Silver Heritage loss widens for 2017 as firm grows

Mar 01, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Asian casino operator and developer Silver Heritage Group Ltd has issued preliminary annual earnings flagging a widening loss amounting to US$14.45 million. The 2017 deficit included “non-recurring costs, primarily IPO expenses, and one off non-cash impairments,” said the firm in a Wednesday filing, referring to an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange in August 2016.

The latest announcement noted that during the 12 months to December 31, the firm had moved away from operating primarily electronic gaming halls to becoming a fully-fledged operator of a self-built casino resort, namely Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa, in Nepal, near that country’s border with the populous and prosperous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

“During full-year 2017 we continued our pivot away from electronic gaming machine leasing to focus on casino operations in Vietnam and Nepal, and ended the year opening both the hotel and casino at [Tiger Palace Resort]”, the Wednesday filing stated.

For the 12 months, Silver Heritage’s total group revenue was nearly US$18.3 million, up 8 percent compared to the prior-year period.

The company’s Phoenix International Club in Vietnam, saw a 57-percent surge in revenue to US$12.2 million in full-year 2017, the filing indicated.

The Millionaire’s Club and Casino, the company’s venue in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, contributed US$5.2 million to group revenue, although that venue’s revenue tally was down 7 percent year-on-year.

The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in 12 months to December 31 amounted to US$3.0 million, and was down by 10 percent compared to the prior-year period.

The Wednesday filing indicated that the ramp up of Tiger Palace “has continued into 2018”. “During the three months in hotel ramp-up so far, total revenue was US$177,000 and total expenses were US$677,000 resulting in a segment loss of US$560,000”, the Silver Heritage document said.

On February 24, the casino resort “hosted 913 guests, including its first wedding event and the 25th [corporate] anniversary of a local Nepali businessman,” it said.

“The Indian weddings market is worth an estimated US$40 billion annually,” the filing added.

The casino at Tiger Palace casino started operating in December after the Nepali government granted it the necessary permit. The company previously indicated that the venue would have a “grand opening celebration event” on March 16, but the Wednesday filing said there would now be “two separate opening events”.

“First, a players’ grand opening on Friday and Saturday, 16 and 17 March 2018, and secondly, a resort grand opening on Saturday 14 April 2018,” said the filing.

The firm noted that April 14 is the new year day in the Nepali calendar.

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