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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] On Wednesday, Hyundai Motor Securities lowered its target price for Paradise Co., Ltd. by 7% from 14,000 KRW to 13,000 KRW, citing an earnings shock in the company’s fourth-quarter results last year. However, the brokerage firm maintained its “Buy” rating.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Paradise posted revenue of 265.8 billion KRW, up 9.9% year-on-year, and an operating profit of 19.5 billion KRW, a 32.1% increase from the previous year.
Hyundai Motor Securities noted that “despite a 14.8% increase in casino revenue, slower growth in other business sectors limited overall revenue growth to 9.9%, significantly missing consensus estimates for operating profit.” However, the brokerage added that operating profit showed year-on-year improvement, supported by the leverage effect of revenue growth and continued cost efficiency measures.
The company’s drop amount in Q4 was 1.662 trillion KRW, down 0.2% year-on-year. Japanese VIP and Chinese VIP segments fell by 6.1% and 1.5%, respectively, but other VIP customers increased by 20.1%, offsetting the decline. Paradise’s full-year drop amount in 2024 rose 11.3% year-on-year to 6.8684 trillion KRW, surpassing the pre-pandemic level of 6.4533 trillion KRW in 2019. Analyst Kim commented, “This indicates a complete recovery from the demand decline caused by COVID-19.”
In January 2025, Paradise recorded a drop amount of 579.4 billion KRW, up 1.8% year-on-year. The Chinese VIP segment increased by 6.9%, and the Japanese VIP segment rose by 4.9%. While the mass customer segment grew by 0.9% compared to the same period last year, other VIP customers saw a sharp decline of 9%. Revenue for the month fell by 2.3%, primarily due to a hold rate of 11.4%, which was 0.4 percentage points lower than in January 2024.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
