Grant Chum, the recently promoted CEO and President of Macau concessionaire Sands China, says the company’s non-gaming revenues are now comfortably ahead of pre-COVID levels.
Speaking with CNBC International in his first interview since his promotion, Chum added that the company was well advanced in planning out its future non-gaming spend with its 4Q23 results giving it confidence in the impact the US$4.5 billion it has committed to spend over the next 10 years can have.
“Whilst I can’t comment on our current quarter, you can see from the fourth quarter results … that our property visitations have already exceeded those of 2019, and you can see the retail sales for 2023 in our retail malls – we have four retail malls in Macau – reached US$3.3 billion, about 12% ahead of the levels reached in 2019. So, you can see the power of spending has been very strong especially. at Sands properties.
“We are already well ahead of where we were in 2019 in non-gaming revenues ranging from hotel revenue, food and beverage, entertainment and convention exhibition, and of course our retail malls.”
Chum noted that Sands China has long invested in non-gaming facilities at its Macau properties, but will focus primarily on expanding its MICE facilities in the short-term.
MICE, he explained, “plays a big role in our non-gaming portfolio and entertainment continues to be a big area for us as well.
“We hosted 79 shows last year, so we were averaging more than one show a week, and we’re currently investing significant capital in upgrading our 15,000-seat arena at The Venetian.
“In-fact, in the next two years will be spending a total of US$1.4 billion, first on the expansion of The Londoner Macao Phase 2 and then on the upgrading of the Venetian Cotai Arena.”
Sands China revealed last year that it planned to develop a new hotel tower as part of the expansion of the exhibition center, Cotai Expo, at The Venetian Macao.
The company had originally committed to spend MOP$27.8 billion (US$3.5 billion) on non-gaming initiatives over the life of its 10-year concession, however the required minimum spend of all concessionaires jumped by 20% after Macau’s gaming revenues exceeded MOP$180 billion in 2023 – part of a stipulation contained within their concession contracts.
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