Echo would announce increased profits

The company which owns The Star Casino in Sydney and Brisbane’s Treasury Casino looks likely to announce a 20% rise in annual profits which helped boost its shares by 7% on that expectation.

Chief executive Matt Bekier believes Echo is well placed for future growth despite competition increasing in the next five to seven years.

“The reality is we have long-dated licences,” Mr Bekier told the Associated Press.“We’ve got another 50 years in Brisbane.”

“We will have to maximise earnings from all of our assets and I think we’re well placed.”
The Queensland government has announced the candidates for the second new license available in Brisbane with Echo, Crown and two Chinese companies, Greenland & ShunTak/Far East all vying for the license.

Mr Bekier said as the incumbent operator in Brisbane, Echo took the opportunity to bid for a second licence seriously. “I don’t want to be overly confident when you see what has happened in other markets,” he said. “We know Brisbane really, really well and we’ll try to leverage that but I can’t really speak to what we’re putting to the government.”

Analysts believe that Echo will bring in results of between $150 to $153 million for the 2013/2014 cycle compared to $126.9 million for the previous year.