17 Aug 2011

Sky City profit up 4%

12:22 pm on 17 August 2011

Sky City Entertainment has boosted its underlying profit by 4%, with Auckland gaming revenues growing strongly.

The casino operator made $123 million in the year to the end of June, up more than 20% on the previous year.

The result includes a $15 million writedown in the value of its casino in Christchurch due to the earthquake. If that, and other one-off tax adjustments are stripped out, underlying profit rose 4% to $130.9 million.

Underlying revenue rose 4.5% to $877 million.

Chief executive Nigel Morrison says Sky City experienced good momentum in the second half of the year, especially in New Zealand.

No guidance has been issued for the coming year, but Mr Morrison says conditions in New Zealand are improving and gaming machine revenues have returned to pre-crisis levels.

Sky City will pay a dividend of 8 cents per share, compared with 9.5c last year.

Shares in Sky City rose 8c to $3.59 on Wednesday morning.