KEY POINTS:
Elmar Toime had to act quickly to address problems when he took over as acting chief executive of SkyCity Entertainment last July after the sudden departure of Evan Davies. But yesterday the former New Zealand Post boss stepped into the background without a bad word to say about
either Davies or his fellow directors.
Toime - who has been adept at cooling the heat in negative sentiment against the company - sang his swansong as he detailed the company's financial results for the six months to December 31 - covering the period since soon after Davies left and he took over as stand-in CEO.
Permanent replacement Nigel Morrison - an Australian with a background in casinos - is set to start next week.
Toime told a media briefing the difficult first half had included the departure of the foundation CEO, implementing cost savings, refurbishment and disruption to the Auckland casino, a review of the Adelaide casino, the stalled takeover for the cinemas and an abandoned takeover offer for the whole group.
The role of the board in overseeing the company had been questioned by investors prior to Davies' departure.
Asked whether leadership had been one of the problems at the company, Toime said: "When a company moves from a phase of very rapid growth to another phase of consolidation, sometimes there is a question of different thinking by leadership."
Results to December 31 issued yesterday showed some improvements to its casino operations in Auckland and especially Adelaide.
Toime revealed progress correcting problems in the casinos - and confirmed that SkyCity had decided against the sale of the Adelaide casino while negotiation for the sale of the group had ceased.
He confirmed that Morrison had counselled strongly against the sale.
The operating profit marked a nine per cent increase in operating earnings to $61.3 million and that was with ongoing disruption to Auckland casino due to refurbishment. But that was punctuated by a $60 million writedown in the value of its SkyCity Cinema assets, leaving the company with a final net profit of just $1.3 million.
Toime said the improvements were because of a good focus on margins, very good trading at the casino in Darwin - though this would slow in the second half - steady improvements in Auckland and an improvement in Adelaide.
Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Marcus Curley said the results marked a step forward after past difficulties. But another analyst who would not be named said the company had a lot more hurdles to jump.
Investors approved, pushing shares up 5c to $3.96.
Toime said the company was still negotiating for the sale of the cinema assets and said that the new valuation - at around $60 million - marked the area in which it is expected to sell assets. SkyCity announced an interim dividend of 11c per share.
