Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., a Macau casino operator, posted a HK$1.11 billon ($140 million) profit for the first nine months of the year on income from its flagship casino, which opened in October last year.

The unaudited earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization expenses for the nine months ended September was 1.5 times what the company made in the whole of 2006, Galaxy said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange today. Gross revenue was HK$9.58 billion, it said, without providing comparative figures.

Foreign casino operators including Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. are staking more than $20 billion on Macau after the city's government ended the 40-year monopoly of gambling magnate Stanley Ho. Galaxy Chairman Lui Che-woo sold a 20 percent stake in the company to Permira Advisers LLP, Europe's biggest buyout firm, for HK$6.5 billion in October.

For the third quarter, the company had a profit of HK$372 million on revenue of HK$3.24 billion.

Galaxy, which opened the HK$2.5 billion StarWorld casino last year, will complete tower one of the Cotai Mega Resort by the end of 2008, the company said. The casino-hotel building will have 1,500 rooms.

To contact the reporter for this story: Kelvin Wong in Hong Kong at kwong40@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 5, 2007 04:14 EST