SkyCity appoints Elaine Campbell as chief legal, governance and external relations officer
Campbell will start in the new role at the casino operator in March 2025.
New Zealand.- SkyCity Entertainment has announced that Elaine Campbell has been appointed to the newly created role of chief legal, governance and external relations officer effective from March 2025. The appointment is subject to regulatory approvals.
Campbell is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and earned her Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Canterbury. She has previously worked as executive general manager, access of Chorus Limited, a company listed on the NZX. She previously held positions of general counsel at AMP Limited, director of compliance and head of compliance monitoring at the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority, executive counsel at the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal, and head of market supervision and general counsel at NZX Limited. She is an independent director at NZX and serves the board-appointed director of NZ RegCo Limited.
SkyCity chief executive officer Jason Walbridge commented: “Elaine is a highly respected executive with a proven track record. I’m delighted she is joining the SkyCity team.”
The casino operator said Nirupa George, currently chief corporate affairs officer, will no longer meet the definition of a senior manager for the purposes of the NZX Listing Rules from March 2025 but will continue to be responsible for leading the company’s corporate affairs, including government, community and industry stakeholder relations and SkyCity’s public policy and advocacy. George is scheduled to take parental leave from January 2025.
In October, SkyCity announced that the South Australian High Court had rejected its appeal on the taxation of loyalty points accumulated at SkyCity’s Adelaide casino. It was ordered to pay casino duty of AU$10.3m (US$6.9m) to January 2024 plus AU$2.8m (US$1.8m) of additional casino duty as a consequence of part of an earlier judgment that was not appealed to the High Court.
The court favoured the interpretation of the Treasurer of South Australia, ruling that credits on gaming machines resulting from the conversion of loyalty points should be considered in gaming revenue calculations for casino duty. SkyCity said it has already set aside AU$13.1m (US$8.75m).
The amount of interest payable has yet to be determined by a judge of the Supreme Court at a later date. If the ruling is unfavourable to SkyCity, it could be required to pay up to AU$25.3m (US$16.9m) in penalty interest accrued up to September 30, 2024.
SkyCity posts full-year net loss of US$88.23m
SkyCity posted a net loss after tax of NZ$143.3m (US$88.3m) for the fiscal year 2024 due to accounting adjustments, including an AU$86.2m (US$57.5m) impairment of the SkyCity Adelaide assets and a tax adjustment of NZ$129.6m (US$78.4m) following changes to New Zealand tax legislation.
Revenue was up 0.3 per cent year-on-year to NZ$928.5m (US$572m) while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16.7 per cent to NZ$138.2m (US$85.15m). The company attributed the decline to a difficult operating environment and the impact of accounting adjustments.
Auckland generated 65 per cent of revenue, followed by Adelaide (26 per cent) and Hamilton (7 per cent). Gaming revenue was down 2.9 per cent year-on-year to NZ$727.7m (US$448.34m) while online gaming revenue fell by 39.2 per cent to NZ$9.3m (US$5.73m). The casino operator recorded 7 million visitors its four sites.
See also: New Zealand online casino bill to be presented next year
