Announcement imminent
Century Casinos, a gaming company based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has amassed $50 million in capital earmarked for Asian casino projects, according to Union Gaming analyst John DeCree.
In a note cited by Asia Gaming Brief, DeCree said an investment at this level would be possible “without pushing net leverage beyond 2.0x, which could represent a decent-sized opportunity in a secondary or tertiary market in Asia.”
Century has hinted it will soon unveil an “exciting growth project,” and analysts expect it to be in Asia, where the company has no land-based presence.
“We would expect CNTY to enter Asia with a local partner, utilizing a joint-venture structure to both de-risk the overall investment from a capital perspective and to mitigate some of the local regulatory risks and hurdles,” DeCree wrote. “Ultimately, Century Mile is still top priority, but the company has sufficient balance sheet capacity to pursue other opportunities as well. The company is already geographically diverse, between Canada, USA, and Poland, so we see little concern about expanding into Asia.”
Union Gaming forecasts 65 percent in adjusted EBITDA growth for the company between 2017 and 2019, fueled by new casinos in Poland, the Saw Close Casino in the UK and Century Mile in Canada. The company owns and operates six casinos in Colorado and Alberta, and also runs gaming operations on cruise ships for Diamond Cruise International, Thomson, TUI and Windstar. It also manages a casino at the Hilton Aruba and owns a 67 percent share in Casinos Poland, which owns and operates nine casinos.
The company has a presence in China through a VIP casino on the cruise ship Glory Sea, a vessel operated by Diamond Cruise International Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Mainland China travel company Suzhou Taihu International.
