Gaming across Macau hasn’t been what everyone hoped it would be this year, even though it has seen improvements in the past couple of months. Kingston Financial Group, which operates two satellite casinos in the gambling city, has reported its financial health for its most recent fiscal year, and the company joins the ranks of the others who saw less-than-stellar performance. For the fiscal year ending March 31, its revenue dropped about 3% to approximately $58.5 million.
As with other venues in Macau, there are several factors that contributed to the dip. Competition is increasing and the US-China trade war doesn’t help boost confidence. However, Kingston remains upbeat about the properties – the Casa Real on the peninsula and the Grandview on Taipa Island – and says that the two “consistently provided solid contributions to the group.”
Those two venues contributed 15% to the company’s business operations, which is the same that they provided in the last fiscal year. Hong Kong-based Kingston’s annual profit attributable to its owners stood at just under $127.8 million, which represents a year-on-year drop of 26%. That profit came against revenue of a little more than $388.4 million, a 2% drop.
Adding to the issues the company faces in Macau, it also had to make a one-time write-off of just over $34 million. This was due to a cancellation of non-core assets and dealt specifically with intangible assets in Kingston.
According to the company’s data, its satellites operated 64 mass-market gaming tables, 274 slot machines, 12, VIP gaming tables and 70 live baccarat machines, with the latter providing additional “synergy with the slot machine business.”
Kingston is owned by the woman who was once the wealthiest female in Hong Kong, Pollyanna Chu. At the beginning of last year, she was reportedly worth around $12 billion, but a major crash in the company’s stock price saw her worth fall more than 50% in only a few short months and then drop even further as the year progressed. According to Forbes, as of this past February she is now the fifth-richest female in Hong Kong with a current net worth of just $3.3 billion.
