Summit Ascent Holdings Limited says it has re-focused its energies at Tigre de Cristal away from VIP and towards developing its own premium mass business following increasing pressure from agents requesting higher rebates.
Releasing its financial results for the first six months of 2018, which saw revenue increase 2% year-on-year to HK$207.8 million, Summit Ascent revealed a significant reversal in its dominant revenue streams with mass table business up 47% to HK$83.5 million while VIP declined 45% to HK$41 million on the back of a 23% decrease in VIP turnover to HK$6.5 billion.
“This is primarily the result of our efforts to develop our ‘premium mass’ segment targeting Asian players, as well as increased flight connectivity and increasing awareness of our property among our target feeder markets,” the company said.
Tigre de Cristal is located in the Russian special economic zone of Vladivostok.
Explaining further the reasons behind its shifting priorities, Summit Ascent said, “Since the beginning of the year, we have been under increasing pressure from agents currently working at Tigre de Cristal requesting higher levels of rebates. Instead of giving in to such pressure which would ultimately result in a substantial erosion of margin, management has decided to focus more of our efforts on developing our own ‘premium mass’ business. The result has been quite encouraging.”
Revenue from the company’s slot business increased by 27% to HK$66 million in 1H18, with slot handle growing 44% to HK$1.3 billion.
Adjusted Property EBITDA grew 17% to HK$66.8 million.
Despite now focusing on premium mass, Summit Ascent said it was confident of attracting new agents, “particularly those from Macau”, to work at the property in the near future.
“We therefore remain sanguine about the prospects of our rolling chip,” it said.
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