theaters already

AMC Dine In - Sunnyvale California

94th percentile

Item 3: New investors great ideas on how to strengthen AMC

Concert Movies, Professional Sports, eSports, Gaming Events

First 2 UFC Matchups -> July -> significant attendance

First 2 Concert Movie -> Chance the Rapper and Halsey

happen in Aug + we will find out how they do

Professional Sports Leagues and Collegiate Sports Confrerences

To see if we can attain rights to show

eSports

Epic Games President -> Board of AMC

Partner with Gamestop -> we are on the case. More to come

Item 4: Cryptocurrency

25 years duration SPAC Centricus

Mr. Aaron is Board Member of Centricus -> will drop off after Arquit

Special Purpose Acquisition Company

Investment Capital in search of a company (that is what SPAC is)

They are looking to acquire Arquit -> NFT + Quantum Encryption and Blockchain Technology

This has forced Mr. Adam Aaron over the last 6 months to learn a lot about crypto and block chain

Arquit already has customers such as

European Space Agency

Verizon

Mr. Adam Aaron Had to learn about Cryptocurrency and Block Chain

Item 4B: By year end we will have the information technology in place to accept Bitcoin online for all our US movie theaters

Also exploring How else AMC can participate in this Cryptocurrency and Blockchain movement

Item 5: AMC are simultaneously writing code to accept Apple Pay and Google Play online for all US movie theaters

Implemented by Year End

Item 6: AMC Investor Connect

Part of AMC Stubs - share holders get full subscriber benefits

300,000 people have already joined

Improve the communication with the people who own AMC

Convince many of the millions of people who are now AMC shareholders to also become avid customers of AMC as well

Special Advance Screenings for our AMC Connect investors

Thanks to Sony for enabling first such screening of Escape Room - Tournament of Champions

Item 7: In April I started actively tweeting again

Twitter - 150,000 followers

Tweets which Mr. Adam Aaron writes personally - have been read 72 Million times

Following 2,000 people who are interested in AMC

Item 8: Labor costs are rising in the US

so increasing ticket prices

There appears to be little price resistance to increasing ticket prices

5% admissions ticket price increase at many of our theaters

translates to 50 cents per ticket

Item 9: Exclusive Theatrical Release Window, or lack thereof

July 2020 - Universal

Universal AMC agreement -> AMC and Universal are now very close

AMC reached formal agreement with Warner Bros for 2022

Exclusive Theatrical Window of 45 days prior to home release for all Warner Bros

Especially gratifying that Warner is yet again embracing an exclusive theatrical window

Item 10: Thank Board of Directors as Chairman and CEO -> Mr. Adam Aaron

John Laird - Lead Director

Fortunate to serve with them all

At our first meeting -> significant financial ownership stake Insiders have financial interests that are directly aligned with the company, AMC

At least 1 full year

Recommending to the Board a new policy -> 8 years of my salary

Owned to hold at least a $12 Million ownership stake of owned or granted AMC shares

CFO -> 6 years

Executive Vice Presidents -> 4 years

Senior Vice Presidents -> 2 years

Board will consider this proposal

Mr. Adam Aaron on his own holdings

Mr. Adam Aaron has not sold one stock of AMC shares in the 5 years he has been CEO

More than 3/5ths of my total annual compensation (did he means it was shares?)

Gifted to my 2 adult children (500,00 shares)

Not sold any AMC shares

I do not intend to sell any AMC shares in Sept 2021 when legally permitted to do so

(see below for plan to sell some shares)

In September 2021 -> 67th Birthday

Young, vibrant 67

85% of my net worth is in AMC So a 10V51 Plan to sell some of AMC shares

All share trading control of all AMC

Independent 3rd party bank will do it

Year End 2021

Small percentage get sold in any one month

Pass on decision making to someone else

Millions of AMC shares - either owned by me personal, or granted to me (still will own millions of AMC Shares)

My economic incentives are aligned with yours to increase share holder for all share holders

Letting you all know this well in advance

Mr. Adam Aaron finished ten points and now back to general stuff and to questions

Very good quarter

AMC's best days are the ones that are coming

Our Deeper Financial Reserves allow us to capitalize on the opportunities that lie around us

Questions that were submitted and upvoted Say Technology Platform

Experiment for us -> only works with some brokerages and not with all

Questions from AMC Apes via Say Technologies

Questions

Question from Timothy -> Do you have any plans to start offering a Dividend

Since AMC went Public in 2013 -> sizable quarterly dividend every quarter until we got close to the pandemic

Stopped dividend to ensure liquidity

Dividend -> a year from now at the earliest

Dividends are on the minds of our shareholders

We will take that interest quite seriously

When we are able to pay a dividend again

M&A

Liquidity

Deleveraging the company

David - Will AMC consider partnering with Gamestop to offer gaming experiences at AMC theaters

We're certainly willing to do so

We're happy to reach out to Gamestop and see if they have any interest

Ryan - will AMC consider opening up Drive in Theaters

Mr. Adam Aaron - I asked that same question last July

Honestly, we came to the conclusion that they are a bad economic idea

First Problem: how much asphalt needed to put a lot of cars. Space issue

Second Problem: viewing experience is not necessarily great Drive IN Theaters are not popular in cold locations + summers in warm places only 1 show time per night

X - how is AMC preparing for a large Covid wave that might shut down AMC again The thing that I'm most proud of is - we prevented AMC going bankrupt

Right up there with that- how safely and cleanly we operated our theaters

So proud of the safe and clean protocol we developed Harvard school of public health

There may not be a large scale Covid surge again that forced theaters to shut down

Number of Vaccinations - so extensive that we are optimistic that we won't need the kind of lock down of society this winter as we had last winter (2020 Winter)

No more important thing any of you can do to protect yourself, your family, your friends, and the country as a whole

THAN to get vaccinated

Younger people feel they are invincible

No one is totally invincible against this virus

Solution for AMC is Vaccination

Solution for each of you is Vaccination also

Aaron (person asking is Aaron, this is not CEO AA) - Are there ways you are considering of reducing debt without issuing shares

Debt - at a discount. We might be able to buy back that debt at a lower price

Landlords - willing to take a discount if AMC pays them back in cash now

Mike - how does AMC plan on combating release day launch of movies at both Theaters and Streaming Services

Warner Brothers - committed to an exclusive Theatrical Window Private Conservations with every major studio

We're seeing consensus emerge - a Theatrical Window is a great way to build strong movie franchises

We are also making sure our marketing programs are as vibrant and powerful as they can be

We got a few tricks up our sleeves coming

Lead the industry in marketing

Hopefully, driving audiences to our theaters

Our Partners give us their movies first, and let them help build their franchises and movie brands

X - would you consider selling AMC merchandise at AMC theaters A lot of people have talked about this idea Complicated to sell merchandise at 600 retail operations

X - Can Musicals be run in AMC Theaters

Experimenting with two Concert Movies

Already in discussions with a Major Musical Company about whether this can be a permanent line of business for AMC

Own a third of a company that has been showcasing Alternative Concepts like Metropolitan Opera at theaters for decades

Real possibility to find a new source of revenue for AMC

Q (another @#@#$ Gamestop question - ;) )

X - Gamestop

Takes two to Tango

We are willing

We have not reached out to Game stop yet. We plan to

Q another Dividends question :)

X - Dividends

We know it is important

We do have to adhere to our commitments to our debt

WE have to use our cash carefully

Dividend is a decision for next year

Q (WTF, they actually answered this question)

X - Can we make AMC Mascot a Gorilla

AMC been around for 100 years

We don't have a mascot

We are probably going to go without a mascot

A lot of branding work going at AMC

We intend to be the best, strongest marketer around

Coming weeks, months, years - AMC leading the way in marketing yet again

X - AMC partnering with a movie studio to produce our own movies

Yes we have, and recently

Notion of making exclusive content - is an interesting one

6 years ago - Joint Venture with another theater operator

Co Founded - Overroad Films

Spotlight - Oscar for Best Movie of the Year

Making a movie is a risky business

(Ape Typist Ape Idea -> Much better to be the Platform, let others take the risk)

I personally thought it would be very wise for AMC to raise more equity to build up our war chest

So we could entertain some of these ideas

Our share holder base is very split

Share holder base should be unified - so we tabled that motion (no share raising in 2021 - moved to be discussed in 2022)

More capital intensive ideas will require that the company have more capital

Q on UFC

X - UFC @ AMC

Very good luck with UFC

Every indication that they are willing to continue

Holy Grail - secure rights from one or more of MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL

Also Collegiate Football draws 100,000 into college stadiums

College Football

2 years ago - showing NFL games (some pilot program)

Seeing an NFL game broadcast on a 40 foot screen is just amazing. Unbelievable

If we can secure the rights affordably, I think it will be a big hit

Expand AMC to a family entertainment experience (laser tag, etc)

Interesting question too

Family dining at our diamond theaters - 70 that have family dining

AMC Feature Fare - hot items

Dinner and a Movie

Pretty - Laser Tag

Full Blown Entertainment Center - don't underestimate how much capital that would need

Especially if we want to do it at 50 to 100 theaters

Ideas like this why Mr. Aaron thought we should raise more capital

Shareholder base wasn't ready for that

(Note: LOVE that there were 10 questions taken from Apes and just 2 from ANALists)

Questions from Analysts

Only time for a Single Analyst

Chad from McQuarry -> Raise from 13% to 45% in people coming (2019 vs 2021 -> By Q3 AMC is seeing 45% of people coming as compared to 2021)

If you have an updated version of where this can get to?

