INVESTMENT HOLDING

GPS’s gaming operations have become a big drag on its earnings in six months |

GRAND Parade Investments’ (GPI) gaming operations felt the impact of trading restrictions in the six months to end December, which resulted in a huge fall in earnings.

As a result, the group’s headline earnings per share fell by 109 percent to a loss of 0.99 cents a share, down from a profit of 11.69c compared to last year while its basic earnings per share decreased by 122 percent to a loss of 0.30c compared to an earnings of 1.39c reported a year earlier.

The investment holding company operates in the food and gaming sectors.

The group said on Friday that Burger King showed resilience despite the tough trading conditions and exceeded management’s expectations while the gaming assets were the worst affected of its assets and the biggest contributor to the decline in the group’s earnings.

“Grand West Casino resumed trading in August and experienced a slow recovery which was subsequently affected by the reintroduction of level 3 restrictions. Sun Slots, on the other hand, experienced a much faster recovery and was back up to 95 percent of the prior period’s revenues in September,” GPI said.

Sun Slots was only down by 15 percent during the period.

Group revenue from continuing operations increased slightly to R845.1 million and operating profit from continuing operations decreased by 49 percent to R41.7m, while the group reported a net loss after tax of R1.9m compared to a profit after tax of R6.4m a year earlier.

Burger King increased its revenue by 7 percent to R676.4m, with average monthly restaurant revenues increasing by 1.3 percent.

The group increased Burger King restaurants to 102 restaurants, up from 97 compared to a year earlier after opening seven new restaurants and closing two non-profitable restaurants.

The share price on Friday closed 1.89 percent higher at R2.70.