GGRAsia – Gaming supplier APE expects narrower 1H loss before tax

Gaming supplier APE expects narrower 1H loss before tax

Jul 28, 2021 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Macau

Hong Kong-listed Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Ltd (APE) told the city’s bourse on Tuesday that it expects to record a loss before income tax of approximately HKD9.4 million (US$1.2 million) for the first six months of this year. The loss for the same period in 2020 was HKD29.0 million, including a one-time impairment loss of finance lease receivables of approximately HKD22.8 million, according to Tuesday’s filing.

The group’s interests include Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd, a Macau-based distribution, sales and servicing business for casino slot machines and electronic table games.

The group also said that it expected to record revenue of approximately HKD3.0 million for the first half of 2021, down by 74.6 percent from the prior-year period.

The company attributed the expected decline in revenue for the six months to June 30 to the negative impact of the “prolonged” Covid-19 pandemic on Macau’s gaming industry.

“It is expected that revenues from the group’s main business units, technical sales and distribution of EGE [electronic gaming equipment] products, consulting and technical services and repair services, for the current period would decrease [in year-on-year terms] by approximately 79.6 percent, 40.7 percent and 79.9 percent, respectively,” the group also mentioned.

The parent firm nevertheless flagged that its customers would “revert back to normal purchase levels”, with the expectation that the gaming industry would recover following the “onset of global Covid-19 vaccination programmes.”

APE reported a first-quarter net loss of HKD4.34 million, up 6.2 percent from the prior-year period. That was on revenue that fell by 15.3 percent year-on-year, to HKD2.02 million, the firm said in May.