Crown Resorts half-year net profit up 24.8 percent

Wednesday 19th of February 2020

Crown Resorts has announced that its net profits in the second half of the calendar year 2019 were up 24.8 percent to over A$218 million (US$146 million). Revenue from operations was also up 3.6 percent to more than A$1.53 billion.

Crown CEO Ken Barton stated, “Crown Melbourne’s main floor gaming and non-gaming revenues were broadly flat on the prior year, with gaming machines revenue up 4.4 percent, whilst table games revenue was down 2.5 percent.”

Turning to Crown Perth, he observed, “local performance was encouraging, with main floor gaming revenue up 2.2 percent and non-gaming revenue up 5.7 percent on the prior year. This reflects the success of recent marketing initiatives and continued strong visitation to the property, however we are continuing to see softness in table games, particularly at the premium end.”

He flagged the VIP segment as an ongoing concern, though the impact wasn’t heavy in the second half of 2019: “VIP program play turnover at our Australian resorts was down 34.2 percent on the prior year, with the business impacted by a continuation of softer market conditions, exacerbated by recent negative publicity. However, during the period we benefited from an above theoretical win rate on VIP program play turnover, with actual VIP program play revenue up 9.2 percent on the prior year.”

In regard to Crown Sydney, the company statement said that it was progressing on schedule: “The project is expected to open progressively from December 2020, with grand opening celebrations planned for early in 2021. The project cost remains unchanged, with the gross project cost expected to be approximately A$2.2 billion and the net project cost expected to be approximately A$1.4 billion.”