Guoco : Announcement - The Rank Group Plc - Half-year Results for the Six Months Ended 31 December 2016

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

OVERSEAS REGULATORY ANNOUNCEMENT

(This overseas regulatory announcement is issued pursuant to Rule 13.10(B) of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.)

Please refer to the attached announcement on the next page.

As at the date of this announcement, the board of directors of Guoco Group Limited comprises Mr. Kwek Leng Hai as Executive Chairman; Mr. Tang Hong Cheong as President & CEO; Mr. Kwek Leng San and Mr. Tan Lim Heng as Non-executive Directors and Mr. Volker Stoeckel, Mr. Roderic N. A. Sage and Mr. David Michael Norman as Independent Non-executive Directors.

News release

26 January 2017

The Rank Group Plc ("Rank" or the "Group") Half-year results for the six months ended 31 December 2016 Financial highlights

H1 2016/17 (unaudited)	H1 2015/16 (unaudited)	Change
Financial KPIs	Group like-for-like revenue	£378.6m	£372.9m	2%
	Digital revenue	£52.4m	£47.1m	11%
	Venues like-for-like revenue	£326.2m	£325.8m	0%
	Group EBITDA before exceptional items	£59.7m	£62.7m	(5)%
	Group operating profit before exceptional items	£36.6m	£40.4m	(9)%
	Adjusted profit before tax	£34.5m	£37.4m	(8)%
	Adjusted earnings per share	6.9p	7.4p	(7)%
Statutory performance	Statutory revenue	£355.3m	£352.7m	1%
	Profit before taxation after exceptional items	£35.4m	£42.7m	(17)%
	Cash generated from continuing operations	£51.8m	£63.7m	(19)%
	Net debt	£33.0m	£52.0m	37%
	Basic earnings per share	7.0p	8.1p	(14)%
	Dividend per share	2.0p	1.8p	11%

Key highlights

• Like-for-like group revenue up 2%

• Digital revenue up 11%; digital platform stable and performing well

• Like-for-like retail revenue flat in the period

• Improving trends in retail casino and UK digital in Q2 over Q1

• Digital operations restructured to drive further future growth

• Debt levels 37% lower than prior year with leverage down to 0.3x

• Continued strong dividend growth with interim dividend of 2.0p, up 11% year-on-year

  Henry Birch, Chief Executive of The Rank Group Plc said:

  "The first half of the Group's financial year has seen challenging trading conditions for both our retail casino and bingo businesses, with strong comparable figures in the previous year. That being said, both businesses showed a year-on-year improvement from quarter to quarter. Our digital business continues to grow strongly and there remains significant potential for this channel as we deliver improvements in H2."

  "Despite increased inflationary and employment costs, we have detailed plans to improve H2 operating profit and remain confident that the Group will make good strategic progress in 2017. As a result, the Board expects that the full year results will be in line with market forecasts."

  Ends

  Definition of terms:

• Any reference to Group revenue or like-for-like group revenue is before adjustment for customer incentives;

• Group EBITDA is Group operating profit before exceptional items, depreciation and amortisation;

• Adjusted profit before tax is profit from continuing operations before taxation adjusted to exclude exceptional items and other financial gains or losses;

• Adjusted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting profit attributable to equity shareholders to exclude the impact of reductions in tax rate, discontinued operations, exceptional items, other financial gains or losses and the related tax effects as detailed in note 7;

• "H1 2016/17" refers to the unaudited six-month period to 31 December 2016 and "H1 2015/16" refers to the unaudited six-month period to 31 December 2015;

• Following the decision to merge Rank's UK digital operations into one team, the Group has decided to change its segmental reporting and to disclose the Group's UK facing digital operations as a single segment. Enracha will also now be shown as a single segment rather than split between digital and retail operations as Enracha's digital results are not yet large enough to warrant reporting as a separate segment;

• Like-for-like measures have been disclosed in this report to show the impact of club openings, closures, relocations, and discontinued operations;

• Prior year like-for-like measures are amended to show an appropriate comparative for the impact of club openings, closures, relocations, and discontinued operations. A £1.3m reduction to H1 2015/16 Group revenue has been made to reflect a like-for-like prior year comparative; and

• The Group results make reference to "'adjusted" results alongside our statutory results, which we believe will be more useful to readers as we manage our business using these adjusted measures. The directors believe that exceptional items and other adjustments impair visibility of the underlying performance of the Group's business and accordingly, these are excluded from our non-GAAP measurement of revenue, profit before tax, EBITDA, operating profit and adjusted EPS. Adjusted measures are the same as those used for internal reports.

Enquiries The Rank Group Plc

Sarah Powell, investor relations Tel: [phone]

FTI Consulting LLP

Ed Bridges Tel: [phone]

Alex Beagley Tel: [phone] Photographs available from www.rank.com

Analyst meeting and webcast details: Thursday 26 January 2017

There will be an analyst meeting at 9.30am, admittance to which is by invitation only. There will also be a simultaneous webcast of the meeting.

For the live webcast, please register at www.rank.com. A replay of the webcast and a copy of the slide presentation will be made available on the website later. The webcast will be available for a period of six months.

Forward-looking statements

This announcement includes "forward-looking statements". These statements contain the words "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "expect" and words of similar meaning. All statements, other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding the Group's financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to the Group's products and services) are forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the actual results, performance, achievements or financial position of the

Group to be materially different from future results, performance, achievements or financial position expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Group's operating performance, present and future business strategies, and the environment in which the Group will operate in the future. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement. Subject to the Listing Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking, to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements, contained herein to reflect any change in the Group's expectations, with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Past performance cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance.