Success Universe warns of ‘significant decline’ in 1H profit

Jul 14, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Macau casino investor Success Universe Group Ltd said that it expects to record a “significant decline” in the unaudited consolidated results for the six months ended June 30.

Based on the five months ended May 31, “the group recorded a significant decrease of the unaudited consolidated profit after tax … as compared with that of the corresponding period of 2014,” Success Universe said in a filing on Monday.

The company said the decline was mainly attributable to the substantial decrease of the shared profit of the associates relating to casino hotel Ponte 16 (pictured), the flagship investment project on the Macau peninsula.

Hong Kong-listed Success Universe posted a net profit of HKD47.7 million (US$6.2 million) for the first six months of 2014. The firm is a joint venture partner with a unit of SJM Holdings Ltd in Macau casino hotel Ponte 16.

In Monday’s filing, Success Universe said the first half results are also expected to be impacted by “the downside of Macau gaming sector since the second half of 2014, and the non-recurrence of the FIFA World Cup 2014 effect that started in June 2014 which stimulated the turnover of the group’s lottery business”.

The company additionally said that its turnover was also expected to suffer from the temporary suspension of lottery online sales in mainland China.

On April 3, eight Chinese central government agencies issued a joint public announcement ordering the suspension of online sales of lottery tickets. There is still no official word on when the temporary suspension of online lottery sales will be lifted.

According to previous filings, Success Universe has a sports lottery sales agency network covering Jiangxi, Qinghai and Heilongjiang provinces in China. In 2014, the group expanded into the China welfare lottery market to provide telephone sales services in Shanghai and Tianjin in China.

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