Macau starts April with a disappointing GGR

Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) in Macau was lower than expected during the first week of April according to a note Bernstein released on Monday.

Macau.- Bernstein reported last Monday that Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) in Macau for the first week of April didn’t reach the expectations and described the results as “relatively disappointing”. The text included an explanation from the US-based brokerage about the reasons for the negative reaction: “The MTD ADR number was lower than our expectation and relatively disappointing considering the fact that last week actually had two weekends.”

The company added that Month-to-date ADR was five percent lower than the one correspondent to March and evaluated: “Assuming an ADR of MOP 650-670 million for the remainder of the month, March GGR is estimated to be in the range of MOP 19.5 – 19.9 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 13-15 percent.”

While GGR wasn’t as high as expected, casino stocks in Macau have reached its highest level since August 2015, as reported by Bloomberg. For example, Galaxy Entertainment Group shares have risen 60 percent over the last 12 months, the third-best performance on Hong Kong’s HangSeng Index.

Casino stocks had plunged after President Xi Jinping launched his anti-corruption campaign. “Casino stocks have almost fully priced in an industry recovery in 2017 so shares may end the year roughly unchanged,” annalyst for CMB strategist International Securities Ltd. Daniel So assured.