GGRAsia – Grand Lisboa revamp for 2 years from end 2024: Daisy Ho

Grand Lisboa revamp for 2 years from end 2024: Daisy Ho

May 14, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd’s planned renovation work at its Grand Lisboa casino hotel in downtown Macau is expected to start “around the end of this year”, and take two years, said the company’s chairman Daisy Ho Chiu Fung (pictured) in response to a question from GGRAsia. She was speaking on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a corporate event.

The outline of the revamp at Grand Lisboa, first mentioned publicly by Ms Ho last year, will include hotel-room refurbishment, additional restaurants and new shops. The restaurants are likely to come first, she said on Tuesday. The hotel revamp will be “in phases”, Ms Ho stated.

“Starting from next year you should be seeing us rolling out the revamped rooms…we will be doing it in phases so that we can continue to operate,” said Ms Ho.

Grand Lisboa hotel has an aggregate of 431 rooms, according to information from the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

Grand Lisboa generated first-quarter adjusted property earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of HKD535 million (US$68.5 million), up 242.9 percent year-on-year, according to financial highlights issued last week by SJM Holdings. Grand Lisboa’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the three months to March 31 reached nearly HKD1.88 billion, with hotel occupancy at 98.3 percent.

The company’s Cotai property – Grand Lisboa Palace – had first-quarter adjusted property EBITDA of HKD88 million, as compared to a negative figure of HKD230 million for the same period last year.

The Cotai property’s first-quarter casino GGR reached HKD1.11 billion. That was 2.0 percent of GGR Macau market share, compared to the company’s target of “5 percent”, according to a recent memo from Seaport Research Partners.

Ms Ho told GGRAsia on Tuesday regarding that topic: “Frankly speaking, whether we can achieve 5 percent this year – we may not be able to pace ourselves for achieving it this quickly.”

But she noted that gaming operations at Grand Lisboa Palace had been seeing improvement in daily visitor volume.

She also remarked, regarding Grand Lisboa Palace: “We have engaged in more effort to enhance our [GGR market share] percentage…whether it is promotion work, or having some new catering offers, and in the mall there will be new shops opening.”

She added: “By doing these [things], hopefully we can draw in more visitor flow. We will also be… hosting different events. In this regard, we have already seen some impact, and it is work that we will continue.”