Korea’s Kangwon Land, the only casino in the country at which locals are allowed to gamble, booked its first positive revenue and profit growth in two-and-a-half years on the back of “improved efficiency” on the casino floor.
Gross gaming revenue of KRW363 billion (US$301 million) represented a 6% year-on-year increase, with VIP up 13% year-on-year, mass by 7% and slot revenue by 3% to beat early estimates.
According to JP Morgan analysts DS Kim, Jeremy An and Christine Wang, solid mass market momentum was particularly encouraging “as it reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to improve efficiency … including shifting dealer hours to focus on peak times and improved table and slot layouts, despite a challenging operating environment.”
Operating profit grew by 50% year-on-year to KRW173 billion (US$143 million), a number boosted by various “one-offs” related to recent wage lawsuits and a tax audit, however profit would still have grown by 11% on a normalized basis.
JP Morgan is predicting GGR to continue its upward surge with estimated growth of 6% to 7% for the remainder of 2019, pushing operating profit to an improvement of 13% to 14%.
“We like Kangwon Land’s profit turnaround opportunity, as we forecast operating profit growth in the mid-teens in 2H19, partially helped by (very) easy comps,” the analysts said.
“We think this could trigger a ‘relief recovery’ in the shares following 2+ years of severe profit declines.”
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