NagaCorp’s GGR jumps 85pct in 2017, profit up 39pct

Feb 07, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

---

Cambodia casino operator NagaCorp Ltd posted a net profit of US$255.2 million for 2017, up by 38.6 percent from the previous year. Revenue for the period increased by 79.8 percent year-on-year to US$956.3 million, the firm said in a Tuesday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Casino gross gaming revenue for the full year rose by 84.9 percent year-on-year to US$926.0 million, accounting for 96.8 percent of the firm’s aggregate revenue for 2017.

Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp is the operator of NagaWorld (pictured), the only casino resort in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. The company reported earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$319.7 million, up by 24.8 percent compared to 2016.

In Tuesday’s filing, NagaCorp said the “positive results were mainly attributable to robust business volume growth across all segments, especially from the VIP segment where rollings [VIP rolling chip turnover] increased by 142 percent”.

“In addition, the group earned US$60.0 million for the year in respect of assigning part of the group’s licensing rights to certain investors to operate a number of electronic gaming machines for a period of 10 years,” said the firm.

The company said the electronic gaming machines are “strategically located” at certain areas of the recently-launched Naga 2, a 900-room extension to NagaWorld. Naga 2 also offers live-dealer table games and a sports book. The group did not give any breakdown in its 2017 annual results of the business performance of Naga 2.

Naga 2 – opened in November last year – is connected to the original NagaWorld via a subterranean shopping mall called NagaCity Walk. Naga 2 also has shopping space; room for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE); and theatre seating capacity for 2,200 people.

NagaCorp said its VIP gaming segment “continues to register robust growth”. NagaWorld’s VIP rolling chip turnover for 2017 jumped 142.4 percent from a year earlier to approximately US$21.1 billion, with a win rate of 3.0 percent, the firm said.

The company said it also continued to achieve “solid growth” in the mass-market segment, with table buy-ins and electronic gaming machines bills-in up by 28 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Revenue in the mass-market segment – including tables and electronic gaming machines – rose by 9.2 percent year-on-year, to US$300.6 million; VIP revenue for the full year jumped 177.1 percent from the prior-year period, to US$625.3 million, according to Tuesday’s filing.

NagaWorld had in place 384 gaming tables and 2,250 electronic gaming machines at the end of 2017.

NagaCorp is also in the early stages of building another casino resort in the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone near the Pacific port of Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East.

“An office has been established in the city centre of Vladivostok, Russia and certain key personnel have been appointed to monitor various aspects of the progress of the project which remains broadly on schedule for operation by 2019,” the company said in the filing. The company had stated in previous filings that it hoped to open the Russian scheme by 2018.

In November, businessman Chen Lip Keong, the founder and chief executive of NagaCorp, outlined some of the company’s plans to capture gambling business from the four corners of China and potentially the Japan market too.

NagaCorp proposed on Tuesday a final dividend of US$0.0145 per share, to be paid on May 17.

---

---