2021 -> Can get back to $5.2 Billion in 2021

Previous 5 years before 2019 -> $11 Billion a year

5 years before that -> $10 Billion a year

6 of 7 years before that -> $9 Billion a year

For the past 17 years the box office has been steadily growing

Nobody knows where it will be in 2023

$8 Billion

$10.5 Billion

The higher the box office is, the more profitable we will be

We can survive with a $8 Billion box office year

We would be much healthier if it went up to $9 Billion to $10 Billion to $11 Billion by 2023 or 2024

2021 -> $5.2 Billion expected

2022 -> transition year, perhaps $5.2 Billion to X billion

Q2 from Analyst

Food & Beverage - growth in 42%

Where is that coming from?

When people are coming back to theaters, they are so happy, THEY WANT THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE

They are splurging

Up 44% over pre Covid Levels

4 drivers (equal contributors)

1) Mobile Ordering (went from 50 theaters 2 years ago to all theaters in 2021)

2) Raised Prices

3) People Buying more Items - true all around the country

Soda -> Soda + Popcorn

Soda + Popcorn -> Soda + Popcorn + Nachos

4) More people are actually going to the Concession Stand and buying from us

Mr Adam Aaron closing statement:

I have something very simple to say

Ladies & Gentleman - See you at the movies! See you at an AMC Theater sometime soon!

AMC Q2 Earnings call – Key points & a quick recap

During their earnings call today, AMC made a plethora of announcements. Here are the key takeaway points.

Q3 and Q4 trend line (in terms of) revenue are positive with more movie titles on the horizon
No debt maturities till 2023, and most of them aren’t until 2026. AMC has more time to repay its debt – Less stress on liquidity
In terms of the new streaming era, Adam Aron said “movie theatres are resilient – Americans visited movie theatres 1 billion times in 2019.” Considering historical events, its highly unlikely streaming will take over theatres
Liquidity: $2.02bn ($1.81bn unrestricted) Cash burn: $85 million per month
10 new AMC theatres to be leased soon
AMC to feature concert movies later this month.
AMC will reach out to GameStop for a possible collaboration.
AMC exploring cryptocurrencies and blockchains; have plans to accept Bitcoin as early as end of the year
Reaches formal agreement with Warner brothers to have 45 day exclusive theatrical windowfor all their movies in 2022
Adam Aron has proposed a new policy for insider trading; encouraging the senior executives to hold AMC shares – in alignment with their salary.

https://risingcandle.com/business/amc-earnings-call-key-points-a-quick-recap/

AMC 2Q21 Earnings Call Transcript 1/2 - Prepared Remarks

** This is the prepared remarks. Will follow up with the Q&A portion in separate post (40k limit be damned). It's long, there is no TL/DR, but here it is if you want to read the entire thing. **

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the AMC Entertainment Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Monday, August 9, 2021.

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Merriwether, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

John Merriwether
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning -- or good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to to welcome you AMC's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast. With me this afternoon is Adam Aron, our Chairman and CEO; and Sean Goodman, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before I turn the webcast over to Adam, let me remind everyone that some of the comments made by management during this webcast may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations. Numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those that might be expressed today.

Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent public filings including our most recently filed 10-Q. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of the company to control or predict. In light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statements, listeners are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.

On this webcast, we may reference measures such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, constant currency, among others, which are non-GAAP financial measures. For a full reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to GAAP results, please see our earnings release posted in the Investor Relations section of our website earlier today.

After our prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A -- a question-and-answer session. This afternoon's webcast is being recorded, and a replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website at amctheaters.com later today.

With that, I'll turn the call over Adam.

Adam Aron
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

The second quarter of 2021 was another very important quarter for AMC. We have a lot to talk about on this call as the considerable progress towards recovery that AMC is making, and we have some real news to break today as well that will be new information to all of you.

Before we go there in detail, I first would like to express a very warm welcome to what from past experience makes us believe that more than 10,000 individual AMC investors will be listening live to this webcast, and another warm welcome to the at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of our investors, who will be listening to replays, reading our press releases at AMC Investor Connect communications or following on Twitter and other social media platforms, our earnings report and the accompanying new news that we'll be discussing later in the call.

Realizing that it is these investors who now actually own control of AMC Entertainment Holdings, for the first time ever, later in this call, we will answer a popery of questions that have been submitted to us directly by our shareholders.

As to our second quarter performance, I think you can see from the release that was issued after the market closed today, we're making tremendous progress as our business emerges from the impact of COVID-19. This progress can be seen not only in our operating statistics and financial performance, but also by the significant strengthening of our balance sheet. AMC is stronger today than it has been at any point since the pandemic forced the closure of all our theaters in March of 2020. Our quarter ending liquidity at the end of Q2 on June 30 is actually once again at a 100-year high. Now that's precisely what we said on the Q1 call, when we reported to you that at March 31, we had $1 billion of quarter-ending liquidity and that was the highest quarter-ending liquidity that AMC had ever had.

Well, in Q2, mostly May and June, we raised another $1.25 billion of fresh equity capital, and our cash burn was meaningfully less than we had previously experienced in recently past quarters. So we ended Q2 with some $2 billion of liquidity. That's cash in the bank and undrawn revolver. And just a short 3 months later from our last call, that $2 billion figure is literally double the Q1 mark, a new record, doubling the old record that was set just 91 days prior.

As for our earnings in Q2, thanks to rising attendance, increased ticket prices achieved both through mix changes and actual price increases, soaring, food and beverage revenues per patron, a relentless focus on cost containment and the pruning of marginal theaters from our network, our financial results in Q2 were well ahead of our own and consensus third-party expectations. In short, AMC crushed it in Q2.

You've already seen some of the highlight headline numbers. Revenues in Q2 are $445 million. Consolidated food and beverage revenues per patron, up 44.1% over that same statistic of the second quarter of 2019, the comparable quarter pre-pandemic. A net loss of $334 million. An EBITDA loss of only $151 million. An EPS loss of only $0.71 per share. Gross CapEx expenditures in Q2 2021 of only $17.9 million. These are very strong metrics across the board performance base AMC compared to what many people, ourselves included, thought might happen in Q2 of 2021.

And here are more operating statistics that also suggest things are improving at AMC as 2021 unfolds. Overall ticket admissions revenue in the United States in 2021 versus 2019 pre-pandemic -- though this is overall ticket admissions revenue in the U.S. -- well, it was 13% of what it was 2 years ago in this year's Q1. But it was 29% of what it was 2 years ago in Q2 of '19. And so far, in the first weeks of Q3, we're running 45% of our 2 years ago levels. So Q1, it was 13% of of what it was. Q2, 29% what it was. Q3 so far, 45% of what it was. It's still down, but the trend line shows significant improvement. And even that's someone misleading because we've reduced so many showtimes at our theaters to save on theater operating expenses, which partially mitigate those revenue declines. So if instead, rather than just looking at ticket admission revenues, if one looks instead of capacity utilization, that's the percentage of seats that we sold as a total of what was available for sale, you'd see that our capacity utilization was 41% in Q1 of 2021 of what it was 2 years ago in Q1. It was 61% of 2 years ago levels in Q2 and 68% of 2 years ago levels so far in Q3. Again, capacity utilization, 41% in Q1, 61% in Q2, 68% so far in Q3. Again, that trend line is pointing up. We certainly have a way to go, but progress is clear. And we should be getting to play a lot more big movie titles in the balance of Q3 and Q4 2021 as contrasted with what was shown in our theaters in the first 6 months of this year.

Incidentally, we see the same exact positive trends at our European theaters. Let's start with 2021 admission revenues. In Q1 of 2021, it was a pretty bleak 2% of 2019 levels, 2%. In Q2, it was 18% of 2019 levels. But so far in Q3, we're now running at 57% of 2019 levels. 2%, 18%, 57%, clearly an upwards trend.

The same holds true for that same capacity utilization statistic in Europe for us. In Q1, our capacity utilization in 2021 was 53% of the 2019 level. In Q2 was 56% of the 2019 level. But so far in Q3, it's 69% of the 2019 level. 53%, 56%, 69%, again, up arrows, with ways still to go for sure, but up arrows nonetheless.

Despite the financial and operating results would suggest we're on a path to to recovery, I want assure you there are no victory laps being taken. We are still losing money. We are still burning burning cash. We're less of it, but we're using cash, not generating cash. So we're not out of the woods yet. We do still live in a COVID-infected world.

But fortunately, we can see a light at the end of this tunnel. Vaccination rates have climbed quickly in 2021. And the counterintuitive result of this new Delta variant is that vaccinations likely will continue to rise, and vaccination increasing is very important for AMC and for the movie theater industry generally.

No one has a perfect crystal ball, of course. But based on what we know and what we see today, we currently estimate that AMC's theater level cash flows will turn positive in Q4 of this year, assuming that we all see at least a $5.2 billion domestic box office cumulatively for the year.

