Macau-registered electronic gaming equipment distributor Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd (APE) said it recorded a 63.7 percent increase in revenue in year-on-year terms. Such revenue was approximately HKD86.1 million (US$11 million) in full-year 2017, compared with nearly HKD52.6 million in 2016.
Gross profit in the reporting period was approximately HKD34.8 million, up 49.9 percent from the prior-year period, the firm said in a filing on Tuesday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
“The improvement in revenue and gross profit performance were principally attributed to the opening of new casinos in Macau in 2017,” said Asia Pioneer. The firm said the new casino openings created a “strong demand” for its products and “led to an increase in revenue of the technical sales and distribution segment of 74.0 percent year-on-year in 2017”.
Part of the firm’s commercial model involves acting as a clearing business for casino slot machines reaching the end of their life in the Macau market, in order to sell them on to other markets.
Despite the increase in revenue, the company saw its net for 2017 fall by 53.0 percent year-on-year, to approximately HKD4.5 million. It said the decline was due to the listing expenses in Hong Kong of approximately HKD14.2 million.
Asia Pioneer started trading in Hong Kong’s small-cap index, the Growth Enterprise Market, in November last year.
The group’s operating expenses in 2017 grew by 67.9 percent year-on-year to nearly HKD14.0 million, an increase the company said was attributable to hiring more staff in Macau and the signing of a lease agreement for a new office.
In Tuesday’s filing, Asia Pioneer’s management said it believes the company “will continue to ride on the rebound of Macau’s gross gaming revenue, as well as the growth of the mass-market gaming”.
“We have already concluded the sale of our first batch of refurbished electronic gaming machines, a batch of 319 used slots which we purchased and refurbished in Macau SAR and resold,” said the firm. “The management is also actively pursuing leasing agreements with Macau [casino] operators, and will continue to pursue distribution opportunities in Asia outside of the Macau SAR,” it added.
