Rank FY
The top line
Underlying net revenues dived 50% to £288.2m, tipping the company into an operating loss of £84.5m.
Grosvenor Casinos saw a 71% fall in NGR, Mecca Bingo was off by 57%, international venues was down 35% and digital NGR was down 6% to £136.3m.
As of the end of June, Rank had £98m of cash available.
Eye of the storm: In UK leisure overall, Rank was one of the worst hit companies by the pandemic.
On the earnings call yesterday, CEO John O’Reilly noted that he had previously spoken at the half-year point of there being light at the end of the tunnel. “But it turned out to be a very long tunnel,” he added.
O’Reilly pointed out that during FY21 Rank didn’t have one day of normal trading and across its various land-based businesses, the percentage of time the venues were completely shuttered reached 66% for the casinos arm and 58% for the bingo business. Even the digital business suffered as Rank is far more reliant on omni-channel custom than others while that business was also hit by more stringent rules on affordability tests. “The performance of the digital business has been disappointing,” O’Reilly admitted.
Bouncebackability: With the various staged endings of restrictions, the company said demand has “exceeded expectations.” Since reopening in May, the casino business is trading at 89% of pre-pandemic levels and bingo at 79%. Meanwhile, in digital the move to a proprietary platform has been delayed until early next year. Analysts at Shore Capital said they were encouraged by the reopening trends, albeit that digital “looks weak.”
Drawing a line: O’Reilly also tackled the upcoming UK Gambling Act review, saying Rank hoped for measures to allow the casino and bingo businesses to compete, including offering sports-betting in the Grosvenor estate. He said that generally the UK gambling sector needed a “new line in the sand” to be drawn by the review.
