Inside Asian Gaming

October 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING HK$528.4 million for the corresponding period last year. “Our strong performance, product mix, pipeline of developments and continuous efficiency improvements not only underpin the business today, but also lay strong foundations for continuedprofitable growth in the future,”the company chairman Dr Stanley Ho said in a prepared statement. Dr Ho added that listing had made the company more competitive in the liberalised market. “We now have greater flexibility in the financial markets and in staff compensation and we welcome the added degree of transparency which the listing brings as we confidently face a competitive future,”he stated. “As the only gaming operator with its roots in Macau, we are all too aware of the competitive, demographicandcostchallengesfaced by the industry.There are also,however, many significant opportunities ahead,” added the former gaming monopolist. Assisting SJM’s first half profit figure was an impressive HK$771.2 million (US$99.2 million) increase in the value of ‘Property, Plant & Equipment’. This included a HK$521.2 million leap in the value of ‘Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment’, compared to 31 December 2007. ‘Receivables’ (i.e., money owed by creditors) also made a net contribution to the balance sheet of HK$219.1 million. Profit increase or not, analysts have determinedly talked down the trading prospects of SJM in the second half of the year.Its share value has halved from the list price at the time of the IPO. Reviewing design proposals for the redevelopment of the iconic Hotel and Casino Lisboa: (from left) SJM CEO Ambrose So, Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho, Stanley Ho, SJM COO Louis Ng and executive directors Rui Cunha and Angela Leong 23