Operator News
Australia – Reef Casino reports strong end to the year
By Phil - 26 January 2021
The Reef Casino in Queensland has reported a ‘solid start to the 2nd half year of 2020’ and has as a result revised its estimated profit.
The casino’s performance for the 3rd quarter (July 1to September 30) was described as ‘strong with strong rental income.’
“This has resulted in a strong profit for the Trust for the 3rd quarter. Trust trading for the 4th quarter (October 1 to December 31) continued to be good with good rental income received from the Reef Hotel Casino. This has resulted in another good profit for the Trust for the 4th quarter. Due to the on-going COVID-19 situation, economic and trading conditions in Cairns and the region remain challenging. The outlook regarding the COVID-19 situation still remains uncertain.”
Allan Tan, Executive Director Reef Corporate Services Limited, added: “The estimated distributable profit for the second half year 2020 has been revised upwards from $8.5m to approximately $9.17m as the rental income for the month of December was more than estimated. The estimated distribution for the six months July 1 2020 to December 31 2020 has been revised upwards from 8.54 cents per unit to 9.76 cents per unit (from $4.25m to approximately $4.86m in total). For the full year 2020, the estimated net profit before impairment is now approximately $271,000 (previous estimated loss of $66,000).”
The Queensland Government mandated the closure of the Reef Hotel Casino complex commencing March 23 2020 due to COVID-19. All revenue generating operations ceased. The casino including in-casino food and beverage venues re-opened for trading on July 3 2020 in accordance with the Queensland Government’s announcement of Stage 3 of the roadmap easing COVID-19 restrictions. The complex’s hotel rooms and other food & beverage venues opened throughout the following week.
The operator of the Reef Hotel Casino complex, Casinos Austria International has implemented a COVID Safe Plan approved by Queensland Health. This plan included operational restrictions including cap on capacity, social distancing measures, contract tracing measures and COVID safe cleaning.
