GGRAsia – Galaxy Ent one junket so far, focus on mass: Kelley

Galaxy Ent one junket so far, focus on mass: Kelley

Jul 18, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Kevin Kelley, chief operating officer, Macau, at casino company Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd has confirmed to GGRAsia that as of last week, the business was still only working with the one junket partner already identified to the media.

“We’ve just activated our junket business… on the 18th of June, so we’re just starting to ramp back up,” said Mr Kelley (pictured in a file photo). He was speaking to GGRAsia on the sidelines of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia trade event in Macau.

He clarified: “We have one operator who is with us and we’re exploring a few more.”

Though he added, referring to non-rolling chip gambling: “I think it’s no secret that everybody sees that it’s the mass- and premium-mass segments of the market that are the most robust.”

Veteran VIP gambling trade representative Kwok Chi Chung had confirmed to GGRAsia in June that a Macau-based gaming promoter – or ‘junket’ – controlled by him, had access to a VIP-play gaming zone at the Galaxy Macau casino resort in Cotai that is the flagship property of Galaxy Entertainment.

Phase 3 of Galaxy Macau is being touted by its promoter as an important part of its effort to enlarge and diversify its customer base beyond the traditional VIP gambling segment. That segment shrank dramatically for all six Macau operators in the past few years, coinciding with the arrest and conviction – for crimes including criminal association and tax fraud – of the bosses at what had been two of the Macau industry’s biggest junket brands.

Phase 3’s Galaxy International Convention Center had a “soft” opening in April, hosting its first large-scale event. The 16,000-seat Galaxy Arena – another part of Phase 3 – also had a soft opening in April, and it subsequently hosted two concerts by South Korean pop group Blackpink.

Mr Kelley said in his comments to GGRAsia – referring also to market rival Sands China Ltd, which has also been hosting high-profile concerts at its Cotai Expo since Macau’s reopening in January: “What we’ve seen so far… what Sands has spoken about already… is that definitely the economy grows when you activate your convention centre and when you activate your arena.”

He added: “We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen so far with the events that we’ve had.”

The Galaxy Entertainment executive also noted: “It looks to me as we start to add more entertainment, amenities, and more diverse entertainment offerings, that that pie,” in terms of the market, “is just going to get bigger and bigger”.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a recent note that Galaxy Entertainment’s newly-opened Raffles at Galaxy Macau hotel tower – another part of Phase 3 – had a casino area within it.

In May, Galaxy Entertainment reported first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of just below HKD1.91 billion (about US$244.4 million currently). That compared with adjusted EBITDA of HKD575 million a year earlier, and a negative figure of HKD163 million in fourth-quarter 2022.

Banking group HSBC said in a recent note that Galaxy Entertainment had already topped out Phase 4 of the Galaxy Macau property, “and still has another HKD20 billion capex to be spent”. Citing the casino firm’s management, the institution said Galaxy Entertainment was “looking to bring forward the original 2027 timeline [for Phase 4] by 1 to 2 years”.