Century Gaming, a firm managing casinos across the United States and Canada, recently published its fiscal report for the 2023 third quarter. Their net operating earnings experienced a substantial surge, rising by 43% year-over-year, reaching $161.2 million. This expansion was primarily fueled by the corporation’s calculated move to divest a considerable portion of its property assets.
Nevertheless, this divestiture also influenced their operating earnings, which witnessed a reduction of 28%, settling at $14.5 million. The decline was mainly attributed to their activities beyond US borders. While their US operations actually enjoyed a 21% growth in operating earnings, reaching $19.8 million, their Canadian operations took a blow with a 47% decrease, plummeting to $2.1 million. Likewise, their operations in Poland also saw a downturn of 52%, arriving at $1.3 million.
This transformation in operating earnings is directly linked to Century Gaming’s choice to offload its Canadian portfolio. This portfolio, encompassing four casino establishments, was sold to a subsidiary of Vici Properties for a total of CA$221.7 million (roughly US$162.6 million at the transaction date) on September 6, 2023.
Despite the reduction in operating earnings, Century Gaming declared a net loss attributable to stockholders of $1.42 million, a substantial enhancement compared to the corresponding period last year, signifying a 582% decrease. Their adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), a crucial metric of financial health, displayed positive growth, climbing by 19% to hit $33.3 million.
Century Casinos’ co-CEOs, Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, declared unprecedented financial results for the firm. “After integrating the Nugget Casino Resort and Rocky Gap Casino Resort, including its golf course, we reached historic peaks in both net operating revenue and Adjusted EBITDA,” they proclaimed.
They did concede, though, that “Non-recurring expenses associated with the Rocky Gap purchase and the Canadian sale-leaseback agreement negatively affected our operating income and net loss for the period.”
The executives maintained a hopeful stance regarding the future: “Moving forward, we project revenue and operating cost patterns to align with those observed in previous quarters.”
This bullish sentiment follows the company’s latest $59.1 million purchase of the Rocky Gap Casino Resort situated in Maryland.
