MGM China Holdings Ltd announced on Thursday a final dividend for the year ending December 31, 2025, at HKD0.353 (US$0.04) per ordinary share.
It is due to be ratified by the board of the Macau casino operator on May 20, and the planned payment date is June 3.
The divided for 2025 amounts to just over HKD1.34 billion in aggregate, “representing approximately 26.4 percent” of the firm’s HKD5.07-billion profit attributable to its owners last year, MGM China stated.
In August last year, MGM China’s board declared payment of an interim dividend of HKD0.313 per share to the company’s shareholders.
MGM China runs the MGM Macau and MGM Cotai (pictured) gaming resorts in the Macau market.
In February, the firm reported fourth-quarter net revenue that rose 21.4 percent year-on-year, to just under US$1.24 billion. The numbers took MGM China’s full-year 2025 net revenue to US$4.46 billion, up 10.9 percent year-on-year.
Brokerage Jefferies had said in a December note that MGM China might see a lower dividend per share for 2026 and 2027 amid a doubling of a royalty fee percentage payable to its United States-based parent MGM Resorts International.
Banking group JP Morgan stated in a Thursday note that the newly-announced dividend was “mediocre”, with the final dividend combined with the interim one, representing a “50 percent payout”.
Analysts DS Kim, Selina Li and Lindsey Qian said that was “not a bad number per se at a 5.5 percent yield”.
But they added: “With peers now lifting payouts to approximately 70 percent on average, the bar was set for a positive surprise… We didn’t get one.”
The analysts further noted that “final dividend per share missed JPMorgan/consensus [estimates] by approximately 10 percent despite its in-line payout, as earnings per share came in unexpectedly soft”. Earnings per share on the full-year dividend were HKD1.335.
JP Morgan further observed: “While management had never hinted at changing the [dividend] policy, the disappointment is real, and we suspect we won’t be the only ones feeling it in the market.
“Worse still, we expect full-year 2026 earnings per share to decline 11 percent purely from the licence [branding royalty] fee hike, which means dividend per share could decline further: unless the company lifts its payout or delivers a special dividend.”
(Updated 8.55am, March 20)
