GGRAsia – Former Neptune VIP biz sharply cuts loss fiscal 2017

Former Neptune VIP biz sharply cuts loss fiscal 2017

Oct 02, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Rich Goldman Holdings Ltd, formerly known as Neptune Group Ltd, an investor in Macau casino junket business, sharply narrowed its net loss for financial year ended June 30, on higher revenue compared to the prior-year period.

Such loss was HKD10.15 million (US$1.3 million) compared to HKD202.11 million in the previous financial year.

The firm said a key reason for the turnaround was it benefited from the reversal of an impairment loss on trade receivables amounting to approximately HKD306.3 million for the period, “as a result of the subsequent settlement by the trade debtors whereas the group recorded an impairment loss of trade receivables of approximately HKD63.0 million for the year ended 30 June 2016”.

Nonetheless the group still recorded an impairment loss on intangible assets amounting to approximately HKD397.3 million for year ended June 30, although that was a narrowing compared to an equivalent impairment on intangibles amounting to circa HKD450.9 million in fiscal 2016.

Its total revenue for fiscal 2017 rose 6.5 percent, to nearly HKD296.80 million, compared to HKD278.65 million a year earlier, which it said was mainly due to a HKD16.8-million increase in gaming revenue.

It said there had been an increase in revenue contributed by VIP rooms operated by a junket operator partners at Sands Macao, a property of Sands China Ltd, and at casino hotel Grand Lisboa, operated by SJM Holdings Ltd, of approximately HKD42.1 million and HKD3.3 million, respectively, “driven by an improving customer patronage and increasing gaming volume”.

It added that such increase had been partially offset by a near-25-percent decrease in revenue contributed by VIP room operations of a junket partner at the Venetian Macao – another Sands China venue – amounting to HKD28.6 million.

In May and July of this year respectively, Sands China gave written notice it was terminating the junket agreements for first the Venetian Macao and then Sands Macao. The termination at the latter venue came despite a 58-percent improvement year-on-year in revenue generated by the VIP partner, to HKD114.6 million, compared to HKD72.5 million a year earlier.

The former Neptune, once one of the biggest investors in the Macau VIP gambling market, has had – subsequent to those terminations – only a single junket partner in the Macau market, operating eight tables at Grand Lisboa, it reiterated in Friday’s filing.

The group had announced on Thursday it had officially changed its English-language name to Rich Goldman. In a previous filing in August, the company said the old name “does not reflect the diversity of businesses conducted by the group”.

In the fiscal year to June 30, the firm started a money lending business and also a hotel operating business, it reiterated in its Friday filing.