S. Korea casino op GKL net income slips 42 pct q-on-q

Aug 10, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL) – which operates three foreigners-only casinos in South Korea under the Seven Luck brand – saw its net income nearly double year-on-year in the second quarter. But judged quarter-on-quarter, Grand Korea’s net income slipped 42.4 percent.

Net income for the second quarter went up 99.2 percent year-on-year, to approximately KRW18.54 billion (US$15.93 million) compared to approximately KRW9.31 billion in the prior-year period, the firm said in a filing on Monday to the Korea Exchange.

When judged sequentially, Grand Korea’s net income for the second quarter actually fell, compared to the KRW32.16 billion net income achieved in the first quarter 2015. For the six months to June 30, Grand Korea’s net income is up by 8.2 percent year-on-year, to KRW50.70 billion.

The company declared an interim dividend for the reporting period of KRW130 per common share, to an aggregate of approximately KRW8.04 billion.

A number of investment analysts have said there was a sharp year-on-year and month-on-month decline in visits by tourists to South Korea during June – in the wake of a nationwide health alert over an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, known as MERS. The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea in June fell 41 percent year-on-year, said the Korea Tourism Organization.

Grand Korea said its sales fell 17.7 percent quarter-on-quarter during the second quarter, to nearly KRW122.38 billion, although that still represented a year-on-year improvement of 4.9 percent.

Operating income fell 55.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, to nearly KRW21.68 billion; nonetheless it was a year-on-year improvement of 5.0 percent.

Grand Korea first had a partial flotation on the public markets in November 2009. The company was established in 2005 as a subsidiary of the state-owned Korea Tourism Organization.

The firm has two foreigners-only casinos in the country’s capital Seoul, and one in the southern port city of Busan.

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