Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings, an investor in the Tigre de Cristal casino resort (pictured), near the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok, says it expects to report an annual profit of circa HKD30.9 million (US$3.9 million) for 2022, compared to a HKD273.8-million loss in 2021.
It said the expected improvement would be mainly due to revenue of HKD106.8 million, up about 40 percent year-on-year; and the fact 2021 trading had recognised an impairment loss of approximately HKD136.9 million on “property, operating right and equipment”.
In August, Summit Ascent reported a profit attributable to its owners of just under HKD85.2 million for the first half of 2022, versus a loss of HKD131,000 in the prior-year period. The company said at the time that the improvement was “predominantly attributable to a strong domestic market in the Russian Federation”.
The company added it was “still in the process of finalising the audited annual results for the year ended 31 December 2022”, which it anticipated would be issued in late March.
In late January, Summit Ascent said it had conditionally agreed to give a revolving loan in the principal amount of up to HKD500 million to its Hong Kong-listed parent, casino investor LET Group Holdings Ltd.
In a joint filing at the time, Summit Ascent had stated that the “impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has severely affected the economy in Russia and the ability for tourists to freely travel into and out of Russia, which in turn severely affects the outlook of Tigre de Cristal”.
