GGRAsia – GKL 2Q net profit drops 26pct on flattish sales

GKL 2Q net profit drops 26pct on flattish sales

Aug 12, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

South Korean operator of casinos Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) says the net profit attributable to its shareholders fell to just over KRW20.05 billion (US$16.5 million) in the second quarter of 2019, or 26.2 percent less than a year earlier.

GKL announced in writing on Friday that its second-quarter sales grew by 1 percent year-on-year to KRW117.36 billion.

Second-quarter operating profit fell by 23.8 percent to just over KRW26.44 billion.

The firm didn’t give information on the reason for the wide difference between the relatively modest year-on-year increase in second-quarter sales, versus the decline in net income for the period.

GKL runs three casinos in the Seven Luck chain – two in Seoul and one in the southern Korean city of Busan – which admit only foreign gamblers. The company is a subsidiary of the South Korean government-run Korea Tourism Organization.

In a separate statement on Friday, GKL declared an interim cash dividend of KRW130 a share, payable on a date yet to be set to shareholders on record on June 30. The total dividend payout amounts to just over KRW8.04 billion, said the company.

In July GKL announced that its casino sales grew to almost KRW38.96 billion in June, 6.6 percent more than a year earlier.

The company said casino sales in the first half of 2019 shrank to about KRW226 billion, 5.3 percent less than a year earlier.