The redemption and sale of Wynn Resorts shares by its subsidiary Aruze USA following last year’s settlement with Wynn was enough for Japan’s Universal Entertainment to swing back to profit in 2018 with the company declaring net income for the 12 months to 31 December of JPY161.17 billion (US$1.46 billion).
The US$2.6 billion settlement, which came six years after Wynn Resorts forcibly redeemed over 24 million shares held by Aruze USA and removed Aruze Chairman and Wynn co-founder Kazuo Okada from the board, was enough for Universal to reverse a loss of JPY13.43 billion in 2017.
In its 2018 results summary released Friday, Universal referenced JPY158.88 billion (US$1.44 billion) in extraordinary income from the redemption of Wynn shares and another JPY87.52 billion (US$792 million) from the sale of Wynn shares by Aruze USA.
Those numbers were more than enough to cover for an operating loss of JPY17.97 billion for the year, almost double the company’s 2017 operating loss due primarily to the ongoing decline of the company’s pachislot and pachinko business.
Universal’s Integrated Resorts Business, spearheaded by Philippines IR Okada Manila, also booked an operating loss of JPY6.21 billion although it represented a significant improvement on 2017 with the property increasing sales three-fold in 2018 to JPY48.94 billion.
Predicting another year of growth for Okada Manila in 2019, the company said, “The casino and resort sector in the Philippines is expanding rapidly due to a favorable regulatory climate, including reduced taxes on casinos, because the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is protecting this industry and encouraging its growth.
“Along with this growth, the scale of business and sales of Universal Entertainment is expanding. Okada Manila increased the net sales by the expansion of facilities such as hotel rooms and restaurants as well as by the grand opening of the VIP casino areas, addition of junkets and implementation of a mass market casino marketing program.”
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