Macau expects better revenue in February

Analysts believe that the world’s biggest casino hub will experience better results this month.

Macau.- Multiple analysts believe that Macau will report better gross gaming revenues (GGR) during February. Back in December, sources predicted that January would be a great month, and even tho Macau reported a 3.1 percent rise, analysts expected higher incomes.

Investment bank Sanford Bernstein said: “Our channel checks indicate that Macau’s GGR month-to-date (February 1 to 5) was [circa] MOP6.3 billion, a surprisingly high ADR (average daily rate) of MOP1,260 million. The first five days of the month were composed of two Chinese New Year holidays [days] and a weekend. Assuming an average daily rate GGR of MOP615 million to MOP630 million for the remaining days of the month, we estimate February GGR [in] a range of MOP20.4 billion and MOP20.8 billion. This would represent a year-on-year increase in February of +4.5 percent to +6.5 percent.”

Furthermore, analysts Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Yang Xie reported that according to their channel checks, mass revenue was approximately 70 percent higher than recent (non-holiday period) performance while VIP was more than double. “VIP hold rate was generally in the normal theoretical range,” they added. JP Morgan Securities also analysed the market along with Sean Zhuang and DS Kim, and said: “This is the best daily run rate in 2.5 years (same as 2014 October Golden Week’s), and the second highest Chinese New Year run-rate on record (only after 2014 Chinese New Year, which was MOP1.6 billion per day).”