Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd’s efforts regarding a “new marketing team” and “property investments” were factors that “could provide upside” to investor expectations for the firm’s performance in 2026, says CBRE Capital Advisors Inc.
Analysts John DeCree and Max Marsh gave commentary on the casino group in a Friday memo, following SJM Holdings’ full-year results on Thursday. The numbers had revealed that adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) were down 15.0 percent year-on-year.
The brokerage’s note stated regarding 2026 trading for the casino group: “For the back half of the year, we expect a more gradual and less certain recovery given the highly-competitive environment in Macau, but appreciate that SJM’s new marketing team and property investments could provide upside to our expectations.”
CBRE stated in its memo that SJM Holdings “still has a number of wrinkles to iron out” in its business. It said that was beyond the disruption caused at the close of last year by the ending of the satellite-casino licensing system, to which the casino brand had greatest exposure of all the six Macau operators.
The CBRE team stated that SJM Holdings had “trailed the market-wide GGR [gross gaming revenue] growth in Macau throughout its transition year in financial-year 2025,” and that it expected that the company “will need at least the front half of financial-year 2026 to round the corner”.
The analysts added: “While the biggest factor has been the closure of its satellite casinos, which is now complete, SJM still has a number of wrinkles to iron out.”
SJM Holdings had said in June last year that it would cease operating seven of its then nine satellite casinos by year-end 2025. Eventually, only L’Arc Macau, in the downtown casino district, was absorbed into the licensee’s core operations.
CBRE stated that issues still to be resolved for the casino group included “the repositioning of its asset base to better serve mass/premium mass customers; the reorganisation of its marketing team and modernising of its promotional strategy; and finding cost efficiencies and operating leverage”.
The brokerage further noted that “reallocation of tables, slots, and employees from closed satellite casinos to self-promoted properties will also be disruptive over the near-term, with additional disruption at Hotel Lisboa during room renovations”.
The latter was a reference to the brand’s oldest surviving downtown property, which is next door to Grand Lisboa (pictured), which has also undergone some recent upgrades to hotel rooms and other facilities, according to statements by management.
In November, Crystal Palace, a gaming area at the Hotel Lisboa site, had reopened with a new look after renovation.
SJM Resorts Ltd – a unit of SJM Holdings – had told GGRAsia at the time, that the reopened Crystal Palace would “primarily serve the market segment traditionally centred on Macau peninsula satellite casinos“.
CBRE said in its Friday memo that “underlying trends” for SJM Holdings excluding the satellite business “were still disappointing”.
The brokerage stated: “Total GGR ex-satellites increased 2.4 percent year-on-year in fourth-quarter 2025, with a 19.8-percent decline in VIP GGR – due to a tough hold comparison – offsetting mass GGR growth of 6.3 percent.”
