Rick’s Cabaret International First Quarter Revenues Climb

HOUSTON — Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc. (NASDAQ:RICK) had total revenues of $22.0 million in its first quarter, ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 12 percent over the same period last year. Net income attributable to Rick’s Cabaret shareholders was $2.2 million, compared with $2.1 million in the prior year, yielding 23 cents earnings per share versus 21 cents last year. The company will hold a conference to discuss results at 4:30 pm EST today. The call is being webcast by Vcall and can be accessed at the Rick’s Cabaret investor website, www.ricksinvestor.com or www.InvestorCalendar.com. The toll free participant dial-in number is 877-407-8033 (International 201-689-8033). The toll free replay numbers are: domestic 877-660-6853, international 201-612-7415. Required replay pass codes are: Account 286 and Conference ID 387989. The replay will be available until March 9, 2012. The increase in revenues was primarily attributable to sales increases at most of the company’s existing clubs, along with sales at new clubs acquired within the past year. As earlier announced, comparable sales at clubs open for more than one year rose by 6.7 percent to $20.6 million. Cash flow generated from operating activities during the quarter was $5.2 million, compared with $2.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Operating income (exclusive of corporate overhead) for same-location-same-period of club operations increased to $5.7 million for the three months ended December 31, 2011 from $5.4 million for same period ended December 31, 2010, or by 4.5 percent. Adjusted EBITDA* for the three months ended December 31, 2011 was $5.5 million, compared with $5.3 million in the previous year. “We had a solid quarter with better than expected revenue increases from several of our clubs in Texas, Minnesota and the Club Onyx locations,” said Eric Langan, president and CEO of Rick’s Cabaret. “We experienced increases in some expenses that we are now addressing in areas such as cost of goods sold; wages, depreciation and amortization related to the new clubs; legal; other operating costs; and taxes due to the new clubs in Texas.  We remain on track for a strong year.” *Adjusted EBITDA is a financial statement measure that was not derived in accordance with GAAP. We use adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation, amortization and impairment charges) as a non-GAAP performance measure. In calculating adjusted EBITDA, we exclude our largest recurring non-cash charge, depreciation, amortization and impairment charges. Adjusted EBITDA provides a core operational performance measurement that compares results without the need to adjust for Federal, state and local taxes which have considerable variation between domestic jurisdictions.  Also, we exclude interest cost in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA. The results are, therefore, without consideration of financing alternatives of capital employed. We use adjusted EBITDA as one guideline to assess our unleveraged performance return on our investments. Adjusted EBITDA is also the target benchmark for our acquisitions of nightclubs. The Statement of Operations, Balance Sheet and other information are available at www.ricksinvestor.com.