By Clyde Mooney
After a rollercoaster year that saw it shed more than 50 percent of its value and secure revenues well into the next decade, Tabcorp’s end of financial year report paints a pretty on-premise picture for the gaming giant.
Separation from its casino interests in Echo Entertainment Group (EGP) wasn’t enough to slow Tabcorp Holdings Limited (THL) in their campaign to expand their gaming and wagering interests.
April and August will respectively see the commencement of exclusive new THL licenses on Wagering & Betting and Keno, with projections of up to 1000 venues rolled out for the latter by FY13.
The existing Keno and Wagering businesses posted end of year increases of around 4.5 percent, with Gaming boasting a healthy increase of 7.1 percent and overall NPAT up 13.9 percent.
This comes on top of holding 53.9 percent market share of EGMs in Victoria, with sign-ups set to continue.
The newly formed Tabcorp Gaming Solutions (TGS) already manages 7500 of the state's EGMs and is expected to make EBITDA of $45 million in its first year of the new 2012 regime, with start-up expenses of just $5 million.
Despite severing the burgeoning EGP, THL returned a full year share dividend of more than 60 percent of normalised NPAT, with total basic earnings up 4.6 percent.
The dividend payout target for the next financial year is expected to drop to around 50 percent of NPAT, but increase to 80 percent in FY13.
The interest rate for THL bonds was announced August 15 at 9.15 percent, which represents a margin of 4.25 percent on top of market rate.
With revenue and earnings growth on track across all businesses and operating expenses well in control, THL is set to continue its expansion into online products and an increased on-premise presence.