Two operators of large Macau shopping malls – casino firms Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and Sands China Ltd – respectively saw their fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 net revenues from their Cotai mall businesses decline year-on-year. That is according to their latest annual financial results.
Mall net revenue at Galaxy Macau – Galaxy Entertainment’s flagship casino resort property in Cotai – amounted to HKD348 million (US$44.8 million) in the three months to December 31, a flat performance compared to the previous quarter. Galaxy Macau’s fourth-quarter mall net revenue saw a 4.4-percent year-on-year decline.
Galaxy Macau’s full-year 2024 mall net revenue was just above HKD1.39 billion, a decline of 10.8 percent from 2023’s HKD1.56 billion. Nonetheless, the 2024 mall net revenue figure of the Cotai property represented nearly 13.1-percent growth from the HKD1.23 billion reached in 2019, the trading year immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sands China’s mall business performance was detailed in the fourth-quarter and full-year results of its U.S.-based parent, Las Vegas Sands Corp. The main Sands China malls are at its Cotai properties, namely: The Venetian Macao; The Londoner Macao; the combined The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Macao; and The Parisian Macao.
Their aggregate fourth-quarter net revenue was US$136 million, up 8.8 percent from the prior quarter, but down by 12.8 percent from the same quarter in 2023, according to a GGRAsia review of the data.
Full-year 2024 net revenue from those Sands China malls was US$492 million, down by 3.9 percent from 2023’s US$512 million, and also down by nearly 7 percent from the US$529 million reached in 2019. In 2019, the-then Sands Cotai Central had not yet been revamped and rebranded as The Londoner Macao.
In 2024, the top contributors to Sands China’s mall revenue were The Venetian Macao and the combined mall at The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Macao. The Venetian Macao logged US$230 million, and the latter combo, US$158 million.
While the 2024-net revenue from mall business at The Venetian Macao edged up by 1.3 percent year-on-year, that from the combined mall at The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Macao was down by 15.5 percent from 2023.
Sands China best performer Four Seasons still down
The Shoppes at Four Seasons’ “tenant sales per square foot” – described by the group as the sum of reported comparable sales for the trailing 12 months, divided by the comparable square footage for the same period – remained the highest among all Sands China’s properties. However, the actual figure of full-year 2024 saw a decline from 2023, and 2019.
Tenant sales per square foot for The Shoppes at Four Seasons were US$5,379 in 2024, down by 29.2 percent from US$7,594 in 2023, and also down slightly – by 1.8 percent – from 2019’s US$5,478.
The “over 150” brands carried at The Shoppes at Four Seasons are at the luxury end of the retailing spectrum, as per Sands China’s marketing materials.
The other four Macau casino operators do not report mall performance as a distinct item in their financial results.
Data from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service indicate that citywide, 2024’s per-capita visitor spending on shopping declined compared to 2023, and to 2019.
It was MOP2,387 (US$298) in 2024, down 7.3 percent from 2023’s MOP2,575, and also down 1.2 percent from 2019’s MOP2,415.
A separate survey by the statistics bureau – focused on citywide retail sales – shows that the fourth-quarter value of Macau retail sales grew sequentially by 11.6 percent to MOP18.51 billion. Judged year-on-year, however, fourth-quarter retail sales saw a 8.6-percent decline, led by decreases in sales value for the “watches, clocks and jewellery”, “leather goods” and “department stores” segments.
The fourth-quarter numbers took Macau’s aggregate value of retail sales in 2024 to MOP71.99 billion, a decline by nearly 15 percent year-on-year. The 2024 retail sales value though already corresponded to 93.3 percent of 2019-level, according to statistics bureau data.
