Bloomin’ Brands Announces 2020 Q1 Financial Results

Company Prices $200 Million Convertible Notes
Expects Sales to Strengthen As Dining Rooms Re-Open

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2020-- Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN) today announced a business update related to COVID-19 as well as first quarter 2020 financial results.

Statement from David Deno, Chief Executive Officer

Our priorities remain unchanged as we continue to address these challenging times. We are focused on taking care of our people and serving food in a safe environment that protects both our Team Members and customers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic and closing of our dining rooms on March 20th, we have leveraged our strong off-premises business. As a result, we have tripled our average off-premises sales per restaurant since the beginning of March. We have begun reopening dining rooms as state and local governments allow. We have 355 restaurant dining rooms opened with limited seating capacity across multiple states as of Thursday evening. Early results have been promising.

As these dining rooms reopen, we are adhering to the strongest of safety measures, including additional sanitation and disinfecting practices, enhanced hand-washing protocols, use of gloves and facial protection of our employees, and we are providing contactless payment options for our customers. In addition, each dining room seating configuration has been modified to adhere to social distancing and reduced capacity standards, and we are leveraging our table management notification system to allow guests to wait in their cars for their table.

Concurrently, we took steps to further strengthen our liquidity position through the issuance of $200 million convertible notes. In addition, we expect our weekly cash burn rate of $6 million to $8 million to improve as dining rooms continue to open. These funds and our reduced burn rate provide us with additional flexibility to navigate economic uncertainty over the medium to long-term.

As it relates to our first quarter results, we were on track to deliver a strong quarter prior to the impact of the pandemic. The strategies to enhance Total Shareholder Return that we outlined on our Q4 earning’s call were working. Through February all of our concepts were positive in sales and traffic. We achieved meaningful expansion of our adjusted operating margins during those eight weeks, and we had begun to see the benefits of our expected $40 million of cost savings that we outlined in February. Once we have successfully navigated the ongoing crisis, we believe that we will be well positioned to build on our early 2020 success and emerge a stronger company.

Convertible Notes Offering

On May 6, 2020, we announced the pricing of a $200 million convertible senior notes offering. In connection with the pricing of the notes, we entered into convertible note hedge and warrant transactions to mitigate future dilution of our common shares. We expect to close the transaction today subject to customary closing conditions.

First Quarter Preliminary Diluted EPS and Adjusted Diluted EPS

The following table reconciles Preliminary Diluted earnings per share attributable to common stockholders to Preliminary Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the first quarter 2020 (“Q1 2020”) compared to the first quarter 2019 (“Q1 2019”). EPS information in the following table remains unchanged from the information provided in our May 5, 2020 press release.

For additional context, our first quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share results included $16 million of relief pay provided to hourly employees impacted by the closure of our dining rooms.

First Quarter Preliminary Financial Results

• The decrease in total revenues was primarily due to: (i) lower U.S. comparable restaurant sales driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) domestic refranchising, (iii) foreign currency translation and (iv) the decrease in franchise revenues driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by the net impact of restaurant openings and closures.

• GAAP restaurant-level operating margin decreased due to: (i) lower comparable restaurant sales and costs in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, including relief pay, inventory obsolescence and incremental operating costs, and (ii) commodity and labor inflation.

• The primary difference between GAAP and Adjusted restaurant-level operating margin is that adjusted restaurant-level operating margin excludes the negative impact of inventory obsolescence and spoilage costs associated with COVID-19.

• GAAP operating income margin decreased due to: (i) restaurant-level operating margin discussed above, (ii) asset impairment charges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and (iii) the impact of restructuring and transformation initiatives. These costs were excluded from our adjusted operating income margin.

First Quarter Preliminary Comparable Restaurant Sales

Comparable Restaurant Sales information in the following table remains unchanged from the information provided in our May 5, 2020 Press Release.

Strategic Alternatives Review Update

In November 2019, we announced that we were exploring and evaluating strategic alternatives that have the potential to maximize value for our stockholders. In February 2020, in connection with our year-end earnings release and conference call, we provided an update on that process and discussed certain actions that we planned to take. While we have implemented the 2020 cost savings measures described at the time and remain committed to our plan to support a growth-focused, operations centric organization over the long term, we have suspended further activity with respect to the strategic review process as we prioritize our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a suspension of discussions with interested parties with respect to our Brazil business.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call today, May 8, 2020 at 8:30 AM EST. The conference call will be webcast live from the Company’s website at http://www.bloominbrands.com under the Investors section. A replay of this webcast will be available on the Company’s website after the call.

