VIP junket business over: Suncity
Reliance on VIP business is over, despite the fact that Macau used to be the gaming mecca in Asia, with VIP gaming as a major source of gross gaming revenue in the past, junket operator Suncity Group Holdings said in its financial report published yesterday.
“There is fairly limited supply of VIP gaming facilities to cater to high-end demand since Macau has now virtually left the VIP junket business,” said the group.
The firm considered 2021 as a “dark year” in the company’s operating history, mentioning the impact of Covid on the sector.
In late November, then-head of Suncity Group, Alvin Chau was arrested on allegations of running an illegal cross-border gambling syndicate. This led to the Public Prosecutions Office’s (MP) order of all notaries in the city to immediately suspend the practice of any notary acts or services involving the assets of Chau and related companies.
The notice came over a week after the arrest of the CEO of the largest junket operator in the SAR, meaning that nobody can conduct any business with the Suncity Group and the cited companies.
Also amid the tourism downturn, the company recalled that they were informed on December 1, 2021, that Sun City Gaming Promotion Company Limited, a key supplier of hotel accommodation products to the group under its travel and related business segment, would not be able to supply hotel accommodation products to the group in the near term.
Therefore, the group suspended the operations of its travel and related business segment from that day.
Further, the group said it will be targeting all traditional gaming business segments, including VIP, premium mass, mass, slots and non-gaming businesses in the group’s integrated resorts in Asia.
The group commenced the provision of hotel accommodation products, transportation tickets and travel related products in Macau in 2016 but has seen a substantial decrease in revenue from travel related products and services for 2021.
Suncity records
HKD258m losses in 2021
Suncity Group’s total revenue from continuing operations increased by 87% to approximately HKD340,437,000, while gross profit from continuing operations increased by 232% to approximately HKD90,110,000.
Loss for the year attributable to equity holders of the company was approximately HK$258,265,000 in 2021.
According to the Hong Kong-listed company, it carried out its most “uncompromising cost-cutting programme ever” last year.
“Survival means chopping everything non-core. Underperforming non-core businesses have been sold and will continue to be sold, such as the disposal of the mainland Chinese property business and the aircraft in 2021,” the firm stated.
