Few turbulent months in the past resulted in a drag on Dragon International’s financial results. However, through apt marketing and savvy business practices, the Hong Kong-licensed slot machine manufacturer has managed to start patching up its weak links.
The Dragon Not Quite Out of Trouble Yet
Dragon International has been experiencing a turbulent financial half-year. Buffeted by regulations from mainland China, the company saw its own activities come to a crawl, with losses beginning to accrue. However, the Dragon did manage to change tact, pushing for improvement in its business model that yielded slightly better results at the end of the financial half-year, which ended on September 20, 2018.
The results improved compared to the same period a year before, although they still were posted as losses. The results are different this time around, with activities shrinking, but losses falling quite significantly. In 2017, the company reported $7.714 million in revenue by September, but this year’s results cited a dip to $5.58 million.
Nevertheless, Dragon posted $1.17 million in losses in 2017 whereas the operator has since managed to reduce this to $833,149 in the past 6 months, indicating successful streamlining of its portfolio.
Apart from looming Chinese regulations, Dragon has been experiencing increased competition in Macau, where properties have been changing hands, with an important deal for the sale of Landmark Macau casino hotel successfully concluded in April 2017.
Slashing Losses in Half
The overall losses of Dragon as a group stood at $1.73 million – an impressive and perhaps worrying number were it not for the fact that it was still 53% better than the same period in 2017. Meanwhile, Dragon has acknowledged that it needs to address the way it runs its businesses, including operator expenses.
The group wishes to form strategic partnership with and invest tactically into leading fintech companies. – Official Dragon International statement
But apart from trying to bolster its current activities, the company is also working on completely re-inventing itself under a new name. The proposal came in October when Dragon said that it would seek to enter the FinTech and blockchain sectors under a new name – ezBlock Capital International Holdings Limited.
However, this move, bold as it is, needs to be approved on all executive levels, which is still not the case.
Naturally, the financial struggles of Dragon International have had their downsides. ASTI Holdings, the company’s parent unit, has turned down a request earlier in November to grant the company additional time to meet financial targets. As a result, Dragon International will have to delist from the Singapore Stock Exchange.
To complete the deal, ASTI Holdings will have to work on an exit offer for shareholders, too, which may extend into December.
Meanwhile Dragon International has been working around the clock to streamline its offer. Evidently, many segments have been affected, whether shut-down or reduced in size to make sure that the company is only running activities that pay out well.
Understandably, operation costs are next, which will definitely have employees on pins and needles. However, the company has managed to do well without letting staff members go. Another 50% of losses needs to be fixed now, and it will hopefully go as smoothly as it has so far.
