GGRAsia – Casino op Kangwon Land 2Q profit dips 12pct q-o-q

Casino op Kangwon Land 2Q profit dips 12pct q-o-q

Aug 07, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Kangwon Land Inc, operator of Kangwon Land, a South Korean resort with the only casino in the country to be permitted to accept local players, saw net income attributable to owners of the parent company shrink 11.9 percent quarter-on-quarter, though it was up 138.3 percent year-on-year.

Such profit for the three months to June 30 was KRW89.48 billion (US$68.6 million) versus KRW101.54 billion in the first quarter, said the Monday filing to the Korea Exchange.

Second-quarter sales at Kangwon Land Inc fell 7.5 percent sequentially, to KRW331.13 billion. Judged year-on-year however, sales were a 6.3 percent improvement on second-quarter 2022’s KRW311.52 billion.

An earnings presentation published on Monday showed second-quarter mass-table casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) was KRW158.3 billion, up 13.0 percent year-on-year, but down 5.5 percent sequentially.

The firm’s other gaming segment – “membership club” – recorded GGR of KRW26.6 billion, down 24.0 percent year-on-year, and a decline of 12.5 percent from first-quarter 2023.

Slot machine GGR was up 1.2 percent on second-quarter 2022, at KRW135.2 billion, but it was down 2.5 percent sequentially. All the quarterly GGR figures were given to within one decimal place, rather than the two decimal places given in the stock market filing.

The drop amount – for buy-ins at the table in exchange for chips – was nearly KRW1.42 trillion in the second quarter, a rise of 1.5 percent year-on-year. The figure was 5.4-percent lower compared to the opening quarter of 2023.

The volume of visits to the Kangwon Land casino in the three months to June 30 was 576,206, a 16.9 percent increase, but down 7.7 percent quarter-on-quarter. The great majority of the visits were by South Koreans.

The stock market filing noted that second-quarter 2023 operating income was just under KRW82.04 billion, a 17.7 percent sequential improvement, and up 17.3-percent on second-quarter 2022.

Kangwon Land Inc’s first-half net income attributable to owners of the parent company stood at KRW191.02 billion, up 502.5 percent year-on-year.