CR85-p77-Business 3:SJC-Casino Review 24/10/09 16:29 Page 1
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Harrah’s expands refinancing plans
Two days after announcing in September that it was
Business
looking for $750m (E507m) in term loans in order to
refinance or retire its debt and improve its liquidity,
Harrah’s increased the total to $1bn (E677m). Under its
newly announced plan, $160m (E108m) will be used to
buy back notes due next year and the year after. The
NEWS company is currently labouring under a long-term debt
of $19.3bn (E13.06bn).
Grosvenor Casinos lead Rank’s recovery
While the rest of its businesses are bumping along a rocky road,
the Rank Group’s casino division, Grosvenor Casinos, seems to
have found the magic formula to bring increasing numbers of
visitors through the door, no matter how much they spend.
gforce Customer visits in the third the successful G Casino format.
RANK GROUP quarter were up 16 per cent In October it opened a new G
on the previous year, a result of Casino in Dundee and will re-
Grosvenor Casinos, a division an increase in the number of launch the Coventry casino at
of the gaming company Rank, active customers. Spend-per- the Ricoh Arena, which it
saw it revenues rise in the 14 head declined by nine per cent bought from Isle of Capri in
weeks to 4 October - essen- due to lower average staking April, also as a G Casino.
tially the third quarter of the levels and contraction in win “In December we will bring
financial year - the company margin on table games. G Casino to Sheffield, through
has reported in its interim man- In its statement, the a relocation of the existing
agement statement, which company said: “Our provincial Grosvenor Casino licence,” the
includes no detailed figures. casinos grew revenue two per company said. “This invest-
On a like-for-like basis, cent on a like-for-like basis, ment programme will take the have been strongly affected by Looking forward, the
excluding the effect of club with an eight per cent increase number of G Casinos to ten by the smoking ban and by unex- company said: “Our positive
openings and closures and in customer visits and a five the end of the year and we pected tax rises. However, a trading performance reflects
adjustments to the tax regime, per cent decline in spend per remain on course to achieve rebranding and investment the success of the actions we
revenue growth from its 33 visit. Revenue from our five our target of 20 G Casinos by strategy called Full House, have taken to improve the
casinos was a modest one per London casinos was broadly in then end of 2012.” similar to the G Casino concept value and quality of the service
cent. Total revenue growth, line with the comparable The group’s overall per- and designed to increase foot- that we offer our customers
however, was a substantial five period in 2008, with five per formance, including revenues fall in its bingo clubs, has and thus to grow market
per cent in the period. In the cent growth in customer visits from its Mecca Bingo division, already been launched at one share…We will continue to
year-to-date, the same trend is largely offsetting a correspon- has stayed static on a like-for- venue in Nottingham and is invest in our businesses, with a
apparent, with like-for-like rev- ding decline in spend per visit.” like basis but advanced by two scheduled to be rolled out to a particular focus on the growth
enues up two per cent but total The company has continued per cent in actual terms. The further four clubs in the first of G Casino brand and the Full
revenues up five per cent. to invest in the expansion of company’s bingo operations half of next year. House concept.”
Casinos in the Boulder Strip division of
Clark County, including the Green Valley
Ranch, together reported revenues up
more than 21 per cent in August
Vegas visitors
and revenues
continue decline
stilldown
NEVADA GCB
August saw little respite for the embattled casino industry in Las Vegas as the city
as a whole saw monthly gross gaming revenues fall another 6.7 per cent compared
to 2008 as takings in the whole of Clark County totalled $708.1m (E479.2m).
Across the state of Nevada, revenues were down 9.3 per cent to $847m
(E573.2m): the Las Vegas Strip managed - just - to do a bit better than the
statewide average, posting a fall of nine per cent to $449.6m (E304.3m). GGR in
downtown Las Vegas fell 3.9 per cent to $42m (E28.4m), whereas locals casinos in
North Las Vegas and on in Boulder Strip division, which includes the casinos in
Henderson, both reported revenue growth in excess of 21 per cent.
Across Nevada, the first eight months of the year have seen a 10.9 per cent decline
in revenues with Strip casinos seeing a contraction of 10.1 per cent in the period.
The bald numbers reflect the continued decline of visitor numbers to the US
casino capital. August saw 3.7 per cent fewer people arriving in the city compared
to a year earlier. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported a figure
just under 3.1m compared to just over 3.2m in August 2008. Hotel occupancy fell
almost seven points to 81.4 per cent with weekend occupancy seeing a fall of two
points to 88.6 per cent.
The number of conventions was down 22 per cent with the number of attendees
down 58.9 per cent to 235,800 in August.
November 2009 • businessnews 77
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