Preliminary Data

The unaudited data presented in this release is preliminary, based upon certain management estimates and subject to the completion of our procedures for the preparation and review of our quarterly financial statements. We have not completed our final closing procedures related to our analysis of goodwill, intangible assets and certain other long-lived assets for impairment and the related income tax provision adjustments that may result from completion of such procedures. In addition, estimated cash burn data has been provided to help investors understand and assess the near-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is subject to variability and may not be indicative of our results or trends for any full reporting period.

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to the results provided in accordance with GAAP, this press release and related tables include certain non-GAAP measures, which present operating results on an adjusted basis. These are supplemental measures of performance that are not required by or presented in accordance with GAAP and include the following: (i) Adjusted restaurant-level operating margin, (ii) Adjusted income from operations and the corresponding margin, (iii) Adjusted net income, (iv) Adjusted diluted earnings per share, (v) Adjusted segment restaurant-level operating margin and (vi) Adjusted segment income from operations and the corresponding margin.

We believe that our use of non-GAAP financial measures permits investors to assess the operating performance of our business relative to our performance based on GAAP results and relative to other companies within the restaurant industry by isolating the effects of certain items that may vary from period to period without correlation to core operating performance or that vary widely among similar companies. However, our inclusion of these adjusted measures should not be construed as an indication that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or infrequent items or that the items for which we have made adjustments are unusual or infrequent or will not recur. We believe that the disclosure of these non-GAAP measures is useful to investors as they form part of the basis for how our management team and Board of Directors evaluate our operating performance, allocate resources and administer employee incentive plans.

These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to replace GAAP financial measures, and they are not necessarily standardized or comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. We maintain internal guidelines with respect to the types of adjustments we include in our non-GAAP measures. These guidelines endeavor to differentiate between types of gains and expenses that are reflective of our core operations in a period, and those that may vary from period to period without correlation to our core performance in that period. However, implementation of these guidelines necessarily involves the application of judgment, and the treatment of any items not directly addressed by, or changes to, our guidelines will be considered by our disclosure committee. You should refer to the reconciliations of non-GAAP measures in tables four, five, and six included later in this release for descriptions of the actual adjustments made in the current period and the corresponding prior period.

About Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.

Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. is one of the largest casual dining restaurant companies in the world with a portfolio of leading, differentiated restaurant concepts. The Company has four founder-inspired brands: Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. The Company operates more than 1,450 restaurants in 48 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and 20 countries, some of which are franchise locations. For more information, please visit www.bloominbrands.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein, including statements under the headings “Statement from David Deno, Chief Executive Officer,” and “Strategic Alternatives Review Update” are not based on historical fact and are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, these statements can be identified by the use of words such as “guidance,” “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “on track,” “feels,” “forecasts,” “seeks,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties about its depth and duration, as well as the impacts to economic conditions and consumer behavior, including, among others: the inability of workers, including delivery drivers, to work due to illness, quarantine, or government mandates, temporary restaurant closures due to reduced workforces or government mandates, the unemployment rate, the extent, availability and effectiveness of any COVID-19 stimulus packages or loan programs, the ability of our franchisees to operate their restaurants during the pandemic and pay royalties, and trends in consumer behavior and spending during and after the end of the pandemic; the outcome of our review of strategic alternatives, including the impact on our ongoing business, our stock price and our ability to successfully implement any alternatives that we pursue including our ability to achieve the cost savings described in this release; consumer reaction to public health and food safety issues; competition; increases in labor costs; government actions and policies; increases in unemployment rates and taxes; local, regional, national and international economic conditions; consumer confidence and spending patterns; price and availability of commodities; the effects of changes in tax laws; challenges associated with our remodeling, relocation and expansion plans; interruption or breach of our systems or loss of consumer or employee information; political, social and legal conditions in international markets and their effects on foreign operations and foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to preserve the value of and grow our brands; the seasonality of the Company’s business; weather, acts of God and other disasters; changes in patterns of consumer traffic, consumer tastes and dietary habits; the cost and availability of credit; interest rate changes; and compliance with debt covenants and the Company’s ability to make debt payments and planned investments. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of the Company and its forward-looking statements is included in its most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Note: Numerical figures included in this release have been subject to rounding adjustments.

Restaurant-level Operating Margin Adjustments - Following is a summary of unfavorable (favorable) restaurant-level operating margin adjustments recorded in Other restaurant operating expense (unless otherwise noted below) for the following activities, as described in table five of this release:

Following is a summary of the financial statement line item classification of the net income adjustments:

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Mark Graff
Group Vice President, IR & Finance
(813) 830-5311

Source: Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.