A substantial one-off gain from the sale of its Auckland car park concession has driven New Zealand’s SkyCity Entertainment Group 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 those results disguise what was in fact a 7.9% decline in revenue on a normalized basis to NZ$490.9 million, negatively impacted by the devastating fire that broke out on the rooftop of under-construction New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in October. The normalized results include a 10.7% fall in EBITDA to NZ$153.3 million and 16.4% 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% to NZ$34.1 million and at Queenstown by 8.1% 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% to 21 October 2019.