internationalcasinoreview Business NEWS
The Greek debt crisis has been particularly hard on Queenco, where the austere environment has really pushed down revenues at Loutraki and Rodos, and its casino in Bucharest is suffering too. Only Serbia is showing any growth.
fallingoff QUEENCO LEISURE INTERNATIONAL
In the three months to the end of September, Israeli- backed firm Queenco Leisure International (QLI) saw revenues fall almost 16 per cent to E24.2m with higher costs leading to an operating loss of E1.8m, overturning a E2.8m profit from the same period a year ago.
In the year to date, rev- enues were down 17 per cent to E71.9m generating an operating loss for the nine months of E10.5m, from an operating profit the previ-
ous year of E4.2m. The company’s net loss in
the quarter was E4.5m, from a E1.6m profit a year earlier, and in the nine-months a net loss of E15.9m, from E1.1m loss in 2009. The figure is already larger than the loss of E9.2m recorded for the full year 2009. CEO Itay Koppel said:
“Greece in particular remains a very challenging market, as the economic crisis continues to impact our customers’ spending habits…Gross gaming rev-
enues and ancillary sales have been impacted…Visit numbers remain compara- tively high and consistent with the previous period, and as we have said before we believe this is critical to positioning the group for when the market improves. To counteract the current market environment, the group has adopted a new efficiency programme, which has reduced staff and costs throughout the group. We anticipate seeing the benefits of these actions
New CFO for Olympic Baltic casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group has appointed a new CFO and member of the management board. Madis Jääger, who takes up his post on December 20, joins OEG from
PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he is a senior auditor. Aged 30, he replaces Kristi Ojakäär, who is leaving after almost six years with the company, three-and-a-half of which were as CFO.
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Queenco sees revenues slump in third quarter
Casino Rodos, in which Queenco has an almost 92 per cent share, still brings in the highest spend per visit of Queenco’s casino interests despite a 13 per cent fall
during 2011.” Club Hotel Casino
Loutraki, of which QLI holds 38.5 per cent, saw a fall in GGR of 19.6 per cent in the nine months to E124.9, with net revenues down 19.2 per cent to E86.5m. Visits were down 6.6 per cent to 794,000.
Casino Rodos, 91.6 per
cent owned by QLI, saw gaming revenues fall 11.9 per cent to E21.4m, with net revenues down 10.4 per cent to E15.5m. Visits rose by 1,000 to 123,000.
Casinos still lead the Rank revival
growinggrosvenor RANK GROUP
In a trading update prior to the release of its third quarter figures, the Rank Group has announced that its total revenue growth in the first 49 weeks of the calendar year were up seven per cent on 2009, with strong revenue growth from Grosvenor Casinos of ten per cent now the cornerstone of its opera- tions. Grosvenor has been undertaking a continuing programme to convert appropriate venues within its prop- erty portfolio into the G Casino brand, a more relaxed style of gaming that has proven its value and success the moment it was launched.
The number of customer visits in
weeks 1-49 were up 13 per cent on the year previously, which more than offset a slight softening of two per cent in spend per visit. The company said: “We have con- tinued to invest in the enhancement and expansion of our casinos estate. [We have recently relaunched] our Birmingham casino following its conversion to the successful G Casino format. With 13 G Casinos now trading and two additional con- versions due in early 2011, we remain on track to achieve our target of 20 G Casinos by the end of 2012. In addition, we will open a small electronic casino in Liverpool [in December], taking our total number of casinos in Britain to 36.” Rank is trying an analogous
The Palace Casino in the Romanian capital Bucharest (83.3 per cent interest) saw GGR tumble 35.9 per cent to E8.4m, and net revenues go down 40.6 per cent to E7.3m. Visits in the nine months were down 8.6 per cent to 74,000. Only Casino Beograd in the Serbian capital (in which QLI holds a 34.6 per cent interest through Loutraki) saw any positive signs with GGR up 1.3 per cent to E7.9m, although net rev- enues were down 1.4 per cent to E7.1m. Nevertheless, visitor numbers were up a healthy 6.9 per cent to 217,000. Win per visit dropped
across the board: by 14.2 per cent in Loutraki to E157; by 12.6 per cent in Rhodes to E174; by 29.8 per cent in Bucharest to E81; and by 7.7 per cent in Belgrade to E36. Koppel said: “The group
remains positive about our strategy of maintaining cus- tomer levels…We are com- mitted to reducing operating costs at each of our operations and will only make strategic investments on a selective basis when the group the can be satis- fied that the timing and costs are right.”
Tough half for SBM as profits fall 77 per cent
breakingthebank SBM
Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), which operates casinos and hotels in Monaco, has reported first half revenues down ten per cent on the previous year. In the six months to the end of September, it generated total revenues of E217.4m, with gaming contributing E88.5m, down 28.4 per cent.
“This negative trend is mainly borne by the table gaming sector due to particularly poor luck,” the company said. It added: “The gaming machine area remains very badly affected by the smoking ban inside the venues.”
The table games saw
makeover in its Mecca Bingo divi- sion, where six clubs are now in the Full House format. It will examine the results before rolling it out any further. Nevertheless, after a long and difficult period for bingo, the company has reported a three per cent uplift in revenues. There were also increases in its much smaller other divisions, Top Rank España (two per cent) and Rank Interactive (13 per cent).
On fire: the G Casino brand continues to light the way for the rest of the group
Rank’s share price continues to
improve currently nearing around 140p: two years ago or so it hit a rock bottom price of 51p - five years ago the price was above 430p, so there is still some way to go.
gross revenues fall 45 per cent to E37.7m with the so- called ‘American games’ of blackjack, poker, craps, Casino War and American roulette taking the biggest hits especially at the Sun Casino. However, it was working against a strong comparison period, after record returns last year. Revenues from the slot machines fell by 7.6 per cent to E50.8m, “this despite an investment policy that remains dynamic and regular introduction of new games to the guests.” The company generated a
net profit of E9.3m in the first half, down 77 per cent from last year’s figures. Included in that is a charge of E13.2m relating to an associated French company Mangas Gaming. Even without it, SBM still experienced a hefty loss.
http://www.igt.com/itsgotime 68 January 2011 • businessnews
www.igt.com/sbx
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