Sky City Entertainment 2009 Interim Result Preamble

Sky City Entertainment [SKC.NZ] is announcing its 2009 interim result on Monday 23 February (view the webcast here 10.am NZ Time ) and I for one will be keenly interested in that result.

Sky City is the largest shareholding in the Share Investor Portfolio and indications from the company in October for first quarter revenues for 2009 were up 3% year on year, excluding its high-roller and money losing cinema divisions.

Standout performers in the first quarter were its Darwin and Queenstown properties (both up 7%), but the company’s Auckland casino, where the bulk of revenue is derived, was down 2%.

As this excerpt from a mid 2008 letter to shareholders the focus will be on cutting costs:

"Our shareholders have made it clear to us that they want us to focus on maximising the performance of the assets we operate. This is what we will be doing. as we have said previously, we expect to achieve this within an 18-month time frame. We will retain tight control over capital and not expend capital unless we are very confident of healthy returns for shareholders".

This cost cutting was first apparent in the previous interim result in Feb 2008 and continued through to the 2008 Full Year result in August of the same year.

Clearly if first quarter 2009 revenue has continued into the second quarter and cost cutting has further strengthened then Monday's result will be a good one.

The only two wildcards will be the massive economic slowdown since October and wins/losses from the high rollers, which can alter the result markedly.

For a more extended analysis of what might be see Value Cruncher for Reuters and other analyst's outlooks on revenue and profit margins for Sky City to June 2011.

Sky City shares reached near multi-year lows on Friday 20 Feb closing on overall market weakness.

Sky City Entertainment Ltd Ordinary Shares

As at 6:15 pm, 20 Feb
Sky City @ Share Investor

2008 Sky City profit analysis
Sky City Entertainment 2008 Full Year profit results , NZX release, 2008 full year presentation, result briefing webcast, financial statements
Sky City 2008 profit preamble
Sky City outlines a clear future plan
As recession bites Sky City bites back
Sky City Assets: Buy, sell and hold
Why did you buy that stock? [Sky City Entertainment]
Sky City Share Volumes set tongues wagging
Sky City half year exceptional on cost cutting
NZX Press release: Sky City profit to HY end Dec 2007
Sky City Cinemas no Blockbuster
Sky City Entertainment share price drop
New Broom set to sweep
Sky City Management: Blind, deaf and numb
Sky City sale could be off
Opposition to takeover
Premium for control
Sky City receives takeover bid
Sky City Casino Full Year Profit to June 30 2007
Setting the record straight
Sky City CEO resigns
Sky City Casino: Under performing
Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit(analysis)
Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit

Share Investor Forum-Discuss this topic

Related Links

	SKYCITY will announce the 2009 Interim results on Monday 23rd February 2009. Please click here to access the media webcast link.

Sky City Financial Data

• Summary
• Charts
• Dividends
• News
• Announcements
• Price History
• Related Securities

Related Amazon Reading



The Economics of Casino Gambling by Douglas M. Walker
Buy new: $64.00 / Used from: $59.37


c Share Investor 2009

Dipshit of the Week: Joris De Bres

The clash of moronic stupidity vs unmovable pig headed ignorance doesn't make for a pretty outcome but that is what happened this week when the full bizarreness of political correctness collided in a damp stain on your grey matter when The South African Rugby Union has refused to put up their Springboks against the Maori All Blacks in a friendly game of Rugby.

Those Jaapies are saying that they wont play a racially selected team and that is fair enough, the Maaaori All Blacks have to be Maaaori, but they are forgetting to put their best chromosomes forward when thinking over this dilemma because their own team is racially selected because there has to be a quota of black fellas.

Oh how the brain hurts!

But don't worry, Joris De Bres, New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner, former Black & White Minstrels member and part-time cake decorator takes this torment in his big hands and gives it the required bureaucratic squeeze in a letter to the SA Rugby Union.

Joris opines thusly:

As New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner I appreciate why such a policy would have been adopted, particularly because of the racial discrimination in sport that existed in South Africa under apartheid.  However, there is no such discrimination in New Zealand: people of all ethnic backgrounds are eligible to play in New Zealand's national, regional and local representative teams, and alongside that, consistent with the principle of freedom of association, people are free to play together in any other combination.

