S. Korea’s Paradise Co profit down 4.2 pct in 2014

Feb 05, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd reported a decline in profit attributable to shareholders, even as casino sales saw a double-digit growth last year.

The firm on Thursday reported net profit attributable to controlling interests of KRW96.4 billion (US$88.3 million) for the whole of 2014, down 4.2 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue for the year increased by 8.7 percent year-on-year to KRW695 billion, Paradise Co said in a filing. Growth was mostly supported by casino revenue, which grew by 11.9 percent year-on-year to KRW588.4 billion. Casino revenue accounted for 84.7 percent of Paradise Co’s total sales last year.

Paradise Co currently runs five foreigners-only casinos in South Korea: one in the capital Seoul; one in Incheon near the capital’s international airport; one in the southern city of Busan and two on the island of Jeju.

South Korean casinos currently only permit foreigners to gamble, with one exception: Kangwon Land, 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast of Seoul, which is allowed to serve locals.

Chinese VIP players accounted for 66.7 percent of table drop at Paradise Co casinos last year, the firm said in Thursday’s filing. Japanese high-rollers came a distant second, accounting for 17.1 percent of total table drop.

Table drop – defined by the company as the amount of cash exchanged for chips by customers at the table – was approximately KRW7 billion last year.

Paradise Co had a share of 49.6 percent of the South Korean market based on casino sales at the end of the fourth quarter last year, according to data from the Korean Casino Association cited in the filing. That is down from a 51.4 percent market share in the prior-year period.

The casino operator broke ground in November at the site of its planned US$1.7 billion Paradise City scheme at Incheon, to be developed in partnership with Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.

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