Zona de Azar Spain – Codere Reports €266.3m Revenue in H1

Spain.- September 2th 2021 www.zonadeazar.com Codere has reported a revenue of €266.3m (£228.8m/$314.7m) during the first half of 2021, as the business plans to launch its financial restructuring plan in the coming days.

This revenue was 16.2% less than the amount made in the first half of 2020, which was itself down 54.7% from 2019.

Codere’s financial restructuring plan was announced in April this year and saw Codere’s allow creditors to take control of the parent business of the operator to keep the company sustainable. This deal – which followed a 2020 refinancing agreement – was then approved in May.

Breaking down the revenue by location, a total of €149.0m came from Latin American operations, with the biggest contribution coming from Mexico at €63.3m. This was a 1.7% rise year-on-year. Argentina came in second, bringing in €41.4m, a decline of 36.1%. The remaining €44.3m was generated from Panama, Uruguay and Colombia operations.

European operations made up €77.3m of the total, down by 31.4%. Italy brought in €12.1m, a significant drop of 81.9% year-on-year. This was attributed to the effects of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which caused Italy’s gaming facilities to remain closed until June 2021. Spain generated €65.2m, up by 41.9%.

However, despite the closure of many operations, operating expenses amounted to €244.8m, up by 16.6% in comparison to H1 2020.

Most of this total was comprised of personnel costs, which amounted to €78.4m. Gaming and other taxes came to €71.3m, while costs of goods sold totaled at €17.1m. Rental costs amounted to €3.7m, while the remaining expenses were categorised as “other” and came to €74.2m.

Further expenses, at €85.4m total, continued to affect the operator’s income. Much of this came from depreciation and amortisation expenses, which came to €69.0m. Non-recurring items and impairment charges cost €19.7m and €16.2m respectively. The remaining €2.5m comprised of gains and losses on asset disposals and provisions in trade transactions.

This left the operating loss at €85.4m. Continued costs, including interest expense at €79.5m, affected the total further. In total, earnings before income taxes came to a loss of €169.4m.

In considering the income taxes and interests, which came to €1.4m total, the full net loss for H1 amounted to €168.7m, an increase of 5.0% year-on-year.

In May, it was announced that Codere had struggled financially in its Q1 results, as revenue plunged by 54.3%.

Codere’s online division, meanwhile, is set to spin off of the main company, with the new publicly listed company to be traded on the US Nasdaq stock market.

Edited by: @MaiaDigital www.zonadeazar.com