The Keg Royalties Income Fund Announces Third Quarter 2020 Results

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Keg Royalties Income Fund (the “Fund”) (TSX: KEG.UN) is pleased to announce its financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2020 (the “quarter”) and for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 (“YTD”).HIGHLIGHTSRoyalty Pool sales down 30.4% to $106.2M for the quarter and down 43.1% to $267.0M YTDKRL system sales down 32.9% to $108.1M for the quarter and down 44.1% to $270.9M YTDDistributable cash down 67.9% to 8.6 cents/Fund unit for the quarter and 40.1% to 53.3 cents/Fund unit YTDPayout ratio was 122.3% for the quarter and 92.6% YTDRoyalty Pool Sales reported by the 106 Keg restaurants in the Royalty Pool were $106,166,000 for the quarter, a decrease of $46,288,000 or 30.4% from the comparable quarter of the prior year. Year-to-date Royalty Pool sales decreased by $201,949,000 or 43.1% to $267,012,000. The decrease in Royalty Pool sales during the quarter and year-to-date, was directly attributable to the closure of all restaurants included in the Royalty Pool on March 17, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Royalty income decreased by $1,929,000 or 31.0% from $6,225,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2019 to $4,296,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2020. For the nine months ended September 30, 2020 royalty income decreased by $8,293,000 or 43.5% from $19,047,000 to $10,754,000.Distributable cash available to pay distributions to public unitholders decreased by $2,061,000 from $3,036,000 (26.7 cents/Fund unit) to $975,000 (8.6 cents/Fund unit) for the quarter and by $4,057,000 from $10,110,000 (89.0 cents/Fund unit) to $6,053,000 (53.3 cents/Fund unit) year-to-date. The Fund’s payout ratio was 122.3% for the third quarter of 2020 and 92.6% year-to-date in 2020.The Fund remains financially well-positioned with cash on hand of $2,382,000 and a positive working capital balance of $3,493,000 as at September 30, 2020.“Our results for the quarter reflect the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on The Keg in particular and on restaurant sales in general.” said David Aisenstat, CEO of Keg Restaurants Ltd. “We continue to be highly focused on health and safety protocols as well as government regulations to ensure the safety of everyone visiting The Keg – guests and staff alike. That has succeeded; there have been no instances of a Covid infection being attributed to a Keg visit.”“That said, some provinces and cities have decided to prohibit indoor dining or on-premise service altogether. While Covid is certainly a real threat to everyone and needs to be addressed, these closures have been unsupported by outbreak statistics of restaurant-related Covid testing results. Those decisions have caused great harm to restaurant operators generally and, more importantly, to the tens of thousands of restaurant workers furloughed or terminated as a result of those seemingly arbitrary shutdowns. Happily, some provinces have followed the scientific data and we continue to operate in those jurisdictions safely, and with excellent support from our loyal Keg guests. We thank those governments, our staff thanks them, and our Keg guests thank them as well.”FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS