SkyCity meets dampened expectations, reports $33.6m loss

SkyCity Entertainment Group and its chief executive Michael Ahearne, pictured at the SkyCity Casino, delivered their annual results. Photo / Peter Meecham

Casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group has met dampened expectations, reporting a $33.6m loss for 2022 on the back of an extended lockdown in Auckland where its flagship facility is based.

In results for the year to June posted to the NZX this morning, the company reported revenues of $639m for the year, down nearly a third from 2021. No dividend was announced, but hopes expressed payments to shareholders could resume next year.

The company's Auckland headquarters, whose extensive complex of entertainment venues accounts for the majority of earnings, saw revenues slump 32.3 per cent to $330.6m and its contribution to ebitda drop by half to $100.9m.

Auckland experienced an extensive Covid-related lockdown in the second half of 2021 that shuttered or crimped public-facing businesses in the city. The company said lockdowns had led to its Auckland facility being closed for 107 days during the period.

SkyCity's casino in Adelaide - which last month became the subject of inquiry by South Australian state authorities into compliance with anti-money laundering laws - fared better during the period but still posted revenues of $184.5m, down 6.3 per cent for the year.

Shocks of the past few years had seen waivers to cover breaches of banking covenants sought and granted, with results flagging these extended out to December. The company said it expected to meet covenant restrictions by the end of the year which would put it in a position to be able to resume dividend payments.

The troubled International Convention Center and hotel project, whose construction site was ravaged by a major fire in 2019, was said to be on track to meet its revised schedule and open in 2025.

Normalised ebitda of $137.1m was in line with the company's updated earnings guidance provided to market in June.

Just prior to posting results, SkyCity announced directors Jennifer Owen and Sue Suckling would be retiring from the board at the company's annual general meeting in October.

Owen and Suckling had, respectively, been directors since 2016 and 2011.