SkyCity: revenues down after Auckland fire
New Zealand SkyCity Entertainment Group remains upbeat despite a dip in revenues and fire at its under construction convention centre.
New Zealand.- New Zealand’s SkyCity Entertainment Group has reported a drop in revenues but for 2Q19 but remains upbeat about its performance.
The sale of its Auckland car park concession led to a 75.4% increase in revenue to NZ$721.7 million for the six months to 31 December 2019, with net profit after tax up by almost 300% to NZ$328 million.
But the one-off boost from the sale hides a decline in revenues which dropped 7.9 percent on a normalized basis to NZ$490.9 million.
This was attributed to the negative impact of the devastating fire that broke out on the rooftop of the under-construction New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in October.
The normalized results include a 10.7 percent fall in EBITDA to NZ$153.3 million and 16.4 percent decline in net profit after tax to NZ$75 million.
While SkyCity Auckland suffered the consequences of October’s fire, with the company estimating NZ$1.6 million in lost gross profit due to the property’s temporary closure, SkyCity’s other New Zealand properties in Hamilton and Queenstown both showed gains during the six-month period.
Revenue at Hamilton grew 8.0 percent to NZ$34.1 million and at Queenstown by 8.1 percent to NZ$7.1 million, while SkyCity Adelaide in Australia fell slightly to AU$77.4 million.
The company said it expects to recoup all costs from the NZICC fire through insurance. It added that the performance of its flagship Auckland casino had been encouraging pre-fire, with gaming revenue up 6 percent to 21 October 2019.
