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HONG KONG, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Melco Crown Entertainment
Full-year net income for Melco, one of six operators in the world's largest gambling market and the only place where casino-gambling is legal in China, reached $637.5 million from $417.2 million in the previous year.
The figure was in line with a Thomson Reuters estimate of $637 million which polled six analysts.
"The highly profitable mass market segment continues to deliver above-market growth, reaffirming our focus on this key segment," Ho, Melco's co-chairman and CEO, said in a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Located on China's southern coast, Macau is hugely reliant on mainland gamblers, which account for more than two thirds of total visitors.
Casinos in Macau, a Portuguese colony until 1999, target ultra-rich customers who spend more than 1 million yuan ($164,900) at a time, as well as affluent mom-and-pop visitors, who gamble smaller amounts, but make up a larger proportion of visitors.
Melco, which owns the strobe-lit City of Dreams Macau and the sleek Altira casinos, has been pushing to expand its lucrative premium mass segment.
Premium mass gamblers typically drop a minimum of a few thousand yuan at the baccarat tables and come directly to the casino rather than through junket operators that require a commission.
The company is set to open a casino in Manila in the middle of the year and is on track to open a new resort on Macau's Las Vegas style Cotai strip in 2015.
Analysts polled on Thomson Reuters Eikon remain bullish on Melco with seven analysts rating it a "strong buy" or "buy". There are no hold or sell ratings. ($1 = 6.0634 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Farah Master in HONG KONG and Lee Chyen Yee in SINGAPORE, editing by Rosalind Russell)
((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com)(+852 28431631)(+852 9631 8262)(Reuters Messaging: farah.master.thomsonreuters@thomsonreuters.net))
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Keywords: MELCO CROWN/