Local casino and hotel operator Macau Legend Development Ltd. saw its annual results dip into the red for 2015, posting a net loss of HK$268.5 million (US$33.4 million) contrasting a profit of HK$478.9 million recorded just one year ago. The loss is mainly driven by the plunge in its overall gaming revenues. According to its filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday after trading hours, the company’s adjusted BEITDA amounted to HK$263.8 million for last year, a hit of 64.7 per cent compared to the HK$760.3 million recorded for 2014. The company’s total revenues fell 20.7 per cent year-on-year to HK$1.44 billion. The operator explained that the annual net loss was also attributable to the increase in overall operating expenses as well as the hike in overall depreciation and amortisation charges. In 2015, Macau Legend raked in total gaming revenues of HK$897.4 million, which dropped by 29.9 per cent year-on-year from HK$1.28 billion one year ago – due to decreases in takings from mass market tables and outsourced VIP tables. Self-run VIP tables outperform market The company’s mass market tables earned approximately HK$711.5 million in revenues during 2015, a year-on-year decline of 35 per cent, while its revenues from outsourced VIP tables posted a fall of 70 per cent year-on-year to HK$35.2 million. However, the gaming operator’s revenues from its self-run VIP tables, primarily located in Pharaoh’s Palace Casino and Babylon Casino, increased nearly 1.5 times to HK$142.1 million for last year, compared to HK$58.2 million in 2014. The gaming results registered by Macau Legend, in fact, outperformed the general trend of the city’s high-roller market, sitting much more in line with the mass market. Last year, the city generated gaming revenues of MOP127.8 billion from VIP gaming tables, which represents a plunge of 40 per cent year-on-year from the year before. Meanwhile, total gaming revenue was down 34.3 per cent year-on-year to MOP230.8 billion, according to official data released by the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ). Non-gaming takings up slightly On the other hand, non-gaming revenues of the company registered a slight increase of 1.4 per cent year-on-year to HK$538.7 million compared to HK$531.1 million recorded one year ago. It said in the filing that the increase was due to the revenues of HK$115.2 million contributed by Harbourview Hotel at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf – which began operations last February. As at the end of last year, the occupancy rate of The Landmark Macau fell 17.4 per cent year-on-year to 67.2 per cent, whilst that of Rocks Hotel dived 6.9 per cent year-on-year to approximately 78.4 per cent. The newly opened Harbourview Hotel, meanwhile, registered an average occupancy rate of 65.6 per cent at 2015 year-end. Invest outside the city The company also noted in the filing it would keep looking for new investments, especially integrated resort projects, outside the Special Administrative Region in addition to its casino complex in Cape Verde currently under construction. ‘We will focus on Southeast Asian destinations where the ‘One Road, One Belt’ policy from China is supporting new investment in tourism and tourism related infrastructure and will also focus on Portuguese-speaking countries to make good use of the Sino-Portuguese platform for the Group’s business diversification overseas,’ it claimed.
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