CAI consolidated revenues rose US$ 4,53 billion

While the international business is quite difficult due to the continuing economic crisis, there were substantial improvements, particularly in the Austrian business.

The twelve Austrian casinos were not spared a noticeable decline in revenues, particularly in the first half of the year: after € 276 million (US$ 393 million) in 2009 revenues fell in 2010 to € 258 million (US$ 367 million). Visitor figures, however, achieved an increase of 1.17 % to 2.36 million guests.

“We are delighted that our visitors have remained loyal, also in times of economic strain”, Casinos Austria Director General Dr. Karl Stoss emphasises. “Quality obviously prevails in tough times. And now we have a good foundation for future growth.”

There were significant improvements, particularly with earnings: supported by an extensive cost-cutting programme developed by the management board and corporate works council, earnings were substantially reversed from minus € 3.378 million (US$ 4,80 million) to € 1.909 million (US$ 2,71 million).

Thus Bettina Glatz-Kremsner is highly satisfied with her first year as CFO of Casinos Austria AG: “This turnaround into the profit zone was a tremendously important step made possible only by the common efforts of all those involved”. Net earnings for Casinos Austria AG were € 5.62 million (US$ 8 million) in 2010, after € 8.06 million (US$ 11,50million) in 2009.

The management board of Casino Austria was also positive about the development of the subsidiary companies. In the lottery business the level of the 2009 record year was maintained, win2day, WINWIN and tipp3 even generated considerable growth.

Thus major investments, for example in the construction of new casinos in Brussels and Hanover, the investment in the online business (caigames.com) as well as the market launch in Great Britain (Casino Corinthian Club, Glasgow) and Italy (the VLT project Azzuro) yielded a negative result of € 35.2 million (US$ 50 million) after a plus of € 12.6 million (US$ 18 million) the year before.

As a result of the large number of measures and positive effects in other segments, the consolidated result kept considerably in the black at € 3.677 million (US$ 5,23 million).