Friday, Feb. 19, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.
The Riviera hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip hopes its newly expanded convention center will improve its anemic financial performance.
The 158,000-square-foot convention center expansion opened last week. Conventions and banquets that will use the additional space have been booked through the year 2001. The Riviera said the expansion allowed it to book more than 82,000 room nights, beginning this month, at an average rate of more than $80.
These bookings will result in total room revenues in excess of $6.7 million that could not have been booked without the new facility, the resort said today.
The announcement came as the parent Riviera Holdings Corp. reported a fourth-quarter profit of $8,000, down from $71,000 earned in the same quarter one year earlier. Revenue of $39.1 million was up from $37.3 million. But EBITDA of $6.7 million was down from $8.1 million in the year-ago quarter. EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and corporate severance pay expense.
"Results in the quarter were affected by significantly lower room rates in the month of November 1998, when the Comdex Convention was less successful than in prior years, and another major convention held in Las Vegas in 1997 was held elsewhere in 1998," Riviera said.
Riviera Holdings also operates the Four Queens hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas and is developing a casino in Black Hawk, Colo.
For all of 1998, Riviera Holdings reported revenue of $159.9 million, up 4 percent from 1997.
EBITDA of $29.1 million was down from $29.4 million.
The net loss for the year was $4.1 million, or 81 cents per share, compared with net income of $2.1 million, or 40 cents per share, in 1997. The results for the year were significantly affected by financing activity.
"In comparison with other Las Vegas casino hotels and especially our 'peer' properties, we believe Riviera's performance was credible in a very competitive and challenging market," said William L. Westerman, chairman and chief executive.
Riviera reported a decline in room operations as occupancy fell from 96.8 percent in 1997 to 95.2 percent in 1998, while room rates decreased by $3.43 or 5.8 percent, from $58.25 in 1997 to $54.82 in 1998.
archive
