Inside Asian Gaming

IAG NOV 2020年11月亞博匯 102 2020 POWER 50 GRAEME STEPHENS CEO SKYCITY Entertainment Group 行政總裁 SKYCITY Entertainment Group 40 POWER SCORE 權能指數 : 714 POSITION LAST YEAR 去年排名 : 33 CLAIMS TO FAME 名成事跡 Former boss of South Africa’s biggest casino operator Overseeing company expansion in both land-based and online sectors • • • • 南非最大娛樂場營運商的前老板 同時負責公司業務在實體及網絡領域的擴張 IN A WORLD DEVASTATED by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, New Zealand’s SkyCity Entertainment Group may well have emerged as one of the industry’s great survivors. Buoyed by relatively low virus numbers in the jurisdictions in which it operates, SkyCity’s flagship Auckland property was closed for just seven weeks between March and May, followed by another short closure in August, while its Australian IR SkyCity Adelaide was closed for just over three months. By early June, the company said its New Zealand properties were already “cash positive” thanks to the strength of its domestic market. Despite COVID-19 and a damaging rooftop fire in Auckland in October 2019, SkyCity is nearing completion of two key expansion initiatives comprising development of a NZ$700 million international convention center and connected hotel at SKYCITY Auckland and AU$330 million redevelopment of SkyCity Adelaide. The company also reported profit of around NZ$2.2 million in the first full year of operations of its Malta-based, New Zealand- facing online casino, SkyCityCasino.com – an operation that looks set to surge in the post-COVID world. For Graeme Stephens, now in his fourth year in the top job, there seems to be plenty to get excited about in the coming years. 在 2 0 2 0 年 飽受新冠肺炎疫情打擊的全球中，紐西蘭的 S k y C i t y Entertainment 或許是博彩業最有運氣的幸運兒之一。 由於其所在地區病毒傳播風險較低，SkyCity在奧克蘭的旗艦物業在 3月至5月間關閉了7周，隨後又在8月短暫關閉。而其於澳洲的綜合度假村 SkyCity Adelaide 則僅僅關閉了三個多月。 至6月初，該公司表示，由於其國內市場的強勁表現，其在新西蘭的物業 已經實現了「正現金流」。 儘管除了新冠肺炎疫情之外，2019年10月奧克蘭還發生了一場屋頂大 火，但SkyCity即將完成兩項重要的擴建計劃，其中包括SKYCITY Auckland附 近發展的一間價值7億紐西蘭元的國際會議中心及相連酒店，以及將斥資3.3 億澳元對SKYCITY Adelaide進行升級重建。 該公司同時宣佈，其以馬爾他為基地、面向紐西蘭的線上賭場 SkyCityCasino.com第一年全年盈利約為220萬紐西蘭元——這一業務似乎 在後疫情時代有望迅速發展。 對於Graeme Stephens來說，現在僅僅是其身居高位的第四年，在接下 來的數年間，似乎還將有許多令人興奮的事情發生。