Gaming supplier Asia Pioneer confirms 1Q loss doubled

May 13, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Hong Kong-listed Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Ltd confirmed in a Tuesday filing that its first-quarter loss had more than doubled from a year earlier.

The group, whose interests include Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd (APE), a Macau-based distribution, sales and servicing business for casino slot machines and electronic table games, had flagged the likely loss in an April filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The latest announcement affirmed such loss as just under HKD4.1 million (about US$530,000), an increase of 113.2 percent compared to a loss of just over HKD1.9 million in the prior-year quarter.

“The group’s performance for the period was affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Macau SAR and Southeast Asia during the first quarter of 2020,” the results filing noted.

The quarter included a 15-day pause of Macau casino operations during February as a means of stopping the spread locally of the novel coronavirus and its associated Covid-19 infection.

The company said in its Tuesday notice that the Macau pause had resulted in “delayed and cancelled orders of electronic gaming equipment” among industry customers.

The Asia Pioneer group’s revenue for the three months to March 31 fell 70.1 percent, to just under HKD2.4 million, from nearly HKD8.0 million in the first three months of 2019.

The decline was “mainly attributable to a decrease of income derived from technical sales and distribution of electronic gaming equipment of approximately 84.6 percent for the period,” the firm stated.

Technical sales and distribution of such product made up just over HKD1 million, or 42.3 percent, of the group’s first-quarter revenue. Such contribution declined 84.6 percent from the just-over HKD6.5 million recorded in the first reporting period of 2019.

Consulting and technical services made up nearly 37.0 percent of group revenue in the latest reporting period. That segment’s contribution rose 35.9 percent from HKD647,642 in first-quarter 2019, to HKD879,825 in the three months to March 31 this year.

Repair services made up just over 20.7 percent of revenue in the first quarter this year. Such contribution was down 36.5 percent on the HKD777,696 in the first three months of 2019.

The board decided not to declare the payment of any dividend for the period, which was in line with policy in the prior-year period.

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