Cambodian integrated resort NagaWorld showed no signs of slowing down during the first three months of the year with gross gaming revenue rising 15% year-on-year to US$368.9 million on strong growth in VIP.

Providing a performance update overnight, Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp said its monopoly property in Phnom Penh booked a 25% increase in VIP GGR through 31 March 2020 to US$270.2 million on turnover of US$9.69 billion, up 18% on 2019 levels.

Mass market GGR was down very slightly to US$68.0 million on table drop of US$342.4 million.

NagaCorp said the strong results were possible due the group operating “without interruption of business despite the Covid-19 outbreak.”

“As per the latest report from the Cambodian Ministry of Health, there are 109 diagnosed cases in Cambodia as at 31 March 2020, most of which were imported and diagnosed in the last two weeks of March 2020,” the company said.

NagaCorp’s 2Q20 results are likely to be negatively impacted by COVID-19 with Cambodian Prime Minister having earlier this week ordered the closure of all casinos as of 11.59pm on Wednesday 1 April.

However, the company said it remains confident of its prospects moving forward.

“Before 30 March 2020, Cambodia was the only country where its border was relatively porous to Chinese’s visitation without much restrictions,” it said. “NagaWorld was the only casino in the Asia Pacific region where there was relative ease of entry to the casino without much administrative difficulty and yet having all the protective measures against COVID-19 in place both at the level of Cambodia and at the level of the Company.

“No doubt the recent COVID-19 outbreak has caused economic and social chaos globally, [but] the Company remains hopeful that near-term business volume growth is not substantially affected in the event that the COVID-19 outbreak in Cambodia is … unduly prolong.

“On the other hand, if the Cambodian government is able to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Company is expected to continue its trajectory of growth in the short term especially now the COVID-19 spread is quite well contained in China. Nonetheless, the Company believes the long-term prospects and outlook shall remain stable.