Rank Group reports £93m loss
Rank Group Plc has reported statutory losses of £93m following a year in which retail operations were devastated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
UK.- Rank Group, owners of Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casino, have published preliminary results for the 12 months to June 30, reporting statutory losses of £93m after underlying net gaming revenue fell 50 per cent to £288m.
Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casino venues were able to open only 59 per cent of available operating days in the year, and when they were open had to follow capacity limits and reduced hours.
The two units will post underlying losses of £67m, Rank said. That’s a 238% drop year-on-year from a profit of £48m in the previous 12 months.
Rank said the group incurred monthly losses of around £15m during periods of lockdown, inclusive of government support via the CJRS Scheme and business rates relief.
CEO John O’Reilly, said: “The year to 30 June 2021 was exceptionally challenging for the Group and, frankly, we are delighted it is over. We are now well into a new financial year with our venues open and trading positively.”
The digital business also experienced challenging times, with net gaming revenue down 6 per cent to £136m. Rank put this down to online affordability checks and the impact of the pandemic on omni-channel performance.
See also: Rank Group launches Hawkeye safer gambling monitoring desk
Meanwhile, Rank’s new acquisition Stride Gaming was fined £5.9m by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for issues dating back to before Rank’s purchase of the company.
O’Reilly said: “This has been a year of transition for our UK facing digital business. Revenue has disappointed but we have been making good progress with the development of our proprietary technology platform and we will complete the migration of the Rank brands during 2021/22, freeing up development capability to enable much greater agility and speed to market for new and enhanced products, services and digital customer experiences.”
Rank said it had seen strong progress since venues in the UK reopened on May 17 May, with Grosvenor seeing weekly revenues of £5.9m and Mecca £2.5m.
Rank has raised available cash facilities to £98m through the sale of its Blankenberge Casino in Belgium to Kindred Group (£25m) and a £13.3m gaming machines tax repayment from HMRC.
O’Reilly said: “Clearly there is still some uncertainty how the pandemic will impact our businesses over the next few months, however we are confident that with our leading bingo and casino brands, supported by a proven transformation programme and strengthened balance sheet, we are competitively well placed to benefit as the hospitality sector and its consumers emerge from the pandemic.”
