Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), an operator in South Korea of foreigner-only casinos, posted a first-quarter net profit of KRW10.20 billion (US$7.4 million).
The tally represented a sharp sequential rise from the fourth-quarter’s circa KRW1.7 billion net profit. Judged year-on-year, first-quarter net profit was down 52.8 percent from nearly KRW21.6 billion in the opening three months of 2023. That is according to the unaudited financial results of GKL filed to the Korea Exchange on Thursday.
The company’s operating income in the first quarter this year reached KRW13.85 billion, compared to the fourth-quarter’s operating loss of KRW943 million. Judged year-on-year, first-quarter operating profit dropped 49.1 percent, the filing stated.
Group-wide sales stood at KRW97.94 billion in the three months to March 31, a decrease of 10.3 percent year-on-year. Such sales were up only 8.0 percent sequentially, according to the Thursday filing.
Casino net sales in the first quarter – quoted by the company only to one decimal place – were KRW93.7 billion, down by 12.9 percent from a year ago. Casino drop in the period – the amount paid by customers to purchase gaming chips – has increased 21.5 percent year-on-year to KRW916 billion.
Grand Korea Leisure runs three foreigner-only casinos in South Korea under the Seven Luck brand: two in the capital Seoul, and one in the southern port city of Busan.
One of the venues – the Gangnam Coex in Seoul – recorded a year-on-year decrease in casino net sales, according to GKL’s additional first-quarter financial data filed on the group’s website.
Gangnam Coex generated first-quarter casino net sales of KRW35.9 billion, a decline by 41.4 percent year-on-year. The group’s other Seoul venue, Seoul Dragon City, generated casino net sales of KRW43.6 billion in the reporting quarter, up 25.0-percent year-on-year.
Grand Korea Leisure’s Busan venue had KRW14.2-billion in casino net sales in the first quarter, up 23.5 percent year-on-year.
In the first quarter, a majority of the group’s visitors was Chinese. That nation contributed 101,000 visits, or 47.6 percent of the 212,302 aggregate for the quarter. The group recorded 63,000 visitors from Japan, plus 48,000 visitors from “others”. The Chinese and Japanese cohorts saw double-digit increase year-on-year.
Grand Korea Leisure said its first-quarter “marketing activities cost” went up 26.6 percent year-on-year, to KRW15.1 billion, which it said helped to “increase” the tally of “VIP customers” from places including Japan and China.
The group is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which in turn is affiliated to South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
