SkyCity lowers EBITDA forecast
The casino operator has blamed market conditions.
New Zealand.- SkyCity Entertainment Group has revised downwards its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) projections for the financial year 2025 by 4 per cent from its previous estimate of NZ$225-245m (US$134-146m) due to market conditions.
The casino operator said “Auckland has seen reduced spend per visit across both its hospitality and gaming businesses, whilst Hamilton and Queenstown casinos have continued to perform broadly in line with Group expectations.”
As for Adelaide, the company said performance has been impacted by lower visitation and a lower spend by VIP gaming customers amid its focus on its AML and harm minimisation programme. This is despite overall EGM gaming turnover in South Australia growing year-over-year.
SkyCity CEO Jason Walbridge said: “The difficult market conditions that businesses like ours – which are reliant on discretionary consumer spending – are experiencing continue to have a significant impact on both our revenue and earnings.
“We continue to be pleased with the levels of visitation we are seeing across our precincts and are adjusting our underlying cost base where appropriate, in response to the lower revenue levels we are currently experiencing.
“Notwithstanding these challenging conditions, we remain optimistic that as consumer confidence returns and spend begins to lift, SkyCity is well placed to maximise the opportunities in front of us, like the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) opening in February 2026.”
In the first half of the financial year 2025, SkyCity posted revenue of NZ$422m (US$241m), down 5 per cent in year-on-year terms. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) was down 22 per cent to NZ$113m (US$64.6m) while net profit after tax (NPAT) was down 73.1 per cent year-on-year to NZ$6m (US$3.4m).
The company’s underlying net profit was down 41.5 per cent year-on-year to NZ$37.8m (US$21.6m) mainly due to the settlement with South Australia on gaming duty.
