SJM profits take off even as market share slides

GAMING operator SJM Holdings yesterday announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2018, showing that the company’s net profit climbed 25.8 percent year-on-year to HKD730 million, even as its market share continued to slide.

According to the statement, net gaming revenue in the first quarter amounted to HKD8.41 billion, up 6.7 percent from last year. Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA increased 17 percent year-on-year to HKD987 million.

SJM said that the rise in company profit was mainly due to an improvement in the mass market segment in self-promoted casinos. The mass market segment saw growth of around 9.5 percent year-on-year for the company, while VIP revenues were up just 1.1 percent. Slot machines, despite accounting for a small proportion of gaming revenue, brought in 14.6 percent more than in the first quarter of 2017.

Speaking on the first quarter results, Ambrose So, chief executive officer of SJM Holdings Limited, said “we are very pleased that our efforts to strengthen mass market and VIP businesses combined with cost controls have resulted in material increases in SJM’s EBITDA and net profit during the first quarter.”

Nevertheless, the holding company continued to see its market share in Macau recede at a dramatic pace. In the first quarter of 2018, the operator controlled a 14.7 percent share of Macau’s casino revenue, as compared with 16.9 percent last year.