Macau’s gross gaming revenues are on the rise again, over the past week reaching their highest non-holidays levels since China eased most remaining border restrictions in January.
According to weekly channel checks conducted by investment bank JP Morgan, GGR for the first 11 days of June reached MOP$5.5 billion (US$681 million) or MOP$500 million (US$62 million) per day. Given that the previous few weeks had been negatively impacted by a seasonal lull, this implies the past week’s run-rate was MOP$530 million (US$66 million) – up from MOP$450 million (US$56 million) recently.
JP Morgan’s DS Kim and Mufan Shi said the opening of Jacky Cheung’s month-long weekend residency at Sands Cotai Arena and the Grand Opening ceremony of SJM’s Grand Lisboa Palace helped drive the weekly recovery alongside seasonality.
Nevertheless, they still expect the absolute level of GGR to soften in June given seasonality, estimating gaming revenues of around MOP$14.5 billion (US$1.80 billion) – down from MOP$15.6 billion (US$1.93 billion) in May.
Despite the monthly decline, the analysts said, “Quarter-to-date trends suggest casinos will see strong 2Q results that should continue to beat consensus with mass and EBITDA likely recovering 80%+ and 65%+ of pre-COVID levels.
“2Q results release will coincide with the summer holiday season – which will be the first holiday since reopening with no hotel/labor constraints, by which time we hope investment sentiment will stabilize to appreciate bottom-up fundamental improvements.”
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