Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp says it remains confident of discharging all financial obligations when its outstanding senior notes mature in July 2024, citing improved cash resources on the back of better operating conditions at its Cambodian integrated resort NagaWorld.
Releasing its financial results for the nine months to 30 September 2023 overnight, NagaCorp said it has increased the group’s cash and cash equivalents from US$156 million at 31 December 2022 to US$297.6 million as of 30 September.
“This increase was mainly attributed to the continued recovery of business volumes and prudent cash spending strategy from the company’s management,” it explained.
“The net debt of the company, calculated as total debts less cash and bank balances, was approximately US$174.6 million as of the period end.”
Moody’s Investors Service warned last year that NagaCorp faces significant refinancing risks in the coming years, with the US$545 million bond maturity in mid-2024 being of significant concern due to “limited sources of liquidity given its lack of bank facilities and divestible non-core assets.”
NagaCorp later repurchased US$69.5 million of its notes, leaving around US$472 million outstanding.
However, NagaCorp said overnight it is “confident that it can discharge all of its financial obligations when the outstanding senior notes mature in July 2024.”
The company reported a 12.1% year-on-year increase in gross gaming revenues in the first nine months of 2023 to US$379.0 million, led by recovery of the premium gaming market.
While mass market GGR grew by only 1.0% year-on-year to US$247.2 million on a lower win rate, Premium (direct) VIP GGR was up by 39.5% to US$99.6 million and Referral VIP GGR by 46.3% to US$32.2 million.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 17.4% to US$215.4 million.
NagaCorp said the strong growth of its direct VIP segment was mainly due to increasing numbers of the domestic expatriate population and more arrivals from China.
“Business-related travellers from China accounted for about 73.0% of total Chinese arrivals in the first eight months of 2023 versus about 45.1% in the same period of 2019,” the company said. “These business-related travellers tend to have longer repeated stays and higher spending power.
“Together with our continued conversion of previous referral VIP players into direct premium VIP players, the average daily rollings of the Premium VIP Market segment … has already recovered by 92.8% compared to FY2019.”
NagaCorp will also expand its Referral VIP segment by “identifying and recruiting more reputable referral VIP agents,” it added.
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