SYDNEY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Crown Resorts Ltd (CWN), Australia's No. 1 casino company, said fiscal first half net profit fell by more than a fifth as a Chinese corruption crackdown continued to hammer turnover at its resorts in the Asian gambling hub of Macau.
Net profit for the company, 53 percent owned by billionaire James Packer, was A$205.0 million ($147.5 million) for the six months to Dec. 31, from A$263.1 million the previous first half, the company said in a statement.
"Normalised" net profit, a measure used by casino companies to strip out irregularities in win rates, dipped 35 percent to A$210.3 million, below the A$247 million average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
($1 = 1.3899 Australian dollars)
