Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp saw revenue, earnings and profits all rise around 25% in 2013. The Hong Kong-listed company, which operates Phnom Penh’s only casino NagaWorld, saw gross gaming revenue rise 25% to $324.9m, while earnings increased 25% to $171.8m and profit rose 24% to $140.3m. As usual, casino gaming revenue vastly outstripped revenue from NagaWorld’s 700-room hotel, which added a mere $51.7m to the year’s overall revenue tally.
NagaWorld closed out the year with 172 gaming tables and 1,542 electronic gaming machines (EGM) in operation. Mass market table revenue rose 15.3% to $89.8m and mass EGM revenue rose 15.9% to $101.9m. Over at the VIP tables, rolling chip volume rose 20.8% but revenue rose 40.3% to $133.2m thanks to win rate improving 0.4 points to 2.9%. Non-gaming revenue rose 11.2% to $20m.
NagaWorld’s new Aristocrat Private Club premium mass gaming area enjoyed increased visitation since opening in July and business was sufficiently brisk on the public floor gaming area that the company felt confident about raising the minimum table bets. Mass market gaming enjoyed a stellar 95% margin and contributed 73% of the company’s total profit.
NagaWorld plans to add up to 63 new VIP tables in 2014. To ensure those tables get filled, NagaCorp has set up a new marketing office in Macau to strengthen relationships with local junket operators and will charter flights between Macau and Phnom Penh. Due to a dearth of direct flights between many Chinese cities and Cambodia, plans are also afoot to buy or rent a couple Airbus jets to ensure a steady stream of mass market tourists to NagaWorld. (Insufficient player traffic was recently cited by Entertainment Gaming Asia for the dire performance of its Dreamworld Pailin casino on Cambodia’s border with Thailand.)
NagaCorp said its $369m Naga2 facility is on track to open next door to NagaWorld in 2016. When complete, Naga2 will offer up to 300 gaming tables and 500 EGM, plus 1k hotel rooms and a 4k-seat theater. NagaCorp also said it’s in the process of establishing indirect subsidiaries in Russia to oversee development of its $350m casino in the Primorye region near Vladivostok, Russia. (FYI, the new gaming zone finally has a name: Primorsky Entertainment Resort City, or PERC, for short.) The company figures obtaining all the necessary permits will take one to two years, with the project not expected to open its doors before 2018. When it does open, it will reportedly feature design elements borrowed from Beijing’s ‘birds nest’ Olympic stadium.