Now there are some naysayers who are quick to point out the size of our debt load. What they do not bother to mention, perhaps because it does not fit their narrative, is that we have smartly laddered that debt. We have no debt maturities at all until 2023. And most of our maturities do not come before 2026. This gives us considerable time to deleverage our company to further strengthen our balance sheet and to refinance our liabilities, and hopefully, in better times.

I'm reminded in all of this that there were those who were absolutely certain, they just knew, that AMC would file for bankruptcy in calendar year 2020 or early in 2021. At AMC, we proved them wrong.

There are those who were sure that our recovery in Q2 would be slower than is the current reality. Again, the Q2 numbers for AMC have proved them wrong as well. But there are those still who continue to forecast the demise of the theatral exhibition business overall or maybe they just want to predict the demise of AMC. They say that streaming is going to beat us. That's their conventional wisdom. Well, a lot of people lack conventional wisdom because so often, it's just playing out wrong.

You've likely heard before this mantra, maybe even repeated it yourself. Radio is going to kill off movie theaters. TV was going to kill off movie theaters. VCRs was going to kill off movie theaters. DVDs were going to kill off movie theaters. Each time, movie theaters proved resilient.

Americans went to a movie theater 1 billion times in 2019. That's 1 billion with a B. And the global box office in 2019 was a record high $43 billion. Yes, there was a pandemic, but now streaming is going to kill off theaters, we breathlessly hear. Well, at AMC, we intend with all of our might and and brains and heart [indiscernible] to prove those casinos and prognosticators wrong, too.

I'm now going to turn over the call to our Chief Financial Officer, Sean Goodman, to give you some more insight into the progress we're making. And then I'll come back to break some news before we head to the Q&A. Sean?

Sean Goodman
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Adam, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon.

As Adam noted, this quarter marked an important and very successful step along our pathway to recovery. Overall, our global attendance in Q2 was more than 3x that of Q1. While this is approximately 77% below 2019's attendance levels, it is only approximately 45% below our 2019 attendance per showing. This is an illustration of how we're actively managing our show times and associated costs to optimize the efficiency of our operations.

We have a way to go before the business fully normalizes. But clearly, we are on the right path in making significant progress. In general, comparison of our results to 2020 and 2019 are not particularly meaningful given that we are still in a ramp-up phase. However, there are certain metrics that are really very encouraging and worth mentioning.

Compared to the second quarter of 2019, the domestic average ticket price was up more than 15%, and food and beverage revenue per patron was up nearly 42% to a very impressive $7.91. And this compares to $5.58 during the same quarter of 2019. Similarly, the international average ticket price was up 6%, and food and beverage revenue per patron was up nearly 33% compared to the second quarter of 2019. This food and beverage increase is primarily driven by a significantly higher percentage of guests choosing to purchase our food and beverage concessions.

We are continuing to see strength in both average ticket price and food and beverage per patron as we move through the third quarter. Clearly, our guests are celebrating the event of going out to see a movie and enjoying the full immersive theatrical experience: the the sights, sounds and innovative AMC concessions.

Let's talk a bit about our balance sheet.

As Adam noted, we ended the quarter with $2.023 billion of total liquidity. And this is comprised of of $1.811 billion unrestricted cash and $212 million available under our revolving credit facilities. This record liquidity level was made possible by our equity issuances during the quarter plus the the completion of sale of our remaining equity interest in theaters in Lithuania.

On average, during the second quarter, our cash burn was $85 million per month. This is a significant improvement from Q1 when the average cash burn per month was $120 million. And this improvement in cash burn is a result of higher gross box office grosses together with our very strong operating performance. And it's particularly noteworthy and an impressive improvement when one considers that our cash interest spend and deferred rent repayments were significantly higher in Q2 than they were in Q1.

If we look at cash burn before the payback of deferred rent and debt servicing costs, it was approximately $40 million per month in Q2 versus a burn of $115 million per month in Q1, a very significant improvement. Note that our cash burn numbers are stated after normalizing for the impact of capital raised during the quarter and therefore, exclude the proceeds from completion of the sale of our theaters in Lithuania and the equity capital that we raised during the quarter.

Regarding capital allocation. We're pursuing a balanced approach to capital allocation, and our priorities are as follows: one, ensuring that we have sufficient liquidity to withstand any bumps along the the road and inevitable volatility as our industry recovers from the impact of the COVID pandemic; two, strengthening our balance sheet by reducing our debt and associated interest costs; three, investing in our business to enhance the guest experience; and four, opportunistically pursuing value-enhancing partnerships or acquisition opportunities.

