Rank Group FY profit up, says no impact from Brexit vote

Rank Group, which operates Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca bingo halls, reported an increase in full-year pre-tax profit and revenues and said it sees no likely impact from the Brexit vote.

Adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June ticked up 4% to £77.4m while group revenue nudged up 2% to £753m. Analysts had been expecting revenue of about £756m.

The company, which recently withdrew its bid for William Hill with 888 Holdings, said it saw continued strong digital revenue growth of 11%.

Chief executive Henry Birch said: “I am pleased to report a solid set of results with group revenue up 2%, again recording like-for-like growth across all brands and channels in the year.

“This year we have focussed on delivering significant projects to ensure we have the right platform in place for future growth. This included the migration of our digital business onto a new platform, the rollout of an improved retail casino management system and investments into new generation machines in both our casino and bingo venues."

Rank highlighted the fact it is predominantly a UK-facing business with limited exposure to non-sterling costs and earnings and said the UK’s decision to leave the European Union is expected to have little or no direct impact on its performance.

Any likely impact would however be driven by any macro-economic impact of lower UK growth rates or loss of consumer confidence and spending power, it said.

The group said trading in the seven-week period to 14 August 2016 has been positive and is in line with management's expectations.