Strong VIP drives 15 percent GGR growth at NagaWorld in Q1

NagaWorld’s gross gaming revenue rose 15 percent year-on-year to $368.9m for the first three months of 2020, thanks to strong growth in the VIP segment.

Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp said its Phnom Penh property saw a 25 percent increase in VIP GGR in the period ending 31 March 2020. VIP revenue increased to $270.2m on turnover of $9.69bn, up 18 percent on 2019. Mass market GGR was down slightly to $68m on table drop of $342.4m.

While NagaCorp noted the solid results were possible due the group operating “without interruption of business despite the Covid-19 outbreak”, its likely the company’s Q2 2020 figures will be impacted by the pandemic to some degree.

The Cambodian authorities have ordered all casinos in the country to shut down from 1 April as part of measures to control the spread of COVID-19.

“This is just a temporary closure, and they will be allowed to resume their operations when the situation stabilises,” said prime minister Hun Sen. He added that the country’s finance ministry would look at introducing tax exemptions for casinos while gaming operations were suspended.

Despite the measures, NagaCorp remained optimistic: “If the Cambodian government is able to contain the spread of COVID-19, the company is expected to continue its trajectory of growth in the short term especially now the COVID- 19 spread is quite well contained in China.

Nonetheless, the company believes the long-term prospects and outlook shall remain stable.”