All six Macau casino concessionaires are set to submit this month to the Macau government for its approval, their respective investment plans for calendar year 2023. The plans come under a commitment to the city’s government to invest MOP118.8 billion (US$14.8 billion) between them over the course of the new 10-year permits.
As a condition of the new concessions that started on January 1, each casino operator provided to the Macau government an overall investment plan for the 2023 to 2032 period.
The operators must now submit to the Macau authorities what is termed by the industry an “annual execution proposal”, addressing specific projects they have mentioned respectively in their concession investment plan.
Such information must include the proposed amount of spending, and the execution schedule for the relevant year.
Ordinarily, such annual execution proposal is to be delivered up to three months before the start of each calendar year. Exceptionally for 2023, the deadline for submission is this month.
The arrangement foresees that the Macau government would give its response to each submission within two months. The government has the options of requesting adjustments to specific projects, to the amount invested, and to the execution schedule.
In the event an annual execution proposal – or parts of it – is not approved by the Macau authorities, the relevant operator is obliged to propose allocating the relevant funds to other projects, subject also to the agreement of the Macau government.
In addition, operators will be required to submit by March 31 in any given year, a report on the execution of the previous year’s proposal. Each operator also must submit progress reports every two months on their concession-related spending. The Macau government might ask them additionally to provide detailed reports on the progress of particular projects.
According to the new concession contracts, published on Macau’s Official Gazette in December, the MGM group has pledged to invest a total of MOP16.70 billion over the course of the next 10 years, including gaming and non-gaming investment.
The Galaxy group will invest a total of MOP28.35 billion. The Sands group has pledged MOP30.24 billion; while the Melco side is to invest MOP11.82 billion.
The Wynn group has committed to MOP17.73 billion, while the SJM side has proposed a total investment of MOP14.03 billion.
