GGRAsia – Asia Pioneer 1Q loss widens, rest of year likely better

Asia Pioneer 1Q loss widens, rest of year likely better

May 13, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Ltd widened its first-quarter loss year-on-year, but the group expects an improvement in its trading position in the second quarter, thanks to new orders from customers.

Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings owns Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd (APE), a Macau-based distributor of gaming equipment. APE gets much of its revenue from selling and servicing slot machines and electronic table games, and from taking slot machines that are no longer being used by Macau casinos and selling them elsewhere.

On Friday, Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings reported to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – where it is listed on the small-cap board – that the group made a loss of nearly HKD1.92 million (US$244,000) in the three months to March 31, having had a deficit of almost HKD1.75 million in the equivalent period a year earlier.

The group’s first-quarter revenue fell by about 42.8 percent to just under HKD8 million, down from about HKD13.9 million in the corresponding period last year.

The company attributed the fall in its revenue mainly to income from technical sales and distribution of electronic gaming equipment being down 49.7 percent. Such revenue was HKD6.54 million for the first quarter, compared to nearly HKD13 million in the prior-year quarter.

All the group’s revenue in the first quarter 2019 came from APE.

The board of the parent company said it would not declare a dividend for the first quarter.

Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings told the bourse the remainder of this year should see an uptick in revenues.

“Management is confident that the group’s loss in the period can be reversed with new orders in the pipeline for the remainder of 2019. In technical sales and distribution, we are in discussions with several customers in [the] Macau SAR and Southeast Asia, including planned new casinos in [the] Macau SAR,” the company’s report said.

“We are in discussions with several manufacturers for consultancy contracts which will commence in the second quarter of 2019. Management looks forward to the rest of 2019.”

“In the period, the group also initiated research and development of its own games for land-based electronic gaming equipment. The objective is to develop suitable games that may attract Southeast Asia players and customers. We hope to market games under the group’s own intellectual property,” the group also noted in its quarterly results.

Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings had given warning in April that it expected a first-quarter loss even bigger than the first-quarter loss it made a year earlier, owing to greater operating expenses and a fall in revenue.

In March, Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings reported that its annual net profit rose to HKD20.7 million in 2018 from just over HKD4.49 million the year before, on revenue that grew to just under HKD109.62 million from just over HKD86.06 million. The company said its listing expenses at the end of 2017 had curbed its net profit last year.