The New Zealand Maori rugby team has a proud history in New Zealand and has the support of the community as a whole. He goes on...and on...

Joris ignores the fact that the South African National team is racially selected (this time whites are excluded) and that the Maaaori All Blacks exclude white folk.

Didn't we have riots over this in the 1980s?

You would also find that this issue would split opinion country wide, so no consensus and therefore support exists.

The intellectual rigor that leads the former silly putty manufacturer down this garden path ends up making further mockery of his mock position as NZ's "Race Relations" Commissar and calls into question his usefulness.

There is always his former Black & White Minstrels job to go back to I suppose.

Previous Dipshits

Greenpeace

Bob Harvey

Related Amazon Reading

Human Rights and Sporting Contacts: New Zealand Attitudes to Race Relations in South Africa 1921-94 by Malcolm Templeton  Buy new: $29.95 / Used from: $40.79 Usually ships in 6 days

c Political Animal 2009

Time to ditch the dividends

I wrote a couple of days ago about Goodman Fielder Ltd [GFF.NZ] using a dividend re-investment plan to help with company cash-flow in these hard times.

Let me add another string to that cashflow bow.

Shareholders in NZX listed companies should expect dividends to be cut even if profits are not correspondingly lower.

Far be it from me to suggest this because many of the companies in the Share Investor Portfolio have good dividend returns but I think it would be a prudent move for companies to lower or cancel dividend payouts until this recession comes to an end.

New Zealand companies pay handsome dividends at the best of times but as we know this aint the best of times.

The scary thought is that some companies even use borrowed money to pay dividends and that isn't wise even when the economy is ticking along nicely and will certainly be more difficult to do during this credit drought.

Unfortunately Kiwis live in some sort of dividend fools paradise where investors often gauge the investing potential of the company by that criteria alone. Company hierarchy don't often help that scenario either by pandering to that market expectation of more company moola for stockholders = a good company.

I have been guilty of this peculiar investor trait! but have learned to relax when a dividend cut is used for a more business efficient purpose-like investing moola back into the company.

Cash-flow is all important for businesses at the moment and it is normally used to pay all sorts of short term liabilities, so clearly having a bigger free cashflow will help a business function better on a day to day basis.

Just remind yourself a dividend cut will not be forever and ultimately it will be good for your investment in the long run-Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has never paid a dividend and its shares are currently traded at around US$84,000.00 each. (Its high was near double that!)

You might even like to to give your CFO a friendly phone call and gently suggest he take my advice.

Recent Share Investor Reading

• Goodman Fielder turning on the DRIP
• Fisher & Paykel Appliance's profit downgrade continues
• Fletcher House is built on hard times
• The Definition of Insanity

Recommended Amazon Reading



Dividend Policy: Its Impact on Firm Value by Ronald C. Lease
Buy new: $36.00 / Used from: $6.19
Usually ships in 24 hours



The Standard & Poor's Guide to Building Wealth with Dividend Stocks by Joseph Tigue
Buy new: $18.21 / Used from: $1.60
Usually ships in 24 hours


c Share Investor 2009

TV3 News Political Poll: 18 Feb 2009

The bad news for the hapless and hopeless Phil Goff continues.

In the latest TV3 news poll National trumps Labour by a country mile and the former Prime Minister, Helen Clark is Labour's preferred leader!!

The poll provides clear evidence that National voters backed a winner in November and that Labour voters are moving their allegiances to National-as they started to do on election night.

At 60 percent in tonight's poll, National's rating is the highest ever recorded by 3News.

So we asked voters what they thought of Key and National's performance over the first three months in Government.

64 percent say it has been strong or very strong.

Just 4 percent say has been weak.

In the crucial leadership traits, 85 percent consider Key a capable leader - that has rocketed up.

75 percent say he would be good in a crisis, up significantly.

And 77 percent back his judgement. TV3.co.nz

The only question that still remains is just how long Goff can remain as the Labour leader?

Not long judging by his non-performance thus far.

The Labour knives are being sharpened as we speak.

Related Amazon Reading

Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness (Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion) by Lawrence R. Jacobs  Buy new: $20.00 / Used from: $6.49 Usually ships in 24 hours

c Political Animal 2009