Compliance Challenges And Future Plans
The group’s annual meeting seeks to tackle key issues from the year prior, as well as plans for future development.
Key points:
- SkyCity’s latest shareholder meeting addresses plans for future compliance, as well as a full financial overview for the FY 2024 period
- Chair Julian Cook addresses AML & CTF issues that were resolved over the past year
- The operator’s failed appeal against the High Court of Australia’s upcoming fine on its Adelaide resort was not included in the address
SkyCity Group’s annual shareholder meeting took place yesterday, in which the company’s senior management sought to both address questions and offer solutions surrounding its recent issues with non-compliance.
Primarily, SkyCity Chair Julian Cook’s address began with introductory highlights of the year prior which, indeed, saw the appointment of a new CEO and CFO alongside the opening of the Horizon SkyCity hotel. However, as one would expect, the group’s regulatory matters were high up on the agenda.
In his address, Cook provided shareholders with a summary of several regulatory issues that have now been resolved. This included the NZ$4.16 million ($2.48 million) fine imposed on SkyCity by the Department of Internal Affairs for anti-money laundering (AML) violations in May, as well as the AU$67 million ($44.7 million) penalty paid in June for failures related to both AML and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) at SkyCity Adelaide.
Further, the five-day closure of SkyCity Auckland, which was ordered by the Department of Internal Affairs, was discussed. However, the operators recently rejected appeal against the payment of up to AU$25.3m related to long-standing issues at its Adelaide resort, was not addressed.
After announcing that additional AML measures would be introduced to help curb the issue at SkyCity, this latest address detailed plans for the creation of a new Board Risk and Compliance Committee. Additionally, as part of new CEO Jason Walbridge’s address, plans to work with Kroll to deliver further corrections to AML/CTF issues at the company were named as a key priority – alongside the requirement of a large domestic presence for all licensees.
In August, SkyCity announced its FY24 results, displaying a revenue rise of 0.3% to NZ$959.6m, with EBITDA falling by 8% and a reported net loss of NZ$143.3m. Looking forward, the operator will be hoping for a positive start to the next financial year as it attempts to turn over a new leaf of compliance as we move towards 2025.
