Jan 25, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
Mass casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated by Macau’s Cotai casino resorts is likely in the fourth quarter of 2015 to have declined at a much slower rate year-on-year than mass revenue produced in the city’s traditional downtown gaming hub, said a report on Monday from Japanese brokerage Nomura.
“New casino openings and the relative resilience of the mass gaming segment continue to drive the shift in market share from Macau peninsula to Cotai. In fourth quarter we forecast Cotai’s mass gaming revenue will [have shown] decline by 1 percent, outperforming a likely decline of 13 percent for Macau peninsula,” said analysts Richard Huang and Stella Xing.
The breakdown between mass revenue on Cotai and mass revenue on the peninsula should become clearer when Macau’s six gaming licence holders report the details of their fourth quarter and full-year results from this week onward. Wynn Resorts Ltd, parent of Wynn Macau Ltd – and which does not yet have a Cotai resort open – gave the market on January 18 a preview of its final-quarter and full-year numbers.
Nomura’s team noted on Monday that the outperformance of Cotai in mass business, compared to the downtown area, was likely to push the whole of Cotai’s market-wide share of mass GGR to 54 percent in the fourth quarter, from 51 percent in the year-prior period.
“We believe Sands China [Ltd] and Galaxy [Entertainment Group Ltd] stand to benefit from the market share shift to Cotai as we forecast 3 percent and 4 percent quarter-on-quarter EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation] growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 fiscal, respectively, outperforming that of peninsula-focused operators,” added the Nomura team, referring to two of the Macau operators that already have major casino resorts on Cotai.
Brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd said in a note also on Monday that “Sands China’s product offering is one of the best positioned to capitalise [on] Macau’s paradigm shift” to mass-market entertainment.
“On January 21, 2016, the company [Sands China] announced its interim dividend of HKD0.99 [US$0.127] per share and we believe a further dividend will be announced in March. We estimate that 2017 and 2018 will see similar dividend distributions. Sands China has strong free cash flow generation and ample liquidity to support these dividend payments,” said analysts Vitaly Umansky, Simon Zhang and Bo Wen.
The US$2.7-billion Parisian Macao, a new Cotai resort from Sands China, is scheduled to welcome its first visitors “in the second half of 2016”, according to the firm. It will be themed around France’s capital and features a half scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, as well as 3,000 hotel rooms.
Wells Fargo Securities LLC said in a note on Friday that macroeconomic conditions in China remain challenging for Macau’s casino operators.
The brokerage said it expected Macau’s January GGR to decline by 18 percent to 22 percent judged year-on-year.
“Our January estimate assumes average daily revenues (ADR) of roughly MOP600 million [US$74.8 million] to MOP620 million for the month. This implies sequential ADR growth of approximately 3 percent month-on-month, lower than the historical average of +5 percent month-on-month for the month of January,” said analysts Cameron McKnight, Daniel Adam and Robert Shore.
Jun 05, 2023
May 29, 2023
Jun 09, 2023
Jun 09, 2023
Jun 09, 2023
None of Macau’s six gaming concessionaires have so far applied for a form of “exemption” from the full 40-percent tax rate on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR), as potentially applicable...Jun 09, 2023
Commercial opportunities for utilisation of...Jun 08, 2023
Gaming content and equipment maker Konami says it is...Jun 07, 2023
Casino gaming content and hardware provider Light &...Jun 06, 2023
Electronic table games (ETGs) supplier Interblock dd is...Jun 05, 2023
Random number generator (RNG) testing tools are among the...Jun 01, 2023
Alfastreet, a manufacturer of electronic gaming machines,...Jun 01, 2023
Casino equipment maker Sega Sammy Creation Inc is tweaking...Jun 01, 2023
The iGaming segment in Asia “has grown rapidly” since...May 31, 2023
Showing slot machine players – via animations on the...May 31, 2023
Macau stocks in likelihood “have been punished too much...May 31, 2023
There are foreign companies still interested in investing...May 31, 2023
Thailand could pass the necessary enabling legislation for...May 30, 2023
China will remain a key market for Asian gaming...May 30, 2023
Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), chairman and...May 30, 2023
There are “plenty of reasons” for the global gaming...May 30, 2023
Gaming equipment provider International Game Technology Plc...May 30, 2023
The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2023 Special Edition:...May 29, 2023
Austria-based gaming equipment maker and operator Novomatic...May 25, 2023
Sports betting and online casino operating platform...May 24, 2023
The business performance in Asia of gaming content and...May 18, 2023
The organisers of Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2023...May 17, 2023
Gaming content and equipment supplier Light & Wonder...May 16, 2023
Casino equipment maker Sega Sammy Creation Inc is to...May 09, 2023
Casino slot machine and digital gaming content provider...May 05, 2023
The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia event in Singapore is the...May 04, 2023
An adviser to a Thailand parliamentary committee mulling...(Click here for more)
”We believe the intrinsic value of IGT’s market-leading businesses and diversified cash flow profile is not currently reflected in our stock price and the timing is right to assess opportunities that may enhance value for IGT’s shareholders”
Marco Sala
Executive chair of casino equipment supplier IGT