Macau’s Grand Emperor Hotel has suffered an unexpected loss of HK$12.9 million (US$1.7 million) in the last twelve months to March 31. As it turned out a senior cashier has been pocketing chips and thus the operator Emperor Entertainment Hotel Ltd. has experienced considerable financial losses.
The employee of a subsidiary of the company in Macau has stolen an amount of the chips on hand of the group. After the issue was reported to the inspectorate of the Macau Judiciary Police, the senior casino cashier was dismissed effective immediately and arrested for further criminal investigation of the case. Following a short trial, the judgment of the court was acquired and the employee was found guilty and jailed. Emperor Entertainment Hotel also stated that a net of HK$100,000 was returned to the company by the ex-employee of the casino.
Regardless of this huge loss and the unexpected incident which had happened, the annual profit of the Macau casino operator rose 35.2% for the year. Converted into money, this equals HK$346.5 million, which is much more in comparison to the HK$256.2 million which the company amassed in the previous financial year. Furthermore, basic earnings per share were up by 35%, amounting to HK$0.27 compared to HK$0.20. The total dividends per share were also up by 2.5% – from HK$0.080 to HK$0.082.
Throughout the financial year, the total revenue of the group declined by about 6.3% to HK$1.61 billion. Due to focusing their marketing efforts towards high-roller gamblers, the company managed to note a 3.6% rise in the VIP gaming segment, which brings substantial profits. On the other hand, earnings from gaming operators decreased by 6.2% since last year, amounting to HK$1.36 billion. This equals 84.4% of Emperor Entertainment Hotel’s total revenue.
Macau’s Grand Emperor Casino is operating under the gaming license of SJM Holding Ltd. It offers to its hundreds of guests six gaming floors with about 70 mass-market gaming tables, 10 VIP tables, and up to 170 slot seats, guaranteeing its appeal to all target groups.
Emperor Entertainment Hotel’s spokesperson said that the growth of the company’s dividends can be attributed to the reducing of exchange loss on deposits in renminbi as well as the reducing the loss on fair value changes of some investment properties. On Wednesday all of this information was listed in the results filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
However, in the filling, there were no further details regarding the loss connected to the former cashier and whether it had occurred as a result of the cashing of the misappropriated chips. The balance of chips on hand of the firm was also adjusted downward in order to reflect the loss in question for the year.
