Casino operator Melco International Development Ltd has showered over $5m in new shares on chairman/CEO Lawrence Ho for helping to steer the company to a record performance in 2017.

The Hong Kong-listed Melco turned in its 2017 financial report card last week, reporting revenue up 70% year-on-year to HK$41.2b (US$5.25b), while adjusted earnings shot up 80% to HK$9.8b. However, profits tumbled from HK$10.4b in 2016 to just HK$474m last year.

The profit tumble can be explained by the HK$10.4b one-off gain Melco enjoyed in 2016 via the dissolution of Melco Crown Entertainment, its former joint venture with Australian casino operator Crown Resorts. With Crown’s shares having been purchased and cancelled, Melco is now majority owner of that venture’s successor, Melco Resorts and Entertainment (MRE), which operates casinos in Macau and Manila.

MRE provides the overwhelming majority of Melco’s revenue, and a detailed breakdown of its 2017 performance was released earlier this year. But Melco boss Ho nonetheless expressed relief that MRE’s operations in Macau had overcome “several years of … headwinds,” leaving Melco “a stronger, more focused and better positioned company.”