In South Korea, a leading local brokerage has reportedly explained that it expects the opening of the first phase of the Paradise City integrated casino resort later this year to negatively impact the profits of Paradise Company Limited before later helping the operator to significantly boost its overall revenues and income.

According to a report from GGRAsia, Seoul-based Shinhan Investment Corporation predicted that Paradise Company Limited will report a consolidated operating profit of about $48 million for the whole of 2017, which would be a 16.5% decrease year-on-year, before forecasting that the figure for the following twelve months should rebound by approximately 53.3% to stand at $73.5 million.

“Operating profit is projected to drop by 57% year-on-year in first half 2017 due to cost hikes,” read the forecast from Shinhan Investment Corporation analyst June-Won Sung. “However, it is expected to improve six quarters in a row from the third quarter of 2017 on the inflow of sales from Paradise City.”

South Korea’s largest gambling firm with foreigner-only venues in the cities of Busan, Seogwipo-Si, Incheon, Jeju and Seoul, Paradise Company Limited saw its annual casino revenues for 2016 rise by 6.2% year-on-year to hit $509 million thanks to a 7.2% boost in table game takings to $499.1 million although slot revenues declined by 7.3% to $31.6 million.

The Seoul-listed casino operator is developing Paradise City in partnership with Japanese pachinko operator Sega Sammy Holdings Incorporated and expects to inaugurate the $1.7 billion Yeongjong Island venue near the city of Incheon in April complete with 350 slots alongside 160 live gaming tables.

“Paradise Company Limited’s table drop is likely to go up by 22.9% year-on-year to $5.2 billion in 2017,” read the analysis from June-Won, “The Walker Hill casino should see [table] drop shrink 18% to $1.7 billion.”