Changing fortunes for Gala News
INTERNATIONAL UPDATE
MALAYSIAN POWERHOUSE GENTING has bought a stake in Australian casino group Echo Entertainment in a move that could unsettle James Packer’s planned takeover of Crown’s Australian rival. Analysts, who had previously predicted a takeover bid for Echo from Mr. Packer’s Crown, are now speculating that Genting is looking to blow any bid from him out of the water. With a burgeoning casino portfolio encompassing Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines, the UK and the US, Genting has built up investments of S$3.9bn with analysts believing its initial 4.9 per cent stake in Echo is just the start. The total value of Echo, which owns The Star in Sydney as well as properties on the Gold Coast, is A$3bn ($2.98bn). Most pertinently Echo’s casinos are in localities where Genting has previously tried and failed to obtain licences. Mr. Packer, meanwhile, whose Crown Gaming already holds the biggest share of Echo with 10 per cent, is believed to have been central to Echo’s Chairman, John Story, resigning with reports that he called for a vote of no confidence from the Board of shareholders. Mr. Story subsequently quit prior to the meeting, a move seen as a win for Mr. Packer who reportedly wants a seat on the board. The Echo Board has since appointed John O’Neill, a non-Executive Director and Chief Executive of the Australian Rugby Union, as acting Chairman. Meanwhile, speculation is rife over Genting’s strategy. It was one of the founding shareholders in Perth's Burswood casino in the 1980s and an investor in Jupiters Casino. Some analysts believe it could be leveraging itself to strike a deal with Mr. Packer in a bid to enter the Macau market via Crown’s Joint Venture Partnership in Melco Crown Entertainment.
FUTURELOGIC HAS announced that Matt Naraghi has joined its management team as Director of Marketing for its North American operations. In his new position, Naraghi will be responsible for planning, development, and implementation of FutureLogic's North American marketing communications and public relations activities. Matt will also work with FutureLogic’s international team coordinating marketing efforts at the strategic and tactical levels globally. “Matt brings a wealth of experience having worked for 24 years in the marketing and advertising sectors with some of the best known firms in New York including FCB and Lippincott & Margulies,” said Nick Micalizzi, FutureLogic’s VP of Sales and Marketing, North America. “With his extensive experience and proficiency in digital mediums, we are confident that Matt will be instrumental in advancing our marketing objectives.”
Gala Coral’s casino division sees seven per cent gaming floor hike ahead of its sale to Rank Group
Gala Coral’s casino division reported a seven per cent increase in profits in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to the same period last year.
Comprising the 12 weeks up to April 7, the second quarter saw Gala Casinos post gross profits of £27.3m. Turnover for the quarter increased by four per cent, rising to £31.8m and fuelled mainly by an increase in spend in the casinos.
The improvement in Gala’s financial performance on its gaming floors will be music to the ears of rival operator Rank who agreed in May to buy the group’s casino estate for £205m.
Gala said the increase in spend followed a “The trading environment for
leisure and retail businesses
remains difficult but all of our
businesses have delivered gross
profit growth in the quarter.”
CARL LEAVER, CEO, Gala Coral.
SPIELO to supply largest order to Tsogo Sun Group
Tsogo Sun, the largest gaming group in Africa, has committed to a corporate order of 140 machines from Atomic Gaming, the official distributor of SPIELO International games and cabinets in Africa. This order is larger than any previous order received from the group for SPIELO International’s products.
Steve Hight, Director of Gaming: Tsogo Sun Group, said: “The SPIELO brand, through Atomic Gaming, has been a valuable service partner to Tsogo Sun’s gaming division for many years. We are pleased to enter into this agreement for the supply of SPIELO’s games and cabinets.”
Cliff Lamberton, Managing Director of Atomic Gaming, commented: “This order is a continuation of our successful on-going relationship with the Tsogo Sun Group. We look forward to providing the Tsogo Sun Group with the exceptional service we pride ourselves in.”
Markus Wessler, Regional
Sales Manager for Key Account Distributors in EMEA for SPIELO added:“This order represents a milestone for SPIELO International in our increasing footprint in the important Southern African markets. We expect Tsogo Sun to enjoy enhanced performance with our Oxygen cabinet, and benefit from the robustness and power of its sensys EP platform.”
The order will be completed throughout the current fiscal year. SPIELO is providing its bestselling multigame product, diversity, where operators can select game suites tailored to their players’ preferences. Each suite features a variety of up to 10 games grouped into categories that can be selected by players via touchscreen, with roulette now available as a selection. Presented on the Oxygen cabinet, diversity allows players to select their preferred game types with different volatility levels, and features proven standalone progressive games, all in multi- line and multi-denomination format.
decision to focus on its higher value players in recent months meaning that despite a drop in footfall, spend per head was up by 11 per cent with a gaming win margin of 17 per cent. Overall, Gala Coral’s turnover increased three per cent to £284.4m, with gross profit growth of four per cent to £220.6m.
Carl Leaver, CEO of Gala Coral, said: “This quarter has seen another solid performance by the group. The trading environment for leisure and retail businesses remains difficult, but within this context all of our businesses have delivered gross profit growth in the quarter, with growth over the first half standing at five per cent. Following the end of the quarter we announced the proposed sale of our casino division to Rank in a deal that will deliver excellent value for our shareholders and debt investors. This last month has also seen the launch of the first of our new websites,
GalaCasino.com, with positive early results.”
Mr. Leaver said that gross profits for its remote gambling division had risen by four per cent year-on-year, to £17.1m.
In other related news, the Gala Coral Group was chosen as the Daily Mirror’s betting partner for the Euro 2012 in a deal negotiated by the7stars. The £500k deal was launched in early June, during the build up to the kick-off of the football tournament.
Olly Raeburn, retail marketing director at Gala Coral, said: “The7stars has created an exciting campaign which ticks all the boxes for Gala Coral. It’s focused on one of the most talked about sporting events of the year and will put us directly in front of eyeballs within our key target audiences.”
Liam Mullins, head of press at the7stars, added: “The Mirror is known for its great football coverage, so it’s a perfect fit for Gala Coral in order to reach football fans during Europe’s biggest footballing event.”
July 2012 PAGE 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60