Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) has reported a 61% year-on-year decline in net revenue to HK$5.1 billion and 93% fall in Adjusted EBITDA to HK$283 million for the three months to 31 March 2020 as border restrictions and the 15-day closure of all Macau casinos in February took their toll.
Publishing the company’s quarterly results late Wednesday, GEG revealed it would have been even worse had it not played lucky, boosting Adjusted EBITDA by around HK$84 million from a normalized level of HK$199 million, down 95% year-on-year.
The impact was felt across all segments, with net gaming revenue down 63.5% to HK$4.05 billion and non-gaming by 59.0% to HK$549 million.
Likewise, VIP rolling chip volume for the quarter fell 66.5% to HK$68.17 billion with win down 66.7% to HK$2.48 billion, while mass table drop declined 63.3% to HK$11.19 billion with win down 61.7% to HK$2.82 billion.
EGM volume fell 56.0% to HK$7.2 billion with win of HK$231 million.
At flagship property Galaxy Macau, net gaming revenue was down 62.4% to HK$3.06 billion and Adjusted EBITDA by 89.1% to HK$329 million. StarWorld Macau saw its net gaming revenue fall 66.8% to HK$948 million with Adjusted EBITDA falling 89.0% to HK$104 million.
Meanwhile, mass property Broadway Macau saw its net gaming revenue drop from HK$76 million to HK$22 million, with Adjusted EBITDA falling to a loss of HK$45 million.
Discussing the impact of coronavirus so far and GEG’s road ahead, Chairman Lui Che Woo said it is “difficult to quantify the full year financial impact of the virus, but it will have a material impact on our financial results and we cannot determine the duration of the pandemic.”
Nevertheless, GEG remains “well capitalized,” Lui added.
“Having said that, we are doing our best to adjust our operations to the current business environment and effectively control costs. I would like to thank everyone on the GEG team who supported the Company in these difficult times by contributing to our cost control program. I am proud to report that virtually all team members made voluntary contributions including the Board of Directors (the “Board”) which also waived their Director’s fee, management who participated in our non-paid leave program and the many group members who joined our Flexi Family Care Program.
“At GEG we have tried to spread the impact of COVID-19 fairly across all team members as we prefer not to engage in redundancies. We continue with our Cotai development of Phases 3 and 4.”
