At yesterday’s Annual General Meeting of Australia’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), Executive Chairman James Packer summed up the year for the Gaming Division as having delivered a strong result across the board despite a below theoretical win rate. As the result of a decision taken six years ago to diversify PBL business, adding gaming to magazine publishing and free to air television, casino properties in Melbourne and Perth are now a major part of PBL and the company is looking to expand into the international market.

A joint venture with Melco International in Hong Kong seeks to develop new casinos in Asia, and two complexes in Macau are in the pipeline. Crown Macau in the Taipa district is under construction and scheduled to open for gaming in a 17,000 sq m casino late next year, with the luxury Crown Macau Hotel opening in early 2007. The second project, City of Dreams, is being developed for the Cotai Strip area and will feature four hotels and entertainment area as well as 3000 slot machines and 450 table games. PBL believes that despite large-scale expansion to Macau’s gambling estate, demand will continue to grow strongly.

At the end of August last year PBL acquired the Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth, Western Australia. Performance has been rapidly improved by increasing the number and variety of games offered to customers and the introduction of marketing initiatives nationally and internationally. The Crown Entertainment Complex on Melbourne’s South Bank is the leading entertainment venue in Australia, and the award winning Crown Promenade Hotel, after its first full year, has occupancy rates around 90%. PBL attributes a strong growth in tables gaming to being driven by local premium players and the resurgence of interest in poker, whilst slot machine play has outperformed the local competition. A joint venture with UK-based betting exchange Betfair is dependent on obtaining a licence, which PBL hopes will be granted a licence to operate in Australia.

Despite an increasingly competitive market, international turnover increased and the company intends to maintain a strong sales presence in the Asian region to capitalise in particular on the growing China/Hong Kong market. The expansion of gaming in Asia may affect the future profitability of Australian operations by diverting some premium players to other locations. However, PBL remains confident that it will continue to achieve strong results, whatever the internal and external challenges, by investing in growth opportunities whilst driving further profitability from its core businesses to ensure greater value for shareholders. (E-10.28.05)

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