With our current solid liquidity position and the recovery that we are seeing in the business, we believe that it is appropriate to carefully deploy our cash in ways that are most beneficial for the long-term future of the business while, of course, we will will continue to be ultra focused on our operating efficiency. This be rather than focusing on short-term monthly cash burn. And what I mean in this regard is we expect going forward, that we will choose to pay cash interest as opposed to payment in kind or PIK interest. This will avoid any increases in our debt position. We also anticipate taking thoughtful actions to reduce our debt, including the deferred rent balance, all of this with a view to strengthen our company for the future.

In addition, we will continue to actively manage our theater portfolio, closing underperforming locations. We've quietly closed more than 74 marginal or money-losing locations over the last 18 months and opportunistically pursuing attractive high-potential locations, which Adam will discuss when he comes back on.

Turning to our landlords. At the end of the second quarter, we had deferred rent obligations of $420 million, representing a decline in obligations of approximately $55 million compared to Q1 of 2021.

For the second quarter, actual cash rent paid was approximately $55 million more than what is shown on the face of the income statement as we repaid deferred rent. While future cash rent payments will continue to be dependent on ongoing discussions with landlords, we anticipate cash rent paid in the second half of 2021 will be significantly higher than in the first half as we we continue to work on reducing the deferred rent balance and take advantage of opportunities that may arise to, for example, prepay rent in exchange for favorable lease terms.

For now, we continue to focus the substantial majority of our capital expenditures on maintenance spend. However, a small amount of growth campus could arrive from potential opportunistic high-return investments later on in the year.

CapEx for the second quarter was $10.5 million. This is net of landlord contributions. Net CapEx for the whole of 2021 is expected to be in the range of $100 million to $120 million.

Reflecting on our results and the the financial position at end of Q2, it is quite remarkable just how far we have come in a relatively short period of time. We believe that we are uniquely well positioned for a strong and profitable recovery now that all our theaters are open. We had a backlog of exciting movie titles to be released and we have record levels of liquidity.

And with that, I'll pass the call back over to Adam.

Adam Aron
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Sean.

I've been saying publicly ever since we raised that life-prolonging additional equity in May and June that it was high time for AMC to start playing on offense again. And earlier on this call, I promised you some news. So here goes quickly on 10 specific items.

One, you already know that with ArcLight and Pacific theaters decision to permanently shut down. We announced that we've executed 2 leases with Rick Caruso's world-class real estate organization to add to the AMC fleet of theaters, 2 of Los Angeles' highest grossing cinemas. The Grove and and Americana at Brand were the second fifth highest grossing theaters in Greater Los Angeles as recently as calendar year 2018. They should open later this month as AMC theaters. However, I can confirm today that the number is not 2 new theaters for AMC. It might be 10.

We actually now have 6 new theater pickups under lease or signed letter of of intent, not 2. 3 those are in Los Angeles, 2 were in Chicago, 1 is in Atlanta. And we also are currently in advanced negotiations to add 4 more, bringing the possible pickups to 10. 8 of the 10 would come from former Arclight Pacific locations. Item 2. Speaking of new theaters, in 2021, we will open about a dozen newbuild theaters in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East that were all well underway before COVID struck. I'm happy to report that we do know something about designing beautiful and productive theaters.

In the United States, for example, we opened 3 new theaters in 2021. The 2 in Los Angeles, AMC Porter Ranch and AMC Dine-In Mont Claire, are already each among the top 25 highest-grossing movie theaters in the entire United States. That puts each of these 2 theaters in the top 1/2 of the 99th percentile of highest grossing U.S. cinemas. And that was achieved in just their first few months of operation. Really astounding. Our new AMC Dine-In Theater in Sunnyville, California also is doing amazingly well. It's in the 94th percentile of highest grossing U.S. theaters.

Item 3. Many of our new individual investors have showered us with great ideas about how we can strengthen and brighten the future of AMC. Among their ideas for AMC are that we show concert movies, professional sporting events, e-Sports and gaming events. Wasting no time, we've immediately started to implement on these very good ideas. Our first 2 UFC matchups, which were in July, drew significant attendance to our theaters. Our first 2 concert movies with Chance the Rapper and Halsey will show an AMC theaters across the country later this this month in August.

We're quite optimistic that alternative programming can be built into a real revenue opportunity for AMC in future years, and we're chasing it hard. We also hope to engage in meaningful dialogue with professional sports leagues and collegiate sports conferences to see if we can obtain the rights to show more sporting events at our theaters.

As for gaming opportunity, indeed, the President of Epic Games is a member of of the AMC Board Directors. And I cannot even count the number of times already that our shareholders have asked us to reach out and partner with GameStop. We're on the case. More to come.

Item 4. Many of our new shareholders also are quite enthusiastic about cryptocurrency. Some of you may know that my best brand of almost 25 years duration in Europe, the billionaire former Chairman and owner of Silversea Cruises formed a SPAC earlier this year called Centricus, and he asked me to join its Board of Directors.

