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Century Casinos sells Calgary casino operations for CAD$10m

News

Century Casinos, Inc. announced on August 5 the sale of the casino operations of Century Casino Calgary, to the recently incorporated 2267166 Alberta Ltd.

The buyer paid a CAD$10m ($7.53m) non-refundable fee for the venue, and will pay a quarterly earn-out to Century over the three years post-acquisition.

Century’s Century Resorts Alberta (CRA) subsidiary will continue to operate Century Sports at the venue (on-site features such as the sports bar, bowling and entertainment), and will remain owner of the real estate.

The agreement sees CRA enter into a lease agreement with the buyer, with the premises bringing an annual net rent of approximately CAD$480,000 for a term of three years.

“This transaction immediately strengthens our balance sheet,” Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, co-chief executive officers of Century Casinos remarked.

“The Calgary casino is one of our smaller operations, contributing $8.4m in net operating revenue and $1.2m in adjusted EBITDA (approximately half from the casino operations we are selling and half from sports bar, bowling and entertainment operations we will continue operating) in 2019.”

The transaction, expected to close in Fall 2020, is still subject to approval by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

Century’s Q1 2020 results showed a decline in adjusted earnings for its Canadian operations, down around 40% from CAD$5.0m for the three months ending March 31 2019, to CAD$3.0m for the same period in 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA for the company’s operations globally, however, increased by CAD$2.9 million, or 44%, for the three months ending March 31, 2020, coming in at around CAD$9.6m compared to CAD$6.7m for the same period in 2019. The operator is due to report its second quarter and first half results later this week, on August 7.