SkyCity said weak consumer spending along with fewer tourists and high roller gamblers had hit its bottom line. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
SkyCity has dropped it full year profit outlook as weak consumer spending along with fewer tourists and high roller gamblers hit its bottom line.
The casino operator said underlying profit for the 12 months ending in June was expected to be down about 4 percent or $10 million off its previous guidance range of $225m to $245m.
"The difficult market conditions that businesses like ours, which are reliant on discretionary consumer spending, are experiencing continue to have a significant impact on both our revenue and earnings," chief executive Jason Walbridge said.
"We continue to be pleased with the levels of visitation we are seeing across our precincts and are adjusting our underlying cost base where appropriate, in response to the lower revenue levels we are currently experiencing.
"Notwithstanding these challenging conditions, we remain optimistic that as consumer confidence returns and spend begins to lift, SkyCity is well placed to maximise the opportunities in front of us, like the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) opening in February 2026."
In the meantime, the company said in a market statement its Auckland had seen reduced spending in the hospitality and gaming businesses, though Hamilton and Queenstown casinos were performing to expectations.
Adelaide casino was also seeing a drop in visitors and lower spending by VIP gaming customers, as Sky City lifted its money laundering and harm minimisation programme.
It said South Australia had seen year-on-year growth in electronic gaming machine turnover.
It was continuing with the Adelaide building a better business (B3) programme with programme spending to be in line with previous guidance and in the order of $60m over the period FY25 to FY27, adding it they were not continuing costs.