SPAC for those of you who don't know, it stands for a special purpose acquisition company. That's a fancy name for pooled investment capital in search of a company to buy. Ironically, Centricus is under contract to buy a fascinating company called Arquit,A-R-Q-U-I-T, who just happens to be on the very cutting edge of quantum encryption and blockchain technologies. It was initially funded by the British government. Its clients include British Telecom, the European Space Agency and Verizon, among others.

My role as a Board member is merely to ensure that all laws and SPAC norms are being complied with when that acquisition of Arquit is completed, which will be soon, I would expect. I will then drop off the Board of Directors.

However, to get to this point, I've had to learn more in the past 6 months about about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned it in the entire decade before that. This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing on this call that by year-end, we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin as payment for movie tickets and concessions if purchased online at all of our U.S. theaters.

We also are in the preliminary stage of now exploring how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe, and we're quite intrigued by potentially lucrative business opportunity for AMC if we intelligently pursue further serious involvement with cryptocurrency. More detail will be shared publicly with you but only if, as and when, our plans are more firm.

Item 5. Since we had to do the IT programming to accept Bitcoin anyway, we are simultaneously writing the code right now to accept Apple Pay and Google Pay for online purchases at our U.S. theaters also. These new payment methodologies for us should also be implemented by year-end.

Item 6. Again, speaking of our new shareholders. In June, we introduced a new program called AMC Investor Connect that got a lot of of press attention. It's part AMC Stubs and offers our shareholders who participate full stubs benefits. We are thrilled that almost 300,000 of our shareholders have already joined.

Our goals with the program are simple. We'd like to improve the the communications that we have with people who own AMC. And we also want to convince many of the millions of people who are now our shareholders into becoming avid customers of our theaters as well. Hence, we already have made multiple free and discounted offers to participants in AMC Investor Connect, and we're setting up a program of special advanced screenings for our AMC Investor Connect members.

To that end, a very special thank you to Sony Pictures for enabling our first such advanced screening in July, ahead of the scheduled release of Escape Room Tournament of Champions.

Item 7, also to heighten the information exchange with our new shareholders as as well with the public at large, in April, I started actively creating again, which I've not done since my days when running the Philadelphia 76ers back in 2013, when Twitter was my social media platform of choice to interact with sports fans.

My Twitter followers have more than coupled since April and now exceed 150,000. But what blows my mind is that according to Twitter analytics, my tweets, which I write personally, so far have been read more than 72 million times.

In addition, I'm actively following almost 2,000 people who appear to be interested in AMC to get a better sense of what they're saying and thinking. I also make it a point to check and read my inbound Twitter feeds personally. There are hundreds and hundreds of replies to any tweet that I publish, which I find give a more sophisticated and better understanding of what's on the minds of AMC's new owners.

Item 8. With labor costs going up in some places around the country, our costs are rising in the United States. We've also noticed that there's appear to be little price resistance to the increased prices currently being charged at our U.S. theaters. So just last week, we imposed an approximate 5% admissions ticket price increase at many of our U.S. theaters. On average, that's about $0.50 or so [ at ] an increase in admissions ticket price. We think consumers will find that palatable, But hopefully, that will meaningfully strengthen the AMC bottom line.

Item 9. There's a lot of talk currently about exclusive theatrical windows or the lack thereof. You all know that AMC was way ahead of this issue, reaching a landmark and historic agreement with Universal in July of 2020 on their concept of premium video on demand. We were pleased then, and we're still very pleased now with the outcome of the Universal-AMC agreement. And in our mutually working through that initially contentious issue, AMC and Universal are now very close. In fact, I think we have the best working relationship than we've had together in many years.

In this same vein, I'm also pleased to announce today that AMC just reached formal agreement with our friends at Warner Bros. to show all of their movies in calendar year '22, importantly, respecting an exclusive theatrical window of 45 days prior to home release for all Warner Bros films.

It's no secret that AMC was not at all happy when Warner decided in December to take movies to the home on HBO Max simultaneously with theatrical release. Therefore, it's especially gratifying that Warner is yet again embracing an exclusive theatrical window. And for us at AMC, it's especially pleasing to be working so harmoniously with Warner Bros. once again.

We actually are in dialogue, active dialogue with every major studio on this very important topic. We are hearing considerable support in Hollywood that an exclusive theatrical window is an important way to build big and successful movie franchises. Clearly, though, this whole subject is quite topical. It's very much a work in progress. We will keep you posted as things turn out.

And finally, 10. I'd like to thank the Board of Directors of AMC for electing me in July to serve as Chairman of the Board as well as CEO of AMC Entertainment. You know all that. And you've also heard that former U.S. Ambassador in the United Kingdom, Phil Lader, was elected to serve as the board's Lead Director.

