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(Alliance News) - Rank Group PLC on Friday said it will start reopening its Mecca bingo clubs starting Saturday in line with updated UK government lockdown guidance.
Shares in Rank were up 3.5% at 150.14 pence in London in early morning trading.
The company has its headquarters in Maidenhead and owns the Grosvenor Casinos brand in the UK along with bingo brands Mecca in Britain and Enracha in Spain. Rank will open 35 venues in England at first followed by another 30 in a phased approach throughout July and August, including venues in Scotland and Wales when permitted.
Rank said it is talking to the UK government about a date for reopening its Grosvenor casinos. Its Enracha clubs in Spain started to reopen on June 10 and are all open now.
Revenue has been at around 60% of the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic. Rank's Digital business has done particularly well, with fourth-quarter revenue growth of around 17% on a proforma basis.
Rank noted this growth took place "despite the impact on Stride's proprietary brands of additional safer gambling and customer due diligence measures implemented to bring them in line with Rank policy".
The company is forecasting an operating profit for its year ended June 30 at the lower end of its GBP40 million to GP58 million prior guidance after IFRS16 "due to the venues reopening costs being expensed".
Monthly net cash outflow has aligned with prior guidance and the company has cash and available facilities as at Wednesday this week of around GBP140 million. It is still expecting to meet its banking covenants at the end of June.
With Mecca reopened, monthly cash outflow is expected to drop to GBP7 million per month from around GBP10 million, and Rank expects to become cashflow positive before deferred duty and rental payments once Grosvenor reopens, provided revenue is inline with that from Enracha.
Rank will post its preliminary results on August 19.
Chief Executive John O'Reilly said: "I am pleased that we will be able to start welcoming our loyal Mecca customers back into their clubs on Saturday, and we are all looking forward to doing what we do best. As ever, the health, safety and well-being of all our customers and colleagues remains front and centre of everything that we do, and we have created safe environments for our customers to come and enjoy themselves once again. Our Grosvenor venues are also ready to safely open and we are working hard to ensure we receive the support of government to reopen our casinos soon. Our colleagues are very keen to get back to work to pick up the progress we had been making prior to lockdown."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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