(Reuters) - Star Entertainment Group, Australia's second-largest casino operator, posted a 2.4 percent drop in first-half profit after a fall in demand from high-stakes gamblers.
Normalised profit after tax, which is adjusted to remove win rate volatility and excludes significant items, came in at A$123.8 million ($88.65 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31.
Star Entertainment said its turnover from "international VIPs", usually wealthy Chinese tourists, slipped 33 percent to A$20.70 billion for the period as the company recorded its lowest VIP turn rate in the last five years.
The results highlight the rippling impact of a slowdown in the Chinese economy with the company's biggest competitor Crown Resorts reporting a little changed half-year profit on Wednesday, while flagging a sharp decline in spending by wealthy Chinese tourists at its properties.
Star's half-year normalised gross revenue fell 6.1 percent.
The Sydney-based company's HY statutory profit surged fourfold to A$148.5 million, as previous year profits had been dented by a spike in International VIP win rate.
The company declared an interim dividend of 10.5 cents per share, up from the 7.5 cents a year earlier.
(Reporting by Mensholong Lepcha and Shreya Mariam Job; Editing by James Dalgleish and Phil Berlowitz)