Surely no surprise to any of you that we have a highly able experienced and dedicated Board, I feel fortunate to serve with them all. But the news on this point is that at our first meeting of the Board in my new role, I discussed with the Board that I think it is extremely important that company insiders maintain a significant financial ownership stake in AMC through owned and/or granted shares so that that insiders have financial interests are directly aligned with those of our shareholders. Our Board members already have a policy in place that they must hold any granted shares for at least 1 full year. But there was no such plan currently in place for the company's 19 most senior executives. Therefore, I will be recommending to the Board a new policy. Without going through all the nuances and it's kind of complex, but to simplify it and break it down, I will propose that I as CEO be required to hold a number of owned or granted shares at least equal to 8 years of my salary. In my case, 8 years of my salary would mean that I would be required to have at least a $12 million ownership stake in AMC of owned or granted AMC shares.

Sean, our Chief Financial Officer, would be required to hold 6 years of his salary. Our Executive Vice Presidents will be asked to hold 4 years of their salaries in owned or granted shares. And our Senior Vice Presidents will be asked to hold 2 years of their salaries in owned or granted shares.

The Board will consider this proposal as new policy at its next regularly scheduled meeting.

At the same time as I am emphasizing share ownership, I'd like to remind you that I have not sold 1 share of AMC stock in the 5 full years I've been running this company, even though it represents more than 3/5 of my annual -- when when I say it, stock represents more than 3/5 of my total annual compensation. Other than gifting a small percentage of my AMC ownership stake to my 2 adult children earlier this year, I also did not sell any AMC shares in March when I could have. I did not sell any AMC shares in June when I could have in 2021. I similarly will commit that I do not intend to sell any AMC shares in September of 2021 when I'm legally permitted to do so.

But as as much this pains me to admit, in September, I'll be celebrating my 67th birthday. I'm going to be a young vibrant 67, but hey, it's 67 nonetheless. Two months ago, more than 85% of my net worth was in AMC stock and proper estate planning for a 67-year-old suggests I should diversify my assets a bit. But I don't want any of you ever to think that I have anything but full confidence in AMC's future. So I will do so under the auspices of the parameters of what is called a 10b5-1 plan, where I pass off all the share trading control of the shares that I own or granted to an independent third-party bank based on parameters of the plan that I only partially set. The plan would not go into effect until towards year-end at the earliest and only a small percentage of my owned or granted shares could get sold in any 1 month. And that would then be repeated over a period of at least several months. This way, I really have passed on the decision-making to someone else on this important topic.

Additionally, whatever is sold or not sold by an independent third party, I still will have millions of AMC shares that either are owned by me personally or have been previously granted to me personally. My economic incentives are very much aligned with yours to increase shareholder value for all the owners of AMC. What's more, I so fully believe in transparency that I'm letting you all know this well in advance, even though current U.S. law does not require me to make this or even any public disclosure now at this time or at any time soon, prior to any shares actually being sold.

Well, there you go. That's the quarter. That's 10 items of news.

Our second quarter was a very encouraging one for AMC. We believe we're in a road to recovery, and we're ever so grateful to our friends and allies who share our passion that AMC's best days to be those that are coming. You can take comfort that our deeper financial reserves allow us to to stay the course, innovate again and to capitalize on the opportunities that we see around us. We fundamentally believe that ours is a future that is is bright, because there nothing as as magical seeing dazzling images on a huge silver screen.

We're now going to turn this call to the questions that were submitted and upvoted with the greatest shareholder interest on the technology platform, and then we'll take some questions from analysts if we, if you will, in the sparest of time. I should point out that this is an experiment, this state technologies platform for us. It works works really interestingly, but it only with some brokerage firms, not all. So many of our U.S. shareholders and especially many of our international shareholders may not have had a chance to ask their questions on this call. Still, we've had quite a bountiful array of questions posed to to us answer. Sean, what's the first question?

Best way to preserve buying power?

I'm a newbie when it comes to personal finance and investing(just started last year) so I am looking for some advice.

I want to know what the majority of people believe is the best way to preserve buying power. I contribute regularly to my 401k which is invested in an S&P500 Index but every time I make a contribution I ask myself "will this investment preserve my buying power?". Sure I am getting a nice return nominally but if inflation does what its suppose to do I'll basically tread water. I feel like there's a big repricing event coming soon so I wanted to get some opinions. I feel this next "crash" will be invisible to the naked eye because of the currency failing so I am eyeing hard assets as opposed to equities due to how they are valued. Bitcoin and real estate seem like the best hedges for the future.

Obviously no one can predict the future but I want to know what some peoples financial plans are for what they think will happen in the future. I appreciate the feedback!