Slot route owner posts loss

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

Herbst Gaming Inc. of Las Vegas on Tuesday posted a loss of $29.8 million in the second quarter compared with a profit of $3.6 million for the same quarter of last year because of expenses related to the early retirement of company debt, the company said in a statement.

Herbst refinanced virtually all of its debt in the second quarter and incurred about $38 million in related costs.

Without the debt cost, Herbst would have earned $8.2 million in the quarter, an increase of 128 percent from last year.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $96.4 million. That includes promotional expenses of $2.9 million in the second quarter and $2.8 million in the same quarter of last year.

Revenue from the company's slot route operations rose 18 percent to $72.8 million and revenue from casino operations also rose 18 percent to $22.6 million.

Cash flow -- typically defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and other costs -- rose 29 percent to $20.1 million.

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