Third-quarter aggregate sales at Paradise Co Ltd, an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, were nearly KRW288.25 billion (US$196.9 million), up 7.5 percent year-on-year. The group’s net profit jumped 70.0 percent from a year earlier, to KRW33.43 billion.
Gaming sales at Paradise Co’s three wholly-controlled properties rose 18.9 percent year-on-year, to KRW100.36 billion in the three months to September 30, as per a Monday announcement. Its wholly-controlled gaming venues are at Seoul, Busan and Jeju.
The firm said a hold rate improvement to 2.7 percent had helped casino sales at its core properties.
The group’s third-quarter operating profit rose 9.1 percent, to KRW39.51 billion. Operating profit margin rose 20 basis points, to 13.7 percent.
Group-wide earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at nearly KRW58.10 billion in the reporting period, a 4.-2 percent increase from the prior-year period.
Paradise Co’s sales at Paradise City, an integrated resort at Incheon run as a venture with Japan’s SegaSammy Holdings Inc, rose 2.3 percent year-on-year, to KRW149.90 billion in the July to September period. The company said third-quarter sales from the Paradise SegaSammy Co Ltd unit were a “record”.
Gaming sales at the complex stood at KRW116.98 billion, up 6.1 percent from a year ago.
The unit “recorded the highest quarterly drop amount on a continuous basis, exceeding KRW1 trillion in casino drop,” a year-on-year gain of 9.9 percent, said Paradise Co.
Cost of overall quarterly sales for the unit rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier, to KRW108.98 billion.
Paradise SegaSammy saw its EBITDA decline 16.9 percent year-on-year, at KRW31.15 billion.
Net profit from the unit was just under KRW19.18 billion, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier.
For the three core properties plus Paradise City, third-quarter casino drop was nearly KRW1.81 trillion. Of that, KRW759 billion was from Japanese VIPs; KRW307 billion from Chinese high rollers; KRW304 billion from ‘other’ VIPs; and KRW437 billion from mass players.
